Survived Tropical Storm Andrea

Windy and bumpy during the night, but we are okay.  I just hope this critter guarding the shower this morning is not a sign of things to come.

Blackie

Andrea-0 JULI-IV-1

Round 1 of Tropical Storm Andrea, has blown by. Since the weather channel was reporting tornadoes on the ground south of us approximately 30 miles, headed north (right over us) at 35mph, we decided to abandon ship and head to the shore/restaurant/bar to scope out potential shelter areas. Yeah, Gary, I know what you said... There was one small TV on the wall and a room full of patrons partaking of Happy Hour, oblivious to their impending "Doom". The 3 of us watched the weather and discussed potential shelter locations. There aren't many!. After about 45 minutes, we returned to the boat. There is another round coming. We'll keep you posted. Thanks for your continued prayer.


TS Andrea, Round 1
 

Joe's unique boot-print. Does make it easier to keep track of him :)

Hunkered Down -- St. Simons Island

Thursday, June 6
Just a quick update. We are hunkered down at Morningstar Marina. Tropical storm Andrea is heading our way.

Doomed, Doomed!

We've moved to an inside slip for more protection as Alfred, the marina employee, predicts winds up to 45mph and 1-2' seas overnight. So, we'll not be being going anywhere today. Put us in your prayers, please. We'll see you on the other side.

Wednesday, June 5
As we needed to take on fuel and Langs didn't open until 0800, we had no reason to arise early.  Nat, the harbour master guided us in to the fuel dock and we took on 100 gallons of gas.  We were underway by 0850.  At 0900 it was 97 degrees on the flybridge. Cloudy, hot and muggy.

Hot, Hot, Hot

We were on the ICW all day.  I was at the helm when we drove by Kings Bay Naval Submarine Base.  The path was very curvy and took us very close to the base.  There was a small boat positioned at what appeared to be the entrance into the base.  Joe and I called him the gate guard.  As we got close, an error message came up on the chart plotter "radar overlay invalid".  I said to Joe "Look, Joe, they're jamming our radar signal....sneaky, huh?"  Sure enough, as we were equally past their entrance, the radar mysteriously began working again.  About this time both Joe and I smelled gasoline.  Since we had just taken on fuel, Joe checked over the sides to make sure nothing was leaking.  He determined that all was well and eventually we quit smelling gas.  About 10 minutes later, Tim comes back to the flybridge and we're all visiting.  "What have you been doing, Tim?"  "Well, I just replaced the thermostat on the starboard engine and also put the new fuel -flow sensor on."  The light comes on for both Joe and me.  "So, that's why we were smelling gasoline?"  "Hey Tim, the Naval base jammed our radar signal when we went by!!"  He grins and says "Oh yeah? I suppose me disconnecting the network cable when I installed the fuel-flow sensor had nothing to do with it?!"  Burst my conspiracy-theorist bubble.....

Kings Bay Naval Submarine Base

We had a couple heavy rain periods (surprise, surprise) and according to the forecast, rain may last all week.  At least we're out of the Gulf.  My friend Debbie texted me earlier about tropical storm Andrea.  Our friend Tom is supposed to be aboard a sail boat from Fort Lauderdale, around the Keys and back up to Tampa right now.  Hope all is well...  And, we are hoping Andrea leaves us alone.  Joe is right now looking online and it doesn't look good.  As Tim would say..."We're doomed!"
It took us all day to get from one end of Cumberland Island to the other, and it's only 17 miles long.  Like I said earlier, the ICW was S-curves all day.  Years ago, the island belonged to a woman who raised horses.  In her will, she left the island to the State of GA for a nature preserve with the stipulation that the horses would remain and be cared for.  Today, there are many wild horses living on the island.  We saw one on a beach and a few others closer to the woods. 
Just before reaching our destination for the day, we had to pass Jekyll Island.  The channel next to the island was very narrow and VERY shallow.  Of course it didn't help matters that it was low tide, but at one point the depth finder displayed 2.7'.  Yeah, I know!  We have an additional 2' 10" under that, so we were OK.  At a couple of places the mud along the shoreline was higher than the water.  Joe took a couple of pictures of the muddy bank.

Narrow, shallow channel

We survived the shallow water and made it to Morningstar marina, St. Simons Island, GA.  We are tied up on the outer dock and we've been rocking since we tied up.  Should make for interesting sleeping tonight....See you next time.

Taken at dinner.  More salmon...yum...

Rainbow last night at Langs Marina.

Tuesday, June 4
Awoke around 0630 to warm, muggy weather with a light fog.  Got underway a little after 0700.  Tim has developed a DAILY BRIEFING form which contains pertinent information such as:
Departure Time, ETA, Weather, Tide/Current, Water/Fuel/Pumpout status, Destination, Name/Phone number/Channel marker, Food plan, and Items of Interest.  He prepared the first one the night before so both Joe and I feel "well-informed" this day :). Today's destination is St Marys, GA, approximately 35 miles and the majority of the route is in the North Atlantic ocean.  Fun day at sea!! (I failed to mention that St Mary's is the 2nd oldest city in America. St Augustine being the 1st.)

