We MADE IT!!

Although it made the 5 day trip from Myrtle Beach seem easy. We left the Lake Worth inlet at Midnight and straight away had a tug with tow right in front of us with HUGE swells. The wind stayed South East longer than it was suppose to and made it impossible for us to make any south travel of our course to off set the north flowing Gulf Stream. So We ended up a little north of our target, West End. Then the wind went south just in time for us to try and make up the 10 miles we where off. Yeah on the nose and 20 Knts. OH before that the roller furler line of the head sail broke and unrolled the WHOLE friggen thing, and we had to tack around a tug with the whole thing out!! So the sail needed to be dealt with in BIG swells and Lots of water, (only Schyler, Tim and Jill will know that one) yes I was hooked up and waited till dawn. It took almost an hour to get the sail rolled up and in and then we had no head sail to help us into the wind. And the sail now needs some work so I'll change it out with our smaller yankee clip sail on tomorrow before we leave. (It should have been on in the first place JON!), Our faith in GE appliances is renewed once again. Learning that our microwave still works after it broke loose and took a 10 foot flight from Starboard to port along with the flour,sugar and coffee. What a mess it was to clean up but the microwave still works.....

But we made it by 12:30 Still. And it's Beautiful here at the marina. A little pricie but we'll work it off this summer. Three loads of laundry to wash and dry things out. 15 dollar a day surcharge for water (manditory). So we washed the boat and dogs too.

We'll leave here Tuesday because of weather and tides for Great Sail Cay and then to Man Jack Cay.

See if you can match up these titles with the right photo.
After 12 hours on the Gulf stream
The Marina
I miss my girls
Roller furling needs parts
I Miss my girls
Day 1 SCORE ! (Sorry Laurie)

Internet is here but I'm using the lobby computer, Wireless should be up tomorrow mon, maybe.

Love to all and miss you, Thanks for covering for us.

J and A

Just having Fun

People we first met on the Erie canal stopped by



This dog looks and acts like Maya

We have been enjoying the Weather here in Stuart for the last week and visiting many friends and family that are in the area. A family that Jon grow up with lives right here in Stuart so Dave came over by boat to visit one night and we also took a dinghy ride to his house one afternoon. This was a lot of fun catching up on each others past.

Dave brought me a lot of saltwater fishing stuff but I don’t know if it will help with my fish count or not. We have been invited to go to dinner with his parents tonight; we have not seen them for many years so this should be a nice evening.

Two nights ago we went to Boca Raton which is a little south of here to visit Jon’s Great Aunt Virginia, She is a wonderful person and we wish we could have met her before this. We were invited out to a very nice Chinese restaurant in Boca Raton for dinner with her to hear all about her past and to tell her about our adventures.
The weather is nice here but we think its time to move on, so as soon as the heat exchange is in we will be leaving for Lake Worth and from there maybe the Bahamas if the weather will hold for a few more days. We picked up our Boater option cards yesterday which is like a nexus card in New York. When we come back to the USA as long as we are in Florida we can call a 1-800 number and clear customs without traveling to a customs office. Thursday morning I bring the dogs to a vet here in town to get their papers signed for clearing in the Bahamas then we are good to go, just need a weather window, which looks like Thursday night. Even if we don’t go this is fine with us…..Warm weather-cold drinks-nice people and NO Work.

Dead fish from the long cold snap a few weeks ago

Stuart Florida

Arline said:
We left Skaneateles, New York on the 10th of January around 18:00 and drove to Binghamton to pick Jim and Erin up. After filling the SUV with all our crap and having no extra room we drove to Osprey Marina in South Carolina where Kasidah had been docked and waiting our arrival. Chris had come in by bus on Friday and was already on the boat. It was only in the high 20s low 30s so it was definitely time to move her south. We spent Monday shopping and getting Kasidah ready for the trip on the outside. That night Jim and Erin joined us on Kasidah for a couple good-bye drinks.
Tuesday morning we all woke up and started getting things together and deciding the best way out of the Marina…..The marina had more than a ½ inch thick ice in it’s basin and we were going to have to be the ice breaker. Man, this was impressive to see Kasidah just plow right through it.






Larry the Dockmaster said he had never seen ice that thick in the basin and our comment was “of course not, it’s because we are here:)”. Everyone at the Marina was wonderful and we would recommend Osprey Marina to anyone traveling in the area. Thank you guy’s for all your help.





