31 Mar - Day #27. Low overcast and mid 70's. We head south down the Banana River for about an hour and then anchor in front of Banana River Marine. This is where John William #68 is docked. We dingy in and John Mackie gives us a tour. Wow, has he done a lot of work. The hull and topsides have new paint. All the brightwork is redone. A new genset, AquaDrive and sound deadening insulation in the engine room, etc., etc. It's amazing what a difference the pilothouse eyebrow makes to an LNVT. John William's was temporarily removed to fix a leak and to ease painting. Our tugs are homely without the eyebrow. We then borrow John's car and head to Patrick AFB. A new military ID card for me and Groceries for Nellie. Back to the dink, say our good byes to John Mackie, and then get soaked on our way out to Nellie. The winds were 20+ kts. The Banana River is very thin but well marked. We cruise south to where it flows into the ICW (just above Melbourne, FL) and drop the hook. A lightning and thunderstorm with lots of rain moves in. 17nm today: 932nm total. DBH

30 Mar - Day #26. Clear sky, 1032mb, 70s, winds 4kts N. Work on the poor man's Airsep: attached a 1/4" hose between the cup containing the Cummins' crankcase vent line and the turbo's air intake. It works as predicted, the engine room's oil smell is greatly reduced. As we enter the Mosquito River, NASA's space shuttle assembly building is clearly visible although it's many miles away. A little later the launch sites and their gantries are clearly visible. Our first Manatee was sited just off the bow. Then as we drop the hook Vicki sees a family of thee. They're close enough for her to count the hairs on their cute little noses. Late this afternoon we left the ICW on the Canaveral Barge Canal, and anchored just west of Cape Caneveral, FL. Tomorrow we'll continue south in the Banana River. 60nm today: 913nm total. DBH

29 Mar - Day #25. High overcast, windy, 80s. Had a whopper of a lightening storm last night. If the crack of thunder didn't keep you awake the pounding rain did. After returning the rental car, breakfast at Theo's and three loads of wash we finally pushed away from the dock. Saw our first 70F water temps in the ICW today. Pulled off the ICW in Daytona Beach, FL, at 1900. 46nm today: 855nm total. DBH

28 Mar - Day #24. Overcast, windy, mid 70s. Rent car. Dad debarks after lunch at OC's. Sold the old Furuno radar to the local used parts chandlery. Original cost in 2001 was $2000 and we got … $200. Reprovision and pick-up Bicki up at the Jacksonville Airport. 0nm today: 809nm total. DBH

27 Mar - Day #23. High overcast, 70s, 20kts S. Tour St. Augustine. 0 nm today: 809nm total. DBH

26 Mar - Day #22. High overcast, 70s, 15kt winds S. Dingy in for showers. Interestingly, the mooring agreement with Fernandina City required that we put no gray water down our drains--no washing hands, brushing teeth, or heaven forbid, cleaning a dish. This may be the wave of the future. THe Yahoo LNVT Forum has an Interesting discussion on engine room temperature. According to Cummins the temp should no more than ambient +10F. Nellie is +40F. I then ran the bilge blower for a few hours. The delta-T stayed the same. The amount of air required for a diesel = 1/2 * (rpm) * (engine's displacement). A Cummins 4BT displacement is .138 ft*3. So, at 1600 rpm cruise we need 110cfm just for the engine. The winds pipe up to 30kts as we approach St. Augustine. Into the town docks—$1.95/ft ouch. 54 today: 809nm total. DBH

25 Mar - Day #21. High, light overcast, 70's and no wind. Weigh anchor at 0830 and head for the fuel dock. After 94 engine hours since Norfolk, VA we need 141 gallons (at $2.10/gallon). Mostly ran 1600 rpm and averaged 1.5 gph. Just north of King's Bay we found ourselves surround by thin water. Deployed the dink and sounded out an escape route. Picked up a mooring in Fernandina Beach (the $15 fee includes dingy dock and showers). Dinner ashore--rough life. 49nm today: 755nm total. DBH

