A National Treasure

We spent 2 nites anchored off of Cumberland Island, Georgia...we could not get enough of its natural beauty...it did not hurt that the weather was spectacular. We motored our dinghy about 5 miles to the North portion of the island, so we could get a tour of Plum Orchard. Plum Orchard is a mansion that Lucy Carnegie built for  her daughter, Margaret. It is well preserved and was a private home until 1972 when it was sold to the Park as a national treasure. It has 11 bathroom, 11 bedrooms, an indoor pool, indoor squash court.....The year it was built was 1918. A volunteer park ranger, living at the home gave us a wonderful tour of the interior. The house still has 3 gorgeous Tiffany hanging lamps worth about $50,000 each...plus a few original furnishing...There had ref rigeration and coal heat that was delievered thru pipes underneath the floor boards which was very new at the time.  I included a few pics  of the wonderful wild ponies that live throughout the island and also of the amazing live oak trees with the spanish moss hanging heavy on their branches.One curious point that was made to us was that the servants were definitely to be seen not heard...their living area was on a separate part of the house that was painted yellow...to be sure that if any visitors did any kind of "sleepwalking" they would know that they had traveled into the servants quarters....not to be confused with any other part of the mansion...the servants were from Ireland and Sweden...I wondered if that stopped any confusion?

Finding Warm Weather

We finally left Beaufort,Sc with our cruiser friend David on his boat Cloud Messenger, after 3 very patient weeks of waiitng for a good weather window to cruise South in the Atlantic to Cumberland, Island...on the Georgia/Florida border. The night was gorgeous to start with..15 knots of wind from the North, a Harvest moon that lit up the sky like a spotlight on our boat....then the cold started, it dropped to 37 degrees..a frost advisory on the NOAA website. The coldest nite for a very long time...Needless to say we had multi layers of clothing on...I had 7 layers...it makes it quite a challenge when you need to use the restroom.....getting bored is never an option, that's for sure. We made it into Cumberland at 7 in the morning...we took a nap immediately after a very cold sleepless nite. I sat in the 70 degree sun to warm and and the day got better and better. Cumberland Island is a national Park...you can only see the island by ferry or by private boat. It has been inhabited for thousands of years but from 1881 on it was develped by the Carnegies as a summer getaway...at one point they built homes for each of their children....their home "Dungeness" was burned to the ground in 1918..the ruins still remain today..see pic, the island has wild horses, wild turkeys, a gorgeous windswept beach that stretches for miles, acres of oak trees heavily laden with spanish moss..beautiful dunes, a private inn that you stay in called The Greyfield Inn...only $395-595 per nite(ferry included)...The island is about 18 miles long...too long to hike but we have to say it is quite a memorable place...Not a bad place to spend your summers....

Cruising South

We are now in Beaufort,Sc waiting for good weather to go outside in the Atlantic and down into the St Marys entrance for Cumberland Island....We have stops in Charleston,sc and lots of pretty anchorages along the shallow path of the ICW thru south Carolina...See pics from our stops along the way...

Cruising South 2011

We finally headed out from Solomons,Maryland on October 3rd. The weather for the next 5 days was blue skies and 15-20 knot winds. On day 6 we made it to Oriental, NC, where we were provided by our dear cruising buddy, David a free slip for the next 4 nites....The trip prior to Oriental was pretty uneventful except for a deer crossing the ditch portion of the ICW right in front our boat...the ditch portion where land is on both sides and you are navigating in a ditch with pine trees and lots of gorgeous tall grasses and usually no homes. ...The deer saw us as we approached and he swam faster and looked to be exhausted as he reached the opposite side. See pic attached...also a pic of the ICW ditch. We also had a private air show of two fighter jets as they did their exercises over Freedom...at one point they shot straight up into the air...what a thrill that must be. We got to Whiitaker CReek just south of the entrance of Oriental and preceed our scary ride into the marina area. We have a 6 1/2 ft draft and the channed shoals to 5 1/2 feet...we dredged a new channel for them.......The people were incredibly friendly and helpful...We left on this past Wednesday to take advantage of the higher water levels as we exited the channel to head to one of our favorite towns, Beaufort,NC....Again plowing thru the channel...lowest depth was 5 feet 6 inches...SCARY SHALLOW!!!We are presently in Beaufort with our great friends on Seafox awaiting David and his crew on Cloud Messenger...The winds are howling 25-30.....but the skies are blue....I also attached a pic of our boat tied off to two trees on the ICW at Great Bridge, VA....free dockage...a great Mexican food...at least it seems that way...maybe the comapany is always great...either way a good stop...