Jon said:
So we broke through ice to get near the fuel dock and turned into the channel and found even thicker ice, but we plowed right through. It was 4 hours to the Winyah Inlet at George Town and we were in the ocean again. We set a straight line to the St. Johns River and started right into our watches. Chris had 12 to 4 am and pm, I had 4 to 8 am and pm, Schyler had 8 to 12 am and pm. Both Chris and I had lots of time on the Raymarine equipment on board and it was easy enough for Schyler to settle right in too. Now we know Chris has a Captains license and has done a few deliveries as crew and as captain, soooo,.. he MADE us do a man overboard drill right out in the ocean. What he did was accidently back his butt into the MOB button on the chart plotter. We didn’t know what the beeping was and then we didn’t know how to turn it off. We thought it might be easier to just turn around and hit the MOB spot. BUT we figured out how to turn it off. So two nights and we went into the St. Johns river in Florida refueled, and found out that the heat exchanger was in trouble We couldn’t find one so we decided to continue on and get one latter. On my watches I saw each sunset.. One sunset I saw dolphins coming at us. The auto pilot was on and had been working great steering about 75% of the time, so I was able to go up front. It was amazing to watch them play in front of Kasidah. They were 4 or 5 deep and dozens of them all playing for the front spot. The water was so clear you could again see them all around the boat. Well the wind final did pick up and turn to the south; it was blowing 20 to 30 on the nose with swells 8 to 10 ft. We were really getting wet, taking a beating, and not going fast at all. Saturday morning we where at the Fort Pierce inlet and decided to tuck into it. From there it was the ICW to Stuart. We only went aground 3 times, while Schyler was steering and it drove him crazy. “I’m in the middle of the frigging channel and aground!?” yeah. So we did get here and parts are on order but right now it’s upper 70’s lots of sun and on $10 per day for the mooring ball, great showers, internet and town is with in a block.


Arline said:
While Jon, Schyler and Chris took the outside trip down to Stuart, I drove Schyler’s SUV down with Sara and Blue. We made a few stops on the way. One of the stops was in Savannah Ga. Just to check out the city. It was beautiful with all the Spanish moss on the trees and historical sites. One of my other stops was Green Cove Springs Marina up the St. Johns River in Northern Fl. I wanted to see the spot we have picked out to leave Kasidah on the hard so we can go back to Fair Point marina to work for the summer to replenish our cruising kitty.
After five days of tracking on the computer where Kasidah was through “Spot” I figured they were going to have enough time to make Stuart before a front was going to move in, so I headed there for the last night. I went to the Sunset Marina and checked things out for the guy’s. Shortly after Jon was close enough that he had phone reception and he gave me a call to let me know they were about two hours away. I went in and filled all our paperwork out and we were good to go.




We need this at the Fair Point Marina.....












We all had a great night talking about the trip down and knowing all was well,(Thank you Schyler and Chris for getting Kasidah and me to warmer weather……). It took all day Sunday to put everything back where it belonged on Kasidah and dry her out. Yeah things really got wet everywhere. But she did come through in great shape.
We have been on a mooring ball here for a couple days trying to order the heat exchanger and a couple other items. It looks like we will be here for at least a week or two waiting for things to arrive.
We do know people here in Stuart so we will be doing some visiting with them and we also will meet up with Adrean and Sara which are in the area, they are the couple we traveled with down the Erie Canal and Hudson back in September.

Happy New Years to all

We are in New York right now freezing our "you know what off" but enjoying the many visits with family and friends. We rented a car with Jim and Erin of S/V "Got to go" and headed to Binghamton NY. There we met up with our daughter Jill who drove us to Connecticut to have Christmas with Jon’s family. Christmas dinner is always awesome with lots of "feel good foods" which Jon's sister and husband Bob prepare each year for us(Thanks once again).




We also drove by the first house Jon and I owned in Conn.





After Christmas we headed up to Rochester and spent a few days at Jill's place.
We purchased a Travel Trailer for the marina so we could have a place to stay in the summer months with room for visitors:).




Then we headed for Skaneateles to spend some time with Schyler and Laurie. They made us a great New Years Eve dinner and I even managed to stay up past midnight.We will be visiting Diane and Vic in Tully before heading back to the boat also. They are our friends who for now let us have their place as a mailing address so we will be collecting some of that also.

