Yacht Rock
- Joan Steinman
- Mar 4, 2024
- 10 min read

I've noticed that most of the folks we see traveling around by boat are between the ages of 50 and 70, are heterosexual couples, and are white. Sailors tend to be a little younger than power yachters. We seem to be stereotypical boat people, which is disheartening as I like to think of myself as a little bit rogue. As for the homogenous nature of boating folks, I'm going to blame the influence of Flipper, Gilligan's Island, The Love Boat , Jimmy Buffet and "yacht rock" (which I didn't know was a thing until recently). Yacht rock is basically the soundtrack of my teenage and young adulthood years (Toto, Steely Dan, The Doobie Brothers, Fleetwood Mac - you know, all the good ones). Apparently Dave and I look the part. When we were at a bar in Fernandina Beach, having fancy cocktails and charcuterie, we sat next to some locals. The man asked Dave if we were sailors. Dave asked what made them think we were. The guy said we looked like "clean hippies" and in his experience, that meant we had a sailboat. It seems that Dave's boat hair is getting to the hippie stage. I've always been a hippie, so I'm good with it. We aren’t yachties anymore, we are now sailors.
The past two weeks have "sailed" by. I know, bad pun. What have we been up to?
I'll start from where the last blog left off...
We are doing the Safe Harbor Marina Member thing as often as possible; we can stay three consecutive nights at Safe Harbor marinas for free since we are paying for a slip at the Safe Harbor Bluewater Marina in Hampton. This is working pretty well. We are traveling during the slow season. Most cruisers headed south months ago and marinas now have plenty of room for transients. Staying in a marina is by far the easiest with the dog because of land access. The down side of our venture is that Sofie is really not enjoying the transiting part of boat life. She seems absolutely miserable when we are out in the ocean. Sofie is not a fan of waves. She recovers right away and wants to go exploring when we dock, moor or anchor. Although she would be happiest if we just stayed in a marina, I do think she will enjoy the experience of jumping off the boat and swimming around in warm ocean water in the Bahamas.
February 16 - 19
We took a slight detour and traveled up the river from Port Royal Landing to Beaufort, SC. The marina is right in town. I was excited to see this little town and am so glad we are taking the slow trip south. Although, at times, I’m like, “I just want to get to a beach!” But, I’m not sure we will be wanting to do the sightseeing on our return trip. The marinas will be much more crowded as the Bahamas cruisers migrate north in May.
Beaufort is a lovely little town. It is exactly how I always pictured little southern towns with big oak trees draped in Spanish moss and majestic homes with gorgeous gardens. Several movies, including Forrest Gump, were filmed here.
When taking the brown boating dog for her morning constitutional on our second day, we encountered a gathering of folks in formal wear. It was so odd to see men in black tuxes and women in evening gowns at 7 in the morning. First there were only a few couples and I thought, "maybe a wedding party getting pictures taken pre-ceremony?" As the dog and I were walking, more couples started gathering, more men in black tuxes and women in a colorful array of fancy gowns. Not a wedding party. Eventually, a bus pulled up and took them all away. Sofie and I will never know what it was all about... but we can make up some really wacky stories.
One day we wandered into The Rustic Pup Biscuits and Boutique. It had dog and cat themed housewares (rugs, tea towels, mugs, the like), critter toys, treats, collars, etc. We bought Sofie a yak cheese chew thing and I got a Paws for Peace t-shirt. Which means I had to throw away one of my old t-shirts with holes in it. That is the boat rule: if you get something new, you must get rid of something old.
When checking out, we met the Rustic Pup's owner and started chatting. Her mother lives in Dayton, Nevada! Like, how weird is that to meet someone in Beaufort, SC whose mom lives in the same tiny town, across the continent, as my mom? When we were in Charleston, not only did we meet the Nevada folks, but we also met one of the Charleston City Marina dockhands who grew up in a small town in Idaho near where Dave had lived for a while as a kid. It always amazes me that you can have such random things in common with strangers you meet along the way.

