Final Days to Marathon (Days 70, 71 and 72)

We made it to Marathon and are tied up at Burdines Waterfront Marina where we spent 5 years running our charter business and 4 years just enjoying the beautiful "Keys" winters.  Some of our "normal" boater friends haven't arrived yet but it is great to see the people we know including the marina staff who have been here forever.

The last few days we have been getting used to shore life again and, of course, cleaning up the boat from 10+ weeks traveling.  Here we are as of Sunday, December 13th with the boat looking pretty good.  I didn't get a "before" picture but it was pretty bad.  The bow had a dark stain from the ICW and there were black marks down the sides from moorings we had stayed on.

Monday, December 7th (Day 70)

It was a very windy day in Card Sound (on the gulf side of North Key Largo) but the anchorage was pretty nice in the morning.  Our morning winds were from the west and the western shore here was only about 1/4 miles in front of the boat.  The front came through early and we had some rain but not as bad as expected.  The winds were mid-20s and our ground tackle (anchor, chain, snubber, etc.) handled it all very well.

The winds were supposed to clock to NW then N later in the afternoon but still only 20s.  This anchorage was open about 3 miles to the NW so we knew the waves would build when the wind came from that direction.  I planned on moving the boat just before dark to the north shore for more protection from those winds - anchor up at 5pm.

Around 3pm a squall came through just as the winds moved to the NW.  The waves coming toward the boat increased from 1/2 foot to 3 footers and were very close.  The boat started bouncing around pretty good.  Time to move!

I started getting the boat ready to move by checking the engine and engine room.  Just as I opened the engine room door we were hit by a much higher gust of wind and the boat leaned over to 20 degrees and stayed there.  I knew from experience this meant our anchor had pulled because of the winds and waves.  In almost all cases, if a boat is not anchored, motoring or sailing with high winds, the boat will automatically turn sideways to the wind and stay there.  With our two masts and high free-board (lots of boat sticking out of the water), there was a lot for the wind to push on so we leaned over away from the winds and stayed there.

I immediately closed the engine room door and went up to the cockpit to start the engine.  It took almost full throttle to turn the boat back into the wind.  Later I determined from our chartplotter we had dragged 500 feet before I could stop the boat with the engine against this wind.  I looked down at our wind instruments which were reading sustained high 30s and it seemed like the winds were calmer than a few minutes ago.  Geez!  Good news is we did not anchor close to the southern shore so were not in danger of running aground.

Laura typically is in our forward cabin when pulling in the anchor.  She handles the chain coming into the chain locker while I work the anchor windlass on the bow.  That wasn't going to work this time because someone had to be at the helm motoring the boat into the wind.  I yelled to Laura for her to come into the cockpit and she was there pretty quick.  I instructed her to keep the throttle up and try to keep the boat pointed into the wind while I pulled in the anchor.

Holy crap it was crazy on the bow trying to get our anchor in.  I think the bow was jumping up and down 4-5 feet and the wind was trying to blow me away.  I was worried about what was going to happen when I got the anchor out of the water and it started swinging around.  But, a few minutes later I had the anchor near the surface and it had a big clump of grass on it so was pretty stable.  I was wondering how I was going to get that off when a bigger wave came by and picked the bow up then smashed it back down.  The anchor was clean!  Nice!  I was able to get the anchor up the last 6 feet to the roller and secure it quickly.

Now we had to get somewhere more protected than this.  I took over the helm and cranked up the throttle.  The boat gradually started moving forward and settled at 1.5 to 2 knots with the normal engine RPM that would push us at 6 knots.  This engine is only 58 horsepower and doesn't like pushing a 21 ton boat into a 30 knot wind. I pushed the throttle a little higher to try and get more speed.

When I look back on times like this, I always feel bad that we didn't get any pictures or video.  It seems that almost everything we post is nice weather and good sailing.  We didn't get any pictures this time either.  I was fighting the wheel to keep the boat moving at a slight angle to the waves.  Directly into the waves was shallow water so I had to work my way farther north.  

About every 4th or 5th wave hit the port side of the boat while we were going down from a bounce and sent a wall of water right over our cockpit.  We stayed fairly dry but even a little opened zipper on the windward side brought is a lot of water.  It wasn't raining - this was from the spray coming off the waves.

An hour and 2.5 miles later things finally calmed down as we motored near the north shore and the squall passed us.  The winds dropped into the teens and we re-anchored 1/2 mile from shore without any problems.  The boat was soaked and covered in salt.  We had some fresh water to spare since we would be at the dock in a couple more days so I got out our fresh-water hose and washed down the canvas around the cockpit.  Almost back to normal!

Tuesday, Dec 8th (Day 71 - Start of Weed 11)

Our plan was to motor over to Anglefish Creek and pass through to the ocean side of Key Largo.  Then we would sail down the Hawk Channel to Marathon.  Anglefish Creek has a shallow spot on the very end of the channel coming out onto the ocean.  We needed at least 1 foot of tide to make it through there without touching bottom.  Oh oh.  Low tide there was 8:21am today.  We would have to wait until at least 10:30am for enough water.  Cool.  Sleep in and relax.

Just before 10am we motored the 2 miles over to the creek and passed through without problems.  When we got to the spot I knew was shallow, I kept the boat moving but very slowly.  Our depth gauge got all the way down to 6.2 feet - we need 5.5.  Good thing we waited for more water!  We wouldn't have made it at low tide.

Once on the Hawk Channel we pulled into the wind and raised our mainsail.  Once back on course we rolled out the jib and turned off the engine.  It was awesome!  The winds were low teens and slightly behind our starboard beam (broad reach).  The ride was very nice and I turned on the autopilot then relaxed with a good book.

An hour later the winds picked up to the high teens and we started flying.  We actually hit 8 knots and we always say that's when we are going to break something.  A short time later we turned into the wind and reefed the mainsail because the gusts were trying to push the boat into the wind and the autopilot was working hard keeping us on course.  

Now the winds worked into the 20s.  Still too much sail!  We turned downwind to reef (pull in some of) the jib.  Once back on course the boat seemed much more under control.  It always cracks me up that in high winds, we pull in sail and don't loose any speed.  The boat is not moving around so much and less lean means more sail for the wind to push.  

We had lunch then I looked where we would stay for the night.  The best anchorage for these winds would be on the SW side of Rodriquez Key.  But, that was only 10 miles away which would leave us 45 miles tomorrow to Marathon.  Farther down the keys the water is more shallow near shore so I would have to anchor more away from shore which meant more waves.  We talked about it and decided to anchor early at Rodriquez.  By 2:15pm we had the anchor down and relaxed with the howling wind out of the NW.  

