Toward Charleston

Charleston, South Carolina. 5th June 2009










From Cape Canaveral we headed north in the Intracoastal Waterway, (ICW) winding along from Titusville to St Augustine where we arrived in an anchorage up the Sebastian river to find mud. Tired after a long day, special help came which gave us everything we needed right there, right then, landed angels if you will, in the form of two good ole boys, Chuck and his pal who agreed a no questions asked, off the dock before the boss gets in at 9am, cash in hand deal of $40. Win win. The supermarket, electricity, water, rubbish and a secure dock in a mean current, all sorted. Officially it would have cost $90. (Another bonus was also a short walk to Theos, a top breakfast, but, our diet and early deadline meant that remained a delicious memory from 03).

From Florida into southern Georgia we motored on, dolphins, oyster catchers, ospreys and pelicans entranced us along the way. One night in a creek Jack watched egrets yanking worms from the mud at low tied, washing and gulping them. John suggested missing Georgia, which we remember as being stunning but the rivers wind in great loops, and it takes hours to travel one mile as the crow flies.


Seraphim and her companion boat Seawalk and new friends on a catamaran, Synchronicity sailed on the “outside“, in the Atlantic, which was flat. An overnight sail cut out five days chugging on the ICW. Sailing into any city is a kick, and Charleston is impressive.

Manatees and Astronauts

Mummy manatee

Whilst staying at the Harbor Town Marina near Cape Canaveral Jack and James were intrigued by a mummy manatee and her calf. A marina resident knew manatees prefer fresh, running water so left her tap running for the manatees to drink from it.





The Right Stuff













After days of Disney Jack still preferred his two days at the Kennedy Space Centre where he met a Shuttle Astronaut, Col John Fabian, played on the Space Playground, stood in a real shuttle and capsule, saw a launch pad, and stood under the massive Saturn V rocket. The real stuff outshone fake. And the boys really didn’t like best because we did, they liked it best because they did.














Reel Talk

I have lost count of the number of fishing boats that we have passed named “Reel Talk/Time“. It’s also an opportunity to cut in a segue but we haven’t had one for ages so, whilst anchored off Rose Island with the lights of Nassau on the horizon we watched “Deep Blue”, a disappointing film about treasure hunting, filled with exquisite bounty, sorry, bodies, of both varieties but filmed in Nassau.

And when we were in Titusville with the lights of the Nasa launch pads on the horizon we watched the film starring Ed Harris, (and other sculptured torsos) based on Tom Wolfe’s book about the first astronauts, Alan Shepherd, Gus Grissom and of course, John Glenn, performed by Ed Harris. (Not too many prizes for guessing my favourite.)

Mickey Mouse

Mid May 2009 M I CK E Y MOUSE

From Fort Lauderdale we pushed hard for 200 miles to Cape Canaveral to arrive in time for the Space Shuttle launch. Orlando was 45 minutes from Harbor Town Marina, a useful stop for the Space Coast and theme parks.













Our first park was the Magic Kingdom, which with boys of 4 and 2, was by far the most appropriate. The morning procession with dancing through the shimmering heat was a cracking way to start the children’s first day. Way after bedtime, at 9pm, came the procession of lit up floats in front of Cinderella’s castle followed by fireworks and Tinkerbell “flying” from the castle. Disney at it’s most spectacular and slick. It was a joy for us to see Jack and James’ simple delight in snuggling the Disney characters and giggling on rides such as it’s a “Small small world”, (which Sergej our Dutch friend informed us had nothing to do with Disney and was a copy of a famous Dutch ride in an Award winning park).










Other high points included, “Soarin’” at Epcot where we “flew” on a journey across the States, after which Jack was literally high as a kite. Flying over London with the Peter Pan ride, the spinning saucers in the Mad Hatter’s Tea party, the famous Dumbo ride, the huge “Honey I Shrunk The Kids” playground were other favourites, but watching a youngster being trained to fight Darth Vader was a bit “scaredy”. My favourite was the “Encounter” with Crash, the “dude” cartoon turtle from Nemo who really did interact with the audience. “Cooool.”













