Sailing is just all-round better than being tied up to the dock at a marina!

We spent the last 5 weeks tied up in Brunswick, Georgia. We were there to put the boat in a safe place while we did a road trip to visit some friends, and to put some funds in the cruising kitty with some mechanical work on other boats. The marina was nice enough, but this being coastal Georgia, in July it is hot and buggy.

But now we have flown that coop! On Saturday we left the marina and anchored out in the harbor. Yesterday (Sunday) we headed out into the ocean. Our next planned destination is Norfolk, VA, and from there to Annapolis.

Our sail out of the Brunswick Harbor took us out into a nearly windless ocean, so we motored east. We we treated to a large sea turtle, dolphins by the dozen, and snagging a couple fish.

The nighttime showed us a bioluminescent phenomenon unlike any we had seen before. Normally when sailing at night, especially on a moonless night, the small creatures in the water disturbed by the boat’s passage light up with a green glow. Last night was different. All around the boat, in all directions, as far as we could see, it looked like little “light bombs” going off underwater. Sudden flashes of light, some quite bright, at various depths. Some just a very brief flash, others lasting a second or two.

As I write this I am treated to a large group of what I think are Rizzo dolphins swimming by. They show no interest in the boat, they have places to go. And again, just as I write this… another small group of large dolphins go by, of a type I can be sure of.

Right now we are out in the Gulf Stream roughly off Charleston, SC sailing north in very light winds. There are a few spots between here and there we hope to stop to drop a fishing line.