This is also very late but here is the June update. I hope it isn’t too boring but I put the waypoints in for my yachtie friends.

We arrived safely back in Florida and Kate had very kindly booked an apartment for us all to stay in for 3 nights. Bill and I had wanted to get back to the boat to start getting it prepared to head north but I was quite ill when we got back and the rest in the apartment was very welcome. I had had a nasty cold for several weeks in the UK and added to the jetlag combined with the heat I wasn’t improving. I retained my cold right through June, just couldn’t shake it off. The apartment was in a nice area with the Disney parks a short bus ride away but at $105 ++ per person we didn’t visit them.

 

 

There was a nice pool and gym which Kate and Mark enjoyed while I rested in the air conditioning for the first day but joined them the next day. Again the most convenient way to get back to the boat with all our luggage was hire a one-way car, a shiny red Dodge. Sorry forgot to take a photo.  After travelling three sides of a square because I’m rubbish with GPS (give me a map any day) we were eventually on our way. We stopped at a mall on the way back but it was fairly uninspiring.

 

 

The car didn’t have to go back until the next day so we made use of it to stock up the boat with food and wine to take back to the boat.  This is a boring photo of the local supermarket car park but look at the size of the cars! More about them later.

Harbourtown marina has a nice little pool which Kate and Mark enjoyed while I sorted the boat out. It easier on my own. When we had left on the 9^th May it was a nice temperature but now after 3 weeks away the temperature had soared and the pool was the only place to cool down.

 

Sunday 4^th was Kate’s birthday and I had a nice salad lunch with a cake to celebrate.

There was a double celebration that day because our Blue Water rally friends Peter and Margie drove up from Miami to join us for lunch. They had brought bubbles for the double celebration.  We had a great time chatting to them not having seen them since 2011 in NZ at Kate’s house so lots to catch up on.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Finally on Tuesday 6^th we got going.  Unfortunately there was a thunderstorm brewing and I didn’t want to go on the outside. We were already late and didn’t want to wait another day so travelled up the ICW instead. Once we passed through the opening Fort Pierce north bridge we were committed and couldn’t go back.  As the wind was coming from the south Bill pulled the headsail out and we sailed slowly up the waterway. Most of the Florida section is lined with these huge homesteads that are obscene in their size.  At first we thought they were hotels or apartments but then we realised they were 1 house.

 

 

Most of them have their own jetties with various types of boats on them.  These are very popular and potter up and down the waterways. I would think they have a fairly shallow draft so don’t have to keep within the channel.

 

 

 

Unfortunately there are also a lot of these. Just look at the wash this was kicking up. The owners have a total disregard for anyone else on the waterways. There are ‘no wash’ signs everywhere but they ignore them.

 

 

 

 

 

It’s really important to keep with in the channel, a few feet out of it is very shallow as you can see from these boys just able to step out of their vessel.

We found a nice little anchorage for the night just north of the Eau Gallie fixed bridge. For my yachties friends the waypoint is

28°08.11N

080°37.343W

The next day we were off again and sailed with just the genny again. Mark enjoyed taking a turn on the helm. By lunchtime the wind had gone and it started to rain. The decision was made to go into a marina. Oddly enough it was also called Harbourtown marina.  It was in the Canaveral Barge canal at

28°24.51N

080°40.757W

At $104 for 2 nights, which, for a transient berth, was a bargain for America.  We stayed 2 nights enabling us to visit the Kennedy Space centre at Cape Canaveral, which was just a taxi ride away. If you come to Florida forget the Disney parks, do the Kennedy Space center we had a great time there.

 

The day started off sunny and we explored the Rocket garden but the clouds built up and brought the rain later in the day. Your ticket includes a guided bus tour of the launch sites and we were able to get quite close to them although you have to stay on the bus.

This is the huge crawler that carries the space rocket from the hanger where it’s assembled to the launch pad at a really fast 1 mile an hour.

 

This is one of the launch pads.  You can see the crawler tracks.

