Merry Xmas & Happy New Year

Hey All,

Well we made it to Georgetown, Exumas so far. Had a good Gulfstream crossing, along with Tortuga and SunCat, on Dec 4th from Ft Lauderdale down to the tip of Key Biscayne and then across to just north of Bimini. We left at 630 am and were anchored in the Berry Islands by 930 am on the 5th. On the 7th we checked into customs at Nassau. After losing a few bucks at Atlantis we decided to head out of Dodge! After visiting a few Cays on the way and dodging a couple cold fronts we ended up in Georgetown on Dec 23rd.
Looks like we may be heading down to the Jumentos Wed for a few days.
Met up with alot of old friends and plenty of new ones.

All for now,

Running from the cold!

Hi All,


Well our daughter's wedding is over and we ran "out of Dodge". Trying to get to the warm climes. Arrived in Myrtle Beach on Nov 10th only to be greeted mid-40's but at least it went to the mid-60's and the sun was shinning.


Oh yeah back to our daughter Marcella's wedding. Seems like a blurr! 300 relatives, friends and strangers with 5hrs to say Hi. That's one(1) minute per/person! However, it was a blast. We can't take total credit for the success because Adam(our new "son" who came into our lives "potty trained", pretty cool,huh? ) & Marcella planned most of it. A few surprises thrown in( Cigar roller, replace classic Father/Daughter song "Daddy's Little Girl" with "Pink Cadillac" and the list goes on...). So far have not heard anything less than fantastic from the attendees. Can one of you promise us that you will invite us to a wedding like that so we can dance, drink, and eat? Other highlights included our son, Corbett 3rd, flying home from Santa Barbara and we got to meet his girlfriend, Flannery. Two days after he arrives the surf( yes NJ gets waves) goes bigtime and we(Dad) get to spend sometime together surfing in the cold water along with our nephew,JJ. Of course Marcella was sweating it out if there was going to be waves the next day, Saturday! Well it wasn't good enough to miss the wedding and Father & Son showed up.


Left Wacca Wache Marina today. This was the perfect location close to Myrtle Beach airport and even more important right in the backyard of the "star" of our very 1st blog entry, "Country Bobby" and his wonderful wife, Claudia. these two cannot be outdone when it come to Southern Hospitality. Don't know where to start. Airport service,shopping, laundry, Oyster Roast... did we say Oyster Roast, tours of the area...and the list goes on!! Thanks again you two!!!
Also got to have dinner with part of our "new" family, Scott & Terry Rosenberg, Adam's uncle and aunt. They live nearby. We relived the wedding and woke up the marina as we laughed the night away on the boat!


We had a good day today as we made it to just 10mi from Charleston. It was cold. Again mid-40's. Gloves, wool hat, wool socks..... Got up to 65. Mostly motoring but, that's the ICW.


Next summer we are seriously considering leaving our boat down south so we could avoid the weather delays and wear and tear on the Cookie Monster.


All for now,

Boring is good when your underway!

Hi All,



The tittle says it all. Cruising down the ICW can be boring at times. Smoothe water, a little bit of current against you here and there, miles of wetlands and of course miles of houses! The one thing that is good about boredom is the fact that everything on board is working properly! No alarms going off, no mechanical or crew issues, etc. Since leaving Norfolk the weather has been nothing less than stellar. A few hours of thunderstorms near Carolina Beach,NC but no winds of any concern.
We have not been meeting many boats along the way because everyone seems to be heading south with a vengence, including us. Now that we are sure to make our flight from Myrtle Beach to NJ on Fri eve, we have slowed down some. The last two nights were spent in Calabash,NC. Walked about 1 1/2 mi. to the Calabash Presbyterian Church. Wonderful people and a great pastor, Rev Jack. Why is it that at home the churches don't seem as friendly? They had coffee and cake going on and invited us into their Sunday School, which happened to be all adults! A little later on that afternoon we were joined by our friends, Bill, Margie, and the "boys"(Casey & Oscar their dogs) on S/V Tortuga. We cruised with them in the Bahamas last winter for awhile and they visited us in NJ for a few days in July on their way to New England. It was great catching up and comparing our plans for the upcoming winter.
This morning we left for our marina, Wacca Wache, where we will be keeping the boat at for the next 3+ weeks. Will be back on the boat Nov 10th after our daughter's wedding, Nov 6th.

