Cape Lookout, NC

This was a beautiful anchorage.  We had to traverse some crazy waves getting out of Beaufort Inlet but had smooth sailing the rest of the way there. The lighthouse was closed the days we were there visiting but we enjoyed the lighthouse museum and the ocean beach.
Paul taught the kids how to body surf and they loved it.
We woke the next day to dolphins all around us.  Must be a great place to catch fish.

We are visiting Oriental, NC now and then moving on to Ocracoke, NC next.

Hair Cut

Nicholas surprised us yesterday afternoon by announcing it was time to cut his hair. Samantha then decided she also wanted a trim and her bangs cut. Here are the latest pictures.

Carolina Beach, NC

We spent a few days here and found a lot going on. They have fireworks every Thursday and ice cream shops everywhere. It's the beach.
They also have a doughnut shop that is awesome. Watch out Krispy Kreme, Britt's Doughnuts are out of this world.
Yum!

Working up the east coast

We left St. Augustine intending to go all the way to Charleston, SC. Problem was my (Staci) new sea sickness medicine required an hour pre- trip time to activate. Mom always told me if all else fails read the directions. Well one hour too late. Oh well, there went dreams of Charleston. We stayed over in St. Catherine's then left the next day for Charleston.
The Charleston Harbor was extremely busy that Saturday morning. We came into the harbor before sunrise and were inundated with fishing boats heading out to sea. The harbor was so choppy we didn't dare try to dinghy anywhere so left the next day for Cape Fear.
What an appropriate name for this inlet. With wind against an outgoing tide we struggled in before daybreak to find a nice, peaceful anchorage in Southport, NC. Today we are in Wilmington and going to visit the big battleship tomorrow. We are all looking forward to our time. Pictures to follow soon.

Under Way Going North

We are trying to get north fast. It is hot and humid. A bad combination when you don't have air conditioning.
Meanwhile the kids are experimenting. What Legos float or sink.

Back in the U.S.

We are anchored in St. Augustine after a long sail from Double Breasted Cay in the Abacos. After saying goodbye to Sara and Tom we made our way west stopping at a few remote cays along the way and waiting for the rain to stop. Finally on Saturday it looked good and we spent the day at Double Breasted Cay before pulling up the anchor and heading across the Little Bahama Bank at 7:15 p.m.

Double Breasted turned out to be one of the nicest cays we visited in all of the Bahamas. It had a huge white sandbar that dried out at low tide which was surrounded by little mangrove islands. I had been looking for conch the whole time we were in the Bahamas and finally found one that was old enough to take on our last day. We made conch salad with it which I ate on our sail back.

It  took us 41 hours to get to St. Augustine from Double Breasted which is actually pretty fast.We were figuring on 48 hours. In the Gulf Stream we were traveling at 12 knots with our spinnaker flying which is probably the fastest a Morgan 41 has ever moved. They are not known for their speed.

Sunday at 6:00 p.m we were about 40 miles off Daytona Beach and listened to the weather forecast that   said there was a good chance of squalls through the night with a lot of lightning and winds to 50 kts. so we made the decision to turn toward St. Augustine instead of continuing to Charleston. Turns out we would have been fine continuing on but it was nice to get into port and St. Augustine is a great city.

We are going to hang out here until we have good sailing wind to get back out into the ocean and continue up the coast. We want to get north as quickly as possible to avoid the heat and mosquitos. When we are anchored the boat usually stays cool as long as we can have all the ports and hatches open but when the breeze dies the mosquitos come out and the boat is a bit stifling.

Momma organizing Legos

Daddy and Nicholas on the sandbar at Double Breasted Cay

We were on TV!

Paul's cousin Nick is a host on a television show called Right This Minute and they did a little story on us. Here is a link to it:http://www.rightthisminute.com/video/simplifying-your-life-abate-family-way

We are saying goodbye to Sara and Tom today as they have to get back to Seattle. We've really enjoyed them being here and can't wait for their next visit, maybe up in New England toward the end of the summer. Today we'll do a little provisioning and head northwest toward Great Sale Cay to wait for a window to cross back to the States. There is the chance of a tropical storm forming in the Gulf of Mexico later in the week so we will just wait it out and go when it looks good. If we have 3 or 4 days of favorable weather we will get as far north as we can before heading into port. Hopefully we'll make Savannah or Charleston but if we don't get the window we'll just cross to Fort Pierce,Fl and jump up the coast in hops. We want to avoid the Intracoastal Waterway as much as we can because it starts to get a little tedious motoring and waiting for the bridges to open.

Our time in the Bahamas has been awesome and the past three months have really flown by. We're looking forward to our trip up the East coast through the summer and then back here by next winter.

Our last day here.  A great time was had by all.

We won't have any internet access until we get back to the states so this is our last post from the Bahamas.

Sara,Tom,and the kids at Coco Bay