S/V Stella Blue: Southern Progress

We left Beaufort, SC (pronounced Bu-fort versus Bo-fort, NC) and anchored in Skull Creek just on the north side of Hilton Head. From there, we made our way out the inlet to the Atlantic the next morning during slack tide and plotted a course to St. Simons Island to visit relatives. The seas were relatively calm at an average of 2 ft, but sleep was limited since there were so many boats around us and we were keeping a vigilant watch (by “we”, I mean Baxter, Molly AND Kala).

Coincidentally, as we were coming into the St. Simons Inlet at sunrise, we passed within ¼ mile of “Margareta” – our friends Bill and Margaret from Northwest Creek in New Bern. We had last seen them about a week before in Wrightsville, NC. As they passed we talked on the radio about our individual plans for the next couple weeks and traded “Fair Winds” greetings hoping to see them further south, as they will be in the Bahamas as well. In St. Simons, we were lucky enough to spend time with Baxter’s Uncle Jimmy and his aunt Sarah. They picked us up for lunch, met us for dinner and showed us around the island. We also managed to squeeze in an oil change, two loads of laundry and some boat cleaning. Whew! Considering we had two hours of sleep during the passage, we were pretty tired.

Though marinas have their advantages – I prefer to anchor or moor. I hate spending the money to be plugged in and I feel so much better when we are just left to our own devices on the hook. Kala pretty much hates most dock hands too, which makes the decision easy for us.

The next day of sailing was the best yet since we’ve been back to the boat. We left St. Simons for a 40 mile trip offshore down to Cumberland Island. Expecting the winds to be on the nose, we actually got a close reach with winds at 12 knots and a boat speed up to 7 knots. We anchored off the north side of the island and as we were putting on the snubber, saw Ted, Maggie and Chessie from "Sunday’s Child" pull up in the dinghy. We had met them in Beaufort, SC and their dog Chessie is Kala’s twin, only 6 years older. After they pulled up, Ted offered to give us a dinghy ride to shore and Kala decided that Cumberland Island was the best place in the whole world. She loved running with Chessie and she loved the dinghy ride and there were no dock hands near our boat – life doesn’t get much better!

Once ashore, we met Mike and Sara on “Tanqueray” from Portland, Or. It was great to exchange stories about each other’s boats, the trip so far, and talk about places to possibly meet up again further south.

Though it has been said many times– it is more apparent every day that our journey, not the destination is truly the adventure. Some people plot a course for a location and are determined to be there in x days. If we did that, we would have missed all the wonderful places and people (and hard lessons learned) so far. This blog helps me remember those special moments that could never be planned and gets me excited to even consider what’s ahead.