Northward into Georgia

After spending a bit more than 2 weeks at Marineland Marina, we were ready to move on.  As long as we had the car at Marineland, it was convenient driving to a lot of spots in NE Florida.  We positioned our car to Brunswick Landing Marina in Georgia, and resumed our cruising on Monday August 19 on a 3-day trip to Brunswick GA. 

The trip was only 125 miles, and we could have made it in 2 easy days, but the Georgia ICW has so many areas that have shoaled in, that we had to wait for high tides before crossing those areas, and those daytime tides were all around 10 AM.  Earlier this summer, we had planned to cruise as far north as Savannah GA, but because of so much shoaling, and the fact that Georgia normally has 6-7’ tides, I wasn’t too excited about travelling that far.  Other factors were that we would always have our car with us, so we decided to visit Savannah GA and Beaufort SC and Charleston SC by car.  It had to be a lot cheaper that visiting by boat!  And, finally, we have decided to spend this winter at the head of St Johns River near Orlando, so however far north we went, we would need to re-trace our steps at the end of summer.

Small USCG buoy tender for the ICW buoys

We departed Monday rather late, to catch the outgoing tide as far as St Augustine Inlet.  The day turned hot & steamy, and, for most of the day, we were surrounded by rainstorms.  We saw the rain falling only ¼ mile from us, but we ran the entire day without getting wet.  But the hot day affected us all.   When I did my engine room checks, I measured 126 degrees at the engine inlet!  Just too hot to call this “pleasure boating”.

I was a bit concerned about following the ICW out the St Aug Inlet (where the buoys mark the channel around all the shoaling), since we had an outgoing tide with onshore winds at the inlet.  We encountered about 4 knot currents, with swirling turbulence, but we were OK since we expected it.  Boating along the East Coast sure ain't like boating along the Tennessee River!

We made our marina at Jacksonville Beach, and while the boat cooled down, we walked 1/2 mile down US Hwy 90 to the Engine 15 Brewery, which had 50 specialty beers on tap.  Sue is making a habit of finding the places which serve microbrews or specialties, since she did such a good job in St Aug.  We also called our daughter in Los Angeles, who lives at one end of Interstate 10, while we were at the other end of I-10 across the country.

The next morning we got up to that darn thing called an alarm clock, to get underway 1/2 hour before sunrise, in order to get through the shoaling in Georgia at high tide.  We crossed the St Johns River between Jacksonville and the ocean, and encountered quite a bit of turbulence with the incoming tide.  All the tides are extreme this week because of the full moon tomorrow night.

Big bad USCG cutters leaving the Navy ballistic
missile sub base at Kings Bay GA

We saw the normal wildlife along the ICW, but for the first time, we saw a flock of roseate spoonbills on the shore, mixed in with the brown pelicans.  Our other interesting sight was when we passed the Navy ballistic missile nuclear submarine base at Kings Bay Georgia.  When we saw the first 64' USCG cutter exit the base, we thought he was coming out to inspect us.  Then we saw the other 3 cutters speed past us, all with 50-caliber machine guns mounted on the bow, and we knew then that they were headed out to the inlet to escort a nuclear sub back to the base.  Shortly afterwards, were heard the cutters talking on VHF radio to a Navy P-3 patrol aircraft, and I knew from my Navy days that the P-3 was sweeping the wake of the "boomer" (the ballistic missile sub) to make sure no other sub was following it in to port.

Setting of full moon on Wednesday morning
over our anchorage in the swamps of GA

We found our planned anchorage for the night, and, even though it was only 1 PM, we dropped our hook in the absolute middle of nowhere in the Georgia swamps.  We turned on the generator, turned on the air conditioning, took a hot shower, and watched some TV.  It's amazing that we can do these kinds of things when we're lost in the middle of nowhere.  We watched as the tide shifted every 6 hours, and built up a 3 knot current in the other direction.  Luckily, our anchor held for the entire night, but when I raised it the next morning, the chain and trip line were wrapped several times around it.  Talk about a "fouled anchor"!  I think the only reason we didn't drag anchor during the night was because our ground tackle was so heavy.

8' tide difference at our Brunswick GA marina.  Note
position of the boat relative to the Manatee sign.
And this happens every 6 hours!