Looking forward to seeing "Country Bobbie" and his wife Claudia who live about 15mins. away and Scott and Terry( our future son-in-law's aunt and uncle) who live in the area also!

All for now,

I guess I needed the "Admiral" aboard!

Hi All,



Well since leaving Norfolk and having "Admiral" Robin on board, things have settled down( guess you can't easily replace the wench!!) Tonight we are anchored in Mile Hammock Bay, part of Camp Lejune, NC. The ICW has been pretty benign. Don't get us wrong that is a good thing!!

Actually today was quite interesting. We left Spooners Creek, just west of Morehead City, NC, this morning and had an easy day on the ICW until we passed the the Onslow Beach Bridge,mm240. Helicopters were flying at mast height As we are ready to turn into Mile Hammock the Coast Guard decides to board us. This is a first for us! Very polite "kids" and their "boss". Apparently they were training. Well the Cookie Monster passed w/flying colors and they thanked us. A small price to pay, especially since we were able to anchor first!! They declined on the offer of cookies & milk!

All for now

Corbett & Robin

Made our 2nd Big Right Turn!

Cookie Monster left the dock at Cedar Creek on Barnegat Bay at 12:15 Tues. Oct. 5th. The crew consisted of myself, Steve, Gary, and a first timer on our boat Dave. We headed out Barnegat Inlet for Norfolk, Va., about a 36hr sail. Well mechanical issues and weather did their best to stop us! After getting out the inlet we sailed along Long Beach Island in generally lousy conditions, ie. heavy drizzle, winds gusting to 25mph, 4-5ft seas and spray coming over the rails. Off Beach Haven we lost our steering. Thank God for Autopilot. Next stop Atlantic City. A good inlet and parts should be available. I assembled the emergency tiller so we could navigate the inlet and dock the boat. Hey c'mon the autopilot isn't that good!! Forgot to mention that after the steering went we tried to bring in the jib and the furling line, which rolls the sail back up like a window shade, broke. The crew handled it in stride and after donning harnesses, we took down the jib and secured it.
Boat Tow US followed(assisted) us to the dock at Trump Marina in AC. The next day, Wed., we rented a car and found the part for the steering chain. By 5pm we shoved off for Norfolk once again. The winds were "on the nose" and we motored. Around 12:45am,Thurs., just off Cape May the engine overheat alarm goes off. I check everything and the temp is high. We immediately turn for the inlet and slow down. The temp goes back to normal in about 25 min. Not taking any chances we anchor inside off the Coast Guard station. It turns out that the fan belt was loose so I tightened it and it was good. Now we leave to cross the mouth of the Delaware Bay around 8am. Once again the winds are..."on the nose". SW winds around 20kts and short, choppy 3-4ft seas. 3hrs later we are in the protection of Cape Henlopen, Delaware. The ocean is flat and we are sailing along at 7.5-8.0 kts!! 20hrs later we arrived in Little Creek Inlet, Norfolk. I was lucky to have the crew I had becaused they never complained and performed like "another day in the park"! Thanks guys!!!!!
Robin drove down to Norfolk with the rest of our supplies and Steve, Gary & Dave drove home.
Bookmark the following link to follow us on Spot Tracker.

http://share.findmespot.com/shared/faces/viewspots.jsp?glId=0ltQqq7rpv3F0A9VTpu7a3vqgfBjFApSk

All for now!

Corbett & Robin

Preparing to shove off

Hi All,

Well the summer is flying by and our tenative departure date is Sept 15th. Doing the ICW again however we will be missing the Annapolis Boat Show, for the first time in recent memory, as our plans state that we need to be in the Mrytle Beach/Pawleys Island area around Oct 20th. Our daughter, Marcella, is getting married on Nov 6th. We will be leaving the boat here and flying home for a few weeks before returning on Nov 10th. After spending some time with "Country Bobbie"(star of our 1st blog post) and his wife Claudia on Pawleys Island we will be trying to get to Vero Beach by Thanksgiving.

This year our "sails" will take us the reverse route of last season as we will cross over to the Abacos from West Palm Beach in late Nov/early Dec. Then on to the Central Bahamas and points south. We are looking forward to stopping in Black Point again and bringing the school there some much needed supplies and books. Robin will surely be doing some teaching and helping out. If anyone would like to donate any basic supplies such as pencils, sharpeners. copy paper, etc. please send us an email or if you don't have our email(we'd rather not post it here) leave a comment and we will get back to you.

