All of yesterday we prepared to leave the dock. We arrived at Jekyll Island exactly a week ago. At the time we were only planning on staying here 1 or perhaps 2 days. We did however find lots of other friendly cruisers with lots of kids. Our kids had a plethora of other kids to choose from and our kids as well as the other kids asked us to stay longer. In the end we decided to stay a week. A big cheer went up amongst the general population and there was happiness on our boat.

A big reason we decided to come here and in fact stay was to receive packages. It’s pretty difficult to order parts and procure supplies without a mailing address. I’m happy to say we have been rather successful at that but with all of our initial round of supplies received and our week coming to an end we started to wind it up and get ready to move on. We filled the forward and aft water tanks then worked on pulling together a list of supplies we wanted at the store.

We even borrowed the car keys from our newest kids boat friends Amazing Grace II to do a last minute midnight run to the Wal-Mart in Brunswick. On the way back down the dock at 12:30am we quickly realized that the wind had picked up. The increase was instantly noticeable on the waters surface. Small angry waves topped the water next to the boat and out across to the bridge. As we unloaded the groceries and dragged them from the car across the dock to the boat I couldn’t help but shake my head.

Cold weather I’d braced for. It’s been freezing here (literally) but the wind, with this cold… I’m not sure I’m ready for it. After getting the groceries and kids below Boyd checked the weather. Sure enough, in addition to the 20ish degree weather -that I may have already mentioned in a previous post- the forecast for Tuesday included 35 knot winds. Not wanting to be a hero popsicle, I immediately suggested we reconsider our plan to leave, now only a few hours away. And so… the false start. Water tanks full, groceries stuffed into every nook and cranny we decided to wait it out.
It’s one thing to go out in bad weather, something else to go in really bad weather. Sure it could be warmer in Florida, or as the news says today it may be even colder! There are parts of Florida that would definitely be warmer but it would take about a week, coincidentally the exact amount of time this snap is supposed to last, to get there. In the mean time just to keep reasonably warm we’d be compelled to stay at other marinas, which would cost more money and be less likely to have all our friends at them.

And so, here we still are at Jekyll Harbor Marina. Just for the record, not even Boyd seems unhappy about our decision! We have decided to order the “second wave” of things that we couldn’t get before and to stock up on all of the items that aren’t readily available in the Bahamas.

I’m taking well into an informal survey of the local opinions about where to jump from and how to “clear in”. We have walked on the beach, visited the Georgia Sea Turtle Marine Park and a small local nature center with touch tanks. The kids continue to have movie nights nearly every night after dinner on one boat or another. During the day after all the home schooling is complete they bounce from one boat to another playing board games and game boys and even Wii as the opportunity presents itself. For being “stuck” we have lucked out once again.

We’ll make it to the Bahamas yet, we may be a little bit late. Right now its better to be here than out there and better to be safe than sorry.

Alright I’ve tried not to complain, in fact I’ve tried not to even mention this but ENOUGH IS ENOUGH! It’s frigging cold. Yes perhaps you have noticed on the front page of CNN’s web page this morning that there is an abnormally low temperature system that is pervasive in the Southeast.
It’s all true, that and more! It was just 29 last night and in spite of being tied up to the dock and having all of the shore cables hooked into dock power and leaving the space heater on all night we could all see our breath this morning in the cabin. That’s down below, where we live, for any of you landlubbers who were wondering.

That’s too cold. I consider myself a reasonably positive person, glass half full rather than half empty and all that but #@+* it’s cold and I’m getting tired of it. We had planned to take our sleeping bags off the boat when we went back to Maine (from Beaufort NC) and get rid of at least that much bulk but nooooo! It was too cold. Now we are nearly to Florida and it’s still to frigging cold.
I know, I know, all of our friends and family in Maine are going… “Faith, you have forgotten what it’s like to be really cold like it is here in Maine”. Well let me reiterate, it was 29 last night, here, I checked Portland’s weather it was 32 in Portland. Also just to make sure everyone understands that 29 itself may not be that cold. It’s not if you are in the house and it’s 29 outside and you run to the car in the garage and start it and then dash out again when it’s warmed up. It’s not when you are at work or coming home from work in the car with the heater on full blast. It is however quite cold when you are camping! Oh didn’t I mention being on a boat in the water is a lot like camping, in the middle of a really big lake. Then… 29 is darn cold.

Not that I’m complaining mind you, just making the point. Enough is enough. I’m ready for warmer weather. We have traveled over 1200 nautical miles and we are definitely south of the Mason Dixon line. I want the warm weather we were promised and I want it now.

No luck. I just checked the weather report and it’s looking like another week of 21 at night and 48 to 51 during the day. Oh well, maybe this just proves it doesn’t get you anywhere complaining!! But for just a moment, it sure felt good.

More and more often the time seems to be getting away from me. We motor down the ICW holding our breath as we skim over shallow spots, anchor in unknown rivers and (I at least) still duck at the 65 ft bridges. But things are more settled. It isn’t that each town isn’t a new experience, it is. Where to get ashore, is sometimes a dilemma, how to get to civilization once on shore can be equally challenging! But for the most part walking a mile or two for groceries or using the courtesy car if we are at a marina that has one, or in extreme cases catching a cab have become a part of our weekly routine for provisioning. I’m more careful not to forget things when I shop and check my list more thoroughly than I did when I could just swing by the grocery store on the way home from work.