I think everyone had the same idea and by an hour later we had 5 other sailboats anchored around us.  There was also a gent sailing a kite-board through our anchorage.  He was very good but I thought he was crazy.  The winds was still high 20s and this guy was flying.  I took a video which you can check out here.

The winds seemed to be high all night but we were calm at this anchorage.  I'm glad we decided to stop early.

Wednesday, Dec 9th (Day 72 - end of trip)

We were both up early so decided to get moving on our last day.  We had the anchor up at 7:30am and by 8am we were under sail with the motor off.  This was an excellent last day on the water and we sailed all the way to Marathon.  This time I didn't roll out the full main or jib so the boat was much calmer with the higher winds in the morning.  

By early afternoon, the winds calmed and we let out the main and jib.  Plus, we raised our mizzen sail which we hardly every use.  It was a wonderful several hours of sailing.  Laura took this video of our sail for the trip.

Later in the afternoon the winds increased so we rolled in the mainsail and reefed the jib.  We were still making 6.5 knots with 3/4 jib and the small mizzen.  

We averaged 6.5 knots for the 7 hours of sailing which is really good for us.  At 3pm we pulled into Burdines Marina where we plan on spending the next few months.  

It's nice to get to your destination but I am always sad the trip is over.  I mopped around the next 2 days then finally got my act together.  I dropped the dinghy and acid washed then scrubbed both side of the boat above the waterline.  Today, Laura and I polished all the stainless rails to remove the salt and start of rust.

If you can't see the videos on this blog, you can find them on our YouTube page by clicking HERE

I hope you have enjoyed our blog.  I like writing it but more enjoy reading back through it months or years later.  It helps to bring back a lot of memories.

If you would like to read about more of our travels, I have published 4 Kindle books on Amazon of our sailing travels from 2007 to 2018.  They are all under $5.  You can check them out HERE

Trip Stats

1,602 nautical miles in 72 days.  

Anchored - 26 nights

Stayed on moorings - 10 nights

Paid dockage - 26 nights (including 20 nights at Wayfarers Marina for carpentry work)

Free dockage - 7 nights

Overnight at sea - 1 night

Stuart to Key Largo (Days 67, 68 and 69)

Friday, December 4th (Day 67)

I counted the days wrong on my last blog.  This was actually day 67.  I don't think anybody noticed...

We thought we would be in Stuart until Saturday but the weather window for off-shore to The Keys decided to come a little earlier.  Instead, we are leaving today for the run to Lake Worth then off-shore tomorrow around Ft. Lauderdale, Miami and Key Biscayne.  Good thing we got all our boat fixes and groceries done yesterday!

The cruise from Stuart to Lake Worth is only about 35 miles but there are 8 bridges that have to open for us along the way.  The first 4 bridges are "on demand" which means they can open (or not open) at any time.  The last 4 bridges are on a schedule - most open on the hour and 1/2 hour.  

We had our anchor up at 7:45am and motored over to the Roosevelt Bridge where we had to wait about 15 minutes for a train to pass on the train bridge right behind the highway bridge.  

It was a nice day weather-wise and no problems as we zoomed through the next 3 bridges without taking the engine out of gear (no waiting).  This cruise takes us through Hobe Sound which is lined with huge mansions and golf courses.  Around this same time we passed 1,000 ICW miles from Norfolk which is where the ICW starts at Mile 0.

We slowed for the Donald Ross bridge because it was only 3.5 miles from the Indiantown Road Bridge and we had an hour before it would open for us.  Then, the last 2 bridges were spaced just right for our speed and we zoomed through them.

On the last leg to the anchorage, we were passed by this large mega-yacht.  We see a lot of powerboats that I call "space ships" because of all the curves and windows.  This boat took that to a whole new level.  It was 92 feet long and had so many windows in the hull I couldn't understand how it held together in any waves. That dark stripe down by the waterline is window too.

The Lake Worth lake is a great place to anchor and you can find protection from almost any wind direction.  But, we wanted to make an early start out the Lake Worth Inlet tomorrow morning and leaving from the lake would add over an hour to the trip.  So, we continued passed the lake and anchored only about 1/2 mile from the Lake Worth Inlet. This is a huge anchorage but is 95% full of boats on private moorings (or empty moorings blocking us from anchoring).  I found a spot that would be close to the channel but still out of the way.  It looked like 2 boats next to us were also setting up for an ocean passage tomorrow.  

We anchored at 3:30pm and settled down for the night.  The only chore left for us before heading out into the ocean was to drop the dinghy and haul the outboard onto the deck-rail mount using a block and tackle off our mizzen boom.  I don't like the 95 pound outboard adding to the swing of the dinghy when we are in the ocean.  Since the tide was really ripping by the boat, we waited until the tide change around 5pm when the currents were much less.  It would have been hard to keep the dinghy next to our boat with the current trying to take it away.

No problems with the outboard and we had it stowed on deck about 15 minutes later.  I cleaned up a few things on the back deck but we were basically ready to go.  The forecast called for slight west winds and seas of only 2 feet but 11 seconds apart.  You don't even feel those.  They just slowly pick up the boat and slowly set it back down.  Here's hoping the forecast is right!

Saturday, December 5th (Day 68)

I had the alarm set for 5am and got right up to get the boat underway.  The earlier we leave, the more options we would have in the evening.  I pulled up the anchor by flashlight and by 5:30am we were motoring out of the anchorage to the Lake Worth inlet and into the ocean.  The two other boats next to us followed us out.

There were almost no waves on the ocean and we turned south with both the mainsail and jib helping our speed with a light (6-7 knot) wind from the west.  Last year we had higher west winds for this passage and sailed the whole way.  Not today.  Bummer.

A short time later the eastern sky brightened and the Sun rose behind the off-shore clouds.  I took this picture of us motor-sailing past Boynton Beach.  What a beautiful day on the Atlantic!

As I texted to my friend Dean, it was almost too nice a day on the ocean.  Everybody was out enjoying the calm, warm waters - JetSkys to Sportfishing boats to Megayachts.  I even saw this gent arm-paddling a surfboard 1/2 mile off-shore.  That was a first for us.

We sailed right by this guy and he looked over at me so he wasn't lost or in trouble.  Just out enjoying the day.