The sunset on our last night in Beaufort was spectacular!

Sunrise of our last morning wasn't too shabby either.

On the 19th around noon, when the tide was out so we could fit under the bridge, we headed to Skull Creek Marina on Hilton Head Island. It is only a couple of hours from Beaufort, but it puts us closer to the Atlantic, making it easier to pop out and go south offshore. Skull Creek is full of dolphins! I love dolphins. The marina setting is beautiful. Rural, residential, country-clubby (tennis courts and golf courses abound).
February 21 - February 24
After an overnight passage, we arrived in Fernandina Beach at around 5:30 a.m. We docked in the dark. We were exhausted, so we napped, did a little checking out of the town, and napped again. During one of our awake periods, I made huevos rancheros. We walked the dog several times. Dinner was out, of course, since we sailed and all. We ate at Wicked Boa - excellent name and really good food. We decided to stay in Fernandina Beach until Saturday since that looked like the best day for our next jump.
Early on our first morning, a building appeared behind us.

The cruise ship looked cool all lit up at night.

Since the stock market is soaring right now, I’m not freaking out about needlessly spending money. Therefore, we are eating out a lot. We had lunch at Arte Pizza and got an appetizer (bruschetta) as well as both pizza and an entree (saltimbocca chicken). The pizza was very good. It rivals Delta Pie (Deltaville, VA) and Hearth (Beaufort, SC).
We justified all the food by taking home lots of leftovers for our next long sail. On Saturaday, the plan is to go to Saint Augustine. The wind should be good for sailing and the wave action is supposed to be pretty minimal. It will take us about 8 hours (so probably more like 9). I’m looking forward to a daytime sail in the Atlantic. It will be nice to sail instead of motor and the weather will, hopefully, be decent.
The Goddess of the Universe has been on our side for this journey and I am so thankful.

Today was a “boat life is a good life” kind of day. It was sunny, about 70 degrees, very light wind. Fernandina Beach is a nice town with lots of great restaurants and quaint shops. We washed the outside of the boat- it needed it badly. The inside could use a once over as well, but it isn’t as gross as the outside was. Sofie and I went for a leisurely wander around town and saw some very cool old homes.
We visited two of the artist spaces in Fernandina Beach. One was an artist co-op that has been going strong for a few decades - maybe even 50? The gallery is in a cool building with a very fun mosaic on the exterior and an arty courtyard. Adjacent to the gallery is a large space where they have workshops. The whole operation is run by volunteers. The second artist space was upstairs above a shop on the main street. It was comprised of several artist studios. Each room belonged to an artist or two. Some spaces were work and gallery spaces, whereas others were primarily galleries. It would be fantastic to have a studio space for painting with a gallery where I could sell art. Perfection would be a dog-friendly studio/gallery.
We were supposed to leave Fernandina Beach on Saturday morning, but the wind pinned us against the dock. The weather forecast called for 10 - 15 knot winds. They have been closer to 20 with gusts over 30, and they are blowing the boat into the dock. We couldn’t get the bow out far enough to get off the dock. We thought about going off stern first, but our prop walk pushes the boat to starboard, which is the side we are docked on, meaning it would compound the problem of the wind pushing us to the dock. The winds are supposed to diminish in the afternoon. But, they also weren't supposed to be this strong. Long story short, we are staying another night in Fernandina Beach.
I am really glad we didn’t go for it - the wind was nuts all day. We saw a sailboat go by with its mainsail reefed quite a bit and pulled way in and it was still heeling a heap. It would not have been a fun day on the water. The big winds continued all day. Around 5:15 p.m. we had some gusts over 30 kts and one of our fenders between the boat and the dock popped out. I’m glad we were on the boat and not out galavanting in town. Thanks to the help of some other boat folks, we were able to get the boat pushed over enough to put the fender back. Then we spent about an hour adjusting lines and all the fenders so we were better protected. So much for winds diminishing in the afternoon :-)
February 25- March 3

