Life On Orion

 We had a nice relaxing morning at anchor this morning and then untied from Steve and Kathy and we all made our way north on the ICW to just outside of downtown Savannah. This marina is right on the river which is part of the ICW and they have ferocious currents here as well as a 9 foot tide!! 😳 We docked at the fuel dock on a side tie for a pump out and almost couldn’t get off the dock, even with thrusters to move to our overnight tie. Tom did the fanciest maneuvering  I have ever witnessed and slid us in between two other boats on the dock without hitting a darn thing!!  LOL! The bad thing is - we aren’t sure how we are going to get off the dock and out of here with other boats so close.  The marina had the looper behind us move his boat way back to give us room, and when we returned to the boat tonight, there is a small power boat docked 3 feet off our stern.  Sort of defeats the purpose of moving the bigger boat… We will see what the current and wind is doing in the morning before

 We were able to leave St. Simons Island today with w fully functional engine/water pump and tonight are anchored out in the middle of nowhere! Steve found the anchorage on his charts and all I know is that we are 26 nautical miles from Savannah and anchored in the shallows of some river….  We are rafted up to Steve and Kathy so if there anchor doesn’t hold we’re toast!  LOL!  It is the most serene, peaceful place to be - we had docktails up on our flying bridge tonight and watched at least a dozen dolphins playing and fishing in the water beside our boats.  Life doesn’t get much better than this and I realize every day how lucky we are to be living it. Poor Dewey got seasick today. He has been so good with all the wild rides he’s had, but today we were crossing our third and last inlet of the day and the wind and current were pushing the boat around pretty good.  We heard this loud, mournful howling and then it happened… He threw up all that was in his tummy and then seemed to feel be

 It was a good day - the new water pump arrived via FedEx at 9 am and Steve and Tom had it installed and working within 3 hours.  It appears that was the issue and all is running well.  We will attempt to leave here again tomorrow morning and hope to get further this time! LOL! Kathy and I took the rental car and made stops at Target, Ross and Old Navy before stopping at a wonderful General Store near the marina.  It’s a cross between an upscale grocery and unique gift shop.  I’ve never been in a store like that - Kathy found it while looking at things to do here. We took Steve and Kathy out to lunch as a thank you for helping us with the water pump and then I worked on re-doing marina reservations while Steve and Tom returned the rental car. BLT’s for dinner and now it’s time to relax for our last night here.

 Well, today did not go as planned…. We have been having a slight leak of antifreeze from our engine, and then it went from annoying to worrisome yesterday.  Tom worked on troubleshooting and it was unclear as to whether progress was made.  We left the dock this morning at 8 am behind Steve and Kathy and 5 minutes into the trip Tom went down to the engine room to see what was happening.  We were losing large amounts of antifreeze into the bilge and it was not a safe situation to continue traveling.  We returned to the dock, tied up and Steve and Kathy returned also. Many phone calls and consults later, it looks like our water pump for the engine is bad and needs replacement. Anyone who has dealt with supply chain issues lately knows that is scary, but somehow Tom found one in Texas that is being overnight FedEx’d to us here at the marina and we should have it tomorrow morning.  Steve and Tom are pretty confident they can swap out the pumps, so that is the plan so far… Unexpected repair

 We borrowed the courtesy van from the marina this morning and got several errands out of the way. Tom dropped Steve, Kathy and me off at Publix and he went to the auto store to pick up some supplies and met us back there to help finish up the grocery shopping.  It was a two-cart affair today as we were out of most everything including water, coffee and soda.  It’s always good to stock up on the heavy stuff when you have a vehicle! The hardest, most time-consuming part of grocery shopping comes after you unload the car…. The hunt starts for marine carts - those big black bucket looking things with 2 large wheels, similar to a wheelbarrow. Once they are loaded up you need to navigate the ramps and endless stretches of docks to your boat, heave everything over the side of the boat, unpack and find space for all of it.  It’s often a 3 hour ordeal from start to finish and today was no exception! I will never take grocery shopping while living in a house for granted again… I had one load of