Passed this container ship. Big guy.

It was a relatively uneventul day.  The seas were projected to be 1.7' and the forecast was accurate.  Tim always says that we bring rain wherever we go. Well, today that was accurate. At least, late in the day.  We had to zip up the eisenglass and when it's 85+ degrees out, it makes for a pretty hot flybridge.  Have to protect the electronics though.

All that red stuff....yep....rain......

 There were several times when we saw lots of porpoise schooling.  I mean, lots...like 15-20. It was pretty special. Around lunchtime the Captain decided to head towards shore, anchor and take a swim.  We anchored offshore about 1/8 of a mile and both Tim and Joe took a dip.  The water temperature is still mid to upper 70s.  The Captain prefers much warmer than this, but not much we can do about it, right? I didn't get any pictures during this little break :(
In order to get into St Marys, we had to navigate in on the St Marys river inlet.  This required us to head further away from shore several channel markers before heading back in, in order to avoid the channel jetty.  The tide was headed out and it was amazing to see the brown water from the river right next to the blue/green water of the Atlantic.  I only hope the picture reflects the 'break' in color.  It's as if there was an imaginary dam separating the two.  This inlet is 45+' deep in order to accomodate the submarines that are stationed at Kings Bay Naval Base.  We keep hoping that we'll see one underway.  Not today, but maybe tomorrow when we leave (fingers crossed).

River water in foreground, ocean water in back and impending storm in the distance.

Once we arrived at Lang's East Marina, we took a walk into town.  The marina didn't have laundry facilities, but the local 'General Store' had a washer and dryer right on the display floor, for use. 

The General Store (laundrymat)

We started some laundry, bought some ice cream cones and headed down to the Submarine Museum.  It's a 2 story building containing some interesting facts and artifacts from the past and present.  Upstairs, along with more memorabilia, they run a short video describing past and present operations.  We watched until I knew the clothes needed to go in the dryer.  Had 45 minutes of dryer time to kill, so decided to go have a bite at the Riverview Cafe.  They had an eclectic menu (Tim's favorite :)) and we all found something we liked.  Food was great.  Greek owner was loud.  We didn't linger, as the clothes were dry and we didn't want the store to close!  Given a little more time, it would be fun to break out the bikes and ride around this little town.  Seems like we're back on our sundown/bedtime schedule.  We hope to get half way to Savannah tomorrow, probably on the inside (ICW).


Tim at a working periscope. 42' tall. We could see JULI-IV!

My turn. Pretty neat.


Watching submarine video.

Oh, this picture is for Aletha's cousin.  I can't explain it, but I'm sure it will send the right message. :)

Sunday, June 2
We are back in Jacksonville. Just can't seem to stay away from JULI-IV!! This leg will last a little over 2 weeks, and where we end up is unknown. We only know we need to be away from hurricane alley.
While we were back in KC we were able to spend a couple of weekends at Lake Perry visiting with good friends we hadn't seen in awhile.  Great to see everyone!! Even took Elisha for his first boat ride, at 5 weeks old! He stayed in the salon with Grandma while Jeremiah and Papa drove the boat, from the flybridge. Jeremiah's biggest thrill was being able to honk the horn at Joe, who was sitting on the end of D-dock.

Elisha's first boat ride on Calypso II

Six weeks old and smiling.

Jeremy, Jeremiah and Pam the night before we left.

Some airport advice:
Tim wanted to book the 05:15 flight. I frowned. We ended up booking an 11:50 flight. Tim and I drove Joe's new van (which he purchased from Grandma June) and another car to his house, so we didn't have to bother Jeremy on Sunday.  Joe's son, Jeremiah, drove us to the airport and will pick us up when we return.  Thanks Jeremiah!  Off we go with a layover in Atlanta.  Due to bad weather down south, not only was our arrival in Atlanta delayed, our departure even longer.  We had to fly down to AL to avoid a storm, on the way into Atlanta.  What was to be a 2 hour layover turned into a 6 hour layover. It wasn't really a big deal for us, but poor Aletha, who agreed to pick us up and deliver us to the marina, had to wait, and wait, and wait.  So, what does one do while waiting to depart.  Self-entertain.  Tim's version of this was to criticize WHERE people were standing and HOW they chose to place their bags on the seat next to them, eliminating a place for another person to sit. Something about using a cattle prod or tazer...You get the picture.... Joe's version of self-entertainment was to people watch.  My version was watching the two of them.  In the picture below, Joe is imitating what his daughter, Alahora, used to do when she was 2 years old. It has now become something that we all do :(  Apparently when she was little and her parents were telling her something she didn't want to hear, she would point her elbow at them.  Funny.

"I'm not listening to either one of you."

We finally landed in Jacksonville at about 10:25 and arrived at the boat around 11:30.  THANK YOU ALETHA!!
Once we turned the AC on, it cooled off enough to go to bed.  Must have been 12:30 or so.