On the 25th, we left Fernandina Beach and went to St. Augustine offshore. It was a decent day, we did get the sail up for a bit and the waves were mostly manageable. We grabbed a mooring ball outside of the town marina. Saint Augustine is a very old town. I read that it is the oldest town established by Europeans in the United States. The architecture is amazing. However, it is touristy. And, judging from the amount of bird dukey on our boat, the birds must have spent the night on our mast and spreaders. Ugh.
We decided to do the ICW the rest of the way to Fort Pierce because it looked like the winds in the Atlantic would be strong, the waves high, and both going against us. Also, the dog isn't a fan of long ocean voyages, and the ICW route will have more opportunities to stop along the way. Unfortunately, it will take us longer to get far enough south to hop over to the Bahamas.
We got a late start leaving from Saint Augustine since we needed to take the dog to shore and since we were on shore, we had to have breakfast out. We made it to Palm Coast Marina before sunset. What a great spot! Very pretty, easy dog access, decent rates. If we end up in the ICW again, this marina will be a definite stop. The ICW from St. Augustine to Palm Coast is very scenic. It was an very relaxing day.
The next day we went to Titusville and grabbed a mooring ball. Titusville is across from Cape Canaveral. We could see the rocket launch pads. When we head back north, I'd like to stop at Cape Canaveral, off the Atlantic rather than on the ICW for a better look at Space Force Base - it cracked me up to write Space Force.
This was not as fun and relaxing as the previous day. There were several places with a narrow channel of deep enough water for our boat and one very sharp turn where the channel cut through an island that we almost missed. That could have been really bad because outside of the channel the water was shallow and rock-filled. We could have joined the multitude of other wrecked boats we have seen along the ICW.
The mooring ball in Titusville was a pretty long dinghy ride from the marina (major drag). When we took the dog to land for her evening stroll, there were about 4 or 5 guys on the marina patio having a little jam session with their guitars which was so yacht-rock-ish. Sometimes boat life is pretty cool.

The next stop after Titusville was an anchorage off the ICW somewhere south of Melbourne. It was a very long dinghy ride through waves to take the dog to shore. I really wish she'd get the hang of going on the boat. Shore was a sandy beach with palm trees and all, like a tiny tropical island. So there is always an upside. I must remember, it is all part of the adventure, even when it is super inconvenient.
The trip from our anchorage to the marina in Fort Pierce was beautiful. Lots of dolphins and a mix of wild areas and mega mansions. Many mega mansions had screened in gardens or whole sides of the house - multiple stories! I don't want to know what the bugs must be like. Sometimes it felt like we were on a jungle cruise and other times like a "Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous" tour. The marina in Fort Pierce is very nice! There are lots of birds and lizard things. Some of the lizards are big-ish and colorful. The lizards here are like squirrels in the northern latitudes, always running across in front of you and up a tree.
Some days, I have mixed feelings about this cruising lifestyle. I am enjoying seeing new places, but being on the move so much is a little exhausting to me. I don’t have time to do some things - like paint - and I’m too distracted to do others - like write. I think I’d prefer to go at a much slower pace. Like, spend a week or two here and a month there. One thing we are fairly certain of is that we do not want to spend next winter on the boat in a cold place. We either head south much sooner or we put the boat on the hard or we take weeks away from it to be in an ABnB or something.
On the other hand, there is so much I appreciate about boat life. I love seeing dolphins, I love being outside so much and getting exercise without exercising. Dave and I are both in way better shape than we were before we started this adventure. I don't like exercising for the sake of exercising, but I am all for doing things with the by-product being that you have exercised.
As I finish up this installment of the Aevitas Adventure Chronicles (while listening to Yacht Rock on Apple Music), we are on a mooring ball at Jensen Beach. The dog waited patiently for the rain to stop so she can dinghy to shore and explore.

Thank you for sharing. It’s all so interesting. I would say you have the life and the dog is adorable!