30th May, 2009, Charleston, S.C.

We arrived in Charleston at noon on May 28th. We motor-sailed all the way from Cape Canaveral Florida to Charleston. It was sunny and warm with 10-15 knot winds. Nighttime brought cloudy skies and some rain and thunder south of us but we were out of the coastal sea breeze rain storm. We were delighted to see a few sea turtles coming up for air one was rather large but he didn't surface long enough for a snap shot. As we approached the Savanah River channel in the wee hours of the morning we saw many anchored freighters among the channel markers as we skirted around them heading toward Charleston and finally the clouds broke so we were surrounded by nighttime stars and the milkyway. We spent Friday the 29th touring the historic sights of Charleston. The city market, the southern mansions with beautiful gardens and historic churches.

Underway at Last!

We finally left Port Canaveral yesterday morning, May 26, 2009, at 0800 and have been underway now for about 24 hours. We are working our way north about 15 miles offshore east of the Florida coast in the Atlantic and just passed the entrance to the St. John's River which leads to Jacksonville. We can see downtown Jacksonville office buildings about 30 miles away.

Charleston, SC is about 24 hours to the northeast of us and we arrive at the channel tomorrow around mid-day tomorrow. We may stop over. Weather off the Florida coast was very stormy yesterday afternoon. We were lucky that the storm cells either went north or south of us.

We are using our HF SSB email system to update the blog.

Cape Canaveral - May 25, 2009

Yes we are still here and getting set to go. With all of the rain and storms in Florida over the last few days we were still able to complete our preparations. We should be able to leave tomorrow morning.

Here is Jabberwocky (on the left) just chomping at the bit.

Our plan is to run up to Charleston, SC or perhaps a bit further north depending on weather conditions.

It's hard to believe that we have been here for six months spending most of the time at our place in Venice, FL on Florida's west coast.