Bahamas Bound

Since the weather has put our departure for the Bahamas off until Monday Dec. 30th, I thought I would take the opportunity to make a quick post.  We had a nice stay in West Palm Beach for a few days over Christmas.

Jupiter Lighthouse (just north of West Palm) decked out for the holiday

Two days before Christmas, we met up with Jeff and Barbara Harris for dinner.  These are boating friends our ours from New York that are in their home in Jensen Beach, Florida for the winter.  We always enjoy visiting with them as we pass through.

Christmas day was spent with Keith's family in Stuart, FL.  It was great to see everyone.  I think for the first time ever, Keith was the brother with the least amount of facial hair.

The dashing Mackey Brother Trio

     In addition to the Mackey clan, Keith and I were able to spend an hour visiting with our boat neighbors from last winter in Marathon, Pete and Cindy Bauer.  They have their boat in Stuart this winter.  We stopped by while in Stuart on Christmas Day to say hello and catch up.  It was great to see them and hear about their adventures over the past year.  The cruising community is a close knit and small group.

     After spending Christmas Day in Stuart with the Mackeys, we returned to Southern Style and had dinner on the 26th with our very good friends Pete and Rachel Ferrara from Orlando.  It was a funny coincidence that our boats ended up docked next to each other.  It was so nice to catch up with them.  We all love to travel and hearing about their latest adventures was awesome.  Until next time, maybe in the Chesapeake, we wish them well.

Pete and Rachel's boat Endless Summer next to Southern Style in the Palm Harbor Marina

A rather elegant duo if I do say so

Friday Dec. 27th we were off the dock to catch the 8:00 AM bridge leaving West Palm Beach.  Pete snapped this picture of Southern Style as we were pulling out.

Heading down the ICW toward Ft Lauderdale, we saw many LARGE homes and some LARGER boats.  Here is just an example.

I think you get the idea.

Traveling from West Palm Beach to Fort Lauderdale the ICW is quite busy with all kinds of boats from big to small and the smaller ones just fly.  In the narrow channel the wakes just make it like a washing machine.  See picture below:

Friday Dec. 27th we moved the boat to Fort Lauderdale.  Good friends Russ and Michele Reynolds from Ocracoke came to Fort Lauderdale and got on board.  They are coming across to the Bahamas with us and spending a week or so there before we drop them in Nassau to fly home.  So far the weather looks like a go for Monday Dec. 30th.  Everyone keep a look out for our first post from the Bahamas.

Having a Blast Near Kennedy Space Center

Keith and I spent three nights (Dec. 16, 17, 18) in New Smyrna Beach City Marina.  On our first full day there we were lucky to get decent weather and put some additional sealer on the outside decks.  Keith was also able to reorganize the lazarette in anticipation of storing some supplies for the Bahamas.  On our second full day, Keith drove to Orlando to play golf at Bay Hill Golf Club with good friend Peter Ferrara.

Keith at Bay Hill

Starliner Rocket Launch

Thursday Dec. 19th we headed to Cocoa Beach, FL.  The marina we stayed in overnight is just across from Kennedy Space Center.  There was a rocket launch Friday morning at 6:36AM.  The Boeing CST-100 Starliner had a test flight using the ULA Atlas V rocket to launch it into orbit.  This is one of Boeing's spacecraft that is anticipated to be used to transport astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS).  Private companies are now partnering with NASA under the commercial crew program to bring manned space flights into the future.  Since the NASA Space Shuttle Program was ended in 2011, astronauts to the ISS have had to travel via Russian spacecraft.   The unmanned Starliner was launched into orbit with the intention to have it  rendezvous with the International Space Station and then return to earth.  If this test flight had gone well, a manned flight to the ISS was anticipated for the first half of 2020.  This would return American astronauts to space in our own spacecraft.  Unfortunately, the Starliner failed to reach its proper orbit and will not be able to dock with the ISS.  It now remains to be seen how long it may take to work out the glitches from this latest mission.  A manned flight may not take place for some time.  Despite the setback, it was a fascinating thing to see the rocket take off.  It took less than 2 minutes for it to reach over 17 miles above the earth and by 3 minutes it was traveling at 5 times the speed of sound.  The booster rockets burned propellant at a rate of about 2,800 lbs per second (and we think we burn diesel fuel fast when traveling at our cruise speed of 20 knots).