 

The bus stops on the Cape Canaveral island at further exhibition halls. This was a simulator for a rocket launch and these screens were showing an actual launch. I have a video of the whole thing. The floor was shaking and it was very loud, it was really exciting. It would be fantastic to witness an actual launch.

 

 

There were lots of smaller exhibits to see before getting back on the bus to go back to the main site.

 

 

One of the main exhibits on that side contained an actual space shuttle. We all queued for the Shuttle Launch Simulator, which was fun. We all laughed while trying to speak as our voices were all shaking with the simulated speed.

 

 

Everything was very well presented and I would recommend it.  Back to the marina to cool off in their pool and put some washing on.

 

 

The next day Friday 9^th we discussed going outside again, there’s an inlet at the end of the Canaveral canal, but there was no wind and it was quite a long way out so we continued up the ICW.

More bridges.

More beautiful houses but the ICW was as boring as it looks. The water was filthy and Camomile was starting to get a dirty mark around her waterline.

We traveled just 4 hours that day and stopped at Titusville to give our guests a chance to go ashore. We anchored just south of the bridge at

28°37.170N

080°47.928W

During the evening a band set up by a bar under the bridge and they played some really nice music. Kate and I were dancing around the deck all evening. Unfortunately the next day we discovered another blight of the ICW.  As the screens hadn’t been in, the boat was full of mosquitoes and we were all covered in bites, except Mark, they didn’t seem to like him!

Kate and Mark had decided to spend the last few days of their holiday back in a hotel in Orlando; I think the air conditioning was calling because it was very hot on board and the ICW is fairly uninspiring.

Saturday 10^th no wind. Bill and I got up at 6.00, lifted the anchor and got going.  It was 38 miles to Daytona beach where Kate and Mark were leaving us so we decided to get there as soon as possible so they could enjoy the beach. I found another small marina that just had a little space for Camomile at

29°09.272N

080°58.541W

It was called 7 Seas marina and was very friendly. No pool but washing machines and showers for $93.09 for 2 nights. It was just outside Daytona and the beach was a short walk away.

Daytona beach bills itself as ‘The World’s Most Famous Beach’. It’s the birthplace of NASCAR, which started in 1947. Its origins go back as far as 1902 to drag races held on the beach’s hard packed sand. We were a bit further south than the actual Daytona beach but it all looks the same. It was a beautiful beach. Kate and Mark went off to explore. When Bill and I got down to the beach it reminded us a bit of the Gold coast in Australia.

This was our first and only time on the beach on the East coast south of Virginia. There aren’t any suitable anchorages along the coast. The inlets were quite bouncy until you were well inside the ICW. Most of the anchorages in the ICW are fronted by beautiful houses but nowhere to land among the private docks. We noted some public jetties but they were often full with local ‘day’ boats and a fair walk to the beach. So Daytona was our one and only walk on the beach.

Sunday 11^th was their last day and Kate kindly treated us all to breakfast in Pat’s café.  Mark over ordered and managed to get two breakfasts but he still eat it all! The marina manager very kindly offered to give them a lift into town to catch their bus back to Orlando so we said our goodbyes and they left.

The next day the marina manager offered to take us to the supermarket, as we needed to restock the boat before we headed north, everyone was very friendly there. We left in the afternoon and motored south to anchor by the Ponce de Leon inlet ready for an early start in the morning. The anchorage was at

29°03.671N

080°55.890W

I’m not sure I would recommend it because the anchorage was full of midges of some sort and in the morning we were both covered in bites, particularly Bill.  His chest was covered in little tiny red bites.

Time was pressing on. It was 13^th June and we were still in Florida. Our insurance company had asked us to be north of 35° north before 1^st June and we were still at 29°N.  On reflection we should have got Camomile much further north before going to the UK. Hurricane season had started and we weren’t covered for a named storm although hurricanes are very rare in June.  In fact it was the opposite there wasn’t any wind forecast; another reason I would recommend trying to get north early. We had been advised by friends who had sailed these shores on previous years ‘Go north quickly, come south slowly’ although it’s a bit late in the season that was our plan, to try to get north as quickly as possible.

