Paperbird

We had a great crossing from Miami to Bimini Bahamas!

It always amazes us how beautiful God’s creation really is.  We are very thankful that we have this opportunity to see it, experience it and enjoy it!

He quieted the sea with His power

It’s been a while since we’ve posted here but we are still moving along down the coast having a good time meeting up with old friends and making new ones.

We were able to catch up with Greg’s roommate and another classmate from college when we were in Titusville. It was great to see how relationships can continue to grow.

Then we moved on down to Vero Beach and met up with several boats that we knew from last year. We were also able to meet back up with JoLinDy (John and Linda) a boat we had met back in Beaufort SC before Christmas. When lots of boats are in Vero Beach, boats share mooring balls and raft together up to 3 per ball. We were able to join JoLinDy on a mooring ball and then Unicorn (Phil and Kathy Dalby) caught up with us and rafted to us as well. We had fun taking the free city bus to the beach and town and spending time with both couples. Vero (aka Velcro) Beach lived up to it’s nickname as we stayed there 10 days enjoying the company, the easy transportation and waiting for improved weather.

We finally left Vero just before dawn and headed south on the ICW toward Lake Worth to spend a couple of days looking for an opportunity to cross the gulf stream. No such luck so we continued south to Miami.

We left before dawn again heading out the Lake Worth Inlet to sail off shore since there are 21 bridges between Lake Worth and Ft Lauderdale, each with a different schedule on when it would open to let us through.

We have now been in Miami for a couple of days doing final prep and provisioning before we head across the Gulf Stream to the Bahamas. It looks like Saturday will give us just enough settled weather to get across to Bimini. Once we’re past the Gulf Stream, it should be easier to pick and choose times to move farther east to the Exumas.

We walked through a Holocaust memorial that is down the street from the dinghy dock that is both interesting and eerie. What a sad time, but one we should never forget!

 

My brother and his wife, Pete and Gretchen, have been spending time in Ft Lauderdale working on a powerboat they bought back in the summer. They drove down to Miami and we met up for lunch and enjoyed several hours chatting about life and boat stuff.

We have seen God’s provision and handiwork so many times over the last several months and are thankful for how He prepares the way and goes before us.

 

He quieted the sea with His power

We had the most amazing Christmas with our kids and grands this year. We took a train from Orlando FL up to DC in time for the annual BEP Christmas breakfast.  It was a great time of fellowship and catching up with everyone.  Then our time was filled with reading books, putting puzzles together, putting train tracks together, going to see big model train displays, driving through the Festival of lights, hearing the oohs and aahs of little voices, and sooooo much more. Getting on the floor and playing is our favorite, even though we ended up exhausted.  It was such a special week!

Our selfie!

 

Blessings for a Happy New Year!!

 

He quieted the sea with His power

One of the fun parts of traveling slowly is seeing the wildlife along the way.

More pictures of the dolphins that swam along with us.

     

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

He quieted the sea with His power

 

 

 

We are meandering down the coast of FL, enjoying meeting people and wandering small towns.

It’s fun to travel and see Christmas decorations along the way. St Augustine really goes all out with their town lit up in all white lights with a many colored Christmas tree in the middle of the park. It is really pretty to walk through at night. We were there for the annual Christmas parade again and even though it was raining it went right on as scheduled and was a lot of fun to watch.

Yesterday, as we motored down the Indian River in Florida, a dolphin came and swam along side our boat on the starboard side for at least a half an hour….literally…I took pictures the entire time. Then another one came and started swimming along on the port side. So we had one swimming on each side of our boat. After a few minutes I moved to the port side and took pictures there for a few minutes and then the starboard one came over to the port side and they did one pass together and then were gone. It was very cool!! We never get tired of seeing dolphins. There’s something reassuring in watching them gracefully swim and jump around us.

 

This was sunrise yesterday….Yes, we were under way already and it was worth it….it was beautiful out there!!

