Here are the latest Local Notices to Mariners and NAV ALERTS that are relevant to ICW cruising in Districts 5, 7 and 8, the OBX, AICW, OWW, Keys, GIWW and adjacent waters. Open each LNM link for the USCG notice and a chart for each location. Listed north to south to north. NAV ALERTS will also be posted on our Homepage.
For previous Local Notices, go to the Specific State or Region on our Homepage
This week’s lowest current marina fuel prices as of Sep 02 Diesel Range: $4.85 to $7.23 Lowest @ Osprey Marina in (South Carolina) Gas Range: $4.45 to $4.45 Lowest @ Galveston Yacht Marina in (Texas) Remember to always call the marina to verify the current price since prices may change at any time. Also please let us know if you find a marina’s fuel price has changed via the Submit News link.
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Ft. Pierce City Marina specializes in overnight dockage and 22 hour fueling.
The National Hurricane Center chart below updates automatically and shows the latest storm positions. Click the chart for the full NHC report. While port conditions are primarily for commercial mariners, they give a strong indication of the Coast Guard’s appraisal of the storm’s severity.
Categories:
Category 1: winds between 74 m.p.h. and 95 m.p.h.
Category 2: winds between 96 m.p.h. and 110. m.p.h.
Category 3: winds between 111 m.p.h. and 129 m.p.h.
Category 4: winds between 130 m.p.h. and 156 m.p.h.
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Tropical Storm Edouard is steadily organizing off the Gulf Coast and is expected to move onshore this afternoon near the Texas–Louisiana border. Radar and hurricane hunter data indicate that Edouard is a compact system. However, warm waters and low wind shear are allowing the storm to rapidly organize in its final hours over water.
At a Glance (12:00 PM CDT Update):
Location: 29.6N, 93.5W, (approx. 20 miles SW of Cameron, LA / 30 miles SE of Port Arthur, TX)
Maximum Sustained Winds: 45 knots
Movement: Northwest 7 kts
Minimum Pressure: 1000 mb
Wind & Intensification
Radar data from Lake Charles and Houston show that Edouard’s inner core structure is growing better organized. Recent dropsonde data recorded boundary layer winds reaching 61 knots (approx. 70 mph), leading forecasters to warn that additional strengthening could occur right up until landfall.
A Tropical Storm Warning and Hurricane Watch are currently active from High Island, Texas, to the Louisiana coast. Gusts reaching hurricane force remain a distinct possibility near the core as it crosses the coast later today.
Storm Surge Risk
A Storm Surge Warning is in effect from High Island, TX, to the Vermilion/Cameron Parish Line, LA. Coastal inundation could reach 3 to 5 feet above ground level in vulnerable shoreline areas.
Flash Flooding Potential
Heavy rainfall presents the primary hazard inland as Edouard tracks across southeast Texas. Expect widespread downpours through Wednesday, with urban areas at high risk for flash flooding. River flooding is also possible along the storm’s trajectory.
The City of Gulfport and Gulfport Municipal Marina, A CRUISERS NET SPONSOR, always has a full calendar of events for all ages. The marina and harbor, found on the northern shores of Boca Ciega Bay, are easily accessible from the Western Florida ICW, just north of Tampa Bay.
Chronos: A Group Art Show Deadline to Submit: October 6th
This Fall, we invite visual artists of all ages to submit work for a group exhibition at our studio centered around the theme of “time.”Chronos is the ancient Greek personification of time, and is the root of words like chronology or chronicle. We encourage interested artists to consider this theme and submit up to three original works of any medium that creatively portray the passage of time as well as the relationship between past, present, and future. Think physical records of time, such as clocks, calendars, photos, and time capsules, or even conceptual ideas like change, growth, and tradition.
Submit your work for consideration by filling out the submission form here:
Please be sure to double check and fill out all applicable information before submitting this form as you will not be able to edit your submission after doing so. Please only fill out this form ONCE (duplicate or additional entries from the same artist will be ignored).
Artists whose work has been accepted will be notified by email by October 9th, 2026.
September 2026 Art Workshops
All workshops listed are FREE and all materials are provided!
