2006.12.26

Feliz Navidad !!!

We found a radio station with Christmas music and this song “Feliz Navidad” seemed to be the big hit this year… I don’t recall caring that much for it in the past but it certainly has grown on us down here… must be the Latino influence…Cuba si!

We have been in Lantana, just South of West Palm Beach for a few days now… not sure how many no log keeping!

We actually went to WPB a couple of times to check out the natives and Worth Avenue which is Florida’s answer to Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills with Gucci etc… the natives were far more interesting than the store windows…most women had very obvious face lifts and who knows what other nip & tuck… and the men wore black leather loafers and NO SOCKS as we pointed out to Heinz… some had pink hair and they all had chichi little dogs with matching bows…. We felt as if we were in a zoo and I so wanted to take pictures but of course dared not…

The ladies, Jacqueline, Karina and I had been dropped off so we could go shopping (you all know how I love it!) but instead we ended up having lunch at “The Cheesecake Factory” which Ricki & Lonne introduced me to…I just feel like we are in California.

Yesterday was Christmas and L’Equipe outdid themselves and put together a traditional Xmas dinner… turkey breast with all the trimmings (see photos) we made a little British contribution with Xmas crackers, plum pudding and hard sauce and Karina had brought some lovely German Xmas liqueur which name I don’t recall.

We missed Andre and Louise, they have gone to the Gulf coast to spend Xmas with Lulu’s family…hope to meet up again soon and cross together.

Today, we were supposed to go to Fort Lauderdale, to check out the marinas (by car) but it looks like the skippers had a powwow and have pretty much decided that we are not going to cross from FL but from Lake Worth which is a bit North from here… so we gave FL a miss for today and Heinz having heard we were having some technical problems came to “just have a little look at it” and ended up spending half the day in our cockpit locker having brought a good part of his atelier and successfully fixed our problem, best Xmas present Soli could have had…. I could have just kissed him…in fact I think I did !!!

So that’s the story for now we will most likely stay here until after New Year…provisioning and all that good stuff.

A very happy Christmas to all our readers now from me ….! I think that Catherine has brought you up to date but I should just add a post script to confirm that Heinz did a masterful job on our holding tank problem and the macerator now runs like a charm, so we should be able to pump out by ourselves from now on. It is great to be self sufficient as we were supposed to be from Baltimore as the pump out stations are few and far between in this part of the U S East Coast and non existent in the Bahamas.

Christmas, as Catherine has said, was great fun. A swim in the morning then a little sitting in the sun followed by showers and then this magnificent meal produced in the main by the ladies of L’Equipe. We did not want for anything and had a truly marvelous feast.

Still unsure of exactly what we shall be doing for the next week between Christmas and New Year, probably resting here, doing our final provisioning. Before we leave we shall fill up with diesel – our two 5 gallon cans on deck are already filled as is our five gallon can of petrol for the dinghy engine. We shall, before leaving, also take an additional 10 gallons of fresh water in jerry cans – all of which will be stowed on deck, lashed to the life lines.

For those of you who are interested it seems that our average consumption of water on a daily basis is roughly around 12 gallons, which includes showers, cooking, dishes etc. The boat’s average diesel consumption is between 0.9/1.00 gallons per hour at revs for 7 knots. If we increase the rpm for 8 knots which actually is the boat’s best cruising speed (but our traveling companions cannot keep up) the consumption goes up to about 1.25 gallons per hour. Our fresh water capacity is 96 gallons in three tanks plus the 10 gallons on deck whilst our diesel capacity is 56 gallons plus the 10 gallons on deck so now you can figure out how long we can be completely self sufficient.

Think that’s all from me this evening – again a very happy Christmas to all our readers. Binow.

2006.12.21 Lantana FL

I started the day by calling my grand daughter Kaitie bright and early to wish her a very happy birthday and am most pleased and embarrassed to report that I was indeed the first one to do so and for a very good reason… her birthday is on JANUARY 21!!! Another senior moment!

We are now docked in Lantana Florida … “I don’t even know where that is!!!” says my friend Cynthia… it’s just south of Palm Beach and we now truly feel we are South.
This “Loggerhead Club & Marina” is really a condo building with docks, not truly a marina. It had a very nice pool, billiard room, gym with all the machines you want (just like the ones I don’t use at The Fort) but no laundry room…what self respecting marina does not have a couple of Maytags!!!