Our predicted west wind turned from the south in the afternoon.  It was only 8-10 knots so didn't slow us down too much or cause bigger waves.  I was just bummed that we lost our helping west wind.  We pulled in all our sails around Ft. Lauderdale and motored the rest of the day.

In the afternoon we had a decision to make.  Where did we want to stop for the night.

1. Go in Government Cut (Miami) and anchor near the stadium.  We could be there by about 4:30pm

2. Continue south around Key Biscayne and come up into northern Biscayne Bay to anchor near the Key Biscayne Yacht Club (one of our favorite anchorages even through we were struck by lightning here in 2011).

3. Use the Biscayne Channel to run up into Biscayne Bay and turn south to anchor somewhere in the dark.

4. Keep going down the Hawk Channel toward Key Largo.

The major problem with the first two was it was a beautiful, calm Saturday night in Miami.  Those anchorages would be packed with locals and loud music.  The 4th choice would make for a very long day.  The first decent anchorage was about 30 miles away and we wouldn't get there until 10 or 11pm.

We decided on option 3 and turned up the Biscayne Channel around 5pm.  The Sun was just setting as we motored by Stiltsville which consists of fishing camps built on stilts so they stay out of the water.  They are located in the shallow entrance to Biscayne Bay and nobody knows how they survive the hurricanes.  Laura got this colorful sunset shot with the stilt houses.

A short time later we turned SW down Biscayne Bay and I was looking for an anchorage not too far away.  As I looked up, I saw this after-sunset glow in the western sky shooting yellow-orange rays over our heads.  It was pretty cool.

I checked the weather forecast from several sources and they all said calm winds tonight.  I pulled away from the channel and anchored near the shallows in the middle of Biscayne Bay.  I never do this.  Absolutely no protection from any wind angle but it turned out to be a great spot.  Laura did have to use a flashlight to see the anchor chain markers so I don't know if this qualifies as anchoring before dark.  Neither of us like anchoring after dark.

Our northern view was the Miami, Key Biscayne and Dinner Key skylines.  A very pretty place when the winds are calm.  After dinner we watched the British Baking Show Christmas Edition and more episodes of The Repair Shop with the TV hooked to my iPhone.  Two of our favorite shows - both on Netflix.

Sunday, December 6th (Day 69)

I woke up amazed that the boat almost never moved at all during the night.  No wind so no waves.  We just slowly bobbed around the anchor.  It was very nice and comfy.  We did have a fan blowing fresh air on us from a window.  It only got down to about 72 in the cabin.

Morning brought cloudy skies but warm weather.  It was the first time in a while that I just got up and slipped on shorts - my typical "Keys" uniform. 

We took our time getting ready as there was no hurry.  Today we were going only about 20 miles down Biscayne Bay to anchor near Key Largo.  Tomorrow there was a storm coming up from the Caribbean with south winds clocking west then north.  I planned on anchoring along the SW shore of Card Sound where we would be very protected from the south and west winds.  During the day tomorrow we would move the boat about 3 miles to the south shore of Pumpkin Key where we would be protected from the north winds later in the day.  That's the plan anyway....

As we pulled the anchor and got underway, I took this picture of the Miami skyline in the morning Sun behind us.  

It was great to be back in The Keys.  The last few days had been very calm so the water was very clear but "Keys Green".  When I pulled up the anchor, I could see it come off the bottom.

Laura was up on the bow looking at the bottom going by and spotting things like old crab traps and starfish on the bottom.  I surprised her with this picture.  Very calm water today too!

No problems with the shallow areas we had to navigate and we anchored at 12:30pm in the spot I had selected.  There is only a light wind to cool the boat this afternoon but the bigger winds from the south are supposed to pick up tonight.  Windfinder.com tells me the winds are supposed to pick up around 1am but not hit 25-35 until 7-9am.  At least I'll be able to see where we are getting blown!

We will sit tomorrow (except for moving the boat behind Pumpkin Key when the winds clock north) then head out Anglefish Creek to the Hawk Channel on Tuesday.  I don't know if we can make Marathon in one day from here.  It's about 60 miles and the days are short now.  Winds are supposed to be NW at 10-15 so we might be able to sail the whole way with calm seas because the winds will be from the shore.

Even though we have done this trip 30 times, I still get sad when it's almost over.  Our adventure is going to end for a couple months while we sit at a dock and enjoy our friends and beautiful Keys winter weather.  Hopefully, the Bahamas will loosen their COVID restrictions by February or so and we will spend a few months on their beautiful waters.  I'll let you know! 

1,527 nautical miles logged since Catskill.  Water temp is 73 here.  Still a little chilly for swimming.

 

St. Augustine to Stuart (Days 60-67)

Friday, November 27th (Day 60)

We were off the mooring at 7:40am for the 45(ish) mile run to Daytona on the ICW.  It was a beautiful day on the water as we motored with no wind to help.  One of the mansions on the shore had this huge blow-up Santa.  He was as tall as the second floor!

It was a very nice day on the ICW and, as typical in this section from St. Augustine to Titusville, there was a lot of small boat traffic zooming around us.

At 3:40pm we anchored just south of the new Daytona Memorial Bridge near the eastern shore.  I love this anchorage because it is in a no-wake Manatee zone so we don't get swamped by the big powerboats (usually....).

After securing the boat from our day of motoring, I dropped the dinghy and we motored to Caribbean Jacks restaurant about 1.5 miles away.  We went for a short walk to stretch our legs a bit, then back to the restaurant for dinner.  We ordered the alligator bites appetizer and split the Mahi-Mahi BLT sandwich.  The fish, bacon and special sauce was just as we remembered it.  Yumm.

For dessert we splurged on the Bananas Foster.  We forgot how huge it was.  Even splitting it we spent about half an hour munching it down.  Here I am with the first bite.  Sorry it's a little fuzzy.  I was on my second glass of tequila....

After dinner we rolled ourselves back to the dinghy and slowly motored back to Second Wind.

Saturday, November 28th (Day 61)

We slept in a little today and pulled the anchor around 8am.  It was a quiet morning as we motored through Daytona, around the Ponce Inlet and passed New Smyrna Beach.  I had tried to get a slip at the City Marina here for the night but they were full up.  We had spend 3 Decembers here so it would have been nice to see friends from the marina and local sights.  Oh well...

Past New Smyrna the ICW opens up a bit on the Mosquito Lagoon.  The winds helped a lot and we actually sailed with the engine off for a couple hours.  It was nice and quiet.  I took this picture of the sails up and peaceful waters.