Registration by email or phone is REQUIRED in order to participate in adult workshops as space is limited. Registration for kids workshops is encouraged, but not required, otherwise space is first-come-first-serve.
Treasure Chest Craft – Kids Workshop FRIDAY, 9/11 @ 5:00 PM – 6:15 PM TUESDAY, 9/15 @ 12:30PM – 1:45 PM Kids will craft a “treasure chest” for their own small treasures and trinkets.
Funky Face Incense Holders – Adult Workshop FRIDAY, 9/18 @ 2:30 PM – 4:15 PM Using air-dry modeling clay, we’ll create incense holders with eccentric faces.
Painted Paper Collage – Adult Workshop TUESDAY, 9/22 @ 12:30 PM – 2:15 PM First, we’ll paint plain white paper, filling it with color. Then, we’ll create a collage entirely out of our paintings.
Join us for an afternoon of collage-making with all materials provided, completely FREE! Bring your own ephemera to share or swap with others and get to know like-minded creatives in a laid-back atmosphere.
Email us at ArtsCenter@mygulfport.us to be added to our optional RSVP list and receive bimonthly reminders.
Open Studio Hours
Anyone 13+ can use our studio space to work on their own personal art projects during open hours. Studio space is provided on a first-come-first-serve-basis, reservations are prohibited. Artists must bring their own supplies.
Writing from different oceans on opposite sides of the globe, two women sailors exchange letters about how we came to build our lives at sea, each aboard a very different sailing vessel. Opposite Latitudes, Parallel Attitudes explores what it takes to go all in on this life—and where those choices have carried us.
Part 2 – Letter from Linda to Janice Anne – I’ve crossed a line in my sailing adventure
Dear J – Thanks so much for your reply to my letter. I so enjoyed reading more about how you got into this crazy life of sailing and rebuilding a classic yacht. The fact that we have so many things in common really astonishes me. You said how honored you were to participate in our exchange – know that I am also honored to create this series with you.
I laughed at your comment about diving in, fully clothed, after whatever it is that you’ve dropped – and how that is an appropriate metaphor for your life. Me too. You say you are “not a sailor” but I must disagree. You must have a sailor gene in your DNA to be doing what you are now, and you and your Sailor have done a wonderful job on your refit. We both know that the job will never “end” but now you are reaping the benefits of being back in the water and sailing again. I can’t wait to hear how you enjoyed your first sail since 2024!
This past couple of weeks have been action packed for the Captain and I. We’ve left Vanuatu and started our passage through the Solomon Islands, and have officially crossed a line in our ocean exploration. Things here in this place on the planet that few people ever visit are real and raw, and likely not to everyone’s taste. You may have seen my essay this weekend about the midnight intrusion on Duende, and that was a whole other side of Paradise. I’d love to talk about security and risk with you in another letter.
What people take for granted in the ‘real world’ are in a different dimension here in the remote islands. Shopping for food is one example that I think will help put this in perspective for you. I know you’ve had some experience in other countries where the markets can be a bit edgy and where you get what you can, when you can. We have a rule, “if you see it, buy it” – because chances are if you don’t, and you go back to get it later, it will be gone.
Our last experience in anything resembling a store was in Port Orly on Espiritu Santo in Vanuatu. We’d heard that there was a place to get meat, and thought it was worth a try to top up the freezer. There is a thriving beef industry in Vanuatu, and we had great success with the meat we got in Port Vila. But the butcher shop in Orly was a mind-blower. It was a cinderblock building down a dirt path off the main road of the village. The front room of the building was a simple “stoa”, with a few shelves of canned goods behind a counter. We asked about fresh meat, and Matthew, the shop keeper, led us behind the counter and into the back room. Laid out on the floor inside the entrance were two hides from freshly butchered cows, still covered in blood and streaked with fat and sinew.
Not suitable for vegetarians – original photo by LJ
There were a couple of chest freezers against the wall, full of freshly butchered beef – not yet frozen. Whether tenderloin or chuck roast, it was all priced the same – $600 Vatu ($5.26 USD) per kilo. Naturally, I chose tenderloin. Matthew opened up the freezer and pulled out a chunk and slapped it on the tiled counter. He cut off a piece and weighed it on the scale – one kilo exactly.
