 As
we approached St Mary River, we saw a submarine heading towards
the submarine base at Kings Bay. The boat was being escorted by
two small surface ships. Twenty minutes later, the submarine
seemed to be getting bigger. Great! He had turned around and
was coming out the inlet. We were going to meet at the
narrowest point in channel. As we passed the sub, Bob waves at
it. We thought he was nuts as there was no one on deck. All of
a sudden, the sub emits a loud short blast on its horn and
three seamen pop up from the conning tower. They wave .. we
wave .. then they are gone. We arrived at Fernandina beach
before noon. We stayed for two days waiting for passage of a
weather disturbance. We had dinner with friends who lived on
Amelia Island.
 We
left Fernandina at 0700 with plans to sail straight to Cape
Fear (281 nm) on the 'outside'. By 0900, we were sailing! We
talked to Oz on the VHF. He was leaving Fernandina also.
We kept in touch with them until they turned towards
Charleston. The weather was great, the wind was off our port
quarter (10-15 kts) but the waves were 3-4 feet. At times the
boat would roll 15-25 degrees for hours on end. Sleep would
have been impossible without the leecloths. Ann accidentally
dumped her spaghetti dinner in the sink on an exceptionally
large wave. She was not happy.
 Sammy
Jane was becoming quite the able bodied seacat. She would
occasionally come on deck and help the helmsperson. Something
would always scare her (birds, bugs, waves, noise) and she
would retreat back into the cabin. Fifty hours after Fernandina
we arrived at Bald Head Island for provisioning. One of the
slipholders lent us his golf cart to go shopping (he really
liked our boat!). The next day we head for Beaufort NC on the
'outside' We arrive the next morning at 0945. That completed
our offshore passages for Voyage 2000. We would travel on the
ICW and Chesapeake Bay for the remainder of the trip.
 Our
VHF died. We were having problems with it before, but it
finally quit. We used the loaner car at Beaufort Town Docks and
drove to the local West Marine. Two trips later, everything was
working. We installed a remote microphone in the cockpit.
Pretty kewl. We left Beaufort at 0915 with a promised 5 day
weather window. Home in five days. We were anxious now. So
close to home (sort of)! Our first night from Beaufort finds us
at Mayo Shrimp and Bait.
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