We anchored in Titusville, just outside the mooring field, at 3:45pm.  I had thought about getting a mooring and sitting here for 3-4 days because of a front coming through tomorrow night.  But, it doesn't look that bad for this area so we will continue south another day tomorrow and plan on anchoring near one of the bridges for protection.

Sunday, November 29th (Day 62)

Anchor up at 8am for another nice day on the ICW.  I really like this section we cover in the next few days.  The Indian River runs from Titusville to the St. Lucie River.  It is mostly 1-2 miles wide so you are not cruising down narrow channels.  

The winds today helped a little but the water was very calm.  I took this picture from behind us.  Where does the water end and sky start?

It was a short day for us as we motored only 32 miles and anchored on the north side of the Eau Gallie Bridge at 1:30pm.  The Coco Beach area of the river has been experiencing Red Tide which kills many of the fish.  We saw many dead fish in the water and lots of gulls stuffing themselves.

We had anchored near the western shore on the north side of the bridge.  This would protect us from the forecast 20-30 knot south and west winds coming in tonight and tomorrow.  The winds are predicted to continue clocking to the north which will make this anchorage pretty rough.  Sometime tomorrow we will move the boat to the other side of the bridge where we will have better protection from the northerlies.  

Our anchorage was right next to a shore-side restaurant called Squid Lips (pretty funny, right?).  Turns out they had free wi-fi which was great.  We were able to stream shows all evening.

Monday, November 30th (Day 62)

The winds clocked during the night from the west and we waited for the rain.  Our friends Dean and Sue on Autumn Bourne were sitting out this storm on a mooring in Carolina Beach.  They had many inches of rain and winds up to 40 knots.  By early morning the front came through our area but it was pretty broken.  We only had about 1/4 inch of rain in spits and sputters.  I thought, "Is that it?"

Just after lunch, we pulled our anchor and motored about 1.5 miles back to the ICW channel, under the bridge, then back to the western shore to anchor again.  Now the bridge would protect us from the north winds tonight. 

After anchoring, I looked to the north and saw all these Cormorants sitting on the power lines.  It looked like a Cormorant Christmas Tree.  Notice it's still pretty cloudy.

We spent a quiet day at our new anchorage.  The wi-fi from Squid Lips didn't reach us over here so we relied on our AT&T unlimited data plan for TV.

Later in the evening, the winds picked up to over 20 knots from the NW.  Where we were anchored would have had much bigger waves.  As it was, we were getting a little swell from the waves coming under the bridge and turning around the corner.  It rocked us to sleep.

Tuesday, December 1st (Day 63)

I hadn't decided if we would stay another night here or move farther south today.  The winds were in the 20s during the morning but were supposed to calm down later in the day.  We had a few very open spots between bridges but I didn't think the waves would move us around too much.  We decided to continue our trip south and let the north winds help us along.

The morning was cold so we put up all of our canvas around our cockpit to warm up.  Our jib was out to catch the north winds and it blocked the Sun from warming us up.  The temps had gone down to the mid-40s last night and would only be low 60s today.  With the clear canvas keeping out the winds, it wasn't too bad in the boat.  I had to dig out my Winter gloves to warm up my hands after pulling the anchor this morning.  That wind went right through me.

It was a fun day motor-sailing down the ICW at 6.5 - 7 knots all day with the wind helping us.  We zoomed past Vero Beach and into Fort Pierce.  I decided on the Fort Pierce City Marina for fuel and water.  We were getting low on both since our last fill-up was Myrtle Beach 16 days ago.  

Around 3:30pm we motored into the City Marina fuel dock.  We were the only ones there so it was nice.  I filled the fuel tank while Laura pumped out our holding tank (toilet tank).  After she was done we started filling our water tank.  The water pressure was a little low and we waited another 20 minutes after everything else was done to fill our water.  We took 117 gallon of diesel and about 180 gallons of water.  The boat sat lower in the water as we had added almost 3,000 pounds (even including the 25 gallons of toilet waste we took off).

While fueling, I noticed there was an empty dock on the t-head across from us.  We had stayed there before so I asked if it was available for the night.  They checked with the office and it was.  I decided to stay for the night as the temps were going down into the 40s again and we would have full-time heat at the dock.

By 4:30pm we were tied up at the dock and relaxing ashore.  Now this cracks me up.  Laura and I had not been ashore for 4 days - since Caribbean Jacks.  Did we go ashore for a walk or to check out the local area?  Nope.  Just stayed and enjoyed our home.

We did order take out from the local restaurant - Cobbs Landing.  The marina had given us a 20% off coupon so, "why not?"   Our legs did get stretched a little with the 10 minute walk to the restaurant then 10 minutes back.  Laura ordered the snapper tacos and I had the fried snapper platter.  Both snappers were excellent but my fries were cold and soggy.  Bummer.

Wednesday, December 2nd (Day 64)

No rush this morning as we only had about 25 miles planned to Sunset Bay Marina in Stuart.  We typically stay on a mooring there and wait for good off-shore weather to sail from Lake Worth to Key Biscayne.  We can't take the ICW through Miami because of a low fixed bridge and try to avoid the 23 bridges between Lake Worth and Ft Lauderdale that have to open for us.  Currently, there was a decent window for Sunday so we had about 3 days to kill

We were off the dock at 8:30am and had a little helping wind down this long section of the ICW between Ft. Pierce and the St. Lucie River.  

The Stuart area is one of our favorites.  The marina is nice (we could catch up on laundry) and the old-town district is fun for walks.  There is also a Publix grocery and Ace Hardware nearby.  In the same mall as Publix, there is a Japanese Buffet with one of the best Sushi Bars I've ever seen plus excellent Chinese food.  I was hope they were open with COVID going on.

At 1:30pm we motored through the Roosevelt Bridge near the Sunset Bay Marina.  Oh oh.  As we motored over to the mooring field, I didn't see any open balls.  Bummer.  I called the marina on our VHF radio and they told me "no room at the inn".  The moorings are "first come, first served" so you have to just go over and see.

Instead we motored 1 mile north across the river and anchored in the corner of the river with protection from the north and east winds forecast over the next day or so.  Laura and I settled in and had a nice dinner on the boat.  The sunset had some nice colors from our anchorage.

Thursday, December 3rd (Day 65)

We had a few jobs on our list for today that we had been putting off until we were not moving.  Our decision was to start with trying to fix a poopie smell coming from our forward toilet holding tank.  Every time the boat moved around like from a powerboat wake, we could smell the poopies in the cabin.

