Back Home in the UK

After a 24 hour journey i finally arrived back at London Gatwick where my lovely mum came to pick me up - i was sooo tierd and felt so sick.After a few hour drive back i went back to bed for the rest of the day and counted down the days until my scan to find out what we were having!!For any of those who dont know , we are having a baby girl!! and all is well as far as we can tell, so we are both really chuffed to pieces.
It was lovely being back at home and seeing all my family and friends but at the same time it was absolutely awful being away from my hubby for 12 days... in the 7 years we have been together we have only had at most 2 days apart and we are so used to be together all the time it sucked.....we wont be doing that again in a hurry.

My little sis Abbie and my niece Leyla



The Archer family, who came to see me from Birmingham, and Syms beautiful daughter Lauren



After a hectic 12 days of doing the rounds and seeing everyone I travelled back to the airport to fly back to Sym at Daytona Beach , Florida...and what a bloody nightmare that turned out to be!!
We had to leave early hours of the morning cos i was flying at 8 ish and part of the motorway was closed so we were taken on the crappest diversion known to mankind...after half an hour fo being completly lost we pulled over on the layby to find others cars in the same pickle as - not having a clue where they were going!! Finally we get back on the road, to have further trouble when i was checking in in the airport. I tried to explain to them that i was flying in and leaving by boat but they said that i had to have a return ticket( i remembered i had a return ticket that i was using to fly back tio the UK to have the baby) so i had to go and find a computer then print it off to show them...nightmare!! i finally made it for my flight - but with no much time to spare.
Great - i thought to myself, the worst part is over and i would see my hubby soon. The flight went fine but i did not manage to get any sleep. Then the worst part happens....when i arrive there i get pulled over and interogated by immigration..and I must say, I have never meant such a bunch of complete twats(pardon my french) in all my life, talk about being on a power trip. They were so bloody horrible to me it was crazy..i was kept in this room, not allowed to use my phone with all these people - not one of them could speak a word of English...im a British Citizen for christ sake!!
Basically , as a European citizen you can fly in to the US on a Visa Waiver program which basically means you dont have to go to the hassle of applying for a visa...but then it is up to the discretion of the immigration officer whether or not they let you in. Because i had flown out and then flown back in he said i broke the law and i was not allowed to do this( later on after speaking to another customs office cos Sym was so angry - he said you can fly in and out and it was not illegal.) Anyway this dickhead said he was going to deport me as he did not believe i had any intention of leaving the US and put me on a plane back home!!Well that was it, can you imagine- i burst into tears...being 5 months pregnant, have not slept in 24 hours and they are telling me i cant get to the US where my husband and my boat are!!
I was there for two hours and he called Sym who had to fax them the boat papers...he was being so slow with the whole procedure , im sure he was doing it on purpose , knowing he had the power for me to miss my internal flight to Daytona Beach, he said id just have to catch another one!!! Finally he let me through and i had to run for me flight and got there 10 mins b4 the gates closed....NICE ONE MATE!!!
i cant tell you how lush it was to land and see Sym again and be back on Gypsy Moth where my crusing life starts once again!!!!

Daytona Beach!!

The more we sailed south , the more we noticed the weather getting warmer and warmer and for the first time in months - what felt like years, we left the windows open while we were in bed. It was lush!!!

The sail there was not so good..we had to pass under a fair few bridges and sym for some reason called up EVERY bridge on the radio the wrong name...then when he finally got the right one he was calling us Quartermoon all day long.Mind you, its very difficult to get used to Gypsy Moth as we had Quartermoon for so long...from now on...im now in charge of calling all the bridges.

The depth throughout this stretch of water was so shallow and we managed to ground twice...oops!!( but none of which were our fault ) the depth alarm was beeping and going off all day long...definatly not the most relaxing day of all. First of which, we are heading down this really narrow bit of channel which nout water either side of us and this on coming barge about 100 ft wide was coming up the middle of the channel...as it approches closer we can not do anything apart from edge slightly away from it to avoid it hitting us and the bloody thing is so far over our side we get rammed out the channel and ground the boat...god we were livid , and thank god Sym was able to get us off, but it was really horrible to say the least.

Heres a pic of one of the barges ( not the same one that caused us to ground - as i ndid not have time to get the camera) but you get the jist of it!



After a really long day we finally start to approach our anchorage which is meant to be two miles long and at least 15 ft of depth...lovely jubbley!! When we actually aprroach we touch the ground again...bloody charts are all wrong and are half the depth stated. The poor bottom of our boat ( which we both have not still seen yet - as the water is still to murkey). After a hour of slowly looking round for some more depth , we drop the anchor in about 7.5 foot( which a crappy 1.5 foot under our keel) Oh well...here we are at the famous Daytona Beach( well famous for Bike week) not sure if you would know much about it otherwsie... and this is where i leave my poor hubby on the boat all alone for near enough two weeks.