We arrived yesterday after a fairly easy day from Lake Worth where we had anchored with a lot of other boats on their way to parts South … mostly the Bahamas.
It’s interesting to hear people talking on the VHF about “the crossing” waiting for a “window” to cross the Gulf Stream, there is this one chap Chris Parker …the weather guru and he tells you when to go and when to stay put!

Some of our friends and family think we are crazy doing what we are doing, well I can tell you we are in very good company… there are lots of us out here… and most of them are pretty terrific people.

The other evening in Daytona Beach, we were having sun downers on L’Equipe and the man on the boat just astern of us lit the barbecue…so we started joking with him …how it was going to smell so good etc… next thing he says to us “ come on over ,there’s enough food” ...THERE WERE 5 OF US… I did not want to go…feeling bad for his wife but he insisted…. Jacqueline brought some chicken to throw on the barbie and some wine they had steak, fries and salad and we had the most pleasant evening with this great couple, Chris and Meg from California.. they have a blog too!

We had a very productive day taking care of Soli…. She has been taking such good care of us she deserved some TLC…

D coded some markers on the chain rode with white paint so he would know how much he has let out when we anchor and I stenciled the registration number with black paint on the dinghy so she won’t be as likely to be pinched … some people even “distress” new dinghies and outboards so they won’t look to tempting!

We then gave her a good cleaning …D did the deck while I tackled the inside…. It’s incredible how dusty she gets… and we are on water… I am starting to believe Allan who tells me dust is mostly human skin ….
It was very pleasant however to be able to do this on a lovely sunny and windy day…. It has been quite windy for the last couple of days, some front coming in .
It’s 2130… it’s howling about 30 knots outside and I have just been told it is past our bed time so I’ll say g’nite and will go up to the office tomorrow where I can hopefully get on line and post this.

2006.12.19 North Palm Beach FL
Swinging from a hook a very typically cruising expression… being at anchor!

One has a sense of total autonomy, seclusion and privacy… it is at the same time a feeling of power,,, here you are running your own little home and managing all it needs to function…heat, if need be (thank God we don’t need it any longer), refrigeration, electricity, running water, hot water, propane for cooking and of course fuel to run the bloody beast…. All the things that one takes for granted at home are things we need to monitor, conserve and use wisely …how many amps does this light use or charging this computer or cell phone…we need to fuel up, top up and pump out on a regular basis… and now D has informed me that Santa is thinking of a little generator as a Xmas present to us and Soli so we can be more autonomous…the water maker is next….and at the same time it is a very humbling feeling as we move through nature and admire the wonder and power of it .

I have an Exel file with all the provisions on board and codes as to where they are located, I finished a jar of jam this morning at breakfast and my baby Dell told me I had another one in P7, that is locker #7 on port side of the boat… now I wish I was that organized at home!
We are going provisioning tomorrow and I am taking that list to tell me what NOT to buy…

Enough philosophizing …we are swinging from our hook in a nice anchorage with lots of other boats in North Palm Beach, Florida…. We have done another 46 nautical miles today and actually crossed the 1000 mile mark on the ICW…. Almost popped the Champagne bottle open!

We again crossed a lot of bridges, which had to be opened for us and our fellow cruisers, the etiquette in addressing the bridge master (and in many cases the bridge mistress) is very nice and courteous … one said to D, “You do this very well… you’ve done it before haven’t you”.

Today Jacqueline and I were chatting on the VHF, with our charts and guide books and were trying to select a suitable anchorage for this evening…this is a daily thing we do.. and these two guys in trawlers “AJ” and “One screw” started talking to us… they were locals to a place we wanted to go to … Stuart, and they told us about a wonderful anchorage and how to get there… as it so happened there was not enough water (depth) for us to get through the channel to the Lucie River which is too bad…it sounded very nice and we had some friends to visit there.

The skipper has just informed me it is time to go to sleep, he has glanced across the anchorage and all the lights on L’Equipe are out… so g’nite y’all.

2006.12.18 Titusville FL

This was a lovely sunrise in Titusville this morning... I know I am boring you with them ... but I am up while some of you are still snoozing ... please notice the pelican flying off the right corner.. there were three but the camera was too slow!!!



I sould have been typing away so I would only have to post now but I have been so busy on the boat the last few days I just did not …. Sorry Cynthia!

Cormorans love to dry their wings sitting on top of channel markers.

