Well I left Oriental on 3Nov and headed down to Beaufort Inlet at the Outer Banks...My crew of Mary, John and Greg Lawton and Sarah aboard..Offshore around 6AM on the 4rth we sailed for 2 nights and arrived off Savannah in near gale conditions. We hove to at 4 AM and waited for dawn and then motorsailed thru 25-30kt head winds into a little creek called St Augustine Creek. There I discovered my first problem! My port 37gal fuel tank was leaking...Sarah my crew became Sarah the "diesel Bitch"...We cleaned up the mess and stink and headed south to Killkenny Creek in Georgia ICW. Another creek with lots of wildlife and reeds!

Randy, my close friend and diesel mechanic to boot was also in his S/V Bella all the way. Greg went offshore with them and decided to stay with them as long as Ellen, Randy's wife fed him and kept him warm in their Pilothouse....what a woos Lawton was.

The Lawton boys were getting restless so we stopped at a Marina (with a Jacuzzi) for 2 days of foul weather. We shopped, resupplied and Sarah waited on the Capt as mates are supposed to do. Mary's mom was in the hospital so we had to start thinking about her departure and the Lawton boys were close to their deadline for being home. John had winter chores still to do and Greg had a wife home in Alaska to tend to. We headed south on the ICW to San Fernadino Beach and holed up there in 35kt NW winds bashing me against the T-dock for two long nights. We finally left and got to St Augustine to wait for RANDY AND ELLEN WHO WERE LAYING UP ON ANCHOR FOR TWO DAYS IN A CREEK.
The lawton's left as did mary and now Sarah and I were taking her south to meet everyone for Thanksgiving and on to Nassau for Xmas