That morning there was no wind but we left early and motored on the outside covering 62 miles to St Augustine. We arrived in the rain and tried 3 times to anchor but were told by a local there’s no holding and to pick up a buoy.  It was at

29°53.66N

081°18.55W

The next morning we decided to have a look at the town before we moved on but went to pay for the buoy first. It was $25 for the night plus we were informed we had to ‘check out’ by 11am, it was 10am. After complaining bitterly the harbour master relented and gave us until 1pm!

St Augustine was founded by the Spanish in 1565 and is the oldest permanent settlement in the US. Juan Ponce de Leon discovered it in 1513 and has his statue erected near where he stepped ashore.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We wandered into the Cathedral Basilica and found a striking building inside. Some of the walls and woodwork had beautiful murals painted on them.

 

 

The altar was sitting on a marble floor and had a centrepiece behind the altar covered in gold and surrounded by the organ pipes. Really stunning. It was also cool in there.

 

 

 

We walked down the pedestrianised St Georges street. I felt it was on the edge of being Disneyfied but stopped just short of being a historic theme park because many of the buildings are original, if heavily restored.  After stopping for coffee we continued. Some of the buildings were very quaint.

 

On the edge of town is the Castello de San Marcos, the country’s oldest masonry fort completed by the Spanish in 1695.  For many years it was the northernmost outpost of Spain’s vast New World empire.  It protected St Augustine from pirate raids and Spain’s major rival at the time, Great Britain.  The fortress is a hollow square with diamond shaped bastions at each corner with only one way in or out.

 

 

Cannons in one bastion were positioned to create a deadly crossfire with those in two other bastions.  The fort’s commanding location on the west bank of the town allowed its guns to protect not only the harbour entrance but the ground to the north against a land attack.

 

 

In 1763, as an outcome of the Seven Years (French and Indian) War, Spain ceded Florida to Great Britain in return for Cuba. After the American Revolution Florida was returned to Spain until 1821 when Spain ceded Florida to the United States. Over the years it fell into disrepair until it came under the National Park service in 1935.

 

 

 

St Augustine was a garrison town and no one lived inside the Castillo. The soldiers lived in town with their families and came to the fort to stand a rotating guard duty. They slept on these platforms and prepared their meals in this room.

 

Fascinating tour. These days it just looks out over a bunch of yachts including Camomile.

We returned to the dinghy at exactly 1pm and left the buoy motoring to the outer harbour to anchor by the lighthouse at

29°53.19N

081°17.06W a nice peaceful overnight stop.

 

Thursday 15^th we left early and headed back out to sea. I noticed a ‘buddy’ on the AIS and discovered it was Solstice with Don and Phyllis on board. We haven’t seen them since St Helena.  After a quick chat on the vhf I discovered they were heading into Jacksonville.  It would have been nice to catch up with them but we had made the decision to push on.  We motored half the day and sailed half so a bit of an improvement.

 

 

At 7pm we dropped anchor at Fernandina beach (no where near the beach) right on the Florida/Georgia border. There was a fairly ugly factory of some description just inside the entrance to the harbour. It had huge piles of sawdust on the side and Bill said he thought they were making some sort of fibreboard.

 

 

We also passed a boat yard with a number of dead boats on the side, which were probably remnants of hurricane Matthew that went through here last year.  We had seen lots of broken boats in the shallows on our way up the ICW.  The anchor was dropped at

30°40.229N

081°28.110W    just behind the British boat with the French name Ile Jeudi (Thursday Island).  We had seen them on the water a couple of times.

We were ashore the next morning when we bumped into them, they were Bob and Lyn and we had a great chat over a coffee. Having left all our sailing friends in the Caribbean it was nice to make some new ones.