Matthew declined to be in a photo, but this is our friend Ron, cutting his own steaks – original photo by Sue Van Der Plas
Beef doesn’t get any fresher than that. The place wasn’t exactly up to first world sanitation standards, but there were no flies, and at that price I felt we had little to lose. All in all, it was an unforgettable experience, but again, one that many people would run from. That night I cooked a couple of nice filets. Since they were not aged, they were a bit tough, but super tasty. I put the rest of the kilo in the fridge to age for a few days, and then froze it. Our second meal from it a few nights ago was much improved – more tender and still tasty.
Since we left the more populated islands in Vanuatu there haven’t been any stores to speak of, and we don’t have any Solomon dollars to spend if there were. We are now bartering for vegetables and fruit from people who come out to our boat in dugout canoes. Who needs stores when you can trade a bag of rice for eggplant and bok choy from Junior, a kid of about 10 who wore giant pink Crocs and paddled his dugout with a chunk of wood, not a paddle. Or a section of rope, a pair of sunglasses, and a few fish hooks and lures to Fred, who took us on a guided walk of his village and made numerous visits to the boat with green peppers, plantains, and tomatoes. Not to mention the papaya and bananas I got from Lisha and Aisha, the granddaughters of the village chief in Uki Ni Massi, who were thrilled with beads, colorful hair ties, and nail polish.
Two dugouts – twin sisters (Lisha and Aisha) on the paddles, two little brothers (Martin and Harry) along for the ride. Uki Ni Massi kids are pretty darn sweet. – original photo by LJ
People have so little, and I wish everyday that I’d thought to bring more things that would be useful such as reading glasses, sunglasses, and a lot more school and art supplies. When we reprovision next I’ll load up on food items like small bags of rice and sugar and noodle soups. And of course lollies, always lollies for the kids of all ages. Food staples are always welcome, and we have many more remote islands in our path.
Many of the people here never leave their islands, and we’ve met kids who have never seen a white person, ridden in a car, touched a piece of ice, or even seen a sail boat. In the place we anchored a couple of nights ago, a guy named Presley came out in his dugout canoe to chat with us, and told us that they hadn’t seen another visiting yacht since September 2025. His village had no roads, and no vehicles. They farm copra and cacao, and a small boat comes every month or so with supplies. Their lives are so different than ours, and I am learning so much about a part of the planet that I knew little about before we came here.
Presley from Hada Bay, Makira Island – original photo by LJ
We have since left Guadalcanal, an island that shows no outward signs of the atrocities that occurred here in WW2, but harbors the ghosts. I’ve been thinking a lot about the events that took place here and how they affected the people. My next essay is shaping up around this topic. It’s both fascinating and repelling – so much tragedy in this beautiful place.
At this moment we are sailing along with full yankee and a reefed main, making our way up to the island of New Georgia – another new landfall. And here I am, sitting in the pilothouse, writing this letter to you on my laptop. The wonders of technology have really changed the experience of remote ocean adventure, in a way that is truly amazing.
The north coast of Gualalcanal receding in our wake – original photo by LJ
We’re planning our route for the next leg of this extreme passage through the rest of the Solomons to the outer islands of Papua New Guinea and on to Indonesia. Who knows what that is going to bring? While this life is not for everyone, it’s definitely for me. I am happy to be able to share some of it with you in this series, and look forward to hearing back from you soon.
And here’s a full moon shot from the other night – it’s very cool that you are see the same one, on the opposite side of the planet, on a different day!
Sail on my friend!
LJ, SV Duende
Underway from Guadalcanal to New Georgia, Solomon Islands Latitude: 009° 03.779’’ S Longitude: 159° 33.829’ E
Part 2: Letter from Janice Anne to Linda – Your stories make me glad to be back on the water!
Good Morning LJ– not morning for you, of course…!