He quieted the sea with His power

We have reached north Florida and have slowed down to take in more of the sights and to relax in the warmer weather.  Temps have been in the 70’s during the day and 60’s at night.  There’s a little bit of a cold front coming through later this week, but that will only drop the daytime temps to the mid-60’s. We are enjoying the slower pace….reading, walking small towns and watching watermen work as we slowly make our way south.

 

He quieted the sea with His power

 

Once again this year, we were blessed to spend Thanksgiving in the charming little town of St Mary’s, Georgia. The weather has been great – much better than the cold temperatures we remember from last year!  We took our bikes to shore for a ride through town and did a lot walking along the waterfront.  The people in St Mary’s are very friendly and welcoming to the cruisers who fill up the anchorage in the river. The Riverview hotel in town is the center of all the activities for Thanksgiving week. One evening is a snack potluck, the next is an oyster roast. Then the main event is Thanksgiving day. The hotel provides the venue, locals donate turkeys and ham and all the boaters bring side dishes and desserts. There was a ton of food and a great time of sharing stories with people we met last year and new friends that we’ve met along the way this year.  The final count was about 175 people!

 

 

With thankful hearts!!

He quieted the sea with His power

We left the Wrightsville Beach NC anchorage and sailed down the Cape Fear River to Southport where we filled up with fuel. We then headed out of the Cape Fear inlet and sailed south to Charleston SC. We were able to sail at 7 kts all night long with 15 to 20 kts of wind only pulling the sails in as we were heading in the inlet at Charleston!

These are the lighthouses at the Cape Fear Inlet…

These are the lighthouses at the Charleston Inlet….

On the way through the inlet when we were passing the Charleston light I said “there’s another functional light” to which Greg responded with “yes, and another one that looks nice but is not helpful”.  He was right…we could see the Charleston light in the pitch dark from a long way out…..all we could see was the light on the surface of the water for a long time.

We went through the Charleston harbor and headed south on the ICW towards Beaufort SC.

We are enjoying Beaufort SC for a few days before heading on….

He quieted the sea with His power

 

 

 

 

We left the boat tied up at a dock in NC and headed out for a road trip for Greg to speak at several conferences for work. This is a slide show of the people and places we saw along the way.

 

We stayed at our daughters house and enjoyed their hospitality and their Kids!!

We even timed it just right to see the end of the term gymnastics for granddaughters Becca and Eliana.

We enjoyed getting together with several friends while in MD.

We spent a week in Annapolis visiting with family and friends and for Greg to speak at a conference then we took an overnight train from Union Station to Orlando for another conference.

 

The day we arrived we walked around down town Disney and looked at things our grands would love to see…..we even took a boat ride….yes, a boat ride!!

The next day we drove over to Titusville to look at the marina there and a lock that we may come in through and timed it just right to watch the launch of a GPS satellite….one that we’ll acturally use while out there.

Wild life we saw….

 

Conference pictures

We took another overnight train from Orlando back to Union Station in DC. Beautiful time of year to take the train.

 

 

Our return trip back down the eastern shore over the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel to NC.

   

We had so much fun on this trip….mostly seeing all the people we love spending time with but also seeing the fall colors and taking a train trip.

Now we wait for rain to move out of NC and continue heading south….

 

He quieted the sea with His power

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here are some pics of things we’ve seen as we made our way south to Oriental NC.

These next few pictures are to remind Becca, Eliana, Zach, Ryan, Noah and Ben of what it looks like to go through a lock.  We went in and you can see the mark on the side where the water will be after we come up….we came up 8 feet. It’s like an elevator for the boat. The guy up on the wall is the lock master and he explains how it works and how to hold our ropes so we stay next to the wall as the water is rising. At the other end of the canal we go into another lock and the water goes back down 8 feet. This is how they control the depth of the Dismal Swamp and keep it deep enough for boats to go through it.

  

Beautiful day sailing across the Pamlico Sound!!

 

He quieted the sea with His power