We are in Vero Beach Florida and today put in 10 HOURS … David on his feet at the helm most of the time… I just don’t know how he does it!

We have put in 3 pretty good days and have made some substantial progress South… today we were in shorts but David did not shed his fleece until later on I the day… CJ will be pleased to hear that’s because he is under a bimini which keeps those nasty UV rays away from her Daddy.
Rescue operation when L'Equipe ran aground yesterday... how come there was no frienly power boat when we ran aground... the going rate is half a dozen beers!!!

We ran along the Indian river, you know, the area where all those wonderful citrus fruits come from and we are eating APPLES AND GRAPES from God knows where… I need to do some provisioning !!!

We are in this very nice marina where we ran into some friends from Lake Champlain so we had this very lovely cockpit party on L'Equipe…stopped counting the dead soldiers (empty bottles of wine) after four and the party has now moved to their boat.. I just came back to Soli to talk to y’all…had enough wine!!!

The girls went ashore with the dinghy yesterday to buy a few things (Carlos was driving I may add) and David was there to greet us back HOME!

I was in a total panic this afternoon…my beloved Canon went almost dead it just would not do anything … I pulled out the manual read and tried but to no avail so I put it away with David saying… “Well Christmas is around the corner and I did not know what to get you…. “ anyhow after a while I had this idea…I just took all the batteries out …waited a few minutes… put them back in and voila … just like with my Baby Dell… it works perfectly… now Santa is scratching his head again!!!

This afternoon we had another visit from a dolphin… he was swimming right alongside the boat about a foot away and all of a sudden he just rolled on his side so he could look at us .. I saw his big eye and he WAVED… I swear…he actually waved his flipper at me and this is supposed to be a wild animal… far more civilized than a lot of people!

It is now 2220 we still have not had supper… had a lot of munchies on L’Equipe so I guess that will be it…

2006.12.15 Cattle Pen Creek GA.

Sunrise over Cattle Pen Creek, Georgia...




I had forgotten about Florida’s “noseeums” (little tiny bugs…so tiny you cannot see them hence their name )…. I hated them the year we rented a beach house in Sanibel Island in Florida and haven’t changed my mind … but they do love me....



Of course they do not like David… his tough skin, his pipe or just that I am THERE… so he leaves the boat open and I am dindin!!

On a more positive note we haven’t worn socks in two days (so they bite me on the ankles as well) so it is most definitely getting warmer, I have gone as far as washing our long underwear in the hope of putting them away until next year …do I dare?











I just love pelicans, especially the way they fly in formation ...Heinz said they must have been Air Force pilots in a past life....
We had our first anchoring in Florida last evening in Fernandina Beach…not very beachy, actually quite industrial….the paper mills were going all night and so were the big ships…. sounding their fog horns…and you could not see them just hear them getting louder and louder as they got closer and closer still, until the sound got less and we knew they had passed us and we were still in one piece. Quite a humbling experience!


Yesterday, after having stayed on Jekyll Island an extra day in the hope of the fog letting up, we were caught in it again as soon as we left the dock….but that was the point of no return and we continued on our way with the chart plotter and the radar and a quarter of a mile visibility… David even had a horn dangling from around his neck for good measure or maybe good luck!!!
Can you make out the two boats following us in the fog...

Jekyll Island was quite interesting, it had been purchased by 3 billionaires way back when and they had made it their private club, you can still see the “summer cottages” they had built…. More like castles!

We are now driving through a part of Florida that is getting more inhabited, they all have huge screened-in areas around their houses… I wonder why! I am sitting in the cockpit typing away… loooooooooove my baby Dell and we are having coffee and baklava… I was shamed into it by HW calling David on the VHF and bragging about having coffee and banana cake …with chocolate sauce no less….doesn’t he know all this is very fattening…

We are on our way to St Augustine today and are looking forward to visiting this very old (by North American standards) and interesting town.

2006.12.11 Cattle Pen Creek GA

Here we are again on a hopefully short anchor watch…
This time we know the anchor is holding…. after 4 tries… but we are waiting for the tide to turn as we are in a narrow creek and want to make sure we have enough swinging room when it does as we have about 75 feet of chain out and the boat might make a 180 degrees position switch and go into the bank.

It is 1945 we have had dinner, have done the dishes and all I want to do is get into bed with a good book and relax… I am getting to be as bad as my father which is really scary!

