Wednesday, April 16, 2008

Weather and Water Changes

Beaufort, SC to Church Creek Anchorage

Days 162 – 163 April 15-16


At the Ladies Island Marina in Beaufort, we learned of yet another way for the rich to enjoy boating – purchase a time share on a large (in this case, 110 ft) very luxurious yacht named “Enticer.” The price? A mere $1,000,000 for a week of yachting luxury anywhere in the waters of the US, Caribbean, Mexico, Central America, the Bahamas, or Bermuda. Just schedule your week, and the boat will be there to meet you. From your pickup by the boat’s crew at the nearest airport to your return to the airport, you will be treated like royalty. How about it? Any takers? There are only a few weeks left on this fine yacht.

After spending two delightful days with Lynn and Bob, we left Beaufort early this morning, despite the 20-25 knot winds on our nose. We have begun to transit the parts of the ICW that can be quite challenging and anxiety producing due to skinny water. Bob has been more focused than usual on navigation and the helm.

The weather and the water have changed significantly as we have motor sailed north. The nights are now quite cool (in the 40s) and we’ve used our diesel furnace to take the chill off the bedroom during the nights and off the salon in the morning. The beautiful clear aqua waters of the keys have turned to the brown murky river waters of central Florida and north.

During the last several days, we’ve enjoyed seeing numerous white birds resembling large sparrows with oversized wings, like swallows, dive bomb the water from 5 to 20 feet high and immediately take off again, presumably with a small fish in their beak or belly. It’s amazing how fast they can get back into the air; it looks like they use their buoyancy to pop themselves out of the water and instantly use their wings to get themselves airborne again.

Tonight we are anchored in Church Creek. This is what I love about cruising! The only noise we hear is the serenade of the birds as we sit in the cockpit watching the sun set in this beautiful rural setting.

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