On Wednesday, we made our passage through the final shoaling at high tide, and our depth sounder showed nothing less than 13'.  The problem was that at least 8' of that depth was due to high tide, meaning that at low tide, you had only 5' water depth!  We entered the big, wide Brunswick River, and cruised up to Brunswick Landing Marina after only 25 miles of travel today.  When we finished tying up at our slip, we look immediately to the next dock and see a boat home-ported in Marblehead (Sandusky) Ohio, only 20 miles from the place we've home-ported our boat!  Small world.  As we're putting out more lines, we find a moon jellyfish right next to the boat at the surface of the water.  Really interesting to watch it move around & finally swim away.  Just another reason for us to NOT go swimming at the marina!

We'll leave the boat at this marina for a month while we head back to TN for family issues, and also to act like a tourist around here when we return.

Week of August 11

After spending most of last week acting like a tourist, we had to settle down & get some things done.  We had some minor boat chores to catch up on, so we did those.  We also found a beach on the ocean that we really really liked, so we drove there a couple times.

Another lousy sunset across the ICW at
Marineland Marina

The major effort during the week was visiting about a dozen different marinas, stretching from Orlando to Jacksonville, to try to decide where to spend the coming winter.  We gathered lots of information and developed spreadsheets, so I could do a proper engineering analysis (you can take the man out of engineering, but you can't take the engineering out of the man).  We settled on a marina in Sanford FL at the head of the St Johns River (which flows northbound past Jacksonville into the Atlantic).  The marina is in fresh water, rather than salt water, and should be far enough south to minimize the wintertime cold fronts.  Sanford is about 10 miles northeast of Orlando, so we should be able to find something to do in the big city.  We might even entice our son & family to come visit us while we take our wonderful granddaughter to the area theme parks.  Our boat insurance doesn't restrict us to a specific parallel of latitude during hurricane season, so we plan to beat the snowbirds into marinas by getting to Sanford around October 20.  The boat will spend about 5 months there, but we'll spend 2-3 months in TN during that period, taking care of Sue's mom.

On the beach at Marineland FL are coquina rocks,
composed of tiny marine shells.  When wet, the
rocks are soft & the waves erode them.  When dried,
the rocks become hard enough that the Spanish
settlers made forts out of this rock. 

The other main effort this week was to plan the details of our trip north to Brunswick GA.  We plan to finally leave Marineland Marina on Aug 19 and take 3 days to get to Brunswick.  Because Georgia normally has 6-7' tides (and up to 8' tides this coming week due to a full moon), we have to plan our travels around the numerous shoaling areas.  Couple that with the fact that high tide is around 10 AM each day, and you have some pretty complicated detailed planning.  I've spent many hours planning only a 3-day (125 mile) cruise.  And this only gets us to Brunswick!  If we had planned to continue north to Savannah GA, I'd have many more hours of planning ahead.  Instead, we'll dock the boat at Brunswick for a month while we return to TN for 2 weeks.  When we return, we'll drive by car (our car is already positioned at Brunswick) to visit Savannah, Charleston & other areas, and leave the boat in Brunswick.

The saga continues..........

Acting like a tourist in St Augustine

The ICW gets crowded when Dumbo fisherman
anchors in the channel!

On Saturday August 3 we cruised 35 miles north to a marina that costs about half what we were paying in Daytona Beach.  We ended up at Marineland FL (pop. 5, except for the dolphins) where the Marineland Dolphin Adventure oceanarium has been re-opened.  I remember visiting this place around 1960 on a family vacation, but it's changed several times since then (so have I).

Sue drank from the Fountain of Youth
and obviously, it worked for her!

We had a good 4-hour cruise up here, with very good weather (that means we avoided the thunderstorms).  I was surprised that there were so few boats on the ICW, for a Saturday with good weather.  Maybe this weak economy really has decreased the number of active boaters.  We saw homes and docks all along this stretch of the ICW, so we traveled at no-wake speed all the way.  The Sunday after we arrived, we saw Don & Becky R. one more time as they kindly drove our car up to us from Daytona Beach.  Marineland is rather remote, so having the car makes us a tourist again.