Today was a beautiful sunny day, somewhat warmer, we said goodbye to Savannah at day break and went through our usual series or rivers, creeks, cuts and bridges opening and fixed ones we also went through Catherines Sound, now why is it called a sound, I will have to Google out as soon as we have wifi…

None of us had any problems…I probably should not jinks us the day is not over!!!









We ended up having quite a peaceful night and woke up to another magnificent day in the middle of a marsh in Giorgia... it may not sound that great but one has to experience it to appreciate the wilderness, peace and simple beauty that we have seen these last few days.


I unfortunately could not take pictures as I knew they would not come out but when I poked my head out last night on a couple of occasions to make sure we were alright I could not believe the star studded sky above Soli...I never knew there were so many galaxies, I actually woke up David to share the magic of it all....not sure he quite appreciated being awakened and dragged out of a warm bunk!



I FINALLY got my first picture of a dolphin... ever since I dropped my camera it just does not snap fast enough and all I was getting were pictures of water with no dolphin or pictures of splashing as he dove back under....this one was kind enough to swim with Soli for a good half an hour and I got him!

2006.12.09 Savannah GA

Well here we are in beautiful downtown Savannah Georgia and it truly is beautiful.

To back up a bit, after our last anchoring which was great with that lovely all chain rode, did not move an inch, we woke up to an absolutely freezing morning…2 below ZERO and with the wind blowing 25 knots you can just imagine the wind chill factor….
These are record cold temperatures for this part of the country, some artic air mass, and if we dare comment on the cold people point to the Canadian flag flying off our stern and tell us WE brought this cold front!!!
In any case, David drove the boat in that cold for eight hours, I do not know how he does it.I had 4 layers of clothing on and was below in the cabin most of the time and I still froze, while he was at the helm in that wicked cold wind.I made lots of tea and soup !!! Andre and Louise said they don't dress this much for ice boating in Canada.





Jem and Soli eventually caught up with L’Equipe at a swing bridge and with Andre making arrangements over the phone we ended up tying up at to the South Carolina Yacht Club in Hilton Head.








I cannot even begin to describe what a gorgeous place that was, first of all the harbour is inside a lock so there is no tide at all, we have done a lot of locks in our travels but never into a harbour.

Then the club house was magnificent and of course all decorated for Christmas with beautiful real Xmas trees and the most magnificent poinsettias we have ever seen.
We had a lovely meal, everyone was so kind, this is southern hospitality at its best, here we were in this most posh dining room, everyone all dressed up to “go to the club for dinner” and we were dressed rather casually except for Jacqueline who wore her harem shoes.

We left this morning under a magnificent blue sky…. Still very chilly but almost no wind which made it more bearable and the skippers had just had a meeting and decided that today we would “go outside”, so were on the ocean today ….finally, Andre was happy!

So now we are in Savannah, tied up to a dock right downtown, the old cobble stone streets, beautiful old stone houses we are looking forward to exploring it all tomorrow.

An interesting aspect of this trip is the diversity of experiences… one night we were in absolute wilderness, miles away from anything with just the moon, stars and Jem's anchor light and the next night in a posh yacht club and now downtown Savannah… les jours se suivent mais ne se ressemblent pas!!!

2006.12.07

It’s 2100 and I am tucked into our bunk with my baby Dell on my tummy….we’ve just finished the dishes after a boatmade spaghetti … comfort food which is just what we needed… it is blowing quite hard but we are swinging from probably over 100 feet of our new ALL CHAIN anchor rode so we should be good.

This has been another interesting day….

Actually we had 3 days of total civilization in Charleston SC, we took a taxi this morning to pick up a part (an oil filter) which was in another part of town and got quite an education from our black taxi driver… apparently the civil war began right here and 40 percent of all slave trade took place here as well. Charleston is the only state in America to still fly the CONFEDERATE flag and they still have a Confederation holiday… it does not look like they got over loosing the war yet…. And that was a couple hundred years ago!!!

We cast off at noon with Jem, L’Equipe left at 0800…. The trip was quite uneventful but at 1545 all of a sudden the bottom came up fast .. we called Jem to warn them and before we had a chance to slow down we were hard aground…They thankfully went around us and stayed in slightly deeper water… we tried and tried to get off that shoal to no avail, we were good and stuck in nice soft sand…. I poked a boat hook and tried to push us off Venice gondolier style…with the weight of the boat and the current going against us it was mission impossible..