 

The residents of Amelia Island, home to Fernandina Beach, are quick to tell you their town is just as old as St Augustine but unfortunately they can’t prove it. It certainly has the familiar historic theme park look. Everywhere we’ve been so far is so manicured, almost unreal it’s so clean and tidy without a blade of grass out of place. I guess we’re used to the scruffy island states of the Indian and Pacific oceans.

 

 

We followed the walking tour recommended by the tourist office but unfortunately it started to rain so we found a nice Pizza restaurant and stopped for lunch.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Later that afternoon I noticed this amusing shop. Were these the first Christmas decorations on sale in June?

Saturday 17^th first thing in the morning we were off again. After motoring all morning the wind picked up in the afternoon and the engine was turned off. We decided to continue overnight as we had some decent wind for a change. It meant we would miss Savannah and the state of Georgia but we needed to keep going.  Ile Jeudi were sailing in front of us and decided to do the same.

We dropped anchor in Charleston, South Carolina at lunchtime the next day. We were both tired and stayed on board. I think sailing for 1 night is worse than doing a week. You don’t get a chance to get into a routine.  Our waypoint was

32°46.555N

079°57.222

We had a couple of days in Charleston with a strong north wind blowing, which we couldn’t go out in. Typical, decent bit of wind and it’s on the nose.

Monday 19^th we went ashore with Bob and Lyn and had a nice lunch together. Charleston or Charles Towne, named for Charles II, was settled by English colonists on the Ashley river in 1670.  By 1740 it had become one of the busiest ports on the eastern seaboard, the centre of prosperous rice-growing and a trading colony built on the back of slavery. Charleston was a key trading centre for the slave industry and bustling slave auction houses clustered along the river.  In 1861 the first shots of the Civil war rang out at Fort Sumter that we had passed in the harbour entrance. After the war the labour intensive rice plantations became uneconomical without slave labour and the importance of the city went into decline.  The southern most tip of the peninsular has the bulk of the antebellum mansions and about a half a dozen of these majestic homes are open to the public. In the afternoon we looked around the town and visited the Edmonston-Alston house, which was beautifully restored but no photos allowed.

 

 

Tuesday the wind was still blowing in the wrong direction so Bill and I went ashore again. Bill wanted his photo taken next to this monster, the bonnet was right up to his shoulders.

 

 

 

Continuing out tour of the town we visited the Aiken-Rhett house.  The only surviving example from the urban plantation times, it gives a fascination glimpse into antebellum life.  Constructed in 1820 for Gov and Mrs William Aiken it remained in the family for 142 years.  Many of the rooms were closed off for decades and it is being kept in a ‘preserved-as-found’ condition.

 

 

 

 

 

The furniture and interior is unaltered since the mid 19^th century.

 

 

 

 

The role of slaves is also preserved and it’s possible to wander through the dormitory quarters behind the house.

 

 

 

 

 

This kitchen would have been used to cook meals for the entire family. They were very nervous of fire in those days and didn’t like it in the main house.

 

 

 

The Joseph Manigault house a few blocks away is a complete contrast. The three-story Federal style house was once the showpiece of a French Huguenot rice planter. The rooms open to the public were beautifully furnished.  The third floor is still a private residence.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There was a small neoclassical temple in the garden.

We were told there are some beautiful plantations outside of the town open to the public but you would need a car to get out to them. Maybe another day.

On the Wednesday Don and Phyllis arrived on Solstice so it was nice to catch up with them.

Thursday 22^nd the wind dropped so we decided to leave along with Ile Jeudi and Solstice.  We motored in the morning but the wind picked up in the afternoon so we were able to sail. The intention was to go to Georgetown but it seemed a shame to stop as we had some wind so we continued. Ile Jeudi went into Georgetown but Solstice continued with us into the night. The engine went on at 10.30 the next morning and we motored into Southport, North Carolina. There was a storm coming and we needed to be in secure in a marina for a few days.

