Our Story In a Nutshell

In 2003 , we began our labor of love and started to restore our CSY 44 sailboat,which we named Freedom. After 5 1/2 years of pure sweat, (Florida in July in a t-vac suit and full mask)some tears, endless reading and lots of leaps of faith, restoration was completed in January 2009. The rest of the story is unraveling as we learn to become the sailors we have always read about. Their inspiration has always lead us to new places...the real reson we started this adventure to begin with. We left from St. Petersburg, Florida in January 2009, sailed to Longboat key, then Useppa, St. James City, Cape Coral, Marathon, Rodriguez Key, Miami, then onto the Bahamas. In the Bahamas we sailed to Norman's Key, Shroud, Hawksbill, Warderick Wells, Black Point, Staniel Key, Spanish wells, Eleuthera, Little Harbor, Marsh harbor and then over to Beaufort North Carolina...up the ICW to Norfolk and finally we ended up in the Chesapeake Bay.

Monday, October 31, 2011

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...

Friday, October 14, 2011

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...