I was so pleased to receive this today– opened it immediately–sounds like island hopping at its finest! Go you! And go me, for the first time since May 1, 2024 STEADFAST found herself under full sail last Thursday. What a feeling after all this time, and things went beautifully, felt like we belonged, and STEADFAST finally got to show off her stuff again.
I chuckled a bit at our ongoing “Am I a Sailor after only a few years?” dialogue–I think it might be fair to say yes, I know how to sail. The rest is pure determination and grit. THIS LIFE IS NOT FOR EVERYONE…. 😉
Your current stop, Guadalcanal, certainly brings back memories of history class, however vague, WWII battles and the ugliness of war; so glad that has been left behind to a large extent, anyway. Cannot be forgotten, I’m sure. That is an amazing photo— what a stunning island! Wandering the Bahamas brings the now-controversial Christopher Columbus back to life; his first landfall was not in North America, as I feel like I was taught, but an outlier of the main Bahama chain. The reality would be that he pretty much missed the big ol’ home continent of ours…..and then ‘discovered’ there were already complex cultures, of all things!
Anyway, on to your shopping trip to the Butcher– vegans beware indeed. I, too, would have chosen the tenderloin, but might have purchased the entire thing instead of just a kilo! I imagine that they waste no part of the animal, and that’s always so nice to see– we take our grocery stores for granted, don’t we? I agree completely on the cleanliness and the lack of flies. Crucial. Certainly that was by far the freshest meat you have ever purchased. How did they package it? Did you have bags? Just curious. We fish behind the vessel constantly and also spear for lobster and smaller fish. Is this part of your provisioning/diet? I’ve met an amazing number of boaters who don’t eat seafood, but I’m a huge fan, as long as it’s properly prepared.
I’ve walked miles on rough roads now and then and echo your motto on grocery purchases. We, too, buy it when we see it, if we’re willing and able to carry it back to where we came ashore! I once paid $12USD for a pineapple as it was the only fresh fruit on an isolated island. (I bought some canned recently!) Values change, don’t they? You know far better than I, after all these thousands of ocean miles under your keel. I know we eat a lot of old, tough carrots!
I love, respect and appreciate your advice on what to pack in order to trade and gift locals, especially the children. What incredible photographic captures of the twin girls and all the rest; they do seem so innocent, don’t they? They are innocent, by any of our standards, I think. You are an ambassador, by choice, and I’m sure you’re an excellent one! How delightful that they want to meet you. What an honor that they find you interesting, meet your eyes and smile instead of being the low-energy, callous, disinterested, phone-focused youngsters who can cross my path in this culture.
STEADFAST seems to encounter more adults in our travels than children. I once gave a dive mask to an elderly, lone Bahamian in a plastic kayak who was hunting spiny lobster with only his intellect and decades of experience, miles from home. Our first year we traded some tender tails from a commercial fishing boat for packets of hot chocolate and beer, an odd combination indeed!
In 2023 we were preparing for a five-year extended trip down the coast of South America and I thought long and hard about what we would NOT be able to purchase. I understand now how easy life on land or dock is– whatever we need is generally accessible within a few miles. I tell my non-sailing friends– just think about the amount of groceries, toiletries, dry goods and beverages you buy each week. Each week! So now multiply that times months and provisioning is a tremendous undertaking, even knowing you will be able to find some things abroad. Think: years worth of your favorite toothpaste and razor blades, hot sauce and seasonings, right? The rest, no. If it’s not on your boat, you try completely new things or simply do without. Not a cultural norm, but one that is far healthier for the planet, IMHO.
We’re taking a few days away from the real world and just wandering the (comparatively) small but mighty Chesapeake Bay, reuniting with our sailing life, rolling with it, so to speak. Like you, it’s most certainly the one I choose, and it’s definitely not for everyone!
Love your killer colorful sunset cover shot! Here’s last evening half a world away. Red skies at night, Sailor’s Delight!
And this one matches your August Full Moon shot– we had a 96% solar eclipse here but it was too cloudy to view the spectacle.
Fair winds. Write soon! ~J
Latitude 38° 30.573 North Longitude 76° 15.565 West
In case you missed it, this is my original ‘Stack introductory piece, March of 2024; I think you’ll love it!
