|
Monday June 1, 2015 Editor's Note: Forest and Susan were spotted in the Newport Area on Thursday May 28. Saturday April 18, 2015 We have rented a mooring in Hopetown Harbor on Elbow Cay and will be based here for the month or so to meet folks on vacation. We activated our Bahama phone while in Marsh Harbor and you are welcome to use it to communicate with us, but know that we prefer email as the main way to keep in touch because calling the USA is quite expensive and adds up pretty quickly. You can still reach us using our "forestgolden@verizon.net" address and we will be able to download that at the internet cafes. We have cancelled the onboard internet access due to cost and our Winlink system is not yet usable. Forest would like to be able to work on his SSB system, but as usual, little things on board break, and that is where all his spare time goes. For now, we are safe at the mooring, and do not have to worry about dragging at anchor and now can concentrate on other things that need our attention. The new anchor, windlass and bow thruster are serving us well when we are out at anchor, but it is really very sheltered here in the harbor. And of course Mocha always wants to be played with and loves her dinghy rides to shore! Susan, Forest and Mocha the salty dog – yes, she fell off the dinghy this morning and got an unexpected dunking 242-458-4517 Thursday February 19, 2015 HI, We have reactivated our Amateur Radio address for your use while we are underway heading north and may not have Wi-Fi or Cell Internet service so you may use the following address: W1ZAR@WINLINK.ORG Please do not include attachments or photos. Cheers, Forest and Susan Aboard S/V Rejoice!Anchored in Marsh Hbr. Great Abaco, The Bahamas Tuesday January 6, 2015 Well, we just picked up the anchor, said our farewell to friends and paid the last of the bills and are headed out to sea now. We will be at Memory Rock, sail right on past Great Sale Cay and head as close to Green Turtle Cay as we can before the big north wind sets in. That will give us plenty of time to check in, get through the Whale Cut and settle into Hopetown before family arrives for a visit. As many times as we have done this trip, I still get the chills when we actually start out. But I guess it is better to be apprehensive than to be overconfident! Well we shall all contact you when we get there. Our UsA phones will not work and we will have to activate the Bahama phone. And we will not have email until I can get to an internet café to hook up – our Winlink system is having indigestion!!!! Susan with Forest at the wheel and Mocha snoozing on her perch in the cockpit Friday January 2, 2015 Happy New Year to everyone! We have had some serious problems with sending and receiving emails for the last month, so I apologize and will attempt to catch you all up on our Florida activities. We arrived at Jacksonville, Fl from an outside trip from Beaufort, SC and arrived in pea soup foggy conditions, where we had to deal with a very large Navy transport vessel, a cruise ship and 2 more very large cargo ships becoming into Mayport behind us before the fog lifted. We anchored at Sisters Creek and continued on the ICW the next morning. Unable to get into the mooring field at St. Augustine, we sat out some very nasty weather at Marineland, a new experience for REJOICE! We both are LOVING our new bow thruster and were able to squeeze off the dock at Marineland before any of the other boats were awake. We anchored successfully at New Smyrna Beach, spent a few days at Titusville (disappointing because they no longer have a van to help cruisers do errands), and a night Eau Gallie before finally arriving in our very favorite Vero Beach. We partied with old friends and neighbors, the Gallaghers, the Jacobs and some of their friends. We also lunched with the Cooks and lunched with the Westerfields while getting more errands done. We visited a vet for Mocha and she got to enjoy some lunching with us at outdoor bistros. We also got to enjoy several meals with the Jacobs at the Vero Beach Yacht Club and felt pretty special. We also rented a car for one day and totally filled the boat with provisions. Then we fueled, watered and pumped out before heading to Stuart and the Sunset Bay Marina. We met up with the Deans on the Sanderling, did more shopping, laundry and shared dinner with them. We also got to visit shortly with Mark and Anne Houry when they arrived on Alderaan before they left to visit with Mark’s mother. We also had a chance to visit with Steve and Vicki Babb for an afternoon gathering on Sanderling. Now we are at