 

 

Then the confusion started. We were calling Solstice on the VHF when another Solstice answered – it was our old friend Bill who we hadn’t seen since 2014 in Malaysia, how cool was that. Added to that when we arrived at South Harbour Village marina Neal and Ruth on Rutea were there and we hadn’t seen them probably since 2013! It was great to catch up with them all on Rutea for drinks later.

The marina was at

33°55.11N (getting nearer to 35N)

078°02.90W

it cost $125.20 for 2 nights and had nice showers and a washing machine.  It was quite a way out of town but Bill had a car and drove the 5 of us to a nearby group of bars and restaurants where there was a good band playing.

The other Solstice had gone into a different marina (South Harbour only had 1 space free) but on Sunday 25^th we left South Harbour and joined Don and Phyllis to continue our journey. The storm had gone through but the seas were still a bit rough so we decided to continue up the ICW again for the day and dropped anchor in Wrightsville at 3pm.  Our waypoint was

34°12.352N

077°48.003W

 

There had been no wind and we’d motored all the way. In the ICW all the fixed bridges 64ft, give or take a foot depending on the tide, if they are less than that they open.  Some will open on demand, some have timetables but ask the bridge operator.  The depth in the ICW in the channel is supposed to be about 10ft but Camomile draws 2 metres or 6 feet and has touched the bottom a couple of times but it’s only soft mud.

 

Monday 26^th we went ashore with Don and Phyllis in search of a supermarket and found a West Marine opposite. While we were out Rutea and Ile Jeudi arrived so we invited the 4 of them to join us and Don and Phyllis on board Camomile for a drink that evening. The interesting thing was the six of them didn’t know each other only us.  It was interesting introducing everyone and all had a great evening.

Tuesday 27^th we joined Solstice and Ile Jeudi for the journey to Beaufort. We exited at the Masonboro inlet but again motored all of the way 70 miles; crazy.

It was late when we arrived at Beaufort but just got our anchor down as the sun dipped below the horizon at 8.30. That’s one of the advantages of heading north the evenings are drawing out. Solstice came in behind us.

 

 

 

Our waypoint was

34°42.886N

076°39.887W

 

 

 

 

Wednesday 28^th we went ashore and enjoyed walking around the town. I was very excited to see this London bus which is exactly the sort of bus my Dad used to drive many years ago. In the US it isn’t mandatory to have a front number plate so this bus was still displaying it’s original English number plate at the front. Also on the side it still had it’s bus number and destinations in London on display. The tourist company were using it for tours around the area.

 

 

This little house from 1778 is the oldest existing one in the village.  It looked very small compared to most of the other homes although Beaufort had some cute little places.

The whole town was very attractive and many houses already had their 4^th July decorations on display. This was the beautiful village church.  One thing that struck us as we walked around Beaufort that, along with many of the coastal towns we’d visited, we didn’t see a single black face.  In Beaufort the only one we saw was a guy cutting someone’s lawn.  We had seen various groups of kids on summer school on our journey along the coast but not one non-white face. I’m not sure what that means but we found it slightly disturbing.

The next day Solstice and Ile Jeudi left for Oriental further up the ICW and that was the last we saw of them this year. We wanted to wait another day and make the final push over the 35° latitude before the end of the month around the outside.

Friday 30^th the winds were forecast to blow from the south. We motored back out through the Beaufort Inlet and had to motor 20 miles south around the cape lookout shoals before we were able to turn north and sailed the rest of the day with a dolphin escort. During the afternoon it was in a north east direction towards Cape Hatteras before turning north towards the Chesapeake bay.  Rutea and Bill on the other Solstice were also making the journey that day although they were about half a day behind us.  At 10pm we finally crossed the 35° line.  Cape Hatteras has a dreadful reputation in these parts and we weren’t disappointed. As we rounded the cape at 1am we were hit by a huge squall that completely overpowered the boat for about 10 minutes until Bill was able to regain control but that was in July…..