Dizzy-ing Nausea

Our name for Disney after two parks. $600 plus $12 a day parking, plus exorbitant food and tolls on the roads surrounding the parks, we felt that we’d been pummelled by Pete the thuggish dog (wolf) who demands payment from Mickey even when he’s trying to save Daisy and Minnie, to hell with them, pay up.












Fast Pass

I wish we could Fast Pass some experiences in life, supermarket queues, adolescence and heart ache. At least in Disney if you secure a fast pass you can return later and jump the “line”. Otherwise it can be an hour and a half wait for a 3 minute ride. Our only long line was 40 minutes for Winnie the Pooh, out of date, but thankfully the children did not notice. We got wise about the Fast Pass after that.

English Tea

I ran out of my favourite tea, Lap Sang Souchong, mid Caribbean and finally found it in the Twinnings cottage in the Great Britain part of Epcot’s World area. Charlotte from Hedge End, (fifteen miles from my mother) served us. Long dark hair and green eyed Charlotte is spending her gap year “having the time of her life” working in "England" in the plastic UK.










Six Packed

By this time we had done six parks: Magic Kingdom, twice, The Disney Studios, twice, Epcot, and the Animal Kingdom ,which we left appalled by the desperate gorilla in it’s plastic jungle, and hippo in a dirty pool, we were jaded by stroller police, (park your pushchair in the wrong place and you‘re told where to put it), and the trudging from ride to ride with tired children and worst of all the overt commercialism. Off the ride, through the shop to the exit.
Gradually the dream was fading. By our fourth parade the smiles on the melting dancers were grimaces. It was a pop rock version of the Red Shoes. The bubble was beginning to wobble. We were resenting every penny. As we were dragging ourselves home from the Studios, a fresh faced manager asked me to put my 2 year olds shirt on. I pointed out it was wet with ice cream, the automaton told me it was company policy. I told him we were leaving.













For three of our six days it rained, not just pitter patter, but, torrential, vengeance of God stuff. It thinned the crowds and stopped the rides. But whilst on our mission to “do” Disney, we carried on. The boys seemed to have more fun playing in the puddles.

The ICW

We are currently cruising north on the East coast of the USA along the ICW, the Intracostal Waterway, a system of rivers, lakes and canals that stretches over a thousand miles from Florida to the Chesapeake Bay.


Controlling depths vary from 7 to 12ft. Non-opening bridges have a 65ft clearance with one exception at 56ft in Miami. (The latter can be passed by a brief stretch in the ocean). Other bridges open on demand or to a published schedule. Bridge operators can be contacted on either vhf channel 13 or 9.

An excellent resource for those wishing to make this trip can be found by clicking here.

Our intention is to go to New York via the Chesapeake Bay both in the ICW or “Ditch”, and in the ocean. In early June we cut out most of Georgia, and four days on the ICW, by sailing in the Atlantic ocean. Four years ago we spent days winding through the beautiful grasslands of Georgia, breathtaking but felt like we only made about a mile an hour.

Guess where we are?

Space Shuttle

14.01 Eastern Time. 11th May 2009. Space shuttle Atlantis blasting off, viewed from Seraphim at anchor in the Cape Canaveral Canal. A very special once in a lifetime wow.

Watch a video of it here

The US Virgins is where yachts heading north to the US say their final farewells to those leaving their yachts in hurricane holes in the Caribbean, or those heading back to the UK. Physical goodbyes could have been made several weeks and islands before but this is where the hard graft north begins, and paths divide. We continue to sail in company with Seawalk, sailed by Sergej, Isabelle, Alec (6) and Katie (3) but it was “Fair Winds” to amongst others Double Helix, Exuma, Odyssey and Nutmeg.