anchor in the north anchorage at Lake Worth, will listen to weather tomorrow morning and leave with the next window out of Lake Worth to Memory Rock and the Abacos. With all this humidity in FL, we all are looking forward to getting across the Gulf Stream, into clean water and do some swimming. So that is the update from REJOICE! and we are all well and looking forward to a great new year. Susan, Forest and Mocha Monday December 15, 2014 Hello to all, Glad to hear everyone had good Thanksgiving experiences with family and friends. Thank you for all your messages because we LOVE getting mail!!! We just picked up a mooring in Beautiful downtown Beaufort, SC. Mocha is already missing the Grants, since she has searched the aft cabin and john for Jack and keeps checking the deck for Jack’s favorite sitting spot in the sun! We left the anchorage this morning in clouds that soon became rain, somewhat steady at times, and we encountered some vey skinny depths – down to inches below the keel= before getting to our destination. So it was slow going in those spots, since if we grounded, we wanted to do so very softly!!! But we made it through without incident today. Lots of junk in the waters today, grass and weeds and several dolphins played in our bow wake. Mocha is up on deck growling, so perhaps she sees a few more. We are having some mail sent here, so we may be in Beaufort for a few days and we will check the weather before making the next outside hop down the coast. It was super to have Pam and Jack with us for so long and to be able to show them some of our favorite places as well as experiencing some new stops. Mocha is still growing a bit and now has all her adult teeth so we are still making sure she has dog toys to chew instead of the boat. Still, she manages to get into things and we have to stay a few steps ahead of her at all times. It finally is warmer now and feels like we are going to experience better weather . We have decided to rest up and try further southing by avoiding all the shallows ahead and making short spurts down the coast. All the shallow spots and curves are very exhausting and it is much easier on our bodies and psyches to sail outside. Susan and Forest and Mocha Thursday November 27, 2014 We left the dock before 7 am this morning and had a cold, crisp ride further south today because it was too rough to go outside in the Atlantic from Southport, NC. We are now settled at the Osprey Marina in SC for the next 2 days. We have Thanksgiving dinner, substituting chicken breasts for turkey, with all the other fixings on board and good company. We will stage at an anchorage near the Georgetown, SC inlet to go outside over the weekend when the north winds calm a bit. The entire crew here hopes you all have a wonderful holiday with your respective families. We may not be there in bodies, but we are present in spirit and Rejoice! with all of you for the fine lives we are allowed to enjoy, the food we all indulge in, and the family love we all embrace. So Happy Thanksgiving to you all and may we all enjoy another fruitful and loving year. Susan, Forest and Mocha Saturday November 22, 2014 It has been some time since we have caught up with our cruising notes, so here goes. We had a very nice sail to Portsmouth, VA when we departed the Deltaville area and settled in at the free dock in Portsmouth. We all went to the Farmer’s Market on Saturday morning and met lots of new people and Mocha made lots of new friends. Forest and I met a couple at the coffee shop on our way back to the boat and the men struck up a new friendship. The gentleman was a retired Army Captain and had seen service in 4 war arenas, He took Forest for a tour of the Navy facilities in Norfolk and Portsmouth, West Marine and some of the museums. Our friends took the opportunity to move into the local Renaissance Hotel to regroup and catch up on their rest and Forest kept busy with boat projects. We all took the ferry to Norfolk to do some sightseeing and plan some more sightseeing for Forest and the Grants while I would be back in RI for a doctor’s visit, which by the way was all GOOD NEWS. When I returned to the boat, we all attended the local movie and dinner night, cleaned the boat, organized the fridge and got going the next day south in the Elizabeth River. That is always a frustrating day because it involves several bridge openings with some waiting, we had to get fuel and be pumped out, and the Grants got to experience their first locking with us. We settled in at the free dock in Great Bridge, ate aboard and decided to forgo the supermarket run. We left