Laura and I pulled everything out of the forward cabin including the mattress on the bed.  Then, I pulled up the boards over the holding tank.  Phew!  It was stinky in there.  I saw that the overflow valve on the tank had come apart or wasn't working right.  Contents of the tank had spilled over to the top of the tank and that's what smelled so much.  Laura help clean everything up while I tried to figure out how to fix the valve.  It was now basically a 1/2 inch piece of foam over an open hole in the top of the tank.  I thought I remembered there was a plastic top over the foam but we couldn't find it.

I eventually decided to just seal off the overflow with gorilla tape.  Duct tape wouldn't stick to the plastic tank but the gorilla tape did.  After sealing the valve, I took apart the vent line to make sure it wasn't plugged.  Nope.  It was fine.

We then put everything back in the cabin and the boat smelled much better.

I called the marina on the phone and they said all the moorings were still full.  I guess we'll just stay anchored here then for free.

A week ago we had repacked our propeller shaft.  Every day while we've been moving I worked on getting the packing nut adjusted to where it just barely drips and the shaft bearings don't overheat.  Usually, this is not a big deal. For some unknown reason, this time it was.  I was having to check the packing gland every 1/2 hour for the past 3 days.  When I adjusted it to only drip every 10 second or so (like it should), the next 1/2 hour check it would be hot which is not good.

What I decided was to put another strand of packing material under the nut.  We had put 3 strands and I thought I remembered that was what I had used in the past.  But, I think the shaft is wearing a bit and maybe it needs a little more help.  So.... I took apart the packing nut while Laura greased up another strand of packing.  This isn't a hard job but loosening the nut lets water pour into the bilge from outside the boat.  It's not a calming effect to see water pouring into the boat and the bilge pumps running almost constantly to keep up.

But, we completed the job fairly quickly and had it all back together in about 10 minutes.  I really hope it's easier to adjust now.  I'm going to need to watch it closely again for the next couple days.

Around 1pm I dropped the dinghy and we motored to the city park to tie up and walk to Publix.  The water was fairly calm with the east winds so I cranked up the new outboard and we zoomed.  We have to go through the mooring field to get to the public dock in the city park.  Motoring through the mooring field we saw an open mooring.  What the...!   Oh well.  I wasn't going back for the big boat now.

We had packed and carried our luggage wheelie and collapsible crate for carrying groceries long distance.  It was only about 3/4 mile to Publix but ya can't carry 10 grocery bags back from there in your arms.  Once at Publix, the lady at the customer service desk let me store our wheelie and crate while we went to check out the Japanese Buffet.

It was open!  Yea!  I pigged out on great sushi and we both enjoyed the Chinese buffet.  Here is a picture of the raw sushi bar.  And it's only $10 each!

As we rolled ourselves back to Publix, neither of us wanted to think about grocery shopping and hauling it back to the dinghy, then back to the boat.  But...  we did it anyway.  Not a big deal and we had everything stowed on the boat a couple hours later.

I just checked the weather and now it looks like Saturday might be good for the off-shore run to Key Biscayne.  That means we have to leave here tomorrow for Lake Worth.  I'm really happy we sucked it up and got everything done today.  Florida Keys here we come!

We've traveled 1,396 nautical miles from Catskill.  Tomorrow we will past ICW mile 1,000 from Norfolk.  Water temp dropped the last few days from 75 to 68 degrees because of the cold nights.  It will be warmer in The Keys...

Crescent River, GA to St. Augustine, FL (Days 55 to 59)

Sunday, November 22nd to Thursday, November 25th (Thanksgiving!)

I'm changing the format of our blog to stop the gory details from each day and make it more of a summary.  I will post the interesting things that happen to us along the way plus, of course, the beautiful pictures.  Please leave a comment if you like the old format better.

Sunday morning we motored out of our pretty Crescent River anchorage for another day on the Georgia ICW.  We would typically try to bypass all or part of this section but the off-shore weather was not cooperating.  But, the high tide was near noon (and getting a little later each day - that's how tides work) so we had plenty of water to get through the low spots.

My goal was to get passed Jekyll Island and anchor near Cumberland Island tonight.  Then we would have a short trip tomorrow to Fernandina where we hoped to pick up a mooring and walk around the town.

Our day progressed well as we motored up and down the rivers and bays.  The NE wind on our Jib helped us along the spots were we were fighting tidal currents so we made pretty good time. 

In the early afternoon we motored across St. Simons Sound and could see the recovery work on the wrecked car carrier Golden Ray.  I posted a picture last year of this huge car carrier that had become unstable, flipped on it's side and sank to the bottom.  As it was in shallow water, most of the ship was visible.  This year they had decided to cut the ship into pieces (along with the 4,000 cars inside) and barge it away.  This picture is from today as we motored past  There is a huge gantry above the wreck that you can see from 15 miles away.  It has cranes and cables to take the ship apart.  It is such an unusual sight, I need to explain what you are looking at.

The red part of the ship facing us is the bottom.  The blue part off to the left is the stern.  The boat is laying on it's port side and the gantry / crane is taking apart the bow.  Wow!

Here is a closeup of the work on the bow.

Laura also took this picture of a nice looking schooner that was sailing around this harbor.

Just before sunset we anchored in Brickhill Creek near Cumberland Island.  47 nautical miles today.

Monday we were underway early to catch the tide down the St. Marys River.  Around 11am we picked up a mooring at Fernandina Beach Marina.  We were in Florida!

We dropped the dinghy and motored into the marina.  Fernandina Harbor Marina has been rebuilt after a hurricane destroyed it 3 years ago.  The docks are new and very nice.  The dinghy dock is huge and actually not attached to the marina so I guess anchored boats can dingy in for free.

We had a nice walk around town which seemed to be pretty busy with people.  Maybe because this was Thanksgiving week?  This picture of Laura shows a little of the downtown.  There were lots of people around which is why we were wearing masks.  Don't know where they all went when we took this picture?

A while later we went back to the boat and spent a quiet evening onboard.  

Before we tied up to the mooring, I had called St. Augustine Municipal Marina to see if they had a mooring available for tomorrow night and the next couple nights.  They were full tomorrow but I did make a reservation for Wednesday and Thursday.  Plans are to leave tomorrow morning and anchor near St. Augustine.