24 Mar - Day #20. Clear, sunny, 60's. Sure can get used to this weather. With Dad now aboard we cast off from the Savannah Yacht Club, Savannah, GA, and head south. Trying to make a habit of checking-in on the Waterway Net. Our radio reception of the hams in the Bahamas is getting better as we head south. Added two new toys to Nellie yesterday: USB GPS and a wireless router for the Verizon AirCard. The USB GPS is a backup to the built-in Garmin system. In the unlikely event that both of Nellie's 5212 chart plotters (and dual GPS') go down, Nobeltec, running on a laptop and getting it's NEMA 0183 data from the USB GPS, will take over. Not sure when the chart plotter became a no-go item for us but it has. The solution to internet connectivity while underway is the AirCard. Yup it's expensive, but here we are deep in the Georgia marshes and still connected. The AirCard plugs directly into the new wireless router and now all three PCs aboard can be surfing at the same time. At midday the position reporting system (APRS) still shows us off Paris Island, SC and yet we're a good 100 miles south of that. As we approach Brunswick, GA, the APRS traffic picks up and we get our first signal out in almost 60 hours. We anchor in the Frederica River just north of Bruswick, GA. It's a narrow river with vast expanses of marsh grass all around and the occasional hammock with its densly packed live oaks. 73nm today: 726nm total. DBH

23 Mar - Day #19. Clear, sunny, 60's. Got our money's worth out of Hilton Head Island's Harbour Town Marina. Checkout is 1200. We clear the jetty at 1159 ;-) We cross the Savannah River and enter Georgia. It's strange going from 1' tides in the Chesapeake to 9' tides in Georgia. We 'attempt' the Elba Island cut, just after low-low tide. At one point, while in the middle of the channel, and being pushed by a 1kt current, we see very thin water--3.5'. We simply drift along knowing the bottom is soft and the tide is rising. Our automatic position reporting system still shows us off Paris Island, SC. We rely on the generosity of hams to relay our reports. Seems there aren't many hams in these marshy low lands. We're getting lazy. This is the second day in a row we spent the night tied to a dock. This time it's the Savannah Yacht Club, Savannah, GA. Yup, we're really roughing it. Dinner aboard with our host Andrew Ziegler, Dad and Claire. 20nm today: 653nm total. DBH

22 Mar - Day #18. Clear, winds 15kts N, sunny and in the 50's. We run with the tide seeing as much as 8 kts. Pretty country side: flat, lots of grass land and marsh, deep water all the way to the banks. More pleasure boat traffic here. Decide to investigate Harbour Town on Hilton Head Island, SC. It's $2/ft and $10/night for electric; we go for it. First time Nellie's paid for a slip in 17 days. Dad and Claire come over and join us for the day. 24nm today: 633 total. DBH

21 Mar - Day #17. The anchor weighing brought an unexpected surprise. Seems we hooked a chain, which was attached to a cinder-block and the whole mess was around our anchor. Had to deploy the dink and do some hand work to unravel it all. Some how working with a chain attached to a cinder-block all the while leaning over 18' deep water doesn't strike me as a 'safe' operation. Fortunately the gods were appeased when their 'gift' was returned and no additional sacrificed was required. Bahamas weather is available daily on the Waterway Net, 7.268 mHz at 1245 UTC. The Net also takes float plans for boats crossing the Gulf Stream. We checked-in to the net today. For the second time in the last few days we noticed that the depth log reads very shallow when a big boat passes us closely. It might be all the air bubbles in the water, or simply all the water movement. Perhaps when this condition occurs reducing the transducers power will help. To do email while at anchor over the ham radio we're going to establish a WinLink account and use the Airmail client. The SCS PTC-II is a great modem, but expensive. Perhaps we can use our existing hardware on Pactor I. Some say 'toe-mayto' and some say 'toe-maato' but how do you pronounce Beaufort? The answer, like many things, depends on where you are. Here in South Carolina it's pronounced 'bu-furt' which is not to be confused with Beaufort, North Carolina, which is pronounced 'Beau-fort'. We anchored just off Beaufort, SC in 24' of water. Dingy'd in, walked the town--very quaint, and had a great Bare Knuckle Stout at a water front pub. Happy hour price was $1.50. 56nm today: 609nm total. DBH

