Friends from Chattanooga

We spent a week in Chattanooga taking care of family business and visiting old friends (no, the friends aren't actually that old).  First off, we need to thank again some of our best friends, John & Susan, who graciously opened their "mountain-top motel" for us for our entire stay.  They have managed to find us during our travels the past year, no matter where we are along the coast.  They have really taken us under their wings since we first met them several years ago.

We visited with some other good friends, Clint & Leigh aboard their new "Barefootin".  I had fun getting dirty in Clint's engine room, troubleshooting an issue.  We all had "fun" taking the boat out for an hour on the TN River, dodging rain storms all the time.  How many times did we pass that dead tree by the red marker?!?

We participated in manning the booth for the Chattanooga Sail & Power Squadron at Erwin Marine's customer appreciation day, and got to see squadron members for the first time in several years.  We exchanged "sea stories" ad infinitum, and got to eat free hot dogs!

And finally, we visited several times with Sue's mother, who is holding her own at the memory-care facility.  All in all, a good visit

Now, back to boating!

Friends from New Orleans

Talk about cypress knees!

The short trip from Georgetown to Myrtle Beach was easy & enjoyable.  The Waccamaw River is very wide & very deep - quite a change from the ICW south of here.  We made Osprey Marina & took on 215 gallons of fuel, since they had the cheapest price around - 40 cents/gallon cheaper than most others.  They also charge only $1.00/ft for the first couple days, and then just 25 cents/ft for the rest of a month.  It's a no-brainer to keep the boat here for a week or two while we head back to TN.

Interesting boat along the Waccamaw River

We were very pleased to meet up with some old boating friends from New Orleans, who were heading north from a winter in the Bahamas.  We knew Greg and LizAnn aboard "Lagniappe" from the New Orleans Power Squadron days, and had read on their blog that they were coming past Myrtle Beach, heading to Maine this summer.   We broke bread together, drank plenty of grog, and told many many lies - I mean "sea stories".  When they head back to the Bahamas this fall, we hope to cross paths with them again.

Deck Ape Jim, Admiral Sue, LizAnn & Greg.
We were going to start a "second line" around the marina
but thought we'd disturb the natives!

"Lagniappe" with its crusty ICW moustache


 

Crawling Northward

This is not the best way to start your boating weekend

We departed Port Royal on Saturday May 17 in a cool stiff north breeze, typical for the day after a cold front.  We had to again plan for the shallow sections of the ICW by timing our arrival at mid-tide or better.  Yet we’re still in an area of 9’ tidal ranges, and the currents during tidal changes can get up to 2.5 mph.

The house in Beaufort where the movies "The Great
Santini" and "The Big Chill" were filmed

As we’re traveling, Sue reads in a guide book the answer to her questions.  For the past couple days at the marina, Sue kept hearing a noise below the boat sounding like bacon frying in a pan.  She looked all around the bowels of the boat but found nothing.  She now reads that we’re in the waters with snapping shrimp.  For you scientists and engineers, these snapping shrimp will snap their large claw so quickly that they create a rapid change in water pressure, which causes cavitation bubbles to form.  When these small bubbles pop, the noise can be as loud as 200 decibels.  We’re not in Kansas any more, Toto!

Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor

We pick an anchorage for the night in a side creek.  Even though we have two other boats anchored in the creek, it is so quiet at dusk and the dolphins come so close to the boat, that we can hear them “blow” when they surface.  We watch the brown pelicans dive for fish, sometimes with a “thief” seagull right behind it, trying to steal the fish out of the mouth of the pelican.  We try to identify all the different birds, including two whooping cranes returning to their nest in the marsh.  This is a tough life!

The second day, we enter Charleston Harbor & see the waterfront covered wall-to-wall with marinas & boats.  At the entrance to the harbor, we take a slight detour from the ICW to take a couple shots at Fort Sumter (with our camera, of course).

After anchoring a second night, we have a short trip into Georgetown SC.  Another cold front came through during the night and today we are hit with 20 mph winds, gusting to 30, right on our nose.  In sections of the ICW where the ebb tide is opposing the strong winds, we have 1’ waves and whitecaps on the ICW! Not necessarily a comfortable ride.

