Happy Birthday Isabelle

We had a very nice 5 day weather window starting Wednesday afternoon to sail from Beaufort S.C. Preparations were made to sail to the Abacos in the Bahamas. I tried a weather service, Commanders, to assist in the passage planning as the expected transit time was 4 days, by far the longest we had ever undertaken. Commanders issued their report on Tuesday, confirming our view about the weather window, but noting a low pressure disturbance in the Caribbean to by wary of before crossing to the Bahamas, which was something that other weather reports were not covering.

We departed as planned Wednesday afternoon and had one of our best offshore passages, with wind aft of the beam at 5-10 knots. We flow our spinnaker throughout able to maintain about 6 knots average speed. During my middle of the night watch (1-3 am - Rae and I go two hours on 2 off) I down loaded the weather reports. The disturbance had organized into a tropical storm and was expected to strengthen to a hurricane, which it ultimately did becoming Paloma. The forecasted track included the Bahamas. We decided to abort our attempt to make the Bahamas as our likely arrival on Saturday was only two days ahead of the forecasted arrival of Paloma. We elected to come in at St. Mary's anchoring at Cumberland Island GA.

As we went ashore Thursday afternoon on Cumberland, Rae and I looked at each other and said - well this is pretty darn close to the Bahamas. Cumberland is a national park protected from development as a gift from the Carnegie family. There are several trails along the island, almost all sand, with oak,palm trees, Spanish moss, armadillos, wild horses, turtles and many different birds. The beach side facing the Atlantic is a beautiful powdery sand. We had not been in such a setting since Maine and it was very enjoyable.

We left Cumberland for a short trip up the St. Marys river to the town of St. Marys. A small village really with a nice park and waterfront area and another nice secure anchorage.

Beaufort S.C. was fun, the downtown area being almost entirely on the national historic register, was populated with many antebellum homes, absolutely stunning. There was no doubt you were in the south, with confederate flags lining the graves in the cemeteries and pace that was just a little slower and more enjoyable.

Isabelle turned 3 today. She is a budding princess, so I worry about the day she discovers I am not a king and therefore her anticipated lineage is not to be. Fun age though still innocent but understanding just a bit more each day.

----------
radio email processed by SailMail
for information see: http://www.sailmail.com