We had two days before i was flying back to the UK and so we went for walks on the famous beach and chilled out ...sym loved it here and was quite content sitting in a bar watching all the bikes drive down the street....there were so many differrent types and colours...he got very jealous he does not have a bike anymore( pretty difficult when you live on a boat though) a??

Florida!!

Sorry for the delay in keeping everyone posted but we have been rather busy with lots of sailing and me having to fly back to Wales for two weeks to go and have my 20 week scan and get checked out!!

Anyhow, ill get to all that in a bit. The first place we anchored in Florida was St Augustine, which was a really fab city. It was soooo touristy there it was nuts but it was definately worth a visit so we decided to stay a few nights there and have a good look around, as we were really close to Daytona Beach, where i was flying from and we had about 5 days to spare.



St Augustine is a beautiful city and is the oldest city in the whole of the USA and was first discovered by Ponce de Leon in 1513. The oldest school and oldest drug store are housed here and are still in tact and set up as little touristy shops now.




We spent the day on shore walking around all the little shops( a little bit peeved by the fact that the marina charges 11 dollars to tie your dingy up for the day ) and had lunch. There was a chilli shop there that was absoltely amazing and served up nachos so you could walk around the store trying all the different types...i stopped when we got the the " hottest chili in the universe' but do you think sym would. Some boys i saw running outside and nealry puking - it looked quite bad. Sym walks up and smotheres his nacho in it...the kids looked at him and laughed saying that was too much, which obviously made the situation worse.He rams in in his mouth whole and after 20 secs says it ok , a tadge hot....WELL after a minute i did not know what to do...i stopped wetting myself and got a little worried. Syms face was bright red and he was coughing his guts up saying the pain was so bad he did not not what to do with himsel...its quite amusing now, but was not at the time. He says the burning sensation lasted a good few hours, lol.

The Oldest School ...



We then walked throught the town to the sea food festival, where we had to leave early cos syms guts were so bad and their loos which comprised only porticabnins were not the most appealing - to say the least.

Obviously before the "hottest chilli in the Universe"

Day Two / Three

We planned to get up early but for some reason did not make it out of bed until past nine( oh how thats goinna change when our little munchkin arrives...). The weather forecast is really sunny - up in the 70 's for the next four days so we wanted to get some serious mileage under our belt so that we are in florida in ther next few days as its noticabley warmer there.



We cross the border around mid day...goodbye south carolina and welcome to the state of Georgia...we have been told that Georgia is one of the best parts as its so secluded with nothing around apart from wildlife and that was definatly the case. We have seen so many dolphins it madness - apparently they all come in into the rivers from the ocean in the cold weather so they can feed on the the fish!
Today we passed under another two bridges that we had to radio to open for us.



its not the ones that open for you that are scary , its the ones that dont. As you apprioach them...with only a little bit of room to spare you crap yourself and think the top of the mast is going to get chopped off.

Anyway after a good day and 45 miles under our belt we drop the anchor in Red Bird Creek.Getting there was a bit dodgey as it was low tide and we did not have much space under the keel and we went through some patches with only a few feet under us!
It was so secluded at the anchorage - there was absolutely nout around. I really wish i never watched that movie before going to bed. I have been reading the twilight series and finished book two yesterday so was dying to watch the film last night...for those who dont know it is all about vampires and werewolves, its really wicked but the movies are not a patch on the books. Anyhow after seeing it i went to bed and was awake at 3 ish thinking about the bloody vampires and how we were in the middle of nowhere...i was frigtening myself for a few hours before i got off back to sleep.....no more horrrors while in Georiga.

An amazing sunset in the anchorage

Last night tied to the dock!!

For our last night our good friends who we met in the marina, Pat and David took us out to our favourite restaurant the foolish frog and we had a brillant night. We are both so glad to have met such wonderful people and they have helped us out so much in the last two months,...id like to say once again thank you so much and hopefully we will meet again soon(maybe in Panama). Everyone had a fair few to drink(apart from me of course...oh how i cant wait for a glass of vino...nearly half way through now!!!) and Pat ordered Sym his first take away beer in a polysterine cup!! after the bill was paid...apppentely this is completly normal here...but he was so embarrased and i laughed my head off of how much of a red neck hick he looked.

Anyway the morning of departure came and Pat and David and their little cross poodle and yorkie Sitka came to see us off!!The weather for once was amazing...and we planned to go the 20 miles to Beaufort. It was so wicked to be back out on the water i cant explain...me and sym were grinning like cheshire cats the whole way.It was also really nice to spent a week or so on a river before going back out to sea to give us chance to get used to it again as well as getting used to the boat!! I have my fingers crossed that im not going to get sea sick when we get out there( not that ive ever been before thank god...but ive never been preggers before)so we'll see!!let hope not cos otherwise the next few months are really gonna suck!