Start of week 9.  Tuesday morning we were underway at 7:30am on a falling tide for a couple hours.  The high tide had moved into the afternoon and the low tide was now around 9am.  This section has been a problem area in the past for shallow spots but I had no problems navigating through today using AquaMaps charts on my iPad which display the Army Corps of Engineer depth survey data.  It made it all look easy.

We had been seeing white and grey pelicans for the past couple weeks.  Later in the morning we saw a whole bunch of them on an island next to the ICW.  White pelicans with grey pelicans. 

There was a warm front coming through tonight with higher winds from the NE to East.  I remembers a good anchorage just before St. Augustine that had trees off to the east.  We dropped our anchor at 3:15pm and spent a quiet night with the winds cranking our wind generator.

Wednesday we lounged around a bit since it was only about 2 hours to St. Augustine.  Before 9:30am we had the anchor up and were again motoring south.

It was just before 10:30 when we pulled into St. Augustine.  The marina has moorings on both the north and south sides of the Bridge of Lions Bridge which only opens every 1/2 hour.  I called the marina and they said our mooring was on the south side so we went through the bridge at 10:30am.  The marina also told us the mooring was currently occupied and would be available at 11am which is the "check out" time.  We cruises around the river for 1/2 hour and tied up to the mooring right at 11am.  We would be here for 2 nights.  Nice!

We dropped the dinghy just after the tide had changed to flood.  This meant the tidal current was against the 15-20 mph south winds in the mooring field which caused about a 1-2 foot chop on the water.  I don't think we got wet motoring into the marina but it was close.

I walked to the marina office and paid for 2 nights - $50.  We've been coming here for 14 years and it never seems like the gents in the marina office are very nice.  I sometimes wonder if being a City marina they don't care much about customer service.  Oh well....

Laura and I walked through town and down US1 on our normal trek to Winn Dixie.  We needed a few things for tomorrow's Thanksgiving dinner and the next week or so down the ICW.  The walk was nice but there was lots of traffic and people walking through town.

What a difference from when we were here in May.  Now it seemed like "what COVID?"  The city was almost back to normal and maybe it was a little busier because of Thanksgiving week.

We found all the groceries we needed and took an Uber back to the marina.  We did get a little wet on the dinghy ride back to the boat but we had everything downstairs and stowed away a little while later.  I had mentioned maybe going into town for dinner but we were both tired so Laura made Shrimp and Broccoli Alfredo over Linguini for dinner.  One of my favorites!

It was a pretty sunset last night and I took this picture from the boat of an American flag right in the brightest part. 

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

Laura had pulled the turkey out of the freezer last night and put it in water to thaw.  She was going to make a full Thanksgiving dinner for just the two of us.  What a woman!

When we got up this morning, she said the ice had fallen from the top of our big freezer which doesn't usually happen unless we are defrosting it.  I was thinking it was maybe pulling out the turkey and putting in a bunch of stuff we had bought at the store.  A little while later she said the refrigerator wasn't very cold.  Oh oh.  Now we had a real problem.

It turns out that both freezers and the refrigerator had stopped working but their power lights were on.  Time to troubleshoot!

I turned on the inverter and switched the refrigeration over to 110v AC.  We could hear the three compressors turn on.  I then checked our battery monitor and it showed "low voltage".  That's a problem.  The engine had been off only 24 hours and we had good wind and solar yesterday.  We should not have have drained our batteries in one day.  I turned on our Honda generator and started charging the batteries.  Everything started working.

Seems like our 4 1/2 year old house batteries are not holding much of a charge anymore.  I will continue to troubleshoot over the next few days and see if I can isolate a bad battery.  If just one battery is pulling down the rest, I will just disconnect it from the group.  I have been researching Lithium batteries which are about twice as expensive but last 3-4 times longer.  This job should wait until we get to Marathon in a couple weeks.

Also today we performed the somewhat-major job of repacking our propeller shaft log.  I really don't like doing this because you have to take the nut completely off the shaft and water comes pouring into the boat.  Our bilge pumps can keep up with it but it's not a pretty sight and a great motivator to get the nut repacked and back on as quick as possible.

This is the 4th or 5th time we done this but about 1/2 were when we had the boat hauled for bottom paint.  Then the water isn't gushing in....

The job went pretty quick and we had 3 new strands of packing in the nut and screwed it back on in about 1/2 hour.  The shaft log on this boat is pretty easy to get to (compared to other boats) but it's still working like standing on your head.  Here I am working on the shaft nut and putting in the last strand.  You can see the propeller shaft down near my hand.

Ok.  Enough boat work!  Laura had Thanksgiving dinner ready around 1pm.  I opened the canvas in the cockpit and we ate "upstairs" like a picnic in the Sun and warm, light breeze.  It was awesome as you might expect if you know Laura's cooking.  We can fit about an 11 pound turkey in our oven.  This one just made it....

We both talked about the things we were thankful for - mostly our health and our families and friends.  I am very thankful to be able to sail and cruise with Laura.  Not everyone gets to do the thing they love with a great partner.

Later in the afternoon I practice my flute in the cockpit.  Somewhere during my practice a dinghy had been passing by and stopped to listen.  They were right behind me and as I finished a song they said, "You're playing a flute?"  I about jumped out of my skin because I was so concentrating on the music I didn't hear them pull over to the boat.  I showed them the flute (yes, I was playing a flute) and continued my practice while watching the setting Sun spray red rays onto the clouds.

There is a big cold front coming down into Florida next Sunday night and Monday.  We are going to head to Daytona tomorrow and maybe get a dock at New Smyrna Beach on Saturday.  We've spent 3 Decembers at that marina and it would be nice to see our old friends. Then we will head to Titusville on Sunday where we will sit out the storm on a mooring or at anchor.  That should be an excellent place to be with the high south and west winds predicted.  I'll let you know how it all works out!

I know you can see from the pictures we've been posting how nice the weather had been but we are very grateful.  Last year around this time we had on our winter coats in Brunswick Landing Marina - only about 100 miles north of here.  We like this much better but next week's cold front may bring colder temps - especially at night.  Forecast for next Tuesday is a high of 55 and low of 42.  Brrrrr.  We need to get to The Keys!

1,202 nautical miles traveled since leaving Catskill.  Water temp here is still only 68.  It will get warmer as we move south!

Charleston to Lady's Island, SC to Crescent River, GA (Days 50 to 54)

Tuesday, November 17th (Day 50 - Start of week 8)

We were up early for the long run to Beaufort.  When I called for reservations at Lady's Island Marina for today, I neglected to actually look at how far this section was.  I just knew from experience that we could do Charleston to Beaufort in a day.

