Feb 2 - 3, 2020 Florida Cruise

It was Feb 4 last year that we left for Florida and the Abacos, Bahamas trip so a year later and almost to the date, we left the dock at 12:27 on a rising tide with the sun shining, though it is cool. 

Leaving the Toogoodoo Creek

Bella, the 1st mate is along for this trip. 

It’s Super Bowl Sunday and our plan is to maybe catch some commercials at anchor somewhere on our way to Beaufort. 

We had all kind of plans for short trips to and around Charleston over the fall, but Summer Breeze has been tied to the dock since we returned from the Abacos last July except for a maintenance trip to Marine Propulsion in August.  She got some bottom paint, the stabilizers serviced, a thru hull seacock replaced on the sea chest, installed a dinghy davit brace, changed the zinc anodes and had her hull waxed. (Hmmmm...I would love to get serviced like that!) 

Jasmine's davit brace

During the fall, she also got new fender covers, the teal rails varnished, a bilge pump repair and bilge hi level alarms installed, a new Splendide washer/dryer, some leaky Racors rebuilt (which we hope was the cause of one of our generators shutting down), AND Jasmine’s motor got her carburetors overhauled (again).  

So off we go on our tour of the east coast of Florida, the Keys and over to the Gulf Coast. Thanks for tagging along! 

We only got as far as the Ashepoo River and we decided to call it a day at 4:00. We will be ready to go through the Ashepoo Coosaw cut and on to Beaufort tomorrow where we will fuel up. 

We had a quiet night, not much cell service so no hotspot for blog posting or tv streaming. We did get some antennae reception for regular tv but no super bowl. Bennett’s Point and B & B Seafood are right around the point. 

Our Mileage odometer started today at 1519

22 miles traveled today. 

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Feb 3,  Monday 

Anchor up at 8:40. It was a really quiet night with great protection from a westerly or n-westerly wind. 

We got to the Beaufort Downtown Marina which is now called Safe Harbor at 11:30. We took on 400 gallons of diesel, which took 1 1/2 hours and took Bella for a grass walk. It’s warm and beautiful today for the trip. 

We passed Hilton Head in the ICW and at 5:00 we stopped in one of our favorite quiet anchorages in Bull Creek off of Bull Island and Dafuskie Island. Tonight we study the weather and charts and decide whether we stay, go offshore tomorrow or go the ICW. There is some weather coming so we want to be ready for it.

49 miles today. 

71 miles total.