early for Coinjock and arrived with sufficient time to get all the laundry done, enjoy hot showers and indulge in a dinner of thick slices of prime rib au jus. The ride south across the Abermarle Sound was pleasant and we anchored out at the southern end of the Alligator River. The following day began pleasantly, but turned into a gray day with lots of nasty wind and rain, so instead of making it all the way to Mayo’s shrimp dock, we bailed out at Dowry Creek Marina for one night. Everyone there was so friendly and helpful as we docked in terrible conditions and the hot, steamy showers felt very delightful. We left in hefty winds the next morning and went into Oriental. When we arrived, all the free docks were occupied, but just as we were dropping the anchor outside the harbor, a Canadian boat came by and informed us they had just vacated a dock space having stayed the limit. We wasted no time hauling in the anchor and taking their spot Since we had been keeping track of the groceries we used up on a running list, when we put into the Morehead City Docks, Forest arranged to use the courtesy car for the afternoon. We had a bit of difficulty filling our propane tank, but found a propane filling station that sold us a new tank, filled with propane, for fifty dollars, so we felt very fortunate to make that deal, especially when we stopped at West Marine to find they had none in stock to sell us. Jack had stayed on board with Mocha, she is still a puppy after all and we do not leave her for long periods of time. After more stops at WalMart, ABC liquors and back to the marina, Jack and Mocha met us with empty dock carts and we filled REJOICE! With all the goodies we will need for several weeks. We also decided to stay another day while Forest repaired the severed hose to the washdown pump which soaked our mattress and most of the paper towels we had stored under our bed. We took advantage of great shower facilities and laundry again, especially the wet sheets from our bed. Eventually everything got stowed and we got an early start to the pumpout dock, but when the wind piped up to 20 knots instead of the predicted 10, we were pinned to the dock and our new bow thruster timed out. While we waited for a lull in the wind, we planned a getaway using a spring line and only using the thruster at the last minute to get off the dock. After that we had a decent ride to the Marine base at Mile Hammock and an uneventful evening at anchor. We had an early start this morning toward Carolina Beach, with a short time out for a soft grounding, which Forest was able to get us out of without the help of the towing folks. So now we are on a mooring at Carolina Beach for 2 nights and maybe more until we get a good window down the Cape Fear River to Southport. We will do some travel planning and get some rest in the meantime. We have certainly eaten very well on this trip. Pam and I share the cooking and cleaning aboard and so this trip has been rather nice for me, plus the Grants are good company and we hope we are not driving them crazy. They have decided to stay with us all the way to Florida and we are both very happy with that decision. It has been fun and enjoyable to share this experience with them, since they would not attempt the trip on their smaller sailboat. We have seen so many dolphins in the past, we tend to forget the thrill of seeing them all. Both Pam and Jack are enjoying the meeting of all these new friends along the way, just as we do year after year. As we were sailing along yesterday, Pam saw a blue sailboat that looked familiar to her and it was BOONDOGLE which had once belonged to our friends the Richardsons. Pam called the skipper on the VHF and then called Yvette to tell her of our crossing so it was a good adventure for all of us. Happy Thanksgiving to all of you from the crew of the REJOICE! Forest, Susan and Mocha Thursday November 6, 2014 Dear all, We are still progressing south to Norfolk, VA so I can fly home for a few days. Forest, Mocha and the Grants will stay aboard in Portsmouth, VA where Forest will show them the sights and treat the Grants to the dinner and theater that the Myers introduced us to last spring. And of course there are a few maintenance issues to attend to, as usual on a boat. Some of the items we have had with us cruising over the last 14 years are beginning to fall apart and we are having to replace them – such as the net we hang our veggies in and the vegetable peeler. We have finally used up all the tomatoes from the garden and when we spent a night at the Deltaville Marina, we used their courtesy car to replace