The problem is, now we are working up and down the South Carolina rivers where the tides are against us half the time and with us the other half.  Well...  That's actually incorrect.  The tides are with us 1/2 the distance and against us the other 1/2.  When you factor in time, you see that the sections traveling with the tide and shorter (because you are going faster) and the time spent working against the currents is longer (because you are going slower).  Ok.  Everybody bored now?

Also, it is usually better to go into a marina in the morning.  Then you get most of the first day for the same price.  If I had made the reservation for tomorrow, it would have been better all around.

We had the anchor up and were underway at 6:30am.  The thing that saved us was winds were 10-12 out of the NE so we could use the jib to help us down the longer sections.  Also, high tide was around 10:30am so we had plenty of water through the normal shallow spots.  The tide was a little higher than normal at 8 feet.  I took this picture near high tide of an ICW channel marker that was pretty low.  You can also see the water is up into the grass.

No problems today as we navigated the ICW.  Even the Asphoo Cut had plenty of water which is a typical problem area.

Just before 4:30pm I pulled into the creek leading to Lady's Island Marina.  I was going really slow because we were at extremely low tide when I felt the boat slow down from the keel on the muddy bottom.  Geez!  This is the year for me finding the bottom every day?  I backed up a little and went more to starboard near the Lady's Island Bridge.  I think we still rubbed a little but we were able to keep going and tied up at the marina a few minutes later.  When I looked at the tide tables, we were almost a foot below the mean low tide because of the recent new moon.

We had reservations for two nights because we like this marina and the local area.  Plus, the temps were going down into the low 40s each night and we would be able to run our central heat at the dock.

After dinner we spent a quiet evening on the boat.  I don't even think we took a walk...

Wednesday November 18th (Days 51)

We used the marina loaner car to stock up at Bill's Liquor and Publix.  I always tell Laura, "I like to anchor out because we don't spend any money."  That was true today - $160 on booze (we really stocked up) and $280 on groceries.  Laura did a great job of finding a home for everything. 

Mid afternoon we decided to go out for lunch and walked a bit to the Filling Station.  They had a menu in the marina office and I saw they offered a fried oyster basket for lunch.  I wasn't too impressed with the place when we say nobody was wearing masks, including the bartender.  Plus, oysters were out of season (or they didn't have any) so we split a Redfish sandwich with Crab Balls appetizers.  It was, "OK."  

We decided to stay for an extra day so I stopped by the marina office and paid for Thursday night.  It was going to be cold Thursday night too.

We worked a few boat projects and watched some Internet TV since we had Wi-Fi at the marina.

I don't have any pictures for today but I'll give you one from a few days ago on our way to Charleston.  The Coast Guard was working on a lighted channel marker and I thought it was funny that the Coastie waved at me from the top of the marker.

 

Thursday, November 19th (Day 52)

On Thursday, we took a long walk in the morning and ended up back at the Publix mall because I thought I see about getting a haircut.  It's been over 2 months so I was due.  The last few places I've gotten haircuts were "Appointment Only" but they worked me in.  When I walked into Great Clips, I was the only customer.  I joked about, "Where is everyone?" and the gals didn't know.  Anyway, the haircut was acceptable and reasonably priced.  I was happy with it.

Laura and I continued our walk around town and finished 3 miles back at the boat.

In the afternoon I gave the boat a good rinse with the marina water and filled up our water tank. 

Just as I was ready to pour a tequila for happy hour, I noticed that our main engine was only 8 hours from requiring an oil change.  Tied up at the marina would be a better time to drain all the oil and disable our engine than while at anchor.  I ran the engine for a bit (not really enough as it turned out) then started draining the oil.  After changing the oil filter and transmission oil, I could see that the engine oil still hadn't completely drained.  I had to wait another 1/2 hour to stop draining and fill the engine with clean oil.

It was a typical oil change and I've done about 50 of them since owning this boat.  Only problem was I made a much bigger mess and usual and had to clean it all up.  Most of it was because my siphon hose to drain the transmission oil came apart when I pulled it out of the transmission.  This sprayed transmission fluid around the engine room and workbench area.  I short time later I had it all cleaned up - at least what I could find.

Friday, November 20th (Day 53)

Shortly after leaving the marina, we would have to go through the Lady's Island Bridge.  This bridge is closed for rush-hour traffic from 6am to 9am.  6am is still dark this time of year so we waited until just before the 9am opening to leave the dock.

No problems leaving and we were at the bridge in plenty of time for their 9am opening.

Now we would have the tidal current against us for the 10 miles to Port Royal Sound.  I expected to be doing only 4 to 4.5 knots but the current hadn't built up yet plus the wind helped us.  Just two hours later we were in the sound and turned west toward Hilton Head Island.

I thought we might anchor in the Cooper River if we were slowed down by the currents.  But we went by there a little after noon so kept going.  It was great navigating the southern SC waterway near high tide and I didn't touch bottom today.

Just before 3pm we crossed the Savanna River and entered our 8th state (for this trip) - Georgia.  At 4:30pm we dropped anchor just off the ICW about 1 mile before the Isle of Hope marina.  It was a quiet night on the hook until the local fishing boats came zooming by in the morning.  Pretty sunset.

Saturday, November 21st (Day 54)

I did not set the alarm for this morning and decided we'd just get underway when we woke up.  Both of us slept well and were awake just after 7am so got the boat ready and pulled up the anchor just before 8am.

It was a pretty morning - warm and sunny - and the first time in a while I started out with shorts.  Just before the Isle of Hope Marina I saw this working barge, tug and crane that all matched. Pretty!

We were traveling just after low tide so the tide would be coming up all morning.  Great for us on our trip down the ICW in Georgia.  I posted a picture from a few days ago of a channel marker at high tide.  Here is an example of low tide.  Quite a difference, right?

Once again, I really like running a boat down the Georgia ICW when the tide is up.  No worries about finding a shallow spot because the boat is up 6-8 feet from low tide.  

The NE wind on our Jib helped us down the slower spots where the tidal currents were against us.  This part of the ICW winds up and down from inlet to inlet.  Some times you go right next to the ocean then turn back up the next river following the ICW.  Today, those close-ocean spots were a little bumpy as we could feel the ocean swell coming in.  That's why we were not out there.