We will be leaving for the boat on Sunday late in the day. The plan is to travel with Schyler's car and picking up Jim and Erin in Binghamton as we pass through. Then when we get to the boat, I will drive Schyler's car down to Florida and stop at boatyards to look for a place to store Kasidah. Jon, Skyler and one other person we have known for some time Capt. Chris will bring Kasidah out and as far down into Florida as possible depending on the weather. I will keep in touch and just travel slow till I know their destination.
Chris is in Ft Lauderdale sitting right now after a few boat deliveries,one which took him to California where he rescued some Mexican folks at dusk in the middle of no where as their boat was going down (wow)http://www.reliance-yachts.com/press_releases/8%20people%20saved.pdf He is now looking for a ride back to Skaneateles so this will work out fine for all of us. We do not plan on staying in Florida for to long, our plan is to head right over to the Bahamas.

Merry Christmas Everyone

We left Morehead City and headed out for somewhere near Camp LeJeune. The boat seemed to be working quite well. Jon kept going downstairs to see if everything was okay, he admits that he thinks it is working and sounding better than it ever did before. As we approached Camp LeJeune we decided to pull into Dudley’s marina in anticipation, again, for another storm that looked like it was going to be pretty bad. It was suppose to bring snow to the northern states and heavy gusty winds to us.

The marina was only 75 cents a foot so we decided that even if we had to stay for a couple nights to wait out the storm, it was plausible and affordable. In accordance with the outlook the weather was pretty terrible with winds gusting over 50 mph the first day. Later that day Jim and Erin on S/V Got to Go, called and Jim offered to rent a car and drive up to meet with Jon and help motor Kasidah down to the Osprey Marina, where we wanted to stay. We figured that this was a good plan since with the dogs it would probably take at least 4 days, which would cause us to not make Christmas. So we told Jim and Erin to drive up and meet us. Erin, the dogs, and I returned to their boat which was already down in Osprey while Jim and Jon planned their journey south.

The first day of Jon and Jim’s travel they made it to Wrightsville beach, and besides skimming the bottom a couple times they had no major issues. The second day they woke up before dawn and headed out with the assumption that they would never make it to the marina in one day; they had 80 miles to travel and only 9 hours of daylight. While I was at Osprey marina the dock master assured me that if they made it 55 miles down to the Sunset Beach Pontoon Bridge before dark and not at low tide that they would be capable of traveling the ICW after night fall to get to the marina. So they pushed on through the day as fast as the engine would let them and reached the bridge a half hour before low tide. The bridge tender told them they made it at a good time, however as they were preparing to open the bridge, lights and sirens (fire trucks and police cars) crossed and parked on the bridge. With this new development they ended up having to wait another half hour for everything to clear out. Since it was now low tide they feared that they would not be able to pass, however the bridge tender was kind enough to still allow them to pass. For the next 30 miles they were cleared for all bridges. As night fell it was very dark with no moon to light their way. So Jon stayed at the helm and Jim went to the bow with a spot light and a communicator sitting on a bean bag. Jim directed Jon the rest of the way down the canal to the marina and they ended up docking at 22:50 with no other problems or issues.

During this time Erin, the dogs, Zack (from another boat at the marina) and I went around the area and visited some popular spots like Myrtle Beach and Webster’s Ice cream. We just happened to meet the owner, John, who gave us free ice cream. So if you end up being in the area you should visit them and have some of their delightful homemade ice cream.
The first night after having a few glasses of wine on another boat at the Marina I was on the dock getting onto “Got to Go” and I heard this unbelievable loud and long roar coming from the woods, when Erin returned from the boat she just laughed and when I told Zack he wanted to go in the woods to see what it might be. My thought of course was it had to be Big foot, we convinced Zack it was not a good idea to go trampling into the wood after dark. The next day I told the Dockmaster (Miles) about it and he said “Oh that’s probably a lion” I said “what a lion is in the woods” he said “no the zoo is right beyond those woods there”. This made me feel much better. They should tell everyone about the zoo and loud sounds coming from there at night. Very Very Funny.

Kasidah will be staying at Osprey Marina for at least two or three weeks while we are up visiting family and friends. The marina is a very well kept and nice place to leave your boat if you happen to be in the area. http://www.ospreymarina.com/

We would like wish everyone a Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays and thank everyone who have been reading the blog, commenting or emailing us. It has kept our spirits up and we can’t wait to see and hear from you all again.