Rocket heading skyward

Even through it was still dark, the rising sun caught the smoke from the rocket exhaust several miles up into the morning sky

From Cocoa Beach we made our way to Stuart, FL where we stopped and had lunch and dinner with Keith's parents.  After Stuart it was on to West Palm Beach, FL.  Here we will stay for several days over Christmas.  We plan to visit with several friends as well as return via rental car to Stuart to see all of Keith's immediate family on Christmas Day.  Thursday December 26th we plan to provision for our pending trip to the Bahamas.  We also have friends Russ and Michelle Reynolds from Ocracoke, NC arriving to join us for our first week in the Bahamas.  It looks like there will be a weather window Sunday Dec. 29th for us to cross the Gulf Stream from Miami, FL to Bimini, Bahamas.  With all the visiting and getting last minute things ready for the Bahamas, this may be my last post from the good old USA for awhile.  I should have internet in the Bahamas, and once we get settled in I will  get to posting our adventures.  The posts have been a bit slow of late I know, but stay tuned as I think things are about to get exciting.

Southbound Train (or Boat)

So Southern Style got finished with her upgrades in Wrightsville Beach.  She is looking very "Spiffy" with clean decks, shiny brightwork, and new davit rails for the dinghy.  We also had a cool new "tray" built around our bow pulpit to contain the sand and mud that comes up on the chain rode when we anchor out.

Anchor Tray ( to keep water and mud from being rinsed onto the bow deck).  Now it is contained in the tray which drains overboard.

With all the work done, we left early Thursday morning December 12th making our way south.

The moon Thursday morning over part of Wrightsville Beach as we departed

Our first day took us south to Myrtle Beach for an overnight.  We saw many docks decorated for Christmas as we went down the Intracoastal Waterway.

Friday morning we left bright and early in cloudy skies.  The weather was predicted to deteriorate during the day, so we wanted to get off the dock while it was still dry.  

Coquina Light in Myrtle Beach Friday morning

By the time we got to Georgetown, SC our stop for overnight on Friday, it was pouring rain.  We got tied up and changed into dry clothes.  Needless to say, dinner was on the boat Friday night due to the weather.  

Saturday morning the rain had stopped and we were off to Charleston, SC.  The plan was to stay all day Sunday in Charleston to visit our dear friends Lacey and Davis Toney.  Unfortunately, the weather forecast was such that we had a really good prediction for calm seas off-shore on Sunday.  It was decided that the best option was to press onward on Sunday, running off-shore from Charleston to St. Augustine, FL.  Promptly at 5:50 AM (often referred to as "O'dark thirty") we were off the dock and carefully making our way in the dark out of  Charleston Harbor and into the North Atlantic Ocean.  By the time we were just past the jetty, the sun was just beginning to coming up on the horizon.

View out the front window as dawn was just beginning to break

Our trip was about 225 miles, so at our cruise speed of 21-23 mph, we were looking at 10 hours to get to St. Augustine, FL.  The first 2-3 hours were a little bumpy, but the seas kept getting better as the day progressed and by around 9 or 10 AM it was a down right nice ride.  We saw several other pleasure boats as well as work boats and one Navy war ship.

Shrimper off the coast

War ship (he showed up on radar, but we could get no other info to come up on our charts about him).  Guess he was in stealth mode.

We pulled into St. Augustine Sunday afternoon and rinsed Southern Style, then had some dinner at the Conch House.  

St. Augustine Light as we came in Sunday afternoon around 4:30 pm

Another early morning Monday, December 16th (off the dock at 6:30 AM) heading down the Intracoastal to New Smyrna Beach.

St. Augustine Light Monday morning

Passing under the Bridge of Lions in St. Augustine Monday morning.  Thank you bridge tender for the opening.

It was an uneventful trip down the Intracoastal on Monday to New Smyrna Beach.

Passing through Daytona Beach,FL

Ponce Inlet Lighthouse just north of New Smyrna Beach

We arrived in New Smyrna Beach at the city marina around 2:30 PM.  The plan is to be here for 3 nights.  Keith is going to get a rental car and drive to Orlando to play golf with a good friend at Bay Hill Golf Club (Arnold Palmer's home course).  This will give me some time to relax and catch up on some sewing before Christmas, so I will stay on the boat while Keith is golfing.  We hope to be back under-way, making-way south on Thursday Dec. 19th.

