On Monday, October 24 we rented a one way UHaul Truck from Oak Ridge, TN to Osprey Marina in Myrtle Beach, SC. We only had about 3 dock cart loads of items in the truck. The truck was available while a rental car one way was not. When we got to Osprey Marina we unloaded a few of the items and slept on Aisling Nua. It was nice to be on the boat.
On Tuesday we put the last items on the boat and went grocery shopping at Lowe's the food market for fresh food and an ice cream cake. On Wednesday, October 26 we did a few items and had a boat naming at 5:00. We had asked all of the marina employees and the live-aboard residents to join us for the ceremony. We wanted to be sure that all of spirits of the water knew who Aisling Nua is. This Rosbourgh had been named "Last Toy" in Farmer Cay, Bahamas and "Annie M" in Michigan. She is now known as Aisling Nua, which means New Vision.
Travel Day 2, Thursday morning, October 27 (our first travel day was taking Aisling Nua from Little River, SC where we bought the boat to Osprey Marina) We had breakfast. At 8:30, our live aboard friend, Bob, helped us with our lines, and we left Osprey Marina. The marina had been a great place to work on our boat but it was time to leave if we were going to get to Oak Ridge and the Tennessee River before it was really cold and winter time.
This day we went 101.1 miles to St. James Yacht Basin, Charleston, SC, mile marker 450+ on the Intracoastal Waterway. We saw dolphins as we were leaving Myrtle Beach, SC.
Barbie has driven over 6000 miles on the ICW and into Canada and on the Great American Loop into many locks and marinas. However, that was with two different boats that had inboard diesel engines. A single outboard gas motor is different. Getting out of our slip at Charleston the current caught our boat and we were pushed into the boats on either side. The anchor of the boat on our starboard (right) side got caught in our bow pulpit. Hopefully only minor damage was done to either of the boats. We gave the marina our insurance information and haven't heard anything from them.
Travel Day 3 Friday, October 28
We arrived at Lady's Island Marina in Beaufort, SC by 5:40. We went 64 miles. Traveling to Lady's island Marina the batteries were not getting charged. We ended up using Jeff's phone as our chart.
Travel Day 4 Saturday, October 29
Arrived at Hilton Head Harbor Town Yacht Basin by 2:00 pm . This is a condo/marine with MANY EXPENSIVE yachts. We were given a bottle of wine. We again experienced loss of voltage on House Batteries which are two flooded cell type 24. Jeff removed the batteries and we took an Uber to West Marine (8 miles away), took 2 dead batteries and bought 1 AGM type 27. Jeff got the battery installed by 6:00 pm and everything put away so that we were eating dinner by 7:00 pm.
Travel 5 Day 5 Sunday, Oct. 30
Barbie had no difficulties getting out of slip. She is beginning to learn how to drive successfully with the outboard motor. We saw a couple of dolphins. We tried to use the autopilot but it wasn't working correctly. By noon the house batteries were not working and the new battery was nearly dead! We docked at Thunderbolt Marina. We took an Uber to West Marine and bought a new starting battery AGM group 35 and a new battery charger. Concerned that the new AGM we had bought the day before might be ruined because it had been deeply discharged luckily was not ruined.
Travel Day 6 Monday, Oct. 31 (Halloween) Isle of Hope Marina
Barbie docked at the gas dock beautifully. However, when trying to get into the slip the current kept pushing the boat away. Luckily there were no other boats around. On the third try the dockhands really helped and we were docked.
Jeff was perplexed as to why the house batteries kept discharging. We had replaced all of the batteries and the battery charger. He finally looked at fuses and found one that had blown.
After lunch we took the marina's complementary loaner car to West Marine and luckily they had the necessary fuse we needed. We also went to Kroger for a few items. Jeff replaced the fuse. Barbie washed clothes and we watched a lot of kids trick or treating at a large Southern house near the marina.
