Trip 2002

Southbound Down The Intercoastal Waterway

This details Leo's and Mona's cruise aboard Snug as they leave the New York canal system and head south along the ICW.

CLICK HERE to see the prior part of their trip southbound through the New York canals.

 

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7-18-02

We are in Cape May, NJ.  Tomorrow at 5 am we will start up the 53 miles of the Delaware River to the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal that takes us to the Chesapeake Bay. We hope to stay tomorrow night in Chesapeake City. We are undecided whether to go Saturday to Baltimore or Annapolis.  We are having transmission problems and are trying to determine the best solution.

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7-31-02

We arrived at Atlantic Yacht Basin a couple of days ago w/o incident. We store Snug here in fresh water and under cover while we return to Iowa. They will repair the transmission, sand and varnish all our exterior wood, take Snug out of the water, clean the bottom and change the zinc's. Now we will drive to Washington, DC to fly to Iowa.  It is a 3 1/2 hour drive arriving at 5 am but we save $500.

Aug-Oct-02

Performing my senior judicial duties in Iowa for 65 working days.

9-30-02

Well it must be close to winter; the Oxbergers are on their way to the Bahamas.  Mona leaves Wed Oct 2 for Snug in Chesapeake, VA.  Skipper Bob will join her at Natl. Airport in Washington, DC and drive with her to Snug.  I will meet them Oct 8 somewhere perhaps Wilmington, NC.  That is where Michael Jordan and team are fall practicing. We hope to be in North Palm Beach Oct 24 for the Royal Marsh Harbour Yacht Club party and then cross to Marsh Harbour. Mona has the cell phone with her for both calls and email.
 
 

10-9-02

Life is good again.  I am on Snug and we spent 9 hours cruising from Oriental to Swan Point Marina, NC.  The steering didn't work coming into the slip I hope I fixed it we will know in the morning. I arrived at 1 am last night aboard Snug.  I flew from DM to Charlotte, NC and drove to Oriental.  I arrived in Charlotte at 6 pm. Skipper Bob had to leave us because his father in law's health turned poor.  We hope to arrive in North Palm Beach no longer than Oct 24 to attend the Royal Marsh Harbour Yacht Club party and then cross to West End, Grand Bahamas.

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10-10-02

Today was a day of challenges; simple but nonetheless frustrating.  First the boat behind us blocking our exit was in no hurry to leave, and slept late, worked at slow motion to leave, but God was on our side and he ran aground when he left the marina. We waited about 2 hours for 3 bridges to lift. The transmission continues to gives us stress as it doesn't work properly. We move the lever to forward and it doesn't respond normally taking its time and working in jumps and spurts.  The steering is not working normally either.  This evening I put hydraulic fluid in the steering reservoir and examined the transmission linkage system we shall see tomorrow.  The satellite TV is working 95% of the time but think I will change the dish tomorrow. Mona was able to get a waiver from Fox and ABC so we can watch their network shows, but KCCI and WHO wouldn't give us a waiver for the 10 months we are gone from Iowa to watch CBS and NBC so we are watching what we can watch.
     

10-11-02

We are holed up in Federal Point Yacht Club on Carolina Beach.  The tropical storm Kyle is supposed to pass over us later today with 3-5 inch rain and 45 mph winds.  We have all the fenders out and extra lines. We have been thru worse on Snug. We are not concerned just anxious about getting to the Royal Marsh Harbour Yacht Club party Oct 24 in North Palm Beach, FL.

10-12-02

Our schedule subject to weather: We had a good day everything worked fine.  The weather was overcast to start with but by noon we had a bright sunny day.  We are in North Myrtle Beach, SC the golfing capitol of the world. The rent for our marina Cricket Cove Marina went up to $1.50 per foot and $3.00 electric (30amp) with Boat US discount. In May we paid $36.00 instead of the current $57.00.  This Bush inflation makes me long for the good old days of Clinton.

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10-14-02

We are in the suburbs of Charleston, SC.  We decided not to enter the city as the winds were 20-25 in the harbor where the Civil War started.  We had the current with us all day so we made 60 miles today in 7 hours whereas yesterday it took us 9 hours to do the same distance to Georgetown, SC.  We missed the tornado that hit Georgetown by one day.  The previous day we had a tropical storm go overhead and some say retirement is boring.  At least now the boat is working well.  We have had problems with our satellite TV.  So today I replaced the old satellite dish and cable but it didn't improve the reception.  Mona analyzed the problem and I moved the dish elevation a 1/4 inch lower and obtained a perfect picture.  It only took 2 hours of struggle. Tomorrow is expected to be another rainy and windy day.

10-15-02

We are staying put today in Charleston, SC due to weather.  So add a day to our schedule so hopefully Beaufort, SC tomorrow Thurs Delegal, GA etc.

10-16-02

Today was a good day we made 70 miles in 9.5 hours.  We are at Ladies Island Marina in Beaufort, SC.  We had dinner with Eddie and Donna who have a Manatee boat like  ours.  We were concerned that the day would be rough as we started out across Charlestown harbour in 20 mph winds but luckily they were from the NW.  The sun finally came out in the late afternoon.  We have another 68 miles day tomorrow.  We are seeing more boats so apparently the migration is beginning.