Like many families at this time of year Double Helix will be heading home soon. Catamaran Double Helix, with John, Lizzie, Ellen (5) and Ana (3) completed their Atlantic Crossing in Bridgetown, Barbados. Seraphim, Seawalk and Double Helix then sailed together from Barbados to Martinique and north through the Caribbean islands to Antigua. The ebb and flow of cruising friends adds spice for the adults but is sometimes difficult for the children. After a tearful farewell from the British yacht Nutmeg girls in St Lucia, we had a deliberately casual “we’ll see them again soon” with the Double Helix girls in English Harbour, Antigua.





Soon after, along came Charlotte (6) on Heatwave, a Leopard 42. Mummy Judy is two months younger than me and was born in the same hospital as John. Jimmy, her Dad was a New York fire fighter, then a cowboy in the West, and now a sailor, all in one lifetime …

Jack first came across Charlotte in McDonalds in St Martin which was a focus for parents with children. The offspring crazy-ed on the huge, padded climbing frame whilst the parents did ditto on free WIFI. Charlotte and the boys remained pals from St Martin to the British Virgins and the US Virgins. In Charlotte’s case the anticipated farewell play date was postponed as weather dictated we head out sooner. To paraphrase the Beatles, “All say hello and too soon say goodbye”.

Decisions to move on from Antigua, to St Barts, to St Martin, to the Virgins, Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic, Turks and Caicos and Bahamas are primarily based on the weather for that day or week. In December the Caribbean chain stretched out before us with literally months to go, however, as we discovered in our 02/04 journey, the time swiftly passes with exploring new places, fitting through weather windows plus all the usual mundane stuff - supermarkets, laundry and boat maintenance. Our momentum is also kept up by the knowledge that it there is a Shuttle Launch in Florida in May, it is over a thousand miles to New York and hurricane season is on our summer horizon.

The Atlantic from the US Virgins, through the Spanish Virgins to Puerto Rico and the Dominica Republic is difficult to navigate. The sea bed is mountainous with numerous shelves, changing rapidly from thousands of feet to twenty under the keel, and from smooth waters to confused and steep waves. Violent currents sweep yachts off course which when negotiating small islands and coastlines is hazardous.



The Mona Passage has a fearful reputation however, our crossing from Puerto Rico to the Dominican Republic was not so awful. To greet us on the east coast of DR was Punta Cana, a huge new marina, which was almost empty. Luxury apartments overlooked swimming pools measured by the acre which overlooked a long Caribbean beach. At one end of each pool was a bar with seats in the pool. Rest day’s toughest choice was which pool next? They even had their own lifeguard, and, dull but essential, free laundry.



Covering the miles from the Virgins north to the Turks meant a lot of engine hours. Twelve hour days of pounding engine was exhausting. But, at the end we had powder sand and crystal waters, pretty much everyday, unless it was Ocean World where we had dolphin shows, seals shows, shark shows, parrot shows, love birds and tigers. A totally different experience to Luperon, the third world anchorage which is the usual jump off from DR to cross the Mouchoir Banks to the Turks.





Big Sand Cay in the southern Turks and Caicos is where the real superlatives start. Idyllic, paradise, and heavenly all applied as we worked our way to and through the Bahamas. Although late in the season we had hoped for whales, and at day break as we sailed into Plana Cay, in the southern Bahamas, a sperm whale swam past.



Plana Cay where we spent Easter Day was heaven on earth. It's a hard won paradise surrounded by at least forty miles of Atlantic Ocean which even in the best conditions can force an arduous passage.

From Plana it was onto Conception Island (where Jack was made) George Town, Rat Cay, Black Point where we visited the Garden of Eden, Staniel Cay where the boys swam in the James Bond Thunderball Cave and then to Wadderwick Wells in the north of the Exuma chain. All are sublime, breathtaking and glorious.

As Wifi is sporadic here, we’ll post more pictures and more about them all when we arrive in the USA in a week or so.