Century Club: Doug and Becky Firth
Taking On the Abemarle Sound Enroute to Coinjock
We had a relatively calm trip home only being held up for two or three days due to high winds and big seas. We had a long 110-mile day on the 27th to get home to be a week of forecasted nasty weather! We made the right decision. If we had not made the jump on that day we would have been held up at Hospital Point Portsmouth for probably four days. After living onboard for 175 days, we were happy to get home were quick to start planning our next outing.
We headed south to Stuart, Florida, crossed Lake Okeechobee, and entered with great trepidation the Caloosahatchee River, passed Fort Myers and Cape Coral (Hurricane Ian's ground zero), hoping to anchor in Ding Darling off Sanibel Island. We had no idea what to expect and what we saw was both encouraging and upsetting. While channels were clear of debris and passage was safe, evidence of destruction (and recovery) was all around us. Ding Darling was lovely but the mangroves took a hit. We went into Boca Grande and stayed at the marina which was spared of too much trouble and spent some time exploring the recovery progress on the island. We then traveled to Punta Gorda to be with family at Fishermen's Village Marina for the holidays. After the holidays we will head for Sarasota, Tampa, St. Petersburg and beyond making it up day by day.
From Portsmouth, Virginia to Daytona Beach Memorial Bridge anchorage and headed to Titusville.