We felt a little better this morning and decided to make a short leg of our trip to Hilton Head, SC. We left Beaufort around 9:00 am and made our way to Boat Harbour Yacht Basin arriving before lunch. We had winds 25 to 30 mph which made crossing the Port Royal Sound a little bumpy and wet. We are so thankful for having a lower helm with wipers because it was like someone was throwing buckets of water on the windshield. We did get to see a coast guard helicopter practicing water rescue by dropping and raising the rescue basket down to a small coast guard boat. Did I mention the wind was really blowing! All settled in we enjoyed a light lunch, and headed back to the boat for some rest. We still don’t feel 100% so we aren’t going to push it too much.
Not too exciting today in Beaufort, SC today. We both awoke this morning feeling a little ill. Some kind of virus jumped on both of us for some unknown reason. We tried our best to stay as healthy as possible before the trip but you just never know. The whole day was spent on the boat taking meds and sleeping to try and feel better. We had a few eggs for breakfast and some peanut butter crackers for dinner. No fun. Hopefully this is just a 24 hour bug.
Left Charleston this morning at 7:45AM, several of our friends from Ripley Light Marina assisted in our departure. 7 hours later we arrived in Beaufort after a cool and windy ride. Connie and I split the time at the lower helm which made for a less tiresome journey on each of us. There is a 50% chance of rain tomorrow so we will probably stay put and have a relaxing day around town. Our next leg will take us to Isle of Hope Marina, South of Savanna, Ga.
First Mate takes the HelmArriving in BeaufortPerfect ending to a perfect day.
Provisioning for an extended cruise takes a lot of planning. We know we can get most of the things we need moving down the east coast but the Abacos are a little different. A lot of things are available over there but some are scarce or very expensive. Connie has made a lot of mental notes of what is hard to come by from our visits for the last seven years and has stocked “Rita” with what she thinks are the essentials. After a trip to the local grocery and 3 over full carts I think she has it. Her organization skills or awesome! Stay tuned, more to come.
1 of 4 cartsDry and can goodsMore Dry and can goodsPantry all organized
After a week of rain and wind bottom paint is complete. The last one held up for three years. We spent Saturday night at Ross Marine because the winds were just to strong to risk a trip back to our marina. By late Saturday afternoon the sky had cleared, winds subsided and the day ended with a beautiful sunset. We headed back to our marina on Sunday with lots of sunshine.
Our plans to cruise the Abaco’s are almost here. We are preparing “Rita” for a mid February departure. Plans will be to enjoy ourselves running the ICW south to West Palm Beach, stopping at numerous places along the way. Cross over to West End and then on to the numerous Cays in The Abaco chain. We have “Rita” on the hard putting on a fresh bottom coat and a few other small items. After that it is provisioning time, stocking as much as we can hold for our 4 month vacation. I hope to post at least every couple of days while we’re gone so keep checking back for our latest adventure.
Well, it’s been over a year since my last posting so this will be a little lengthy.2013 became a very busy year at work and just could not get away to spend time on Rita. I know I said in the previous blog we would spend our summer cruising the Carolina coast but it just wasn’t in the cards. We did however spend two great weeks in June in the Abacos. We and two other families flew into Marsh Harbour, rented a boat and headed over to the Firefly Resort on Elbow Cay. They had free dockage for our 26’ center console, 2 pools, a great restaurant /bar and first class accommodations. We all had a great time in Hopetown and visited Nipper’s and Grabbers on Guana Cay and Pete’s Pub at Little Harbour. At the end of the first week we dropped off our family and guests in Marsh Harbour for their return flight home. We traded the 26’ boat for a 22’ and headed to Treasure Cay for a one night stay. I wanted to check out the marina and surroundings for our return trip on “Rita” in the near future. It seemed to be a nice marina with good protection from the wind and also had pool and bar close by. The next morning we headed to Green Turtle Cay where we had a private slip next to the Bluff House marina and a 1 bedroom villa on the hill overlooking the sea of Abaco. We spent the next five days just relaxing on this lovely cay and taking in the restaurants, beaches, bars and pools. We hated to bring this to an end but it was time to return home. We headed back to Marsh Harbour to spend our last night at one of our favorite places, The Lofty Fig. Cid is the proprietor of this great little place and keeps it in tip top shape for all of his guests.
