February 19 – March 18, 2026

After another road trip to TX and IL, we are back at the boat. Winter in FL has been enjoyable, but it is time to start voyaging northward. Our target is Charleston for a planned haul out on March 17 at Cooper River Boatyard with Zimmerman Marine doing the work. A list of items such as recaulking, house battery replacement, debugging a fresh-water leak in bilge, adding roof lights for the stern and adding boat name to the bottom of the dinghy boat will be completed.

We revisit our favorite marinas heading north starting with Conch House in St Augustine.  We tied a line to a piling when the tide was high. When the tide fell it put stress on what we discovered was a rotten piling. Uh-oh. Dock Master was alerted and it was decided to “remove” the piling. Here is a video of how it was accomplished.

Our slip is between two sailboats. The birds are not happy we have moved into their territory. The tall mast and rigging are their favorite hangout and we have intruded. They have this territory clearly marked and are wondering why we have disobeyed the aviary overlord.

The bird population make themselves known.

We get the message that our boat could look like this one if we don’t cooperate!

We are watching for a weather window but the winds and waves even in the marina are not supporting our departure!

Weather looks good for departure on March 2. Not long after setting sail we pass by our old friend American Liberty cruise ship. Us small boats move to the side and let her pass under the bridge.

As we get closer to Jekyll Island (our target for today), it sure looks like a fog bank in the distance. The winds are picking up in a straightaway on the ICW building waves (known as “fetch”). This certainly was not in the forecast!

Fog it certainly was. Given we were in the ICW were in a channel. We put our running lights on and sounded the horn every 2 minutes. This is intense. Suddenly a flock of birds starts following us and squawking. Our assumption is this flock was sent by the aviary overlord to remind us not to return to their turf.

Shortly after we arrive at Jekyll Island after an 80 mile voyage and we are exhausted. Fog doesn’t clear up so we stayed two days. Kilkenny is our next stop for another two day stay. It’s so calm and quiet here, an off the grid type place. We waited for the fog to clear a bit before shoving off and enjoyed what else, watching more birds.

Palmetto Bay Marina in Hilton Head is as nice as we remember it. Two on site restaurants, self-service diesel where we are docked, great dock master, free laundry and decent rest room/showers. We walk to Social Bakery to get our favorite crumble cheesecake (and a few extras for the boat freezer)! After a week-long stay we start for Charleston Harbor via the outside Atlantic Ocean route which is more direct and faster. Downside is possible waves and a rough ride. We do not get far from the dock when a heavy fog sets in and somehow, we lost our autopilot calibration. It would be a very long day trying to manual steer the boat. Sigh. We wait out the fog then initiate the autopilot wizard setup software. We have lost a couple hours of clock time but proceed on with better visibility and autopilot functioning. It is a Saturday and the pleasure craft boat population out enjoying the water is heavy along with commercial ships and tankers. We are very happy to dock and be out of the harbor. On arrival, the shore power pedestal is not working. After trying a couple different pedestals, the dock hand had us convinced it was an issue with our boat. Turns out a transformer at the marina had blown and there was a small fire. One whole section of the marina was without power. We opted to stay on generator rather than motor over to a different section of the marina.

While we were here a BRAND NEW boat pulled in on the other side of the finger dock from us. It is a Scout fishing vessel. Apparently one of the largest and most luxurious outboard-powered sportfishing yachts in the world. The owner was accompanied with a crew. Contractors were also present to install new strata glass enclosure in high winds. Shocking the only fenders were sized for a small runabout type boat. High winds had this vessel slamming into the dock. And note our little boat peeking out behind this huge vessel!

We arrive at Cooper River Boatyard on time for our scheduled haul out on March 18.