Last Leg - Life at 8 Knots

We worked our way through the Carolina,s averaging 8 knots when mother nature allowed. Traveling on water is like flying. You have water speed like airspeed, then mother nature adds or subtracts  to the environment. When you are flying it is all about wind speed and direction. If you have a wind blowing directly at you that wind speed will take away from your airspeed knot for knot. If from either side it will push you off course as well as subtract from your airspeed. If from behind, it will add to your airspeed. Water travel has the same characteristics when it comes to wind but also has the influence of water current which like wind, can alter your speed and course. The fun really begins when those influences of mother nature are conflicting. Wind pushing one way, current the other, who's winning.


Alex is an outstanding pilot. We would swap out every hour which worked out very well. Most of the inter coastal is deep enough for commercial traffic which means you share the waterway. Passing barges and tug boats can be intimidating. Meeting them at a bridge can create a pucker factor.


I will include a list later of all the places we stopped along the way. My crew would swap out along the way with the car driven from marina to marina and purchase supplies as needed. We got pretty good at planning and finding what we needed with Sonja doing most of the communications with marina reservations.

We swapped out crew members in Myrtle Beach just before the 4th of July with Alex flying home to prepare for his big family get together. A big thank you to Alex for his time and wisdom to get this adventure rolling. Sarah and Zack flew in the next day. The car was left at the airport and they caught up with us in Charleston, SC just in time for a night of fireworks and festivities. We celebrated Zacks birthday (the big 30) with a trip to one of the best BBQ houses on the east coast.

We managed to get through Georgia without running into any poop police. Georgia is one of the states trying real hard to regulate recreational boaters to keep them from dumping waste tanks in coastal waters. Of course big industry is still dumping billions of gallons of pollution into the waters every day but by golly they will stop those boaters from adding to it.

Zack was the most diligent fisherman I have seen in a while. He always had a line in the water trying new baits and tactics. Unfortunately trolling in the inter coastal at 8 knots did not prove to be an effective method. We stopped along the way and dropped anchor on occasion, swam, ate lunch and fished. I managed to feed a lot of worms to well deserving fish but never caught anything. Zack hooked a baby shark about a a foot and a half long but before he got it to the boat something bigger ate half of it. I mean clean bite like surgically dissected. We all stood there silently looking at this half a fish hanging on the hook. We decided we did not want to swim any longer and it was time to move on. Whatever ate that fish might still be hungry.

We passed through many draw bridges along the way. Some were railroad bridges. Zack and I were approaching a railroad bridge just outside Jacksonville FL and were discussing the fact that they were normally open but would shut when a train was approaching and how we would know if that was going to happen. Just then horns started blowing, lights were flashing and we were about 100 feet away. Panic filled the air, what do we do, what do we do, we started to reverse engines and get out of there when the bridge operator stepped out of his booth hollered at us and waved us through. Now we know what happens and what to do but what are the odds of that happening just then. God sure has a since of humor.


We all took turns at the wheel. It's a lot easier then you think. All you have to do is keep the boat on the chart plotter on the line drawn on the screen like a video game. You set the engine RPMs to the desired speed and don't touch them again. You have to watch the water to make sure you don't run into any logs or anything that can get caught in the propellers and that's it. Some of us enjoyed the job more than others but we all relaxed after a while and enjoyed the ride.

We finished the trip with a few R&R days at a marina in Jacksonville. Had a great pool and hot tub. Much needed after the last few weeks. Sarah and Zack flew out back to LA and Sonja and I put FIREFLY on the dry in Green Cove Springs Marina. Will go back first of October to prepare her for our first cruising season. We plan on continuing down the Florida coast to the Keys for our first season and get our open water legs and living at anchor experience before attempting a Caribbean cruise.

Sonja And I drove back to Co with a stop at my moms in Alabama and a few days with the grand kids in Arkansas. Went by the new house in Fairfield Bay. Cant wait to get moved.

On the Way

Well sorry for the delays but has been a VERY busy few weeks.

Got to Baltimore and worked on the boat for a few days getting it ready for the trip south. Splashed the boat (means we put it back in the water) on Saturday. Moved the boat to a local marina and worked on it for a few more days. Sonja's brother, Alex came in on Friday to help with the adventure. On Monday we had a very awesome visitor, Capt. Richard Warren, a certified instructor took us all out for a day of learning to be sailors. Out of all the money I have spent on this project, this was the wisest and most useful item so far. Captain Rich was an excellent instructor and we owe the success of this mission all to him, THANK YOU.

One last item to complete before the adventure begins. Our boat has to be renamed with the tradition and honor driven by centuries of superstition. Now you all know I am a Christian and there is only one true God but we are talking Neptune and Poseidon (Roman or Greek depending on your movie background) here. I did not want to take a chance. We got rid of the old name "Sunkist" (never to be mentioned again) and renamed "firefly" with all the pomp and circumstance required by law. It is done.

So, Tuesday morning, 6 am we are on our way south. Alex and I take off in firefly and Sonja in the car. Arrive 12 hours later at our marina just north of Norfolk, VA. A little pool time, some sleep and on the road again. By the way, I backed firefly into the slip like a pro, thank you Capt. Rich.

Next stop was on the Inter Coastal Waterway just south of Norfolk. Alex docked this time, like he had done it many times before, thank you Capt. Rich. A little pool time, nice dinner, little sleep and First Mate Sonja and I take the next leg 46 more miles down the ICW. Learned a lot about locks and draw bridges which we will be dealing with many times as this adventure continues.

By the way, Firefly is doing great. Those old Perkins turbo diesel engines are awesome. I still have a few things to sort out like the generator and propane and hot water but life is good.

Well that catches us up on the adventure so far. Will try to find time to keep you better informed but for now - it is what it is.

Greetings. A rough schedule is figured out at least till we get back in the water. Figuring out our day to day schedule will be impossible due to so many variables. Boating requires you to be very, very flexible. If there is too much rain you stay in port, too much wind you stay in port, waves too big you stay in port. Sometimes you just stay in port. Boating is tough.

Well looks like we are heading to Arkansas somewhere around June 12 and be there for Lincoln's birthday party on the 15th and Fathers Day on the 16th. Then rental car trek to Baltimore to put Firefly back in the water by the 20th so we can head south when Alex gets there on the 21st.
         Now in an ideal world we would simply throw a few constants in a few formulas and come up with an average speed of 8.4 knots and a fuel consumption of 2gph, plot that on a chart at 10 hours a day and wham-bam there is the route. OK now throw in current, wind, weather, traffic and you might be lucky to hit the first on time but do that for 10 days (computer predict in a perfect world) and you are Houdini. I'm not Houdini, I will be plotting day to day on where the next day will take us. So for the first day I hope to make it to just before Norfolk, VA

Well school is out for the summer, I officially retired, don’t really feel retired, just out for summer like usual. Won’t really feel it till August when I would normally go back to work.
Had a great send off from the folks at school. Will sure miss those guys.

Decided to sell the house in Colorado and move to Greer’s Ferry Lake in Arkansas to be close to the grand kids. It’s a beautiful clear lake with 340 miles of shoreline. Looking at houses right on the lake. The diving there is stellar so will keep me in shape for winter dives in the islands.

Right now working on the house to spiff up for buyers and figuring out schedule for heading to boat.