We huffed & puffed our way up
219 steps to the top of
St Augustine Lighthouse

 
 
 
The native Indian, Spanish, French, British, and American history in this area is astounding.  We've spent the past week learning more about what happened when.  Y'all know that Ponce de Leon "discovered" St Augustine & the "Fountain of Youth" in 1513, but he came to the New World on Chris Columbus' second voyage this way.  Remember that Columbus was an Italian (from Genoa Italy), who got the Spanish Queen to finance his wild ideas.  Everyone set up shop in Puerto Rico until Ponce left after Chris' son was made governor, rather than Ponce.  The history of St Aug is littered with routine enemy attacks & burning, ruthless admirals & generals from Spain, France, and England, and the overlying theme of "If you ain't Catholic, you ain't welcome!"  Our boating friends will appreciate that one of the most important things that Mr. Ponce discovered was the Gulf Stream just offshore, which allowed the Spanish treasure ships returning to Spain from South & Central America, to reduce their voyage by 3 weeks.

The Old City areas of St Aug are pretty close together and you can hike to all of them.  But we found that the tourist trams are a very good way to familiarize yourself with the city and its history.  And speaking of a weak economy.........St Aug was wall-to-wall tourists each day we were there.

Church that Henry Flagler built in 321 days
to memorialize his daughter

St Aug history since 1880 centers around Henry Flagler, who made his billion$ as the co-founder of Standard Oil Co with John Rockefeller (and, since there was no federal income tax, he got to keep it all!)  He came to town to build the Hotel Ponce de Leon, designed for the wealthy to spend the winter months away from that white crap on the ground up north.  The guests had to rent the room for the entire 3 winter months, which was the only time the hotel was open.  Flagler built more hotels south to Miami, and then bought/built railroads to get his guests down to his hotels.  His Florida East Coast Railroad eventually extended all the way south to Key West.

Special programs allow the kids to swim
with the dolphins at Marineland
Dolphin Adventures

In addition to visiting St Aug, we took our first kayak trip as part of an ecological tour of the nearby estuary.  We beached our kayaks on a sand bar to take a rest & listen to the guide stress the importance of the saltwater estuary.  It was quite unique sitting in the morning sun at high tide in 6" of clear water, watching the hermit crabs crawl along the bottom.  That afternoon, we visited the Dolphin Adventure & were amazed at the research going on there.  And the dolphin tricks made me take so many pictures, the camera battery went dead.  This Marineland opened in 1938 & was the first "oceanarium", long before Sea World got into the act.  Our marina is right across the road from the Atlantic Ocean & we can hear the surf at night. 

And then on Wednesday, we're at a free music concert at St Aug Beach pier and pavilion when the crowd starts cheering & pointing to the south over the ocean.  We look to see a red glare in the evening sky -- looked to me like some fireworks shooting into the sky, but never bursting into a show of lights.   As the light kept climbing higher and higher, we realize that we're watching a rocket launch from Cape Canaveral, about 75 miles to our south.  We watched the rocket exhaust for over 2 minutes as it climbed into the clear sky, and saw the first stage separation as the rocket was high enough to come into the sunlight.  Quite a sight!!

Dolphins were born at Marineland and have never
been in the wild.  These ladies are waiting to
get their treat after doing their tricks

So let's pause a moment and consider.........would you rather be doing this stuff, or would you rather be stuck in rush-hour traffic on the Huey Long Bridge in New Orleans, heading to another boring staff meeting at work???  (this is an I.Q. test).

Daytona Beach

Don R. showing me how to become
a professional meteorologist in
3 easy lessons!

We enjoyed our week in Daytona Beach, mostly due to the friendship of Don R. and his wife Becky (who got her "grandma fix" and returned to their boat this past week).  Don helped us with planning our trip northbound from here, since he and Becky had made the trip almost 10 times.  He also helped me with meteorological prognostications, drawing on his 30+ years professional experience.  Additionally, they helped us find the better restaurants along the water front.  And finally, they have offered to bring our car to us after we head north to Marineland FL tomorrow.  Being such "giving" people that they are, it's no wonder that they have made friends around the world.

The "bearded one" in front of the
Ponce Inlet Lighthouse

We were able to act like tourists one day, and drove over to the beach along all the hotels & condos, to visit the Ponce de Leon Inlet Lighthouse.  It is the highest lighthouse in Florida, and one that we passed by on our way into Daytona Beach.  The grounds around the lighthouse still have the keepers' homes, as well as several museums.  The museum with all the Fresnel lenses was impressive, especially finding out how exactly these darn thing operate!  Many of these lenses from the late 1800's were made in Paris & shipped to America.