We finally gave up, David lit his pipe, which is a sign of something …although I am not sure what and shut off the engine… I was then allowed to call “Boats US” to request a tow as it was starting to get dark and we were still quite a distance from our projected anchorage…

After speaking on the VHF with a very nice dispatcher lady who gave our coordinates to a towboat captain we just sat back and waited. The captain finally called us back and told us he should get to us in about 3 or 4 HOURS… and it was rapidly getting darker… so we started the engine and with Soli’s helm hard to starboard David slowly got her to pivot and got her off the shoal!!!

We then had to navigate this very shallow stretch of the ICW in almost total darkness…watching the depth sounder… shining a spotlight to find unlit shoal markers until we finally reached our projected anchorage a couple of hours after sunset (I did not take pictures even though it was a beauty).

Jem was there… we could see their anchor light…what a sight that was and they greeted us over the VHF ….so here we are nicely anchored …. We have marked a waypoint on the chart plotter and I will go and check it before I close the light to make sure we are still in the same spot … good night!

2006.12.06

I have just typed away on line on the blog and lost it all before I could post it AGAIN!!!! Some people never learn.

Anyhow we are still in Charleston, enjoying a bit of southern civilization …. We had pizzas delivered this evening to the mega dock which we shared with our co-cruisers, as well as a few bottles of wine…this was to reward Andre and David for having successfully done the oil and filter changes required after 100 engine hours

and Louise and I for cleaning up the oily messes on the boats once they were finished!

We have had some interesting times on the ICW … a few days ago we went through an area called “the rock pile” it is a “cut”, a very narrow and shallow channel with boat eating rocks on both sides and on the bottom.
I took over the helm while David was lighting his pipe and for some unknown, insane reason decided to keep driving through what is sometimes referred to as the worst part of the ICW.

I was following L’Equipe and trying to stay in the middle of the channel which was not easy as it was very windy.

Anyhow we got to the “Barefoot Landing swing bridge” and requested opening only to be informed by the bridge master that he could not open at this time as it was too gusty.

So we waited and waited, now for our landlubbers, a boat, especially a sailboat, is not like a car, you cannot just park and wait for the bridge to open… we had strong wind and currents pushing and pulling at the boat and it requires constant movements to keep it in position and all that in a narrow channel with very limited space to maneuver…

After a while we got tired of that and dropped our hook and waited some more…. The wind was not letting up and every so often one of us would VHF the bridge master and ask what our chances were and he would reply in his very charming southern accent “now, I really want to get y’all through but it’s gusting 35 knots and if I open the bridge I may not be able to close it” .

Eventually we had to make a decision as it was getting late, so we decided to turn back and drive through that “rock pile” again… the bridge master at the “Little River swing bridge” kindly opened for us right away and jokingly told us “y’all going to WRONG way”.

We arrived at the Coquina Yacht Club where we were greeted like family by the most charming couple, Sandy and Bob.

After a well deserved good night sleep and good shower we set off on a beautiful clear morning with NO WIND to do the “rock pile” for the THIRD time and finally get through Barefoot Landing Swing Bridge...

We went through some very unusual type of countryside, totally wild, deserted flooded areas with wonderful trees covered in Spanish moss…it reminded D of the film “Deliverance” .

We walked around Charleston, which is a very special city, with a lot of old Golferworld charm and most interesting architecture…. It got dark and the lights came on and it became even more magical.

We ended up at a restaurant on the other side of the peninsula where we had excellent shrimps and scallops.
Tomorrow laundry an provisions and then we’ll be on the road again.

2006.12.03

We are fine and tied up in Charleston South Carolina... don't just feel like dancing at this moment ... we are up since 0200... but maybe later!

I will post some pics later so please look at the last couple of posts again for updates... just wanted to post since we have wifi

ttfn

btw, just ordered 200 feet of chain, which Michael from West Marine is kindly going to drop off on his way home!

2006.12.03

As David just said, it’s fortunate we went to bed early because here we are at 0440, on anchor watch.

We anchored last evening in Minim Creek East and everything seemed alright, then I woke up in the middle of the night, I could hear a light bumping sound… I woke up David and we went to check it out… our anchor was dragging and were drifting down right toward Jem.