Travel Day 7 Tuesday, Nov. 1
Beautiful sunrise. Left the dock at 8:00 am with NO ISSUES. Turned on the cruise control at 9:00 am. Batteries performing correctly as well as the cruise control. We had a non-eventful cruise (the BEST kind). Docked at 4:30 after traveling 92.2 miles to Jekyll. The transient dock is a very LONG dock. We were arriving at slack tide. Barbie had NO problem docking. Looking forward to taking the complimentary gulf cart to town in the morning. We enjoyed a nice supper of fried egg plant and rice.
Jeff had noticed a message that one of the boat's monitoring gages gave us that we needed to check oil. After figuring out how to get the motor housing off, the oil appeared to have too much oil. We decided that we should have routine maintenance done. After calling around and getting information about a good Yamaha maintenance marina we got an appointment for routine maintenance at Sadler Point Marina. Because of the concerns about maintenance we did not use the gulf carts.
Travel Day 8 Wednesday, Nov. 2
Barbie was concerned about getting away from the dock. The current was rather strong and we were between two large. The dock hands told us to turn the wheel INTO the dock and go forward. (They held the line - this would turn our stern away from the dock and it would get pushed by the current.) Once the stern was away from the dock being pushed by the current, then put the engine in reverse and back out. This worked BEAUTIFULLY!
We had lovely, sunny weather! High near 80. We were in our slip at Sadler Point Marina by 5:00 pm. We went 77 miles. Tomorrow Aisling Nua will be hauled and will get engine maintenance.
Barbie made porkchops and sliced potato with mushroom soup for supper.
In Port Thursday, Nov. 3
They didn't finish all of the work (waiting for a part) so we stayed on Aisling Nua on the land. There was a very nice taco place right at the marina.
Travel Day 9, Friday, Nov. 4
We were put back in the water at 7:35 am so that a 50 ft. boat could get hauled out because they had prop problems.
By 1:45 we had gotten fuel and pump out at Lamb's Yacht Center (under a railroad bridge about 1/4 mile away) and on our way.
Very nice cruise. The current was pushing us and the wind was pushing into u.s
By 4:50 we were docked at a free peer on Sisters Creek with wind speed of 16 -17 mph. Barbie did a very nice docking. Had supper of stir fry chicken with rice.
Travel day 10, Saturday, Nov. 5
9:00 am on our way. Used our 25 hp kicker motor for 45 min. Went about 7 mph with kicker. Since it was Saturday we had more boat traffic. We experienced some HUGE boat wakes that made Aisling Nua ROCK and would have sent things flying except we put things away.
We traveled 24.7 miles to Marineland.
Travel day 11, Sunday, Nov. 6 (time change to standard time)
Before we left the marina we got a pump out. This was our first experience getting an in-slip pump out. They bring the machine to the boat.
Wind was 15 mph. Experienced some large boat wakes since it was a Sunday and many boats out. Arrived at Halifax Harbor Marina in Daytona Beach. Went 35.5 miles. This is a LARGE marina. They have an employee in a little skiff that leads you to your slip and then the employee ties your boat up. Nice quiet night. One of the workers, Coach, gave Jeff about 8 Budweiser's. Also bought some nice note cards.
Travel day 12, Monday, Nov. 7
A storm will be coming to Florida this week. We went 48.2 miles in 5 hours 45 min. We saw winds speeds of 25 mph on our port (left) side. We were rocking over the waves. Very glad that the auto pilot was working and house battery was being charged. The waves really got big around 1:00. Jeff got a salad but Barbie didn't get her salad made because it was too bumpy.
We got to Titusville Marina around 3:00 and had an Enterprise rental car a little after 4:00. By 5:00 Jeff was washing the boat getting rid of the salt and also washing the engine out. We will stay at this marina until Saturday, after the storm is passed. Saw a manattee swim under the boat while Jeff was flushing the motors with water.
Tuesday, Nov. 8 - Election Day
Jeff and I had done early voting in Oak Ridge before we left.