Circular (of course) stairway inside the Lighthouse.
Yes, we were huffing and puffing after climbing to the top!



View from the top of the Lighthouse, looking south
along the ICW.  We had traveled from there
to pass through the inlet.



We then drove back along the beach to find a place to go squish some sand.  The beaches at Daytona have very fine, hard-packed sand, and will support cars driving along the water's edge.  Remember, that NASCAR car racing originally started just north of here, along the hard sand beaches.  We chose a section of beach that did not allow vehicles onto the beach.  The wide shallow beach reminded us of the beaches at Clearwater FL.

 

 

 



Finally getting our feet wet in the Atlantic Ocean





At low tide, the beach is wide & flat



The afternoon setting sun creates some
interesting shadows on the beach

Unfortunately, most of the rest of our time at Daytona was taken up dealing with contractors, especially the marine plumber, who made 3 trips to the boat to repair the head that was damaged by our teenage relative & his "friends".  Remember that the difference between a "marine plumber" and an ordinary "plumber" is about $50/hour.  We also spent a day driving north to the Jacksonville area to begin looking for a marina to keep our boat this coming winter.  Guess we're gonna be a Florida resident for a while.





July 25 & 26, 2013

We finally left the area to take two days cruising north to Daytona Beach, where we wanted to spend a week.  It felt good to be cruising again, but we had to get re-accustomed to a couple things again.  The ICW was basically a narrow man-made cut in the Indian River, so although there was lots of "skinny" water around, we had to watch the channel.  The morning weather was pleasant, and we seemed to be the only boat out here.

Red-neck Riviera - sand beach right along the ICW

The weather soon changed to the pattern we've been having all month....afternoon sea breezes from both coasts of Florida mixing together to create some pretty severe thunderstorms.  We saw a T-storm approaching, and from the weather app on my iPhone, saw that it was going to be severe.  Rather than remaining out in the open ICW, we decided to tuck in next to one of the bridges which cross the ICW, point the bow into the wind, and ride out the storm at idle.  We were both on the helm keeping the bow pointing straight, adjusting throttles & shifters, and trying to keep out of the skinny water.  In 30 minutes, it was over.  Like they say...........cruising is hour upon hour of complete boredom, interspersed with moments of sheer terror.

As we approached Titusville, we could see the NASA facilities at Cape Canaveral.  We entered Titusville Municipal Marina for the night & took on $800 worth of fuel.  We did find a nice restaurant called "Chops" in town, which cost a lot less than the fuel did.

Early the next morning, we departed the marina, led by a slow-moving manatee right in the channel.  We had to idle to wait for him (or her, I couldn't really tell which) to get out of the way.  Our trip up the ICW was uneventful (the best kind of trip to have).  Weather was great, with no T-storm at all.  This has been only the 2nd day in July which did not have measurable rainfall.

Approaching the "civilization" of Daytona Beach

As we approached New Smyrna Beach and Daytona Beach, we saw the nearby high-rise hotels and condos.  It seemed quite a contrast to the ICW area cut through the swamp, with all the wild life (but I guess that out on the beaches, there can also be some wild life).

Happy Hour after a great day cruising

We made Halifax Harbor Marina in Daytona Beach early afternoon after a beautiful day on the water.  After securing the boat, we met up with our friend Don, who we met six years ago when we both lived in the New Orleans area.  Don is a professional meteorologist who taught the Weather course for US Power Squadrons.  Five of us students from New Orleans Power Squadron drove across Lake Pontchartrain every week to the north shore to listen to Don pontificate and dazzle us with his sea stories.  Don & his wife Becky live aboard their boat at Halifax, so they can help care for Becky's mother in Daytona Beach.  Sounds somewhat similar to what Sue & I are doing, caring for mothers.

Don & Becky have extensive cruising experience, especially along the Atlantic ICW, so I want to pick his brain as much as possible without hurting him.  I'll also find a diver to clean the critters off the bottom of the boat, and a plumber to repair the toilet that the "squatters" broke last month.  We might also drive around Jacksonville to find a marina we like to put the boat up for this coming winter.