Sea Fever and crew, home at Cooper River Marina after her 2012 Southern adventure

G3 helped with dock lines and offloading the boat, in between catching fiddler crabs from the side of the dock.
Next...Sea Fever will get a thorough cleaning and a once over of all systems to prepare for the regular summer sailing season...at home in Charleston!

Two northbound sailboats approaching Charleston customs docks..be advised that the Carnival Cruise ship is departimg the dock...now!

Ok. so what do you want us to do... where can we go... "pull over and let the Fantasy depart"... ok..done.. ..Sea Fever and Compass Rose leisurely do 'donuts' just south of the cruise ship dock..."2 sailboats lingering around the harbor pilot dock...are you looking for anything in particular...are you lost?"  No sir, we were asked by Fantasy to pull over so they could depart..we are headed home to CRM... "Ok... thank you and welcome home!"
Finally...we were cleared to continue up the Cooper River...to home.

After the bridge...the storm...

Just as we passed through the Wappoo bridge the skies to the north hot really dark and the rumbling thunder got louder. By the time we rounded the Charleston Penninsula the rain hit and the winds picked up and looking up the Cooper River we could see the worst was yet to come.  Tom suggested we slow down and let the storm pass rather rhan rushing to the marina only to wait for calmer winds to try to dock.  That worked well and within a short period the rain was a mere drizzle and the winds were light... on we go....NOT....

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Wappoo Creek bridge..the last barricade to homecoming at Cooper River Marina...NOT...

Sea Fever and Compass Rose made it through the bridge at the 3:30 p.m. opening, thinking this was the last delay we would have in getting home... but we soon found out there was more in store for us...

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G3 is a sailor now!

Ok well... G3 is officially a sailor...but...not sure if/how to tell his parents...
we are at anchor, I looked at the local radar...tornado warning..Beaufort!!! Get everything below G3 get your lifejacket on and stay below.. plexiglass doors back in...winds picking up heavy rain pushing us towards the boat behind us ...engine on, power up, try to keep off the other boat... waves about  2-3 ft. rolling, Sea Fever  so far on her side rhe keel showes to the boat beside me...I saw theirs too... totally buried the bow at least twice...."Gammy its dripping down here so I'm putting containers under it" Lay on the floor and cover your head so stuff doesn't hit you... I'm ok... I'll take care of down below gammy.. I'll check that the hatches are  closed tight.   3 boats dragged their moorings, 2 collided... one on the dock wound up, literally...on the dock... but Sea Fever is fine... and the anchor didn't drag!! And most important G3 did a great job!!

But we have to test it Gammy! I'll eat lunch after the cake!

Well, it is a bit crumbly but moist and chocolatie  guess that will work!

The dinghy won't go so let's bake a cake!

Tried again to get the dinghy going again so G3 could check out the shore but no go.. so he said let's make a cake...chocolate, of course.  Had to improvise a bit since the stores are getting pretty low. We'll know how it turned out as soon as it cools enough to get the frosting on.

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Ladies Island Bridge, Beaufort

We are still in Beaufort, until Tuesday morning.
The crew spent a couple of hours at the playground again on Sunday, and will likely do the same today, if there is a break in the rain this afternoon.  Had rain and lightening off and on all night and while the Captain kept checking anchor status crew slept through even the loudest off the passing thunder.

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A little R&R for the hard working crews of Sea Fever and Compass Rose

We moved from Port Royal Landing to the anchorage off Beaufort Sat. afternoon and our crews couldn't wait to enjoy their "down time" at the local playground. They ran and climbed and jump over everything in sight while the grandparents wondered where our own energy had gone. They even climbed on top of the structures, not just through them!

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Sunrise on the Beaufort River from Port Royal Marina. Sat. June 9.

We spent Friday night and until noon Sat. at Port Royal Landing Marina. A nice, friendly place with helpful staff.  Tom's grandson joined the Compass Rose crew for a few days and he and G3 were instant buddies.

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CRUISE SHIPS IN BULL CREEK

There were also a couple of cruise ships from Hilton Head that ran well ip the creek. Not sure where they went up there but they were far up the creek for over an hour. Came back by us near the mouth of the creek just in time to see the great sunset.

Thurs. June 7,2012. Bull Creek SC

We spent Thurs. night in Bull Creek, just before the ICW opens up into the Port Royal Sound. The anchorage was great and the Creek is apparently a favorite place feom the locals from Dufuskie and Hilton Head Islands.  There were lots of small boats running up and down the creek water skiing, and tubing until the sun went down.

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Back in SC

This is Compass Rose rounding off the Savannah River into the SC ICW.  Getting closer to home now.

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A likely culprit for fouling the intake ... masses of marsh grass

Ee have been seeing large clumps of marxh grass floating just about everywhere the last few days. At New Teakettle Creek it took a bit of effort to free a large "island"  of the stuff tbat had wrapped arou d Sea Fever's anchor chain.  This was one of the boat-sized masses that passed us i  the Herb River while G3 and I were unwinding in the cockpit.

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Sea Fever's new crew member preparing to drop the anchor

Today was a bit eventful, with Sea Fever's engine overheatiing resulting in  slower pace rhan plan for about half the day. But we made it to our planned desti ation, Herb River, and G3 put on his lifejacket, attached himself to the jack line and went forward to prepare the anchor as we rounded the entrance to the anchorage.

Once at anchor Tom came over to help check out the cooling issue for the engine Apparently it was caused by something fouling the sea water intake. However, while we were inspecting the strainer we discovered that the water pump is dripping and will need to be replaced once we get back to Charleston.

Ominous sky -Kilkenny Creek, GA 6.5.12

After getting hit by fairly severe storms and high winds while we were anchored in New Teakettle Creek Monday afternoon, we decided we'd stop a bit early on Tuesday after Compass Rose saw the radr images for the area we were approaching. We had just gotten the anchors secured in Kilkenny Creek when the rains came. Luckily they were much less severe than the previous night. However, the skies remained pretty ominous until after the sun went down.

G3's first sunset from 'the middle of nowhere' - Wally's Leg Creek, GA

G3 stayed up to watch the sunset last night and asked if we were in the middle of nowhere si.ce we couldn't any houses.

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Sea Fever is no longer single handed 6.3.12

Today my son met us at Jekyl Harbor Marina and dropped off my grandson, G3. He will help me bring Sea Fever back to Charleston.

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Cumberland Island wild horses

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-----Original message-----

From: "amlange@aol.com" <amlange@aol.com>
To: amlange.seafever@blogspot.com
Sent: Mon, Jun 4, 2012 09:32:06 GMT+00:00
Subject: Cumberland Island wild horses

The run to Cumberland Island was short, under 2 hours but we were fighting the tide. Luckily we had favorable winds helping us alnong the way.
As we approached the anchorage we saw a group of the local wild horses and thru the day we watched as they worked their way up the beach grazing on whatever they found there.
There were also a group of dolphins ciircling and splashing off and on during the late afternoon.


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early morning sky at Fernandina 6.1.12

Beautiful morning sky..then the clouds got thicker.
We have only a 6-7 mile run today, leaving Florida behind, crossing Cumberland Sound into Georgia, and anchoring off Cumberland Island. Breeze is nice out of the west (at least now) so we should be able to motor sail again.

Barquentine Peacemaker at Fernandina marina

This is an interesting 150' vessel owned by a "community" that sails the world and participates in many tall ship events.  Interesting story with groups of family members, including, children running the ship. Tom and I took the tour.