Little Shop of Horrors

While we are waiting to get the boat work finished, I decided to take the rental car over to a local nature preserve here in Wilmington, NC.  The Piney Ridge Nature Preserve is a park with trails, but there is also a unique garden within the park.  The Stanley Rehder Carnivorous Plant Garden was something I just had to see.  Pengi also needed to get off the boat for a bit.

Pengi on the trail with some Pitcher Plants behind him

Even though it is winter time and many of the plants are somewhat dormant, there were still numerous plants taking advantage of the winter sun here in NC.  There were several types of pitcher plants still growing in the garden.

The Yellow Pitcher Plant

Most of the species of this genus (yellow pitcher plant) grow only in the southeastern United States.  They attract insects into their long tubes with nectar.  The insect becomes trapped by hairs and a slippery wall within the tube of the plant.   It is estimated that only 1% of the insects that venture into pitcher plants are actually captured by the plant.  That is not a very good rate of capture.  I am glad I am not a pitcher plant, I would starve.

Close-up of the top of the Yellow Pitcher Plant

The large hooded portion of the plant helps keep too much water from accumulating in the tube.

The most common carnivorous plant is the Purple Pitcher Plant.  It grows in cooler climates across the eastern US and throughout Canada. It does not have a large over-hanging hood like the Yellow Pitcher Plant.  Rainwater is intentionally collected into this plant's tube.   The pitcher plant mosquito actually breeds only in the water contained in this pitcher plant's tube.  Other insects that crawl or fly into the tube become trapped by downward pointing hairs on the wall.  They then drop into the water where digestive enzymes process the insect, releasing nutrients that the plant then absorbs.

Ohhhhhhhh Mister Fly, you are treading on dangerous ground.

This small moth is already upside down in the base of the tube.

Of course, the most exciting were the Venus Fly Traps.  The Venus Flytrap can only be found within a 75-100 mile radius of Wilmington, NC.  They cannot be found in the wild anywhere else in the world.  I think that is soooooooo cool.  They are also very particular about what they eat.  They eat mainly crawling insects like ants and spiders.  It is estimated that their diet is 33% ants, 30% spiders, 10% beetles, 10% grasshoppers, and less than 5% flying insects.  They actively trap their prey by  closing flaps that sandwich the insect between the flaps.  Once the insect is trapped, the plant hermetically seals the insect into the "mouth" where it was caught.  This then becomes a "stomach" so to speak where the insect is digested.  Digestion takes around 10 days.  The insect is reduced to a husk of chitin and the trap reopens and is ready for reuse.

A  fly trap with what looks like a insect chitin husk inside

There were also supposed to be Sundews in the garden.  I think the pink plants around the fly traps are the Sundews, but I am not sure.  They appeared to be dormant due to the chilly weather recently.

Sundews are perennial plants that can live up to 50 years.  There are over 130 species of Sundews and they can be found throughout the world.  This is unusual as most carnivorous plants live in a very small, distinct area in only one or two regions of the world.

So it was pretty fun to explore this unique garden.  I would love to see it in the spring or summer as everything would really be growing.  Maybe sometime I can make it back during that time of the year.  

Thanksgiving

After a very nice visit to PA and St Louis, I headed back to Southern Style in Wrightsville Beach, NC.  Keith and I had a few days to chill before leaving with the rental car to drive to Raleigh, NC for Thanksgiving.  We spent two nights with great friends Robin and Ron Terry.  There was an oyster party Wednesday night. Thanksgiving day involved eating too much good food and chilling.

 Robin's lovely Thanksgiving table

  I also got to play with new Terry family member, June.  She is a sweetie-pie.  Here is June tangled up with her squeaky toy.  Since the toy is black and white you can hardly tell where the toy ends and the puppy begins.

                                                                   Ahhhh the cuteness.

Once back in Wrightsville Beach the Saturday after Thanksgiving,  we were treated to the annual holiday flotilla.  Keith and I sat on the bow of Southern Style to watch the decorated boats cruise by.

We are finishing up with some projects on the boat which should be done this coming week.  Our plan is then to watch for a good off-shore day to make a run to Charleston, SC.  It is time to start making tracks south and get ready to stage to go across to the Bahamas at the end of December.