March 14-28, 2019 THE MARINA AT ORTEGA LANDING, FL TO THE WACCAMAW RIVER, SC

A look back at…March 14, 2019 The Marina at Ortega Landing, Jacksonville, FL
     This leg of the trip north has hinged around today…March 14, 2019. This is the day that the Opera House in Stonington, ME hosted the stage presentations of 23 SeaTimes oral history stories. My former student Amanda is spearheading a revival of those true tales collected from 1986-1996 by the 8th grade English/Social Studies students at Deer Isle-Stonington Jr./Sr. High School. Amanda called me in December to discuss the possibilities of a night of “Winter Stories” shared by family or friends of the original interviewees. What a great idea! Later she offered to FACE TIME the 2-hour event through her iPhone. Ikes! That’s pretty high tech for us. We promised to do our best… so we are staying at The Marina at Ortega Landing in Jacksonville, FL to be sure of a dependable, strong internet connection. It worked perfectly with Amanda’s iPhone to our iPad. From 7-9 pm, the participants brought to life the 1920’s,’30’s and ’40’s on Deer Isle. For those two hours, it felt like Wally and I were in the Opera House as those readings and projected family photos played to a packed house. Bravo Director Amanda and your cast and crew!! Can’t wait to see more of the nearly 300 SeaTimes stories in the upcoming summer production. We hope to be there in person.

March 15, 2019 Amelia Island Marina and Fernandina Beach, FL

     We continued our connection to Maine Coast friends by visiting with Brooklin, ME friends now living their winters in northern FL. After docking SUMMERTIME at the Amelia Island Marina, it wasn’t long before Paul came on board and it was like “Old Home Week”. He “taxied” us to his vintage home where Jane and a school chum were enjoying conversations on the front porch. Since Paul had spent the past four years restoring and upgrading his downtown Fernandina Beach abode, it was time for the tour through the house…lovely! We five had a relaxing walk through the historic district with its shops, eateries and other water-side establishments. Back home it was time for the next-door neighbor to join us for an elegant meal and more robust conversation. These kinds of re-connections are why we like the cruising life-style so much!

March 16-28, 2019 Brunswick Landing and Thunderbolt/Savannah, GA; Beaufort and Isle of Palms, SC

After taking time to soak in our memories of Brunswick and Savannah, GA, we booked in a 4-day stay at the Downtown Marina of Beaufort (pronounced BEW-fort), SC. My sister and her husband had wintered their boat WHIT’S END there and we were given a face dock space just off her bow. Val and Rick drove down from Myrtle Beach for a long week-end. We had a great time making progress on their boat projects and eating home-cooked meals in each other’s boats. While in the laundry room on our last day at the marina, a fellow trawler couple were surprised to learn that we were planning to anchor for the next three or four nights as we headed up the ICW. Bill and Jackie suggested we re-check the upcoming weather. Sure enough. “Predictwind” had bright red swatches along our route showing that in two days we would be experiencing gale force winds of 25 to 35 mph. That brought us up short! Thanks to the cautionary words of our new cruising friends, we changed our plans. We used the fair weather of the following day to high-tail it for 10 hours and gained 80 miles… creating a record for time and distance for us! We hot-footed it across serene Charleston Harbor, famous for winds and cross/currents, and found a safe haven a bit further north at Isle of Palms. We chose to stay put in the marina there for 3 nights… wise decision on our part. We walked the beach in the lull before the storm and witnessed the Atlantic Ocean amidst its fury during the storm. We were happy to be tucked inside our trawler, safe and sound. Wally worked away in our tax report to the IRS and I began mixing my acrylic paints. The “barns and pastures” painting that I started in Ft. Myers needed some bare-branched trees in the foreground. For inspiration I am using a photo taken by my artist/instructor Barb. She captured the scene early one morning in Arundel, Maine as she drove to work along a country road. My barns did not turn out to be those barns, but my sky, clouds, pasture, trees and roadway disappearing around a distant bend are close enough. I have really enjoyed putting my right brain into action.

Thunderbolt Marina

Got to love Savanah humor!

Savanah is a town of "pocket parks"

Bonaventure Cemetery famous from the book "Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil"

Darcy's "Barns and Pasture"

March 29, 2019 The Waccamaw River and Grande Dunes Marina, Myrtle Beach


It has been 3 years since we traveled the ICW in Georgia and South Carolina. It was March 2016 and we were just beginning The Great Loop. While spending so much time in Florida since then, we’d forgotten a few things about these waters. There is A LOT of marshland alone the coasts of GA and SC. The tides rise and fall SIGNIFICANTLY more than in FL… up to 8 ft in some places. As a result of the tides, the current’s pull is VERY STRONG. It sweeps our 8 mph trawler along at 9-12 mph at times, or slows us down to 4-6 mph. The current also causes us anxiety when we go to land at a marina. We’ve been directed to anchor out and wait until slack tide before entering certain marinas. Now that we are more seasoned, when the weather is good we cruise from sunrise until four o’clock… 8 or 9 hours…then it’s time for an adult beverage… then it’s time for supper. We look back at our cruising records and discovered that in our early days, 4 hours was a long day! We love the backwater hideaway anchorages. We dropped the hook in Thorofare Creek just off the delightful Waccamaw River last night… what a piece of heaven! Tonight we will be back with family Val and Rick at their home in Myrtle Beach. They have received our monthly delivery of mail. Val has also shopped on our behalf for some necessary items,…bless you, Sis! Rumor has it that corned beef and cabbage are in the slow cooker and homemade blueberry-strawberry ice cream will top off tonight’s meal. How can you beat that!?!