May 7th in the Alligator River We often wonder why it is called the Alligator River as we have never SEEN alligators here... but we always look! When last we wrote we were enjoying Charleston, one of our favorite cities, made all the more fun by having our daughter Andrea to guide us to the best places. This trip was no exception and we enjoyed both time out and about and time at her house watching movies and eating pizza. We anchored in the Ashley so didn't feel the financial pinch (marinas in Charleston range from $1.40 to $2 per foot [View Full Entry]

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Most of you know that we had an exciting period of gremlin chasing before we actually got underway to leave Georgia. It took Christian a couple of days to straightened out the radio problem. This is especially important since we use the radio to send and receive e-mail (including weather) when off shore or in anchorages where there is no WiFi. The transmission was dripping a bit and we decided we wanted that fixed before heading off shore, too. The aft shaft seal was replaced and that seemed to fix it. We spent a few more lovely days hiking on Cumberland [View Full Entry]

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Easter Monday & Tuesday When last we chatted things were looking much better: No tranny leaks and radio nirvana. Still prudence dictated a more serious test before making the "let's go" decision. We upped anchor and headed out against the current, towing the dinghy so we could put some serious effort on the engine and transmission. The good news was that the speed was normal. A powerboat friend had said a sure sign of serious transmission woe is if you cannot maintain normal speed. That would mean the transmission is slipping... "on the roof" as brother Tom would say when death [View Full Entry]

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Easter Sunday in St. Marys It is nice to say that progress has been made even though we are still in St. Marys! We have departed twice, of course... only to return because it was the sensible thing to do. We returned to St. Marys FIRST to get parts needed to make the SSB talk properly to the antenna tuner which is important for sending e-mail and for getting weather whenever we want it. The return involved an impressive grounding at super low tide but we got off quickly and Christian was off to Jacksonville while I went to the house [View Full Entry]

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I Wanda (a nicholson 40 pilothouse sloop built by Camper & Nicholson in 1979) re launched in early March after nearly a year and a half on the hard for a refit. After cruising full time for over 10 years and over 50,000 Nautical Miles we wanted to spruce up the interior and upgrade a lot of systems. We were excited to get launched and ready to cruise again. Launch went smoothly on March 2 and we had an uneventful trip to the dock in St. Marys so we could reload things that had been removed for the work. Gremlins [View Full Entry]

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