Fake storefronts painted on the back of buildings
in downtown Georgetown.

We make our marina in Georgetown, and see two familiar boats – a sailboat from Canada who we first met 3 days ago as we left Beaufort (and who anchored in the same place that we did last night), and a powerboat who was in the slip next to us at the Sanford FL marina this past winter.

At the seafood store, this Great White Egret came
all the way into the store to get her free shrimp

We’ve enjoyed the sights of Georgetown so far, learning its history.  For your history lesson today, you’ll be pleased to learn that in the late 1700’s and early 1800’s, Georgetown was the wealthiest city in the US, due to their rice agriculture at first, and then due to lumber cutting.  Some owners of large rice plantations had a house on the plantation, another house farther inland, and a third house in New York or Newport RI, long before the Rockefellers and Vanderbilts.  In its heyday, it was a major seaport on the Atlantic coast.

In a day or two, we’ll head north to Myrtle Beach to dock the boat for about a week while we drive back to TN.  All this vacationing can be very tiring – and there’s no way to take a vacation from it!

 

 

We haven't had this many gulls since the Gulf Coast

 

A Wonderful Week in Paradise (almost)

Live oak tree in Beaufort grows across the street

So, we spent slightly more than a week spreading our limited retirement income around the Beaufort & Port Royal area, seeing all the sights (both of them).

Beaufort River 8' tidal range exposes the marsh
at low tide

We took a walking tour around Beaufort, reading about the long history of the area, admiring the mansions from when “Cotton was King”, and gawking at the centuries-old live oak trees (which remind us of City Park in New Orleans).  The downtown area and historic sections are very tourist-friendly, with a very nice waterfront park adjacent to the City Marina.  A major drawback to staying at the City Marina (and our Port Royal Landing Marina as well) is the very strong currents running in the Beaufort River, since the normal tide range is 8’ (there are two high and two low tides each day).  I had thought that Georgia had the widest tidal range, but this area matches it.

We toured the MCRD (Marine Corps Recruiting Depot, for you non-military types) at Parris Island, and just barely avoided being recruited.  Their museum shows a good history of the geographic area, as well as the history of the USMC.  Watching the new recruits march by was interesting, especially with the antics of the “hats” (the platoon Drill Instructors) continually jumping & yelling at their Marine wannabes.

USMC MCRD

 

Click on this to enlarge

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hunting Island coastal forest

 

We took a drive east to the barrier island of Hunting Island, where we toured a very nice state park.  The most interesting part was the combination of live oak trees, large pine trees, short saw palmetto trees, and taller cabbage palmetto trees.  It looked like an equatorial jungle (although I’ll admit, I’ve never actually been to an equatorial jungle).



Hunting Island lighthouse.  Yes, we climbed
this one, too!

 

 

 

Of course, we tried to eat at all the good restaurants around town, and we did get our share of shrimp and crab cakes.  When we drove east across St Helena Island, we were in the middle of Gullah country, so we had to eat at the local restaurant.   Your history lesson for today includes the fact that the Gullah culture developed from the African slaves, who tended the cotton, indigo and rice plantations on the Sea Islands (barrier islands), and were quite isolated from the society on the mainland.  The Gullah culture retained a significant portion of their African heritage, and developed their own language and lifestyle.

She-crab soup, collard greens,
potato salad, & corn bread!



Since we had our car, we also drove to other marinas & boatyards in the area, to begin looking for a marina to stay at this winter.  Ideally, we want to stay in South Carolina for the winter, so we can cruise to the Great Lakes next summer.  We’ll continue this search as we cruise northbound this weekend (after the cold front passes through).  We’re planning a 3-day cruise to Georgetown SC, and maybe one more day to Myrtle Beach.   At that point, it will be time to retrieve our car again & drive back to TN to see Sue’s mother, as well as several of our old boating friends (no, the friends are not really old!)





The Admiral is happy with her magnolia
blossoms and Gullah sweetgrass fan!



Beaufort City Park - a pet rabbit with a leash

We're in Marine Country

No, that is not marine (as in nautical), but Marine, as in USMC.  Aircraft flying low overhead from Parris Island and the Marine Corps Air Station, Marines all over town, Marines in the news - this gotta be the safest town in the country!