All for now

Back in Barnegat

We left Annapolis on May29th and headed for Chesapeake City at the western end of the Chesapeake/Delaware Canal. This is a great stop over going in either direction as it offers a good anchorage(even some free slips along the park if you are lucky) and a few eateries/bars. The next morning we waited for the tide, around 11am, so we could go with it for most of the trek to Cape May down the Delaware. We rounded Cape May at dark and decided to go on through the night to Barnegat Inlet. It was dead calm so we continued to imitate a very slow motor vessel!!

Coming off nearly 22hrs of motoring we entered Barnegat Bay and the winds picked up. Finally turned the engine off and set the sails. In about one hour we dropped the anchor in our home "cruising" grounds at Tices Shoal. This was our weekend hangout for the last 20+ years. On any nice summer Sat/Sun there could be hundreds of boats anchored here. The attraction is that it is fairly protected from the onshore breezes and there is a 1/4mi long boardwalk that cuts through Island Beach State Park and offers access to the ocean.

As soon as we anchored we were joined by our long time friends Steve, Sue and there beautiful( and growing up way to quickly) daughters Sarah and Samantha on Windswept. This is the perfect "welcome back" because they have been our local cruising partners since the mid-80's. Steve was our "weather go-to guy" for the entire trip down the ICW last fall.

Pulled into our slip at Up The Creek Marina on Cedar Creek and were welcomed back by our new neighbors Dave & Vivian and Gary & Joy,the owners of the marina.

There probably won't be much more than day sails this summer as we will be spending time replenishing the "kitty" and doing some boat projects. We intend on heading south again on/about Sept. 15th.

All for now

Annapolis

Hi All,
We have had a whirlwind tour of the ICW and the Chesapeake Bay.We arrived in Annapolis the day of the Blue Angels annual performance for the Naval Academy Graduation. Sitting in our dinghy along with Bill & Margie from Tortuga and Katie & Hoku from Makana on the Edge of the Severn River.

The Blue Angels performed for an hour just a couple hundred feet overhead. An awesome display of raw power and the incredible talent of the pilots.

Then we were off to The Middleton Tavern by the city docks for Oyster Shooters!!

Wrightsville Beach,NC-Coinjock,NC

Hi All,

We have been tearing up the miles the last couple of days. After leaving Wrightville Beach we did the ICW, due to the forecast of northeast winds, and went 78+mi to a great anchorage called Spooners Creek. Robin and I stopped there on our way down in late Oct. "Aftermath" with Bob & Maryann, who were "buddy boating" with us since Annapolis, Md., had done this trip many times so we followed them into this spot. Not "pristine" by any stretch considering there were some pretty big houses with large boats in this lagoon but it had a certain quiteness and very well protected from the wind. The way we hooked up with Aftermath happened in the anchorage at Chesapeake City, Del. on the 2nd night of our trip south. This guy comes by in his dinghy and says " are you really from Bradley Beach?" after reading our hailing port on the back of our boat. Turns out he is from Ocean Twp. a few miles from us. One thing leads to another and we end up next to each other at anchor in Annapolis, Md. two days latter. We have them aboard and find out that he started surfing when I did back in the the mid-60's. Of course we know all them same people.... and the rest is history. We ended up staying together all the way to the South Carolina/Georgia border and needless to say picked up valuable insights/tips from the crew of Aftermath.
Back to the present... we anchored in the Pungo River just before the entrance to the Pungo-Alligator River Canal. Just another beautiful boring anchorage!!! Up at 0530 we transited the canal and around 1200 crossed the "dreaded" Albemarle Sound. Two years ago while bringing the boat up from Ft Lauderdale, with my brother-in-law Fred and good friend Gary Church we encountered the worst conditions this 12mi wide body of water could dish out! Winds were gusting to 50kts out of the north/northeast(as the NWS forecast was calling for 15-20mph).
5 1/2 hours later we found calm conditions in the lee of the North River, which is the beginning of the Virgina Cut ending in Norfolk, Va. This time it could have been called "Lake Albemarle" as we motor across in dead calm conditions. The day was completed as we pulled up to the Coinjock Marina and tied up to the dock. By the way this was our first marina since Charleston,SC. Showers/laundry were in order and on to dinner.
All for now,
Corbett and my fastead crew, Joe & Frank

5/18/10 Little River Inlet,SC-Wrightville Beach,NC

Hi All,

I will try to back track alittle every post and eventually all the way back to Oct. 1st, 2009. We arrived in Vero Beach on April 24th after a 27 hour overnight sail from Allens-Pensacola Cay in the Abacos. Makana, a 38ft Admiral catamaran with Rick, Kate and their 6 yr old daughter Hoku on board were our "buddy boat".

