Century Club: mike pitchford

Friends Joe and terry conway stopped by and we did a little tour of Jupiter and stopped for lunch at Guanabana's. 

We brought the cruising boat (Legacy 32) to FL on the ICW in November. We sold the larger trawler and have a condo in Jupiter FL.  Bringing the cruising boar back down was not initially in the plans.  It was  COVID-19 addition to the plans.

After the easy going trip down the ICW (we took 27 days), the boat sat a while as we got the condo opened up for the season and got our little runabout ready as well.  Friends talking about a FL west coast trip got us thinking.

On February 12th, armed with our now completed second vaccination, we made our way from Jupiter to Stuart, FL.  Stops followed in Cleweston (on lake Okeechobee), Ft. Meyers, Punta Gorda and Sarasota before we reversed course and stopped on the return in some of the same places.  Along the way we met up with five sets of friends now either part time of full time FL residents.  Things were beginning to feel almost normal.

We arrived at our FL Condo in early January but it was too cold to contemplate boating early (we are warm weather wimps).  So, finally a bit warmer, I lowered the lift and took the hurricane season full cover off our little Key west 203DFS for a good cleaning.

In late June we substantially completed the refit of a new to us and much neglected Legacy 32.  This was our "move down" boat, after selling our 46' trawler and buying a condo in Jupiter FL.  The plan was to use the new Legacy as our cruising and weekender on the Bay.

COVID conspired to delay the refit completion of the Legacy by about six weeks. It also substantially cut down our summer 2020 cruising of the Bay, decimating the yacht club cruise schedule.

The late delivery and limited use brought us around to the idea of taking the Legacy south on the ICW, like we had done several times on the trawler. Nothing good ever comes from winterizing a boat and, in this case, it would really hurt to have spent all that energy and $ only to put her away for the winter after so little use.  So we hatched a plan to make the ICW trip once again, this time at 20 knots.

This trip, for the first time, we (husband and wife of 36 years) were both retired.  While we had a faster boat we could slow down and smell the roses (as long as they had a mask on). The cruise plan developed as a four week sojourn with short travel days (getting up late and getting in early) a key part of the plan. 

We departed on a nice October "Bay day" and spent the first night in Reedville, VA.  Norfolk followed and included a few lay days to see family.

We had never gone the Dismal Swamp Canal route south on the ICW. We managed to clear a delayed railroad bridge in Portsmouth and made an 11:00 lock opening in the Canal. That got us a long and lesiurely six knot run and brought us to Elizabeth City around 5:00 pm, one of our longer days.

Stops in Belhaven, NC (in time for a BBQ festival) and the legendary Beaufort, NC followed.  The ICW was thick with travelers and we couldn't get a timely slip in Wrighsville Beach, NC, so we settled for one in Topsail Island.

South Carolina was up next and included stops in Coquina, Georgetown, Beaufort and Hilton Head.  The Coquina to Georgetown passage was forced offshore due to a bridge closing.  Fortunately is was a fine day to be offshore.  

Georgia followed with its winding stroll through marsh after green marsh.  We made stops in Isle of Hope and Jekyll Island where we stayed an extra day to watch the presidential election returns and the aftermath (which continued for some time and occupied much of our remaining trip).

We got to Florida, Amelia Island, on November 5th and it was time to slow down a bit.  You could tell we are in Florida as what had been a temperate trip started to feel more like a hot and humid summer. Clearly we had packed way to much in the way of warm clothes. 

In Florida we made stops and had lay days in St. Augustine, Palm Coast, Daytona, Melbourne and Ft. Pierce before arriving at our destination, Jupiter.

All in it was 27 days, 17 stops and 1100 nautical miles.  I would do it again tomorrow!