Our only other adventure for the rest of 2013 and the beginning of 2014 was taking “Rita” back to Rockville for more upgrades and some new paint.
Rita has returned from her upgrades. After leaving Marine Propulsion in Rockville on Monday we headed up the Bohicket Creek to the Bohicket Marina. Bohicket is known for some strong currents at times but we arrived at slack tide so maneuvering wasn’t so bad, especially since I got to use my newly installed bow thruster. I think I will like this new addition to Rita. This is a great marina to spend a couple of days and relax, but we only stayed one night because we knew we had some bad weather on the way on wanted to get back to Charleston before it got here. After a great lunch at Red’s Ice House on Tuesday, we pulled away from the dock and headed home to Charleston. First Mate Connie got to spend some time at the helm on this trip and did exceptionally well being it was her first time. It was a fairly cool day and the winds were really blowing from the NE. There was more traffic on the ICW and around Charleston than I thought there would be. We even come across Capt. George operating the Sea Tow boat as we cleared Elliott’s Cut. Today the winds were out of the NE at 15-20 mph, making this the strongest I have encountered while docking Rita. Again, the new bow thruster made it much easier getting Rita into her slip. As for the rest of Rita’s upgrades, all went well with only a few more adjustments to be made on my DC system and inverter. We haven’t planned Rita’s next adventure but I can tell you she won’t spend all summer at the dock. Check back soon.
Beautiful boardwalk along the MarinaRita sitting at the Face DockSunset on Bohicket Creek
One of many things I have learned while owning a boat is that plans always seem to change. I had stated in earlier blogs that we were planning to take the Margarita Daze (aka… Rita) to the Abaco islands for a couple of months this summer. Well after much consideration we have decided to postpone that trip for at least a year. Rita needs a few upgrades before making such an extended cruise, like bow thrusters to assist the Captain in certain docking conditions, DC upgrades including an Inverter and deep cycle batteries so we can stay on the hook without running the genny all night and a few minor changes and repairs. Even though the first mate is “game on” in her duties the Captain feels he could use a little more time at the controls and electronics before making this voyage. So for the time being we will spend this season cruising the eastern shores of SC, NC and Ga. With the help of houseboat Captain Mike filling in as my first mate, we took a 3-1/2 hour Cruise down the ICW and delivered Rita to the hard in Rockville, S.C. where she will spend the next few weeks receiving her upgrades and repairs. We are still planning a 2 week trip to the Abaco islands this summer but will fly in and rent a small boat to island hop. Check back soon for more updates.
We have completed another adventure aboard Margarita Daze. Our last trip took us south from Charleston to Beaufort so this time we headed north to Georgetown. I checked the weather for the weekend and it seemed very favorable for our first off shore run. Friday we had waves 1 to 3 ft and winds from the north at 5 to 10 mph. The day was partly cloudy and temps in the high 70’s which was a little cool for the run but we enjoyed it. Once we left Charleston Harbor we set the autopilot and ran the next 4 hours about 3 to 3-1/2 miles off the coast. Since this was our first trip off shore we wanted to stay within sight of the coast and in cell phone range. This was much more relaxing than our last trip down the ICW because this time we just sat back and kept a lookout for hazards and let the boat drive itself. Everything was great until we came off autopilot entering Winyha Bay and realized we had lost our steering on the flybridge. After moving the wheel right and left a few times the steering returned but was not operating normally. Once inside the bay I returned to autopilot and had no trouble until we arrived at the marina where I used the transmissions and throttles to control the boat.
We enjoyed eating, drinking and shopping in the historic town of Georgetown. The food was excellent and so were the people. We look forward to returning here again for a longer stay next fall. The weather for our return trip on Sunday was calling for waves at 2 to 4 ft and winds 10 to 15 from the north changing to SE in the afternoon. We waited till 10:30AM before leaving because we needed to arrive a couple of hours after low tide to enter our marina in Charleston. On our way out I checked our steering from the flybridge, Nothing! I went to the lower helm and checked steering there and all was OK. We decided to go as planned and return to Charleston via our offshore route and realized when we departed the inlet the waves were at least 4 to 5 ft. We had an uncomfortable ride back to Charleston but nothing that the autopilot and stabilizers couldn’t handle. We have really gotten a lot of experience in the last 2 trips, which will be a big help when we head to the Abaco’s next spring. Our next adventure will give us experience on the hook not far from home.
