Sunday, October 26, 2008

Dewees Island, SC to Fernandina Beach, FL

Yeah! We are back in Florida waters and that means we are getting close to home.
This has been a week of paying close attention to weather, even cruising the ICW, the coast of South Carolina and Georgia many wide open sounds, so it can get nasty in a hurry if the wind is blowing. We departed Dewees Creek early Monday morning along with three sailboats. The weather was cool, sunny and calm, an easy day on the water. When we got to about 20 miles from Beaufort, one of cruising boats (Monk 36) that Mark knew was broken down on the waterway. They had called Sea Tow, but didn't know when they would arrive. So we anchored for Mark to give some help. As they're getting ready to come pick up Mark by dinghy, Sea Tow arrived. We decided to meet them in Beaufort the next day. We up anchor and traveled another 5 miles to anchor on the Bull River for the night.

Sunset at Bull River, the Georgia marsh
We arrived at Beaufort City Marina early Tuesday morning to buy dinghy gas and fill up water tanks. After anchoring Mark went on the Monk 36 and in two hours he got their engine running. We spent the rest of day just relaxing and went for a walk and grocery shopping. The weather service was forecasting a strong Nor'easter starting on Wednesday and lasting through Friday. So we left Beaufort early Wednesday morning and decided to go to Herb River at Thunderbolt, near Savannah, for the storm. We arrived at 1:30 PM, had our anchor well set, went for a dinghy ride, then the wind started to blow...and by Friday we had some gale force winds. So glad we're safely at anchor.

Gray looking day, beautiful sand bar with birds
We left Herb River at the crack of dawn on Saturday, the wind had calmed down but the sky was gray. The only good part was that the current was in our favor, where the waterway is thin we had high tide water. We dropped anchor at South River along with a sailboat "Charisma", Steve and Denny from England. They've called us along the way to warn us of some trouble spots and asked us if we're the boat that they've read about in a magazine. We invited them aboard for drinks and to see the boat. A nice change after being couped up for two days.

Charisma at anchor and sunset on South River
Today was a beautiful day, light wind and sunny. We followed Charisma out of South River this morning. While Mark navigated through some tricky spots, I enjoyed the changing scenes of the Georgia marshes, the seabirds and dolphins. A sailboat ahead of us ran aground, and we skirted around the shallow spot. He motored off just as we were passing, and followed us the rest of the day. We arrived at Fernandina Beach at 4 PM, went for a walk in town and Charisma invited us aboard for drinks and a tour of their boat. So happy we are getting close to home!

Brunswick bridge, seabirds and an old boat wreck on Jekyll Island
Our homeward voyage continues, this week we traveled 262 miles.

Sunday, October 19, 2008

Morehead City, NC to Dewees Island, SC

This has been an exciting week on the waterway. We departed Morehead City Monday morning, it was sunny and beautiful. When we entered Camp Lejeune we're notified that the Firing Range will be active in an hour, the area was busy with radio traffic and military patrol boats. We met up with tugboat called Mi-T-Mo and followed him through 3 timed bridges to arrive at Wrightsville Beach before sun down. The weather was warm and sunny so we decided to stay an extra day at Wrightsville Beach to enjoy the beach and dinghy exploring the surrounding creeks.
Island for sale, military patrol boat at Camp Lejeune


Timed bridges

Full moon at Wrightsville Beach anchorage, beach

We left Wrightsville Beach late Wednesday morning to time the tidal current on Cape Fear River, and had a fast ride to Pipeline Canal anchorage, a short 4 hours travel day.

Thursday was a trying day through 4 bridges, two were timed and two on request. The Barefoot Landing Swing Bridge had a new operator and instead of opening on request we waited for over 20 minutes while trying to hold the boat in the current and wind. We ended the day anchored in an oxbow near Enterprise Landing on the Waccamaw River, arguably the most beautiful part of the Intracoastal Waterway.


Waccamaw River
We had a leisurely breakfast on Friday and traveled 15 miles down the Waccamaw River to one of our favorite anchorages at Thoroughfare Creek. The Waccamaw River is one of prettier sections of the ICW, it's peaceful, a wonderful place for bird watching. While waiting for the passing cold front we dinghied around to explore the creeks, drifting with the engine off to hear the birds sing and watching the alligators swim near shore. We also met our friends Barbara and Phil at Reserve Harbor Marina, they took us to their home on Pawleys Island for us to do laundry and grocery shopping. We also went to see a custom golfcart show event and the Georgetown Wooden Boat Show. A fun filled day with activities, good food and great conversations.

Barbara, Phil, Mark & Joyce, Golfcart show

Georgetown Wooden Boat Show

Wooden boat building competition and finished boats
We left Thoroughfare Creek early Sunday morning, a breezy sunny day. It's a busy day on the waterway, many are local boats going home after the Georgetown Wooden Boat Show, but most are migrating boats going south. We're pleased to be out of ICW when we dropped anchor around 4:30 PM at Dewees Creek. Our week ended with the most gorgeous sunset on the sawgrass marshes.

Sea birds on the waterway
Our southbound track continues, this week we traveled 252 miles.