Monday, June 3
We slept in until 0700.  Nothing on the agenda that required us to arise any sooner.  We needed to get the barnacles scraped off the boat, install a new thermostat, take Aletha to lunch and beg her to take us to the grocery store.  While we were back in KC, my brother Dave told me about a couple of folding bikes that were for sale in North Fort Myers, his winter home.  Someone who lived in his community had sold his sail boat and still had the bikes.  Joe and Tim and I had previously talked about the pros and cons of having a couple of bikes. Long story short, Bob, Dave's FL neighbor went over and checked out the boats, stored them in Dave's garage and ultimately took them to the FL UPS store to ship them to Aletha.  When she picked us up at the airport, the 2 boxes were in the back of the car for us. Since they were purchased sight-unseen I was all excited about getting them out and taking one for a test drive.  The guys helped me get one put together and off I went.  Really nice bikes and we got them for a great price!!  They will come in handy for sure.  Thanks to Bob and Dave! 

We have 2 of these! Really nice bikes!

When I got back from my bike ride, Joe was in the water scraping barnacles off the boat.  Since I was hot and sweaty from my ride, I decided to put on my suit and join him.  We were both working on the back of the boat when he hollers "Whoa! A jellyfish!".  Well, all of the sudden I was cool enough and out of the water I went.  Tim joined Joe and they not only debarnacled the boat, but also removed/washed off the mustache that was on the bow hull.  Tim and I rode the bikes a few blocks to a Fresh Market and picked up a few items.  Most importantly was ice for the cooler.  I don't remember if I mentioned last time that the place we're staying is not really a public marina, so facilities are nil.

Off we go to the Fresh Market.

Aletha agreed to join us for lunch, as well as Jesse, a friend of Tim's/Aletha's.  We had a great lunch a couple blocks from South Beach. Joe and I had grilled salmon. Delicious!  After lunch, Aletha gratiously took us by Winn Dixie to get the groceries that we couldn't haul back on the bikes.  Thanks again.

Our buddy, Aletha. I asked her how to spell chauffeur and she said "D-R-I-V-E-R". Funny girl!!

Tomorrow we head north for parts unknown.  I think the plan now is to go 'outside' for 30+ miles.  We're not really sure where JULI-IV will end up this trip, but needs to be out of harms way.
Thanks for tagging along. :)

Tuesday, May 14
Awoke a little after 0700.  Before we head up north we needed to pump out our holding tanks.  The marina didn't open until 0700 so no since in getting in a hurry, right?  Went through our normal 'departing the marina' functions and headed over to the gas dock, where the pump out station was.  Told the marina employee what we needed, to which he replied, 'Pump out's broken. Won't be fixed for a couple of hours.'  So, we gave him our access keys (restrooms, showers, etc) and headed north.  We MUST pump out tomorrow!!! This is getting serious :(-----<
Remember the other day when I mentioned that we saw some flamingos?  Well, I was wrong.  They were Roseate Spoonbills.  I pulled a picture from online for you to see.
Our trip today is only 30 miles.  We're headed to Harbour Town Marina, which consists of private slips owned by the condominium owners located there.  We were able to 'rent' space from an owner at a rate about half of what any place around there charged. Tim found out about it through an online group (Active Captain) that he belongs to, which has proven to be useful on many occasions.  Once we arrived and got the boat tied up, Joe and I washed it, relaxed a little, ate dinner, and prepared for our departure back to KC the next day.

A look at low tide.

I'm on a boat!

 

Roseate Spoonbill

Wednesday, May 15

In dire need of a pump out, we headed back south about 3 miles to the nearest servicing facility.  Whew! That was close. Joe did the honors and Tim took on 40 gallons of fuel.  Afterward, we headed back to Harbour Town and got ready to depart.  I fixed breakfast, using most of the perishable items in the refrigerator.  The guys took the water pump on the port engine apart to check out the impeller, among other things.  That engine has been running a little hotter than normal the past several days, so it needed to be checked out.  The pump was OK. Turns out it needs a new thermostat. Tim's going to buy 2 while we're home.  I cleaned out the refrigerator and Joe made a final trash run.  Cleaned the heads, vacuumed the rugs and locked things up for a couple of weeks. Just before we left, Joe spotted the MetLife blimp flying overhead. Tim's friend, Aletha volunteered to pick us up and drive us to the airport.  THANK YOU ALETHA!! Our trip home was uneventful. Well, almost.  When we were getting ready to land in Nashville, for our layover, we were approximately 500' from the runway when, all of a sudden, the plane accelerates and begins to climb.  Tim and I exchanged glances (Joe was in the row in front of us) as Tim says, 'he's pulling it up'.  The flight attended came on the intercom and said 'it's OK'.  A few minutes later, the Captain said 'This is the Captain. As you can see, we've had to circle around. There was a plane on the runway that wasn't talking to the tower. I'll have you on the ground in about 3 minutes. Sorry for the delay.' Hmmmm? While we were waiting to deplane, Joe said 'Well, that's never happened to me before'. :)

We're home for a little while. Thanks for tagging along!! See you back here soon.

 

At the pump out facility.

MetLife blimp

The 'crew'