 We couldn’t leave Jekyll Island to move to St. Simons Island until the tide came up at least 3 feet, so we spent the morning taking a golf cart to the beach to collect sand dollars. The tide swing here is 7 feet, so there was a huge expanse of sand uncovered during low tide and there were literally hundreds of sand dollars of all sizes to be collected. All of these are covered up during high tide, so timing is everything.  Kathy and I each collected a large bag of them and now I have to go through the process of cleaning, bleaching and preserving them without breaking them.  I’ve always loved sand dollars and never knew where they could be found.  The beaches of Jekyll Island are known for them apparently. After a lunch at the marina restaurant and some farewell pets for Mo, we pulled out onto the water about 2:15 pm.  There was a known shallow portion of the ICW that we had to pass through, and without a rising tide we would have been grounded.  The lowest water we saw was 6 feet und

 We packed a lot into our day today - no wonder I’m tired! After breakfast Kathy, Steve and I borrowed a golf cart and drove to the Georgia Sea Turtle Center.  Tom stayed behind to work on a boat project. The sea turtle center is a combo educational and rehabilitation facility for the whole state of Georgia and we learned a lot. We went through the whole teaching exhibit, saw the surgery center, watched a recovering turtle being tube fed and then went to the area where the recovering turtles are in large pools and monitored to see if they can be released into the ocean or not. One large turtle was there recovering from a propeller strike on it’s shell and several were there for skin lesions or metabolic issues.  We got to observe feeding time as well. I almost forgot - before we ever left the marina we saw a big manatee swimming around the boats across from ours and we followed it down the whole row. I got some pictures and a great one of it’s face as it came up to look at me.  My firs

 We left Florida today and have entered Georgia - a new state for us! We left the free dock along with How Sweet It Is about 7:30 am and arrived on Jekyll Island GA at 2:00 pm.  It was less windy today, which was a relief, and the currents weren’t too bad. We are tied to the linear dock on the outside of the marina and have met several other loopers here besides the 4 of us. The island is a very fun tourist area and we were able to borrow one of the golf carts from the marina to drive around the island and stop for a bite of lunch.  We mapped out our plans for tomorrow over lemon drop martinis and now we have to hope we can get another golf cart tomorrow morning. The grounds are simple, but nice and clean.  There is a restaurant on site, swimming pool, hot tub and laundry.  And - a marina cat - an orange little girl! Of course I spotted the cat right away and she is so friendly! We washed all the salt off the boat and I was going to do laundry, but lost my focus - it will have to wait

 We were reunited with our good looper friends, Steve and Kathy, after a very long, bumpy day on the AICW. We turned into the St. John’s River and it was a welcome sight to see the two of them waiting on the free dock to catch our lines. The docking on the Sister Creek free dock was tricky with the wind and current, but Tom handled it like a boss and then there were lots of hugs when we were finally secured. We even started our happy hour a couple of hours early - because we could - and there was a lot of chatter getting caught up on the last 4 months.  Kathy graciously had dinner for us on her boat and it was just like old times coming down the rivers. After a great meal and a long day, we are ready to turn in. Madison loves it here - it’s quite rural with nice wide floating concrete docks and she can get off and on the boat all by herself.  She feels pretty smart trotting down the dock to do her business without a leash! There are several other looper boats on their dock with us, so

 I’m simply over this wind! I guess it could be raining also, so there is that to be grateful for… We had a long, winding trip today on the AICW with a lot of No Wake zones while going by private docks, lots of sailboats to pass and just as many fast trawlers passing us and so many sunken abandoned boats I lost count.  I had heard that it was a problem in Florida but I am shocked at how many and the prominent location of them.  Apparently it is a huge issue down here regarding what to do about them…. More dolphins swimming along with us, so that was fun! We stopped at a marina just before the one we are tied up in to take on some fuel - this marina is pretty basic and there is no fuel sold here.  We are tied up on a t-dock right at the entrance of the marina, and I thought we would get rocked all night, but it’s not bad. We are technically in St. Augustine, although the main part of the town is about 15 miles up the road. The beach is directly across the highway from the marina and dog