We started the engine, picked up the anchor and dropped it again a little further up the creek. We watched it closely and the boat was over the anchor again… this is Manhattan all over again, the wind pushing one way and the tidal current the other way and Solitaire does not know where to lie.

We thought we might be dragging again so we started the engine and tried to pick up the anchor…but we could not, it was stuck… would not come up nor go down and the rode was very taut…. Then the words every first mate does not want to hear, “the rode is fraying, it is going to snap any minute and we are going to loose the anchor, stay at the helm and be ready to stir us out of here”.

I feel the wheel is not responding and I am visualizing this pretty horrific scenario of us drifting out of control right into Jem and then down the river in the dark because if the rode got wrapped around the propeller that would stall the engine.

David then came back and put the boat in reverse hard and somehow the rode came loose from wherever it was stuck under the boat ... he was then able to reel in the frayed part and make her fast again.

It is now 0545 and the anchor seems to be holding ... we are not drifting but we are still in this position between the wind and a very strong tidal current and we do not trust our anchor rode under these conditions.

So here we are on anchor watch duty...drinking tea, at least D is drinking tea, I am typing away .. we go up on deck to check on the rode and our position and we are waiting for the tide to turn ...it should ebb around 0640.

One thing we have both decided is that as soon as we get to Charleston, we buy an all chain rode, chain does not fray!!!

2006.11.30

We are now tied up in Southport NC and I just killed my first mosquito !!! well it was a winter mosie so these do not bite… right?....oooops just got bitten by its brother!

South Harbor Village Marina has very nice wide docks and friendly staff, Dave, a retired man whose wife probably kicked out the house got himself a nice little job at the marina.

The tidal current is quite strong which make maneuvering in the harbor and docking a little tricky but there are always people to catch lines and help. Something new we have found down here is the convenience of having the diesel pumped right at your boat so you don’t have to dock twice, which is great.
BUT they do not have wifi and since we cannot access the blog offline that I know of, I have to try and remember where we left off…

Yesterday was a bit of a stressful day, first of all Jem is having to be very careful in the shallow parts of the ICW, of which there are too many for his taste… They went aground once yesterday and L’Equipe as well…

The other stressful part is that we had planned on going to a specific marina last evening and by the time we called to reserve docks we were told that they had gone condo and no transient docks were available… they actually said the sheriff would make us leave if we tied up there…

The other marina in the area was not responding to the phone or the VHF and it was getting late and we were not sure where we would end up as you cannot anchor in a narrow channel… all ended up all right in the end, Beach House marina finally answered and said “come on in we have room for you”. Nice facilities and right by the beach in Surf City NC, we could hear the surf from the boat it was just gorgeous…

We had drinks and munchies on L’Equipe to unwind, I think we went through 3 bottles of wine… we needed to do a lot of unwinding

Fish store in Surf City...Boat order style...
How fresh do you like your swimmies (fish)?

This morning saw us get off to an early start as we wanted to make the 0700 bridge opening, another lovely day and we saw the sun rising….I will probably treat you to another sun picture sorry about that.

Again many beautiful houses along Topsail Sound… they are very large and we are always wondering “where do all these people get to have so much money?”

The other very special treat along the ICW that I unfortunately have no pictures because either they are too far or move too fast…. That is all the wild life, porpoises that swim along our hull but disappear below the water as soon as I grab my camera, also all kind of aquatic birds, pelicans are my favourite. I love to see them circle and then just fold their wings and dive, then surface swallowing this big fish with one gulp… cormorants, blue herons and even egrets….D’s favourite bird …..

Talk about animal life we saw a dog swimming with a channel marking buoy in his mouth which he was trying to bring back to shore, that, of course, was mission impossible since they are anchored on the bottom… but he kept trying and would not give up and I am sure he was getting tired. So we all stopped and Carlos got into L’Equipe’s dinghy and went to rescue the dog, he pulled him onboard and was of course immediately thanked with a shower as the dog shook the water of his body and onto Carlos.
Jem went aground again and so did L’Equipe, this is starting to get monotonous… we were leading today and calling out the depths whenever it got shallow but a few areas around the inlets from the ocean sand are silting into the channel and it just got too shallow for them.
Well I have been going on for much too long again… will have to copy and paste this when we have wifi….. it is supper time anyhow, we are having spaghetti (remember my 15 boxes) with homemade or should I say “boatmade” Bolognese sauce that I cooked today while underway. Ciao.