We left our 2-nite anchorage just west of Hilton Head Island around noon yesterday to m (ake the short 25 mile cruise into Port Royal, SC (right next to Beaufort SC).  With the tidal range of about 8' (and corresponding strong currents), we wanted to time our arrival at the marina for slack tide & no current.  Our anchor came up clean, even though we anchored in mud, but the trip line to the anchor (which I keep attached at all times), was horribly wrapped around the anchor chain.  That's what happens when the boat swings 180 degrees every 6 hours with the tide.

We had time to spare, so we travelled at idle speed most of the way.  We were really a "crawler" at 6-7 mph.  I know that would drive our friends on "Barefootin" utterly insane!  But to make Clint happy, we took pictures of Parris Island (USMC Recruit Depot) so he can recall all his fun times there.

We arrived at Port Royal Landing Marina as planned, but had a terrible time docking the boat as we tried to turn around 180 degrees into the strong wind.  No damage was done, except to our egos.  Sometimes, everything you try just doesn't work out (enough said).

We'll stay here for a week as we retrieve our car from Jacksonville, & see what there is to see in the area.  We'll also ask questions about keeping our boat in this area during the upcoming winter months.  Next summer, we're hoping to get to Lake Erie, so we don't want to start cruising so far south as Florida.

North to South Carolina

Across from the fuel dock, Jacksonville Landing
had a festival going on.

Our week at Ortega Landing in Jacksonville went by quickly.  The upcoming week had absolutely beautiful weather forecast (but should we really trust a weather prognosticator?), so we wanted to get some cruising under our keel.  We departed on Sunday May 4, but stopped in downtown Jacksonville to fill up our fuel tanks.  We only needed 205 gallons, but at $4.00/gallon, we had to take out a second mortgage.

Playing "follow the leader" along the ICW

On the 24-mile trip back to the ICW, we enjoyed a following current on the outgoing tide all the way down the St Johns River.  There were numerous small pleasure boats on the river, but we only passed one ocean-going ship.  We proceeded north on the IC W where we had been twice before, and it was easy to follow our “bread crumbs” of our previous route showing on our chartplotter.  We traveled with 3 other boats in a “follow the leader” style as we picked our way through the shallow areas.  I followed a sailboat with a deep keel (that’s one good thing about sailboats!)

Another festival at Fernandina Beach FL

As we neared our planned anchorage just west of Fernandina Beach on Amelia Island, we saw and heard the festival going on in the city.  The shrimp boats we all decorated & the live bands were heard over the waterways.  It must have been either a Blessing of the Fleet, or maybe a Shrimp Festival.  We were able to listen to the music at our anchorage a mile away.



Our anchorage across the ICW from Fernandina Beach.
With the 2 paper mills, we could always tell which
way the wind was blowing!

Monday morning we got up at zero-dark-thirty to run offshore.  We had planned a one-day 120-mile run from St Mary’s Inlet north to Hilton Head S.C.  That run would bypass 150 miles of tortuous ICW travel through at least 5 areas of dangerous shoaling through Georgia. Had we tried to travel the ICW in this area, it would have taken us 3-4 days, with the tide cycle (and the need to cross the shoaling areas at half-tide or better).  Besides, that big high pressure system gave us absolutely gorgeous weather offshore.

Gee, which direction are we heading this morning??!

We were underway 20 minutes before sunrise and saw that big ball of fire rise right out of the ocean as we headed east out the Inlet.  This St Mary’s Inlet is very well marked and dredged, since the Navy uses it for their nuclear ballistic missile submarines to go to their Kings Bay GA base.  Sue wanted to know what the “warning” area meant on the chart at the entrance, so I explained to her that this is where the submarines surface after deployment, to enter the channel to come home.  Unfortunately, we didn’t have any excitement Monday morning.

Our planned route took us right through the area
that the shrimpers were working!