We both woke up around 4:50 am and watched the eclipse of the moon for about 40 min until it was gone.
The storm was becoming a very LARGE tropical storm named Nicole. It was predicted to cross the whole state of Florida and turn north. In preparation for the storm we used the rental car, went to West Marine and bought more dock lines and put them on Aisling Nua. We decided we needed even more dock lines so bought lines by the foot at the Marina. We also reserved a motel for Wednesday night, November 9. We felt that Aisling Nua was as secure and safe as we could make her.
When Jeff was getting off Nua, he tripped on one of the lines holding the boat. He almost fell into the water between the boat and the floating finger peer. He did NOT fall into the water but fell on the concrete pier near a cleat. He received a slight elbow scrape and hit his right side pretty hard! We were thankful that he didn't break a leg or arm.
Wednesday, Nov. 9 Hurricane Nicole arrives in Titusville
The storm was not expected until Wednesday evening. We contacted our grandson, Alex, who is going to University of Central Florida (UCF) in Orlando. We made arrangements to visit him and the campus. It was less than an hour travel time by car. We had a nice time with him and his roommates/friends. We enjoyed a breakfast together. We were experiencing some rain squalls but nothing bad.
The storm picked up with more wind and rain during the night. The hurricane made landfall just south of us and the most damaging winds of the northern quadrant hit our location. We were glad that we spent Wednesday night in a motel! Sometime before dawn a sheet of aluminum siding blew off the motel in front of our window and car. It was scary -- winds were about 75 miles with gusts 84 mph.
Thursday, Nov. 10
We ate breakfast at Denny's. We returned to Aisling Nua around 11:00 am to find that everything was fine with her. However, the marina did not have electrical power. We ate lunch on Aisling Nua and stayed on the boat Thursday night. Jeff had a lot of pain on his right side. We were planning on leaving the marina and continuing our cruise on Friday.
Friday, Nov. 11
As we got into the car to do last minute errands and return the rental car, Jeff said “Barbie, you’ve got to take me to the ER”. We had been to this ER a few years ago when we were camping and Jeff had a tick bite. Barbie couldn’t believe WHY he needed to go to the ER. He had been acting fine, experiencing some pain, but nothing that she felt was bad enough for the ER.
We went to the ER and were there from 3:30 - 9:30 pm. Most of that time we were waiting. Jeff had an X-ray and a CAT scan and the doctor told him he had 2 broken ribs! That evening we. debated rather to have Aisling Nua hauled and we would continue our cruise back to Tennessee in the spring, have her trucked back to Tennessee or just continue on our trip.
Travel Day 13, Saturday Nov. 12
The next morning we decided to continue on our trip. We returned the rental car, released our lines with the help of another boater, got fuel and pump out and were on our way from Titusville by 11:00. It was a sunny day with light wind.
As we passed Canaveral Barge Canal mile 885 on the Intracoastal Waterway, we crossed our outbound starting point from Aisling Gheal of March of 2018. We cruised to Melbourne Harbor 41 miles. Jeff did well.
Travel Day 14, Sunday, Nov. 13
Going to Ft. Pierce 47 miles. Mostly sunny, calm winds. On our way by 8:40 am. Non-eventful day. In our slip at 2:00 after getting fuel. Nice cruise. Ate aboard Aisling Nua.
Travel Day 15, Monday, Nov. 14. Beginning 4th week from leaving home
We were on our way to St. Lucie by 8:00 am. Sunny, calm wind. 66 degree. We would go through our first lock on this part of our cruise with Aisling Nua. We were at the lock by 12:00 noon. We waited 1 1/2 hours for the lock! Tow Boat US was also waiting for the lock. Barbie practiced maneuvering Aisling Nua backwards during the wait. We had reservations just on the other side of the lock at the St. Lucie Corps of Engineers park. This will begin our cruising in territory that we had never cruised before.
