Charleston

                                                       Charleston City Marina




We have had a couple of great days in Charleston, all of us falling in love with this beautiful place. It is one of the prettiest cities we have visited, and the people are extremely friendly and helpful.
The houses are amazing, many of them several hundred years old. You can walk around for hours admiring the old cobblestone streets and one mansion more impressive than the other.
The first day here we did a horse carriage tour of town, that was a great way to learn some of the history and get to know the place.

                                                 Horse carriage tour of Charleston




In a couple of days we continue North, passing Cape Fear and  Cape Hatteras. 
The Outer Banks as this area is called are notoriously known for being the graveyard for ships in the Atlantic, there are many shallow sandbars that are miles offshore and constantly shifting.  And many many shipwrecks!
We have been waiting for a good weather window for this passage,  but  it looks like we have to wait until the end of the week before leaving. And Charleston is not a bad place to spend a few more days.

                                                          Beautiful Old house in the South of Broad quarters

                                                                             The colorful houses in Rainbow Row

Fort Lauderdale & St Augustine

 

                                            Arriving in Ft Lauderdale


We arrived in Ft Lauderdale on the 15th of June after a nice and calm overnight sail from the Bahamas.
When we got to the marina Mike was already waiting for us, and we all went out to celebrate our arrival.
It felt sooooooooooo good to be back in the US, and we were all totally overwhelmed by the variety of food, shopping and everything else. After spending the last 3 years in the Caribbean it is great to be back in the civilized world!
It was our plan to spend 4-5 days in Ft Lauderdale and then continue North, but tropical storm Debbie was lurking around us so we just had to wait it out.
Sam and Andrew decided to leave us and start their road trip thru the states, so they rented a car and said goodbye to us after 5 days of eating and shopping and having fun with us in Ft Lauderdale.
In the marina next to us we found our friends Brent and Amanda and their little daughter Zara, we had not seen them since we left Barra de Navidad and it was great to spend some time with them. And Amanda is a great chef, so we had some delicious dinners together.

                                                    Tropical storm Debbie over the Hall of Fame Marina


We never felt the full power of tropical storm Debbie, but for more than a week it was dark, rainy and windy, and a few nights we had more than 30 knots of wind. It felt good to be in a marina and not out to sea in this weather.

                                                       The beautiful beach in Ft Lauderdale


When the weather cleared up we were ready to continue North, and after spending two and a half weeks in Ft Lauderdale we said goodbye to our friends and left the marina early in the morning, hoping to arrive in St Augustine the next afternoon.

Leaving Ft Lauderdale, the 17th Street Bridge opening for us

The gulf stream was very helpful and we kept a speed of about 9.7 knots all the first day, but then the current suddenly stopped in the middle of the night. This meant that we arrived at the St Augustine inlet after dark the next day, so we spend the whole night going around in circles in front of the channel. It is too dangerous to enter at night, due to shifting sand banks that can't be seen in the dark and a very narrow channelNext morning at 6:30 we entered the channel, waited for the bridge to open and found our mooring ball right in front of the center of town.
We spend the first day exploring this charming old town, and have decided to stay here and celebrate Independence day before we continue to Charleston.

                                The view from the mooring field in St Augustine, the oldest city in the USA.