We continued our travel about 5-10 miles offshore, and the seas layed down nicely.  I was glad to see that the Atlantic Ocean read the same weather forecast that I did!  We got used to following our chartplotter and our charted course on the paper charts, along with our autopilot,  radar and magnetic compass.  One leg of our trip was about 70 miles long, so we “crawled” along at 10 mph for almost 7 hours before requiring a turn.  In general, the trip was boring and uneventful – exactly the kind of trip we had hoped for!

We came back in at the southern tip of Hilton Head Island & waved to all the mega-yachts in their marina.  We found our anchorage about 2 miles west of Hilton Head & settled down for the night, content that we made our 12-hour offshore passage with no problems.

Tuesday, we decided to remain anchored in Bull Creek for the day, to read & relax.  We enjoyed a nice breeze all day, even though the temp was 86F.  We opened all the windows, put up the bug screens, & enjoyed the day.  We have cell phone & wifi coverage, so we got caught up on emails & travel blogs.  Tomorrow we’re headed 25 miles north to Port Royal Landing Marina (right next to Parris Island – a place of fond memories for all you USMC-types) to spend a week.  We’ll do some sight-seeing and retrieve our car from Jacksonville.  And plan some more on how to get to the Chesapeake Bay!

A new season begins

The pantries were full, the refrigerator was overflowing & the beer and wine were more than adequately provisioned, so it was finally time to set sail (or fire up the engines).  We departed Monroe Harbour Marina in Sanford, heading for Jacksonville, on Thursday April 24 about 0930, after waiting for an hour for the fog to lift.  Once it did, we commenced three cruising days of gorgeous weather.

Carol models the latest fashion of life jackets!

My sister Carol wanted to see as much of Florida wildlife that she could, so within the first hour she saw the first of many alligators sunning themselves (the first one was a good 14’ long).  That started a 3-day litany of herons, egrets, ibis, osprey, eagles, white birds, black birds, black & white birds, etc, etc, (ad infinitum).  Her constant pose was binoculars in one hand, her bird book in her other hand, and her camera……….???  I think at the end of the trip, she was satiated with all that was seen.

Getting the dinghy ready to launch

We anchored the first night just off the main channel of the St Johns River, just south of the town of Astor FL.  A small houseboat was also anchored nearby, and as the folks passed by in their small fishing boat, we hollered for them to stop on their return trip for a drink.  A short hour later, we were entertained by a husband/wife from the local area with their antics and stories.  That’s how to meet the locals even when anchored out for the night.

Getting to meet the "locals"

Day 2 was to be a short day, so we decided to anchor outside of Silver Glen Springs again, launch the dinghy, and give Carol a ride into the clear waters of the springs.  We didn’t put on the outboard motor because of the extra effort to do so, but in hindsight, the extra effort in rowing the dinghy made up for it.  We passed a guy in his motorized dinghy who took pity on us, and gave us a tow back to our boat, anchored about ¾ mile away.  How to meet more locals, even when you’re anchored.

That evening we anchored again in a beautiful side channel called Murphy Creek, just south of Palatka FL.  It was quiet (with an occasional jet ski zooming by) and relaxing with a cool breeze just before sunset.  It was a perfect evening in a perfect location.  This is what we hoped to realize every night that we spend on the hook.

A quiet anchorage

Day 3 had even more perfect cruising weather, as we continued northbound (down river – the St Johns River is one of the few rivers in the country to flow northbound).  The river widened significantly and the number of crab traps multiplied exponentially.  We found our marina on the Ortega River a little southwest of Jacksonville, and Admiral Sue made another perfect landing as she backed into our slip.  She had been a bit nervous prior to doing so, since she hadn’t docked the boat in 6 months.

We had two more days in Jacksonville before Carol had to fly back to the cold country of Michigan, so we enjoyed some local restaurants, but especially enjoyed some time in the marina swimming pool.  She said it had been a long time since she had been swimming outside in April!

We’ll stay at this marina for a week while we retrieve our car from Sanford and plan for the next leg of the trip.  We want to get through Georgia quickly since we’ve already been there, and right now, it looks like the weather will be good enough to allow us to cruise outside in the Atlantic, rather than taking the tortuous route of the Intercoastal Waterway.  Time to get out the ol’ plotter and dividers and put our US Power Squadrons training to use.

I finally learned that things go much more
smoothly when the Admiral gets some flowers!