One Year Afloat

Sunrise, northbound on the ICW

The last weekend of March, 2024: we have been living on Aevitas for a year now!

The dog is healing and taking it easy at the pet resort of Charlie and Heather. The beast is in great hands, her staples are out. According to Heather, she is living her best life and, "protecting her bone from imaginary adversaries." We sure miss our silly dog, it will be nice to get her back with us on our floaty home.

Where are we? You may be wondering. As I write this, we are at anchor in Mile Hammock Bay on the ICW, near Camp Legeune, North Carolina. This has been an amazing journey for dolphin sighting. These stretches of the ICW that are near ocean inlets seem to be good dolphin hang-out zones. In one section, we had dolphins swimming along side us for quite a while. That was one of most memorable experiences of this northward journey. I hope the folks who live in all the fancy homes along here appreciate the dolphins and the beauty of the marshes, beaches, and little islands of pine trees. I'm guessing they do and that is why they built or bought a home here.

How did we get here, you asked? Well, let me fill you in. This installment of the Aevitas Chronicles begins where the last one left off...

I had just arrived in Washington, DC with the Frankendog...

Dave, Captain Jeff and Luke left Fort Lauderdale early Saturday morning (March 16) and headed out to sea for an offshore passage to Southport, NC. They caught the Gulf Stream which gave them an extra 4 kts of speed heading in the right direction. The wind was favorable and the sun was shining. They were making 10 kts much of the way and were able to turn off the engine and just sail! It was nice to be able to track Aevitas on PredictWind so I could see what they were doing. The wind came up a bit and they had some "sporty" seas, but all was well. Dave and I tested out all the communication options and were confident that we could reach each other.

I went to sleep Saturday night comfortable that Dave and crew were doing great! Then, my phone rang at 11:40 p.m. It was the Coast Guard. It is never good news that causes your phone to ring near midnight and it is definitely not good when your spouse is in the Atlantic Ocean on a sailboat. Chief DuVall had tracked me down via this blog, gathered that I had lived on Aevitas, and wanted to know if we had recently sold the boat. The Coast Guard was investigating a possible search and rescue situation (me: gulp!, heart racing). While talking with Chief DuVall, who was very reassuring, I opened the PredictWind tracking. According to the Chief, the Coast Guard received a report of an overdue sailboat that had left Palm Beach on Saturday morning and was heading towards Fernandina Beach. The missing boat had recently been purchased and the new owner was moving the boat with some crew. According to the report they were overdue and hadn't been heard from. Aevitas was heading on the same general course as the possible missing boat and was the only sailboat in the vicinity. So they needed to verify that Aevitas was not the boat of concern (a little bit of relief starting to settle in). I gave the Chief all the Aevitas contact info. Given the information that was provided about the boat and the circumstances of the report, I felt very sure Aevitas as not the subject of the report -thank goodness! Kudos to the Coast Guard and Chief DuVall for keeping mariners safe!

As has been the case with the weather this whole year, Dave and crew needed to modify their plan. They headed in to dock at Charleston instead of Southport. The wind changed direction and kicked up in speed so further progress in the ocean wasn't a good plan. It was going to be several days before decent weather to be able to set out again, so Captain Jeff and Luke headed home and Dave was holding tight in Charleston, looking for crew to help him get back to Virginia. He and one other person could take the ICW route and maybe some Atlantic jumps if the weather cooperated. Dave put the time in Charleston to good use doing boat things (as always). We now have a new alternator (almost one boat unit).

Sleeping Sofie

Meanwhile, I was in Washington D.C. being a couch potato with the dog. I put a t-shirt on her to protect her stitches a bit; she seems to love it and gets a little miffed when I take it off to wash it. She may become a clothes wearing dog. In a previous dog life, she was probably a purse dog with outfits for all occasions. We binged Netflix (Good Grief, Dead to Me, Girls5Eva) and crocheted. I was able to meet up with Camille in D.C. for a belated birthday lunch. We looked at the cherry blossoms and had a wonderful visit. I really enjoy time with the grown-up kids.

Not surprisingly, no crew were to be found on such short notice and the weather wasn't exactly helping out. I flew to Charleston on 3/25 and Dave and I headed north on 3/26.

The plan was to head offshore from Charleston to Beaufort (about 30 hours) and then take the ICW to avoid going around Hatteras (unless conditions were perfect). Well, taking the offshore route lasted approximately one hour. 20kt winds and 6ft waves are out of my comfort zone. We turned around and headed up the ICW.

We are now on day 5 in the ICW and we have another 4 to go. We tucked in at a marina in Myrtle Beach for a day to wait out a storm, but have been making pretty good progress otherwise. Dave is the ICW Navigation Champion. He has tackled a nerve wracking journey with shoaling, narrow channels, inattentive/erratic/inconsiderate boat drivers, big barges, and a whacky compass.

We stayed overnight at the Safe Harbour Marina near Southport, NC. On our walk to find pizza (which we did and it was

really good), we passed The Wildlife Grill. I can't help but wondering what is on their menu? What kind of wildlife are they grilling?

It is disappointing to be heading back to colder weather, but, such is life. We learned a lot in our first year of boat life... we know the dog is not a long passage kind of sailor and we know that we don't like being on the boat in the cold weather. We also know we enjoy sailing and seeing new places. And there is nothing more magical than watching dolphins play. We aren't sure what year 2 of Aevitas Life will look like yet. We have the summer ahead to do more sailing, relaxing and reflecting, and we have the Tarot cards to guide us.

Sunset at Mile Hammock Bay, NC