Sunday, October 12, 2008

Portsmouth, VA to Morehead City, NC

We decided to travel the Dismal Swamp route when we departed Portsmouth, for we like the quiet of the swamp, and the wildlife. Due to low water levels, the locks are only opened twice a day at 9 AM and 3 PM, so we positioned ourselves to lock through at 9 AM on Monday. While we're inside the Deep Creek Lock we heard three boats calling on VHF pleading the lockkeeper to wait for them, we waited for 25 minutes then the lockkeeper told the boats that they'll have to lock through at 3 PM since they're still waiting for bridges. So our day on the swamp was just as quiet and beautiful as we've expected. We also stopped at the NC Welcome Station for a visit to time the South Mills Lock at 3 PM. We finally arrived at Elizabeth City, NC around 6 PM.

Dismal Swamp Canal


Elizabeth City is one of most boater friendly cities. They provide free docks, the Visitor Center and the Rose Buddies host daily wine and cheese parties when there's more than 4 boats in town. The mayor came to meet and welcome us to his city, and the Farm Fresh Market picked us up to go shopping at their store. We also enjoyed seeing the new Museum of the Albermarle.

Elizabeth City waterfront docks

We left Elizabeth City early Wednesday morning and had a good calm day on the Albermarle Sound. We anchored at Pungo River that night.

Sunrise on the Pasquotank River

On Thursday we went up the Pamlico River to Washington, NC. It's kind of out of way when you are heading south (34 miles off the ICW), but it's well worth a visit. The town provides two nights free docking, and there are many restaurants, interesting shops, board walks and a new Estuarium. We came here to celebrate Mark's birthday and to meet some friends. Our lunch at Mimi's Cafe was delicious.

Washington waterfront docks and big homes

Washington High School homecoming night parade

We left Washington on Saturday afternoon for Bath. It's a lovely small town, this afternoon we came in for it's protected anchorage from a Nor'easter that have been blowing for two days.
We should have stayed in port Oct. 12th with weather forecasting NE 15-20. We left Bath at the crack of dawn and the trip down the Pamlico River was comfortable, but by the time we got to the Pamlico Sound-Neuse River junction the wind was blowing nearly east at 20-25 with higher gusts, a uncomfortable ride for an hour until we headed into the Neuse River. Our down wind direction on the Neuse River was comfortable although the wind was around 25, the conditions improved even more when we got into the Adams Creek Canal. At this stretch we got passed by five go-fast boats, I guess the news of oil prices going down had powered up their go-fast egos again! We dropped anchor at Spooner's Creek at Morehead City at 4:35 PM. It's time for a drink.

Go fast boats that wake us

Shrimp boat going to work, and more boats in a hurry

Our southbound track continues. This week we traveled 274 miles.

Sunday, October 5, 2008

Baltimore, MD to Portsmouth, VA

We left Baltimore on Tuesday morning with a stop at Tidewater Marine for water and some fuel ($3.93 a gal). Had a pleasant trip to Annapolis. We had hoped to anchor in Spa Creek to meet Trawlers & Trawlering friends Bill and Genevieve McWilliams for dinner, the anchorage was packed so we moved on to Weems Creek, plenty 0f room to anchor and on the way there we're entertained by the Navel Academy training ships making maneuvers on the Severn River.

Navel Academy and ship maneuvering

That evening Bill made arrangements for us to tie our dinghy at a friend's dock and took us to their home for a delicious home cooked dinner. Bill and Genevieve are getting ready to go cruising after selling their pottery business this summer. They are very talented artists, and watching Genevieve paint on silk was a treat.

Genevieve and Bill; Genevieve preparing dinner
On Wednesday we had another easy trawler day from Annapolis to Solomons. We met with our cruising friends Dick and Sue on Courage for happy hour and catch up. They had arrived from the Eastern shore to attend the Krogen Rendezvous. On Thursday Mark and Dick spent time to do some electrical work on Courage, then we walked the docks to look at all the Krogen boats.

Sue and Dick, and their Krogen 42' Courage

Krogen Redendezvous

We left Solomons on Friday morning for Jackson Creek at Deltaville. The weather forecast was SW 5-10 but on the bay its more like SW 10-15, it's a little bumpy but not uncomfortable. We arrived at Jackson Creek early enough to go for a walk in town.

We left Jackson Creek at the crack of dawn on Saturday morning. It's a beautiful calm day to cruise down the bay to Portsmouth, VA. We stopped at Portsmouth Boating Center to top up our fuel tank at $3.29 a gallon. Portsmouth is one of our favorite stops, we liked walking around the Historic Olde Towne and checking out restaurants on High Street. We had a delicious fried oyster dinner at Lobscouser. After a leisurely breakfast on Sunday, we took the ferry to Norfolk to do some window shopping at the Mall and grocery at the Farm Fresh Market.

Beautiful early morning near Stingray point

Wolf Trap lighthouse and a calm cruising day on the bay

American Rover tallship, Olde Towne section of Portsmouth


Tied up at Portsmouth, Looking across from Portsmouth to Norfolk

Our southbound track continues. This week we traveled 213 miles.