20 Mar - Day #16. A well deserved day off. Rerouted and shortened wires in the console. Went to dinner with Dani (brother Christian's fiancée). 0nm today: 553nm total. DBH

19 Mar - Day #15. A very muddy anchor comes aboard at 0705. Check-in with the Waterway Net for the first time. This is the net we'll be using in the Bahamas. When we left Church Creek, MD the water temp was 36. As we approach Charleston the water temp hits 60F. Drop the hook in Wappo Creek, just south of Charleston. For the first time in I can't remember how long we don't hit bottom--all day! 55nm today: 553nm total. DBH

18 Mar - Day #14. Up and going early again. John bounces off the bottom while in the middle of the channel. It was warm enough to leave the pilot house's dutch doors open; first time on the trip. Shad gill nets make us dodge and weave. The nets are 200-300' wide with big orange floats marking the ends. The new navigation equipment was getting low voltage. This was corrected by tightening a loose nut on the DC panel's amp meter. Dropped the hook in downtown Gerogetown, SC. 60nm today: 498 total. DBH

17 Mar - Day #13. We get underway at 0700, first light. The sun actually starts to peak out as we reach Carolina Beach. A USCG boat boards a Nord Haven just infront of us. Just north of the Shallotte Inlet there's a dredge blocking the waterway. A sign on the barge directs traffic to pass on the west side. I slow down and move out of the channel. BOOM--we hit a sand bank. After backing off we steer for the barge and pass close. Lesson learned--radio the barge for passing instructions. I'd given them to wide a berth and gone aground because of it. Looks like dinner is on me. Drop the hook in Little River with three other cruisers. Dingy into Calabash, NC for dinner. 68nm today: 438nm total. DBH

16 Mar - Day #12. Low overcast and rain. Little wind. Run Nellie at 2000 RPM for 1/2 hour to make the Onslow bridge 1530 opening. A shrimper gets the Surf City bridge to open 1/2 hour ahead of schedule. We're there to scoot on through. We decide to anchor off the ICW near Top Sail Beach, NC. The chart and depth sounder show 8'. I drop the hook only to see it laying on the bottom about 2' down. Sand bar found--John at helm (he made a nice spagetti dinner). We back off and drop the hook just of the channel in 7'. Best day's run yet at 75nm: 370nm total. DBH

15 Mar - Day #11. Rain and fog, about 100 yards visibility. Sound our way out of the anchorage. Using the the high def radar to keep us aiming straight down the Pungo Canal. At 1445, about 1 mile north of ICW sm160, Nellie veers right followed shortly by the 5.5' shallow water alarm. As we angle back to deeper water at reduced RPM, we bounce off the bottom--John was at the helm. We've initiated a new program: he who hits the bottom buys/makes dinner. While underway we get the ham high frequency (HF) radio installed. After some stateside contacts John gets 9A9A in Zagreb, Croatia. Guess everything is working ;-) Drop the hook just outside the harbor in Oriental, NC. John buys dinner. 66nm today: 295nm total. DBH

14 Mar - Day #10. Woke early to finish up some navigation console wiring before getting underway. It's in the 40's with a low, solid overcast. The winds are down in the 10 to 15kt range from the NE. As we ready to depart at 1000 the winds pipe-up yet again. Alligator bridge is reporting 20+kts. We delay until noon. Off we go to lessening winds and seas. Bounce off the bottom about two miles north of Alligator River (John was at the helm). The good news is that the depth sounder worked great—it's alarm warning us of the thinning water. We anchor in the Alligator River at the mouth of the Pungo Canal. 38nm day; 229nm total. DBH