10-18-02

We had another good day.  We covered 73 miles and we are in Golden Isles Marina in St Simons, GA. The winds were 15-20 from the northwest. We had dinner at Herb and Louise condo overlooking a beautiful marsh and the ICW.


 

10-19-02

Another good day with the boat working well.  We crossed three sounds one somewhat rough (St Andrews) but they are the last sounds on the southern ICW. Tomorrow we hope to make up one day of travel.  Today we bypassed  Amelia Island and tomorrow we will bypass Comanshee Cove and go to Halifax Marina in Dayton Beach Fl.  We are at Beach Marine Marina in Jacksonville, FL and will have dinner with my cousin Zeke and one of my favorite people Deb.

10-21-02

A quick note it is 630 am in Daytona Beach, FL I have had problems with the computer.  All is well.  We are off to Merritt Island (Cape Canaveral)

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10-24-02

We are at North Palm Beach Marina our jump off place for the Marsh Harbour. We will stay here until the weather conditions are good for travel across the gulf stream. Tomorrow night we have a Royal Marsh Harbour Yacht Club party here in North Palm Beach, FL. Jim and Sue Richardson are due in tomorrow to buddy boat with us to Marsh Harbour.  Last night we had dinner with Len Chamberlain of Nocturne sailboat fame. He is one of the many commercial airline pilots cruising on the waterway. His wife Issy was back in Ohio visiting her new granddaughter. It is so hot here we are running the air conditioner all the time. We don't need air conditioning in Marsh Harbour.

10-31-02

We arrived in Marsh Harbour Tues at noon Oct 29. We had the best crossing ever.  I would be happy to cruise around the world on Snug if I was guaranteed ocean passage like we had from Florida to West End Grand Bahamas. As usual it took these two days to get phone and email service up and running. This is the first connection so I will compose more off line and send the message soon.

We are pretty well settled in Marsh Harbour on Snug at our regular slot. We hope to cruise to Hopetown for the week end.  It is two hour cruise to a different island. Not very many people here. Tonight we had a Halloween pot luck with 20 people a good time had by all. We have our car in the shop. Jim Richardson and I walk every morning at 630 joined by Marilee a very interesting glass jeweler from Canada. We have coffee at the Java Shop at 8 am. Mona joined us today. We have the air conditioning on.  Usually the 82 plus temperature ends tomorrow Nov 1. After coming here for a week from 1978 to 1994 but one year and every winter since 1994 you might think I would tire of the place but for me I like it more and more. To me it is heaven on earth. We arrived in North Palm Beach went to the Royal Marsh Harbour Yacht Club party for the Palm Beach chapter about 50 were there.  We got up at 3 am and started our cruise to the Bahamas.  Don & Julie Van Beck and their dog Sassy joined us. We have never had an easier crossing. At times there was a slight roll and occasional waves from passing boats we didn't see.  We arrived in West End, Grand Bahamas about 2 pm.  We ate dinner at the marina restaurant and left the next morning at 9am because of low tide going thru Indian Cay. We had plenty of water thru Indian Cay and made Great Sale at 4 pm.  We anchored for the night and our buddy boat partners Jim and Sue Richardson from Ottumwa, Iowa joined us for dinner on Snug.  Jim and Don dingied to shore to enable Sassy to do her chore. We left at dawn the next morning for Green Turtle Cay 68 miles arriving around 4 pm.  We ate dinner at the Yacht Club. Slip fee was free since we ate at their restaurant. We left at 9 am again due to shallow water and low tide and made Don't Rock passage without any problem.  Jim and Sue went around Whale Cay out in the ocean due to their 5 ft draft. We arrived at 1230 pm at Marsh Harbour Marina.  It is great to be home.

11-9-02

We have been here 10 days.  The weather has changed. We moved from summer to Bahamian winter.  Another cold front came thru.  We ran the air conditioner for a week but don't need it now. We plan to go to Hopetown today for the sailing club "stand up" . It is the cocktail hour every Saturday nite in British style.  They have their own building and have sailing races every week.  They are rigged scoring wise so the locals win.  Friends Jack and Betsy asked us to join to lower the average age. (I am 72) Hopetown is vacation home of Tom Harkin. His and Villsack's wins were bright spots in and otherwise disappointing night. I subscribe to the New York Times.  There is a new process that produces the full newspaper on line. I've gone boating twice with Darryl.  First time so he could scuba dive for fish for his acquarian and the second time to deep sea fish. We caught two macarael. Alabama Chris is going to stay on our boat for the two weeks in January we are on a Holland America cruise.  Mona's 3 sons, one wife, mother in law and her boyfriend are coming in early January and staying at Calamity Jane's home.

12-20-02


We are going to Hopetown for the weekend.  In emergency call Jib Room at 242-367-4835 and the will call us on  the radio and we will return your call.

CLICK HERE to return home.

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