On Day 6 we cruised from Coinjock, NC, to Irvington, VA, via Portsmouth/Norfolk. This is an interesting stretch cruising “The Ditch".

On Day 5 of our U.S. East Coast journey, we cruised offshore from Southport, NC, to Beaufort, NC. We came in past a dredger through a rather choppy inlet to continue our trip “on the inside”, meaning on the Intracoastal Waterway, or the ICW.

On Day 4 of our trip, we cruised again offshore from Charleston, SC, to Southport, NC. While this is a relatively short leg and we have the fuel range to go straight from Charleston to Beaufort, NC, we love stopping in the town of Southport, NC anyways Southport is a charming small town on the southern North Carolina coast, where the Cape Fear River meets the Atlantic Ocean.

On Day 3 of our trip north, we cruised offshore from St Simons Island, Georgia, to Charleston, South Carolina. The Atlantic was calm, and the only things we saw were some large cargo ships hanging out in the open water, waiting to enter the Savannah River.

The second day of our trip took us offshore from Port Canaveral, Florida, to St Simons Island, Georgia. This is a significant leg, as most insurance companies will require you to be north of the Florida-Georgia state line (or north of the 31st parallel north/31 degree line ) by a certain date, and to not return south of it before another specified date to make sure the boat is not in Florida during hurricane season.

On the first day of our trip going north along the U.S. East Coast, we traveled offshore from Palm Beach to Port Canaveral. Port Canaveral is a nice stop, especially if you have time to take a tour of the nearby Kennedy Space Center; or, if you are very lucky, to witness a rocket launch!

My previous blog talked about what it means to be a yacht owner-operator. This blog discusses the preparations involved in planning for a longer trip as an owner-operator.