East Coast

We had only been out of the US for a couple months but were instantly overwhelmed by Key Biscayne: the traffic, the urgency, and people staring at cell phones instead of each other.

After departing Fort Lauderdale, we spent most of November in Biscayne Bay, where we swam, hiked, explored, and endured Hurricane Nicole.

Fort Lauderdale was swarming with boats – especially since we arrived during the International Boat Show. All the marinas were full. There was nowhere to anchor. There were cruise ships, cargo ships, and draw bridges at every turn.

We spent three days sailing from Hilton Head, SC to Cape Canaveral, FL. It should have been a two day trip, but we stopped frequently to swim in the warm, clear, and unusually calm waters of the gulf stream.

After nearly two months in Charleston, it was finally almost time to begin heading south. We had just a few last-minute projects to finish up and we’d be one step closer to the tropics.

We were watching weather models of Hurricane Ian from the beginning, but after all the devastation in Florida, we weren’t expecting it to move offshore, strengthen back into a hurricane, and head straight for us in Charleston. 

After a couple months of garage sales, donation centers, and trips to the dump, we’d finally parted ways with about ninety percent of our stuff. We loaded up our remaining belongings into our pickup truck and drove to Charleston