Anyway we made really good timing and we went under our first bridge which was well exciting!!










Sym had to radio them to request to go under and they swung it open for us...most of the bridges in the ICW (Inland costal waterways) are above 65 feet so we can just squeeze under them as our mast is 60 feet high, but there are a few that have to open for us. We made really good timing and got to beaufort just after mid day so we decided to carry on and so another 17 odd miles to the anchorage of Skull Creek near Hilton Head.We arrived about 4 ish and dropped the anchor...for the first time in months( i thought it may take some time to get used to - after being tied on the dock for so long but she bit in well and we had the most peaceful sleep ever.

Ready to set sail south!!

We have now been in Dataw Island Marina for nearly two months and we are finally ready for part two of our adventures!!! and we cannot wait!! We are boooked out to leave the marina in South Carolina tomorrow moring where we are going to have our first stop a few hours away in the beautiful town of Beaufort. We will then take our time and travel down south through the inland waterways where we will cross the state of Georgia and then Florida. We plan to arrive in Daytona Beach around the middle of march, as im flying back to the UK ofr a couple of weeks.

Yes , im now nearly 17 weeks pregnant and im getting fat!! We searched for some cheap options so we could get a ultrasouind scan over here...but the cheapest we could find was about a 1000 dollars and so the best option was for me to fly back and have it done in wales for free!!At least i get to see all my family and friends again too!! So poor Sym will be in Florida on the boat all on his tod for a couple of weeks...(i bet he cant wait )we are mega excited as we will then get to find out whether we are having a boy or a girl...none of us really have a preference but we just wanted know cos it makes it easier when chossing names and we can start shopping!!



Not sure how much internet access we are going to get whilst travelling down to Florida but ill try to keep you posted as much as possible!!
Weather forecast for the next few days is high 60 , low 70 's with light windss so its going to feel like a heat wave compared to what we have been used to the last few months..

A quick catch up on the last few months!!

Well our boat is finally looking really good after all the work Sym has put into it and the transforamtion is unbelivable. It looks a completly different boat now and we have spent a small fortune on her...but its been worth it!

When were bought Gypsy Moth she was sooo basic and there was hardly anything on her whatsoever. The owner had become ill and so she was left for a couple of years in the marina without any looking after her atall, so she had been a bit neglected to say the least.

The last couple of months have consisted of me on the internet day and night finding everything we needed to buy and getting it shipped over, while Sym's job has been near enough everything else. On the outside of her we have got all new canvas work( a sprayhood,bimini, stack pack for the mainsail and sails over hauled) in a navy blue colour cos we were thinking that when we have the boat taken out the water back down in Panama we are going to paint her navy blue !! The new canvas looks really good although we had a nightmare with the guy who was making it...his estimation of 3 / 4 weeks turned into six weeks , hence us STILL being here in the marina...and the weather has been lousy....

all the locals have been complaining about how its been the worst winter in like forever...bloody typical !! its been so cold its made being outside a chore most of the time, and we have been dreaming for warmer weather.It even snowed here, can you believe that...the secone time evfer in like 20 years!!!haha!!
Enough of the rant of the weather...we have bought everything from new dingy and outboard...a 15 HP this time!! on Quartermoon we had a 8 and it was never fast enough..it would plane with the two of us but any time there was weight from shopping bags and stuff we would get soaked...our new one is like a wippet!!! we now also have two massive solar panels giving out 400 watts of electericity...no messing around this time( not like we have not got the room on this beast) and we thought the extra electricity would come in handy when having the baby.



The electronics on the boat were really non existant and now we have everything we need,,,apart from a SSB!! we want to get one for the pacific so will look for one on ebay over the next few weeks...problem now is we are going to get back out at anchor , so we wont have a mailing address!

The inside of the boat we have a complete new galley and we have bought all the stuff for the new bathrooms x 2 ( buts its not been installed yet) she is looking tip top now and we are really chuffed.



Anyhow it has not all been work and no play. My mate Sara from back home came to visit us a couple of weeks ago for a week,, so that was a nice break for me and it was so lovely to see her. We went out for lots of meals and went for walks and a bike ride around the gated communnity of Dartaw Island!!Honestly it is like something out of the movie the Stepford Wives.



Sara on her bike(they dont have brakes like normal bikes in Britain...you have to cycle backwards to brake...takes lots of getting used to !!)



Anyhow i better get off now cos im getting evil looks from Sym and really should be helping him get the boat ready for our trip tomorrow.