all the groceries we have already consumed and I did a washing to leave Forest with fresh clothes while I am gone for a few days. We are certainly eating well on board, with 3 cooks and I am enjoying new recipes from Pam and basking in the good revues from the entire crew, including little Mocha, who cannot wait to lick up the leftovers after every meal. She is quite the canine connoisseur! Every time we come south, the trip and places we discover to stay and hide from weather are a bit different and we enjoy it all. It is raining today and the nights have been quite cold – we have thick down quilts on the beds still. We are all enjoying the new bow thruster and being able to get into dock spaces we could only drool about in the past!!!!. Keep smiling and we will keep writing. Happy Halloween to all the kids. Susan, Forest, Mocha Friday October 31, 2014 We left Atlantic Highlands mid morning and sailed into the pond in Atlantic City in the dark anticipating some unfavorable winds. It was a good rest and we got going a day and a half later. Our cruising friends were amazed that Forest and I worked together to get into the anchorage in the dark along that shoreline, but we have been in there several times in the past. We had favorable conditions to run north in the Delaware River and so bypassed stopping in Cape May, sailed north overnight and stopped behind Reedy Island before a few hours sleep and a great breakfast the next morning. We caught the current through the C&D Canal and came south to the Sassafras River to anchor for the night. The next morning we took a mooring at Georgetown Yacht Harbor in MD and did laundry and enjoyed hot showers. We walked to breakfast, bought Mocha a larger PFD (she has grown quite a bit) and took a long walk. Forest changed the washdown pump, Pam cleaned the fridge and we had dinner on board. We left there this morning and are now at anchor in the Solomans to hide from the next cold front before moving south to Norfolk. I have to fly home from Norfolk on Nov 12 for an Oncology apt and when I return to the boat we will continue our trek to the Carolinas. We look forward to seeing a lot of you soon. Susan, Forest and Mocha Wednesday October 26, 2014 Hello to all our friends from the crew of “REJOICE !” Well after many dollars worth of upgrades and repairs, we are off on another sailing adventure. This year we have adopted a new family member, Mocha, a Golden Doodle who was born in June and joined our family in August. She is adorable and feisty and has quickly wormed her way into our hearts. When she has caused a ton of mischief, she cocks her head and gives us those big puppy eyes that say “Who me?” Well, anyway, she is the new boat dog and she has been baptized by fire, our first day out of Newport being quite uncomfortable, she was very seasick and we diverted down Long Island Sound overnight to Atlantic Highlands. We also have on board this season Pam and Jack Grant, longtime sailing friends from the Newport Yacht Club. Two more crew members, both good cooks and great company, allow us to keep moving in good weather windows and are fun to be with on the layovers. We arrived just before big winds on Wednesday. Pam and Forest explored on Thursday. On Friday, Forest’s birthday, we all went into the Yacht Club for hot showers, walked to an Italian deli for lunch and then onto the PO and grocery store before returning to REJOICE! It was quite a hefty amount of running for Mocha and she is becoming quite the boat dog, no whining or whimpering and being a good sport in lumpy seas. We left Atlantic Highlands at 1100 and headed for Cape May only to have to bail out at Atlantic City at 0500 on Sunday am when the promised west winds stayed W/NW and were on the nose as we followed the coast. We had to enter the pond in AC in the dark, with me on the helm and Forest in the bow with the spotlight. We used our new Rocknar anchor for the first time and quickly headed for some much needed shut-eye. Today was a clean-the-boat day and minor repairs, lots of good and hot food and some more rest. We will check the weather again and again and decide when and how far to move on. We were very sorry to get news of one of our elderly neighbors being run over by another, but I am thankful that it was not Mocha and I, because we have had a few close calls on our daily walks of the “hood” and we are truly happy to be out on the high seas once again in good health and enjoying our good ship REJOICE! Keep in touch with us – we have email on board most of the time now. Susan, Forest and Mocha with Jack and Pam aboad in Atlantic City, NJ |