Sunrise In Miami

After getting in last night, we stopped on shore for some delicious pizza and to celebrate/mourn Liz's impending departure.

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Fellow Adventurers

Sailing around the world sounds like a picnic compared to what some new friends of ours are doing. Yesterday we got the chance to meet up with Dan and Bethany Cox of Raleigh, North Carolina. Through some connections we have through the paddling community (www.watertribe.com), we were visited by Dan and Bethany as they paddled south through the ICW. They have been Kayaking from the US/Canada border in Maine since December of 2008. They have been traveling by human power and carrying everything they need (food, clothes, shelter) in their kayaks.

They are only about 2 weeks away from completing their incredible adventure. Check out their website at http://dbkayak.com/.

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Daytona Beach Sunrise

Westerly winds filled in around midnight and have held strong, giving us a solid 5-6 knots of progress. We're taking a wide route now to clear the security zone around Cape Canaveral (there was a shuttle launch a few days ago and there is an Atlas V launch on Monday). We should clear the Cape by sundown tonight.

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Florida Sunrise

After an exhilarating evening sail (running at about 7.5 knots), and an arduously slow and rolly night, we've now made it to Florida! The breeze is starting to fill in, and full sails make the boat less susceptible to the ocean swell. Ready for another beautiful day.

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Sunrise Off The Georgia Coast

Sailing through the night is always spectacular. Clear skies with no moon on a broad reach is icing on the cake. We had all of that last night ... and more. The dark sky gave us a clear view of the milky way and all the stars of orion.

Additionally, as we slid through the water, our wake disturbed millions of zooplankton. Individually, each would give off a short dim burst of light. Collectively, the gave the waters behind us a blue iridescent glow.

Most spectacular, however, were the dolphins. Seeing a pod join us and play in our wake is old news. Last night, however, as we sailed along silently, we began to hear the chirps of dolphin conversation below. As we stepped on deck, we saw that swimming dolphins disturb zooplankton much the way the WTP does. We saw about a dozen dolphins darting around the boat and playing in the bow wave, only a few feet away from us.

More accurately, we didn't see the dolphins; we saw ghostly glowing outlines and cloudy trails of faded blue light darting all around us. As the animals breached the surface to breath, the glow would disappear; replaced instead by their dark bodies. But as they dove, the waters would alight again.

We sat on the bow for almost an hour, mesmerized by the light show as Beauregard (our self-steering windvane) kept us on course. Trevor almost had to be tied to the mast, as these glowing sirens seemed to be calling him to join in the fun.

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A City In Photo Captions

Through most of our visit to Charleston, I realize we had provided all of our followers with plenty of photos, but no stories, leaving each to piece the parts together on their own. I thus decided to put together a string of photo captions to briefly summarize our site visit, separate from our full set of program updates. Starting with "IMG00161-20091113-1537.jpg" :

Charleston Coast Guard Station (next to which we anchored),

Ashley River Bridge

First laundry in a week (since New Bern)

Apparently someone had started a fire in the past

A tribute to Charleston's trading history (and source of much of its wealth)

The Palmetto State

Charleston Market at Night

Fountain!

Residential Alley

Fountain in Waterfront Park

Bluegrass Band playing in a venue

The nearby marina in the morning

Bucksport Sausage! YUM!

Alan updating the Ship's Log

Alan playing with his food

Our boat at anchor, and our method of transportation to shore

A little to the right Alan!

Another yawl under sail

Downtown Charleston

Non-indigenous Multicolor Penguins

Historic Buildings

Comparing French Skillets

Novice Busker!

Riviera Theatre

Charleston Market

Inside the Market

Charleston Hat Store!

The Charleston Market 100 years ago

The Charleston Market today

Charleston Hat Man! (original sign from 100 years ago)

Many Tourist Attractions

Not a horse … not a donkey

Traffic Jam

More Bars in More Places

Old Guard House

German Cruiseship

Deutschland

Peering at the waterfront

Two Scoops!

Cooper River Bridge

Sunset over Charleston

Looking down the riverfront

Alan tightening the head nuts on the engine (standard maintenance)

Liz varnishing the toerail

Trevor and his sweet shades

A reworked sewage system with a new mercerator pump

The row

Old Charleston Homes

More traffic

Charleston is known for its churches

A standard city block

Steeple

Walking through downtown

The EYE Crew entertaining the crowd

Local Art

Apparently you need a license to play music downtown (although don't worry, no tickets or trips to jail, just a notice on how to get a musician's license)

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Head Of The Alligator River

We've run through the night on the ICW. I was on watch from 4 to 8 PM yesterday, and was on call for Liz from 8 till 11.

We run a watch schedule that divides the day into seven periods (4 hour shifts from 8 AM until 8 PM and 3 hour shifts from 8 PM until 8 AM the next morning). There are 4 different roles for crew members: watch, call, off, and cook.

The person on 'watch' is responsible for safe navigation of the vessel.

When we finish watch, we go on 'call'. That involves making yourself available to the watch to change sails, check charts, or spot navigation markers. If the watch does not need any assistance, this time also doubles as free/sleep time.

After being on call, we go 'off.'. This is pure free time. A chance to catch up on sleep, emails, reading, etc.

The final role is the cook. During meal times (defined as anytime the crew is hungry), the cook prepares a meal. This may be something elaborate (most likely combining Chris and Karen's spice kit with Big Daddy's Teriyaki sauce) or simple (PB&J on tortilla). During night, this counts as sleep time.

The entire cycle repeats itself every 4 days; thus giving everyone a chance to serve every role at every time of the day.

I picked up watch this morning from Trevor at 5, giving me a solid 6 hours of sleep. It's not the recommended 8, but I'll be off today at 12 PM when I can grab a nap if needed.

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Sunrise On The C&A

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Sunrise At Mile Zero

It's early in the morning as we sit anchored in between Portsmouth and Norfolk, Virginia. Today we will begin our trek south into the ICW with the goal of making it to North Landing by the afternoon.

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