Robin flew home on April 26th to be with her sister Val who was scheduled for surgery May 12th. Which by the way turned out very sucessful and she is well on the road to recovery. I got things ready for the trek to NJ. Mostly routine boat maintenance and getting the Cookie Monster ready for new crew. None of this would have been possible if not for our friends, Bob and Deb, who live aboard their houseboat "River House" on a mooring in Vero Beach. This couple is another example of the amazing people you meet while cruising. Robin & I hardly even grabbed our mooring and they dinghied up to our boat to welcome us back and offered to drive us wherever/whenever for anything we needed! Things were tough without Robin on the boat. God knows she is much more organized than me! It took me alot longer to get the everyday stuff done that's for sure .

On May 3rd I sailed for South Melbourne Beach to pick up my new crew of Bern and Marilyn. They accompanied me all the way to Charleston, SC with stops in New Symrna Beach, St Augustine( home of Nancy&Bruce Hoffman with story in the near future!), Fernandina Beach and Jeckyll Island, Ga. This yet another "cruising" story. We met them last Nov. as we were looking for a place to land our dinghy. Florida is notorious for "not being able to get there from here"! There are so many private homes and condos that beach access is extremely limited. As Robin and I are motoring past a dock we wave to a couple, watching the sunset, who in turn wave back. Robin says "why don't we ask them if they know of a place to land the dinghy?"

Me, holding true to being "a guy" am at first reluctant but, soon give in and we approach them. Robin asks the question and they say"right here" and the next thing we know we are having drinks... then dinner in their condo!! Bern was a seasoned sailor who transited the "inland waterway" in his Island Packet from Michigan to the Dry Tortugas west of the Florida Keys. Marilyn is a retired high school teacher who specialized in nursing and was very comfortable being aboard. I was so confident with them on the boat, heck Bern could dock it better than me! This is a personal thank you to a great couple!

After following the ICW all day Tuesday through beautiful wilderness and then closely followed by "foreclosed concrete jungles"... aka Mrytle Beach , we anchored in peaceful Calabash Creek on the NC/SC border. My new crew , Frank and Joe, settled into running the boat. Checking the weather it looked like today would be good to go "outside" by way of the Little River Inlet,SC and sail to the Cape Fear River,NC only about 25nm but we could atleast let the Cookie Monster run instead of walk! We caught the incoming tide 10+mi up the river and arrived in Wrightsville Beach just in time to drop the anchor as a couple of thunderstorms came thru!!!
All for now,
Corbett,Robin(in spirit), Frank & Joe

Trial Blog for Cookie Monster

Captain Corbett and Captain Robin Monica have almost completed their first full winter of cruising the Bahamas and now are on the return leg back to Bradley Beach New Jersey. Corbett had just discovered the possibility of using Find Me SPOT.com to BLOG their way along future journeys. So this post will be used as trial to get connected to all of you who have followed them through their Cookie Monster emails this winter, 2009-2010.

Attached are some photos from the day trip north on ICW between Charleston, SC and Pawley's Island, SC., 66NM, in 10 hours. Some photos include Corbett's latest crew, Frank Ratti, old Bradley Beach lifeguard friend, who flew into Charleston on Sat from Eugene, Oregon, and his old college roommate from Montclair State, Country Bobbie Insley, who migrated to Georgetown, SC in 1972, with wife Claudia, where they are now "by the grace of god" Dixie loving Americans with a hound dog named Samantha, and a parrot. Frank had not seen Bobbie since May of 1974, the last time Yankee Frankie was in SC. Bobbie and Claudia have both taught a career's worth of public school students in Georgetown's County.

Best to all. Hope to try this out n the rest of the trip.
Cpt. Corbett Monica
(per Sec. fdr)