13 Mar - Day #9. Early morning walk up town. A hard rain keeps us pinned down at McDonalds for several hours. We took full advantage of the free coffee refills. Stop in to see the Honda Cosmopolitan 49cc scooters. Thinking about putting a scooter on the 02 deck. Sure would make buzzing around towns easier. Question is can we get it off-and-on easily enough and protect it from the salt air? With all the new electronics working perfectly we rip out all the wiring to do a better install—it was a rats nest behind the console. 0nm day; 191nm total. DBH

12 Mar - Day#8. Winds keep us at the dock in Elizabeth City. 0nm today; 191nm total. DBH

11 Mar - Day #7. We make the 0830 lock at the south end of the Dismal Swamp. Only one other boat locks with us. See 30kts on the way into Elizabeth City, NC. Docking at the free town docks was made very 'interesting' by 20kt beam winds. The mayor, Steve Atkinson, personally welcomed us (we're the second cruiser to arrive this year) and gets a tour of Nellie. He's looking for a trawler. 25nm day; 191nm total. DBH

10 Mar - Day #6. We spend the morning at anchor off Hospital Point finishing the final details on the Garmin HD Radar install. Our 75' of chain looks like a mud sausage coming up. We motor over to Tidewater marina and take on 140g. The cruising goes well until we reach the Gilmerton Bridge. The railroad bridge right next to it goes down as we approach. It stays down for 90 minutes. We just anchored and waited. The wait was only 45 minutes for the lock which marks the beginning of the Dismal Swamp. Made it to the S. Mills, NC warf just before dark. 32nm today; 164nm total. DBH

9 Mar - Day #5. Still at Anchor off Hospital Point, we take advantage of the 70F weather to install the new Garmin HD radar and GPS. The wind is blowing like stink. Any part I lay on the deck seems to instantly take flight. Running the cables from the top of the pilot house down into the instrument console is painfully slow. We're rewarded for our patience as everything goes in well. In the afternoon we walk around Portsmouth and have lunch at the Navy's hospital. More installation work in the evening until we collapse of exhaustion. 0nm today; 134nm total. DBH

8 Mar - Day #4. Last night's winds on Gwynn Island, VA were strong enough to actually ring Nellie's new bell. Our 75' of chain kept us secure however. Departing Gwynn we see an LNVT at the Marina just north of the draw bridge (maybe Oneida or Blue Jacket). Calm sailing south is a nice surprise after the morning's windy conditions. With Norfolk Harbor water temp at 41F it's not exactly warm, but that doesn't stop some young sail boaters from taking a dip. We drop the hook in Norfolk Harbor just off Hospital point. 49nm today; 134nm total. DBH

7 Mar - Day #3. It's in the 50's as we get ready to go down the Honga River and across the Bay. All the drinking water is off at P.L. Jones' dock and Nellie's tanks are all but dry. A 200' hose from the pump house solves the problem. The Bay is flat and Nellie's new depth sounder is working great. We even know the water temp is a chilly 36F. We drop the anchor on the west side of Gwynn Island, VA—what a pretty place. 55nm today; 85nm total. DBH

6 Mar - Day #2. The newly drilled rotor is installed and the prop shaft reconnected to the transmission. Nellie is splashed, leaks a lot until the rotor is properly adjusted and we move her to one of P.L. Jones' open slips. With the refrig on we can load the groceries and all the crews' stuff. The rest of the day is spent finishing the installation of the triducer cables. DBH

Begin Bahams Cruise

5 Mar - Day #1. The Adventure begins--Bahamas here we come. But first a little detour. It's a beautiful 30nm down the Bay to P.L. Jones' Boat Yard on Hooper's Island. Nellie's hauled and then a new Dynaplate and triducer (depth, water temp, and water speed) are installed. The old Interphase probe transducer is removed. and the prop shaft is backed out so the PSS rotor can be removed. The rotor has two more set screws added; now there are 4 at 90 a degree spacing. This will keep equal pressure on the o-rings and keep water from leaking in—a good thing. Nellie spends the night in the Travelift's straps. 30nm today; 30nm total. DBH