These stories often come to me out of the darkest darkness, late at night, on watch, when the sound of the unseen sea can be either unpredictably raucous or quietly hypnotic, when the motion of the vessel can either rock you gently to sleep or jolt you awake, adrenaline flowing. I couldn’t possibly hit all the right keys under the latter conditions, so …
2 years ago · 40 likes · 26 comments · Janice Anne Wheeler
BIG P.S.! I just read your post dated August 30th and I am so sorry and saddened about what happened to you and your Captain AND most importantly am glad you are safe. We’ve been lucky so far, but that is another example of YOUR self-sufficiency and the fact that THIS LIFE IS NOT FOR EVERYONE….take good care, my friend, and please stay joyous. ~J
About the Pen Pal Series
The Pen Pal Series features stories, questions, and unique experiences of other travelers — written from wherever we happen to be on the planet. Each open letter exchange pairs two different routes through life, shared in real time.
These pen pal letters are a throwback to the time before messaging and email, when letters sent by post were the only way to communicate 1:1. In those days, once letters left the writer, the words disappeared from the author and belonged to the recipient. In this electronic age, not only does the sender retain a copy, but it can be instantly shared with a host of others. It’s a phenomenal connection.
OG digital nomad, full time ocean adventurer. Exploring remote places on SV Duende, an 80-foot aluminum hulled expedition yacht. A crew of two, with a DIY approach and limitless possibilities for the most amazing remote life.
Harbour Town Yacht Basin, A CRUISERS NET SPONSOR, is ready for your reservation with newly renovated docks, upgraded electrical service and onSpot WiFi, also a CRUISERS NET SPONSOR. And, as always, numerous activities at the Sea Pines Resort are offered for your enjoyment, as you will see in the Event Schedule below. Hilton Head Island is absolutely marvelous any time of year.
Elizabeth City sits at the southern terminus of the Dismal Swamp Canal and has the well-earned reputation of being a transient-friendly town with free dockage for 72 hours.
Fred Pickhardt’s Substack is free today. But if you enjoyed this post, you can tell Fred Pickhardt’s Substack that their writing is valuable by pledging a future subscription. You won’t be charged unless they enable payments.
The remnants of former Tropical Storm Dolly are bringing heavy rainfall and active weather to the northeast Caribbean as the strong tropical wave moves west-northwest at around 20 knots.
Impacted Areas: Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, and the northern Leeward Islands.
Marine Conditions: Fresh to locally near-gale winds with seas of 8–12 feet between 18N–22N and 60W–65W.
Hazards: Locally heavy rains and gusty winds over the next couple of days, with rainfall totals varying significantly based on local island topography.
Development Outlook: The system currently lacks a closed surface circulation, and redevelopment is unlikely over the next 1–2 days. However, conditions may become more favorable for gradual redevelopment by mid-week as it reaches the southeastern Gulf, carrying a low chance of tropical formation through 7 days.
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The National Hurricane Center (NHC) has initiated advisories on Potential Tropical Cyclone Five (formerly Invest AL97) as of 10:00 AM CDT, Monday, August 31, 2026.
Key Highlights
Tropical Storm Warning: Active from Port Bolivar, Texas, to the Vermilion/Cameron Parish Line, Louisiana.
Current Position & Motion: Centered near 27.8N 91.0W (approx. 180 nm offshore), moving WNW (285°) at a slow 4 knots.
Current Intensity: Initial sustained winds set at 30 knots (35 mph) with gusts.
Expected Landfall Window: Reaching the Upper Texas or Southwestern Louisiana coast within 24 to 36 hours (Tuesday daytime to early Wednesday).
While Air Force Hurricane Hunter reconnaissance and satellite scatterometer passes show an elongated, ill-defined center on the system’s western side, the environment ahead is becoming favorable for rapid organization:
Warm Water: Sea Surface Temperatures (SSTs) along the track are well above 30°C (86°F).
Low Shear: Deep-layer vertical wind shear remains minimal according to SHIPS guidance.
Small Physical Size: Because the system is compact, it is capable of quicker-than-forecast intensity changes.
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