 The wind continues to howl, but we managed to get out of our marina early and stayed in protected waters most of the day.  Theme for the day was bridges - lots of them.  Most we could fit under, but a few we had to ask for an opening and then wait until either it was scheduled or the bridge tender decoded traffic on the road was light enough. The other discovery I have made is that development in Florida is continuous all the way up the coast.   Such big impressive homes with beautiful grounds to go with them. Our marina is nice, but a little odd in that not many people seem to actually be on their boats.  The town is nice and the street with all the shops and restaurants is only 2 blocks from the marina. We wandered around there after tying up the boat and found a great happy hour deal. $5 margaritas!  After dinner we took Madison for a walk and discovered a few fun facts about Smyrna Beach.  It is the shark bite capital of the world! Right across the road we went to a park where the

 What a wild ride to Cocoa Village Marina today with the fierce winds! If we hadn’t been traveling inside on the AICW, we would not have gone out, and it was pretty choppy even then.  The wind was out of the north, so that helped - we bounced, but didn’t roll.  LOL! The Dockmaster here did a phenomenal job guiding us in through the channel and helping us tie up in our slip.  The wind was pushing us into the slip so hard Tom had the boat in reverse the whole time to slow us down! We’re rocking pretty good, but I sleep well when we rock a little. The town is so cute and we took Madison with us to walk around the shops this afternoon and then Tom and I went to a nice dinner at an Italian restaurant 5 blocks from here that the Dockmaster recommended.  Now we have dinner for tomorrow night too! We hope the winds calm down enough for us to get out of the marina about 7:30 am and we will head north again.                                               Refurbished theatre where they have live p

 Steve and Julie left the boat early this morning to drive back to Naples and Tom and I left the dock by ourselves for the 5 hour trip to Vero Beach. It seemed strange to be alone - just the 2 of us - we hadn’t been on the boat alone sine Feb 1st when I had my accident.  Turns out we still have it and we did fine.  I’m able to do quite a bit around the boat now and we figured out how to work around what I cannot do. It was a perfect travel day and we went under 6 bridges, but only needed one to open for us. We got a pump out when we arrived at the marina then tied up at a long dock. We decided to walk the 5 blocks we were told to the beach where the shops and restaurants were and it was so much farther than 5 blocks! We finally got to the beach, found a place for some lunch and then walked on the beach for awhile.  Guess what? We took an Uber back to the marina! LOL! This evening we prepared for the trip tomorrow, took showers and changed the sheets on our bed. One of the most difficul

 What a strange and wonderful Easter Sunday this was. We got up and put our best boat clothes on, called an Uber and went to Easter service at a Lutheran church about 3 miles from here.  It was a “Hoovervillesque” experience to say the least and I hardly know where to begin to tell you what it was like.  The people, and let’s be honest, most of them were elderly woman - very few men, were very welcoming and friendly and we had lots of time to chat because we got there very early.  We thought we might have to get a seat early, but there were 31 people in the sanctuary - Tom counted… Turns out that their actual membership is 17 people.  SEVENTEEN!! The church was in bad shape until the Catholic Church down the street closed and those 5 people along with their Priest joined them.  The priest participated in the service and wore a huge head dress like a cardinal which confused me.  We had brunch with the members in the fellowship hall following the service and the priest sat with us.  He s

 We had a much needed day in port today and it felt wonderful.  After sleeping in and cooking breakfast there were showers all around and some lazing around on the boat. Then we walked to Publix which was just under a mile away to pick up a small ham to make in the crockpot for Easter dinner tomorrow. Tom and Steve ran the food back to the boat while Julie and I went downtown and along the waterfront.  The boys met us at a fun restaurant right on the water where we had drinks and appetizers. Stuart has a great boardwalk that follows the river and we took that route back to the boat. We were looking forward to seeing a sunset tonight from the flying bridge, but clouds moved in and there was nothing to see…