Heavy Seas In More Than One Way

Hurrican Irene left us in good shape...We, the royal we, got Freedom put to bed in a wonderful creek close to the Marina where it was empty of other boats, wide enough for lots of swing room and deep enough for our draft...then I stayed at a friends' house about 2 seconds away as the crow flies...John experienced 20-30 knots of wind and some gusts to 55... We are really glad this was all a non-event... I have to say that the day that preceeded Irene's arrival were quite stressful..I also have to report that our wonderful friend David more than survived his first experience of a hurricane right in Oriental, North Carolina..We have one picture of a motoryacht that anchored quite a ditance away from us but left the boat unattended...see pic. The other Heavy Seas I am discussing here is the Heavy Seas Brewery in Baltimore, Md....It actually started out as Clipper City Brewery a few years back back due to some great marketing it is now known as Heavy Seas...names like Loose Cannon, Peg Leg and Small Craft warning are some of the different brews. It is a small facility that is growing by 67% just this year...Awesome beer that even I,a rabid wine drinker deemed pretty damn good...

This Is What $1000 Looks Like

I know I said I would keep everyone updated on our adventures but when the adventures are land-based, you kind of feel like you are cheating. We have been very delayed in our cruising due to a exhaust manifold. We found out that the cast iron version that comes with our Perkins engine sloughs off inside the manifold thus eventually clogging the flow of water. After 34 years the clog was at the root of our overheated engine. John would go into the engine room and repair parts and replace parts that he thought were the culprit and then finally when all else was exhausted (no pun intended) he took out the manifold and saw what a mess it was. After a bit of research we found that a replacement would cost $1695....no discounts for us. Then we found one little blurb on a cruiser forum that talked about a marine exhaust manifold company in Alabama by the name of Mesa Exhaust Systems...for $1000 in satinless steel Mark would make to order a new one for us. It took about 3 1/2 weeks plus shipping but lo and behold we went out on Wed and it worked perfectly.. We will resume cruising in the Bay for the summer and mix a few land based adventures...Of course with all the chaos in the world today we know how lucky we are to just be sitting in a slip in Solomons, Maryland...By the way, the pics are from a festival in Baltimore and of course Republicans going to work on their sightseeing bus in Washington DC.......

Back On Freedom

Okay, we have been out of the blogging loop but we are back on Freedom now.....I will not even try to explain all our whereabouts for the last many,many moons. Some of the highlights was our nephew Westons' graduation from high school (great family get together),the Atlanta Aquarium and seeing the Petrified Forest in Arizona...The Petrified Forest is amazing...ever since I saw it as a little kid I wanted to go back to see it. It is definitely one of the last places in the United States where (when on Land) from horizon to horizon all you see is wide open spaces. The vastness is pretty overwhelming. The crazy part about being at the Petrified Forest is that we actually ran into a friend we had just met about 3 weeks earlier in Florida...it really is a small world.The Atlanta Aquarium was equally impressive...the largest aquarium in the world. It was built with private donations....100%. It hold 4- (19-24 foot) whale sharks, hammerhead sharks, manta ray, sting rays and 4 giant groupers about 7-8 feet long. They also have a separate aquarium with 4 beluga whales plus a penguin exhibition and of course dolphins. The coolest part of the aqauarium is the tube that you walk thru where the marine life swims above you... More adventures to follow ..of course water based....Still putting the boat back together...