Nearly every meal is cooked and eaten on board and we’ve had great luck with the stove (a new three burner force 10) the food is good and the camaraderie with the family even better. Most recently we have come into Jekyll Harbor Marina on Jekyll Island Georgia where there are a number of other cruising sailboats all on differing schedules but mostly headed, as we are for the Bahamas. It’s been nice to meet other cruisers, particularly those with kids.

Last night in honor of the coming of the New Year we had a potluck up by the restaurant and there were at least 20 adults and about 10 kids. The kids played a combination of tag and hide and seek in the gathering darkness (after we all descended on the food) and from ages 7 to 18 all seemed contented in enjoying each others company. It was an enjoyable night and worth mention as we haven’t had this opportunity to interact with so many cruisers at the same time before. It seems that this is more the “norm” than not when cruisers collect in a marina or anchorage.

Food and drink is shared as well as information. What are the best anchorages, where is the safest passage from, who does the best weather routing? Boat repairs and systems are another big topic as the night continues. What’s been broken, how did it break, how was it repaired. Questions and answers about who did the repair and at what time and expense are high on the list of informal discussion topics. It seems as though even though no one sets an agenda there is an overall theme. It’s comfortable and easy to join in. We have lists of things we’ve fixed and are eager to get the info on anchorages and weather routing.

Overall Cruising seems to be taking over as our way of life. Less and less do I carry the cell phone and when it rings I’m surprised and a little annoyed. Who could that be? Oh there are the odd family members (no offense if you are one of the family members) that call and from time to time someone calls about the apartments but compared to the 50 or so incoming calls I used to get daily the call that comes in now, perhaps one or two times a week is a big change, but one I am adjusting to.

I know that everyone reading this has probably watched a classic Discovery Channel Shark Week Special which features shark feeding frenzies from multiple angles. There is a similar type of frenzy that occurs on our boat whenever the generator begins to chug or the shore power cables come out. The noise of the generator on board Passages creates similar effects to the frantic thrashing of injured or dying fish and results in the same kind of response by our local “sharks”. As soon as the generator hums to life or when we hook up to shore power the kids run to the designated charging outlets. Ipods, and cameras, laptops and printers, cell phones and even the plug in style battery charges are hauled out and all vie for a position in the charging frenzy.

As in a real feeding frenzy everyone wants to assert his or her strength and jockey for the top position. Everyone wants to get their fair share of power before the “juice goes away”.

As usual Christmas Eve saw me up late wrapping last minute presents previously tucked in this or that nook or cranny. Only difference: this year I think I actually found all of the presents I had stashed away (probably a first in at least 5 years ode to fewer really good hiding spots on a boat). The Christmas tree had been decorated, the stockings hung, and there was the traditional reading of “The Night Before Christmas” by Boyd. All was as it should be.

There was of course one other noteworthy exception to the norm. Everything around and under and beside the Christmas tree was moving. The stockings were jogging side to side rather than hanging reposefully in a row as they usually would be. The Christmas tree itself although anchored at the bottom (under the “tree skirt”) with zip-lock baggies full of sand swayed rhythmically.

You see even though our plan to dock in Beaufort SC had actually been realized. Even though we had managed to repair the rudder and make the distance from Charleston to Beaufort in time to come in on Christmas Eve Day a snotty low pressure system had followed us in. We got docked just fine but shortly thereafter it really started to rain. By the time we finished dinner and drove to Wal-Mart the wind had picked up significantly. By the time we’d shopped and drove back (1.5 hours later) there was some definite wave action going on.

Nicole worried about Santa, would he come? Would he be able to get down the wood stove chimney? Would the reindeer be able to keep their footing on the coach roof? No worries about all of that, Santa and the reindeer managed fine but Boyd and I spent the majority of Christmas Eve night and Christmas Morning dashing out into the torrents of rain and buffeting wind to lash another something down or reposition the fenders.

The storm came out of the Southeast. The only direction, I was later informed by a person who should know, that this particular marina wasn’t protected from. The marina, on the west side of the north/south channel, was open to the Southeast and there was a significant fetch coming across the long open channel. It tossed us all night and into the morning. Of course since Santa came presents had to be opened and admired but I decided to fix a much amended Christmas morning breakfast of simple muffins rather than the more elaborate bacon, potatoes and eggs I had planned.

As Christmas morning wore on I wondered if the Christmas dinner that we had planned with the other transient boater was going to be able to happen or not. We had intentionally picked this marina know that our friends on Wind Dust were already here. They had told us about a couple on a sailboat called Breakin’ Wind that they’d been traveling with and we had all eagerly planned a potluck style Christmas dinner in the salon of Passages. I’d been thrilled when arranging the whole thing. To think that we’d have friends over for Christmas Day, but as the weather seemed to get worse instead of better I started to wonder.

Finally about 1:30 in the afternoon a full 12 hours of being beaten against the dock repeatedly began to wane. Within the hour it subsided still more and by the magic hour of 3pm it had stopped raining and it was calm enough to have guests. I couldn’t have been more thrilled. Jesse and Ginny came from Wind Dust and Donna and Rob came from Breakin’ Wind and that made 8 with the four of us. It was a fabulous time of chatting and eating and eating and chatting AND not rocking about wildly. Thanks guys, for making our Christmas so wonderful and memorable!!! Merry Christmas to all!!