The afternoon was a little busier dodging powerboats in both directions but no problems for us.  At 3:45 we turned off the ICW and anchored in the Crescent River.  The next good anchorage was about 10 miles away so we decided to call it an early day.  We put the boat to bed and I've been working on the blog.  Pretty sunset here tonight.

Tomorrow we should be in south Georgia then across the Florida border on Monday.  We talked about maybe spending Thanksgiving in St. Mary's, Georga this year.  They are having their boaters Thanksgiving again which we've really enjoyed in the past.  But, we decided to bypass the crowds and not take the chance of catching COVID which seems to get worse every day.  We have no problems isolating on the boat and we purchased all the necessary fixin's (including a small frozen turkey) for Thanksgiving with just the two of us.

Please leave a comment on the blog if there is anything you would like more or less details on.  I'd appreciate it!  Thanks!

Carolina Beach to Charleston (Days 45 to 49)

Thursday, November 12th (Day 45)

Today was "Day of Storms".  Hurricane Eta had come up the Gulf coast of Florida, veered NE and was heading our way.  It was now a tropical storm with winds 45-50 mph.  We had everything secured and I had high confidence in the Carolina Beach city moorings.

It stormed throughout the day and by late afternoon the winds were staying in the 30s.  At that wind speed, our rigging starts shaking and making lots of noise.  But, it wasn't too bad this time and I suspect my rig tuning last year helped calm things down a bit.

Around 5pm I took these two pictures.  The first was our wind instrument that doesn't record wind gusts, just sustained winds.  This was one of the highest readings I've ever seen at 40.9 knots.  It was really howling!

We have a Air-Breeze wind generator mounted on our mizzen mast.  It is totally self-controlled and will automatically shut down in high winds or when the batteries are charged.  I took this picture later in the evening when the winds had calmed down to mid-20s to low-30s.  Notice the needle is pegged all the way over to max.  We had plenty of power.

The actual tropical storm eye passed south of us in the late evening and we had storms most of the night.  We still had one leak in our cabin that needs looking into.  I think we need to re-caulk the toe-rail on the starboard side which should fix this.

Friday, November 13th (Day 46)

The morning was cloudy with some additional rain but the Sun came out in the afternoon.  We decided to get a little exercise and dropped the dinghy and went over to the beach.  Yes.  Carolina Beach has a beautiful beach!  Laura searched for sea-glass while I walked down the beach a bit checking out the sights.  Sorry.  Forgot to get pics.

There was a little grocery store and Taco-Burger stand near the dinghy dock but both looked closed for good.  I really hope they are able to come back some day.

During the evening I secured the dinghy and everything on the back deck in preparation for our leaving tomorrow morning.  We had an excellent stay and enjoyed the town a lot.  I always look for city moorings when storms are coming.  The boat handles high winds much better on a mooring than a dock or even at anchor.

Saturday, November 14th (Day 47)

Leaving Carolina Beach, you have to time the tidal current down the Cape Fear River.  If you try to travel against the current, you might go backwards.  The current would change to ebb around 9am so we could sleep in a bit.

I slipped the mooring lines just before 9am and we motored out of the harbor.  We'll be back!

It was a slow run through Snows Cut against the current but everything changed when we got to the river.  The ebb had started and picked up during the 12 mile section to Southport.  At one point we were doing over 10 knots speed-over-ground.  That's 4 knots of current helping us.

I had been watching the weather forecast because we like to run the section from Southport to New River off-shore if possible.  There are two shoaling inlets in this area - Lockwood's Folly and Shallots Inlet.  Plus, we would be hitting both of them around low tide.  Unfortunately, the forecast I saw yesterday called for 3-4 foot close seas off-shore which would make for a bumpy, 25 mile trip.  Just as we pulled into the ICW past Southport, we slowed to 4.5 knots (current was now against us) and I decided to check the forecast again.  Good thing I did!  It now looked much better with 2.4 foot seas, 7-8 seconds apart.  Plus, the winds were around 10 knots out of the NE which would help us along.  Nice!

I turned the boat around and we motored back to the river then turned south out the Cape Fear inlet.  We raised the main and jib which helped us a bit all the way to New River inlet.  As seems frequently this trip, the winds were not enough to sail at decent speed to make North Myrtle Beach before dark so we kept the motor running and averaged over 7 knots.  It was very nice and comfortable.  Laura even put out a fishing line but I guess there were no fish in this part of the ocean.

Laura took this nice video during our run off-shore.

If the video doesn't show up on your screen, you can see all our videos on our YouTube channel by clicking HERE

I had called yesterday for a reservation at Myrtle Beach Yacht Club for a couple nights.  This is one of our favorite places with a protected harbor, nice restaurant, good walks and our friend Sandy lives nearby.  I've always been able to reserve whatever I wanted at this marina but this time they had no slips available.  Since I would be arriving later in the day, they said I could stay on the fuel dock for one night but I would have to leave in the morning.  Bummer.

We motored into the marina at 4:30pm after a long 61nm day from Carolina Beach.  Sandy came down a little while later and picked up Laura for groceries.  I cleaned up the boat and relaxed after a hard day (not really...).  Laura had a big list since we didn't know when we would be near a grocery store again.  We were planning on maybe 2 weeks before our next food stop.

A little while later, Sandy and Laura came back with groceries.  After stowing them away, Laura made the fixin's while I cooked a nice pork loin on the BBQ grill.  The three of us had a few glasses of wine with a nice dinner on the boat.  We talked about the great times we had with Sandy and her husband John in Marathon over the years.  John passed away 3 years ago and we all miss him a lot.

I filled up our water tank and we pumped out the holding tank.  Boat was now ready to leave tomorrow morning.

Sunday, November 15th (Day 48)

I wish I had gotten a picture of where the boat was parked.  It was really shoe-horned into the corner of the marina with boats, docks and pilings behind us and in front of us.  The only way out was to go sideways to port.  Sailboats don't do that very well...

But I wasn't worried unless the wind picked up and wanted to blow us onto the dock.  Then it would have been impossible.  The winds were dead calm as we got the boat ready to go.  After untying all the lines, I ran a spring line forward from the starboard aft cleat and back to Laura on the boat.  She held this line tight while I slowly motored in reverse.  With that spring line holding us, the stern had nowhere to go but the bow slowly worked its way from the dock.  A short time later I was able to put the boat in forward and we were out.  Just like my plan!  How often does that happen?

We had left right at first light to keep our options open on where we would stop.  Once again, you have to play the currents in this area.  Especially down the Waccamaw River.  If we left early enough, we would catch the tide through Myrtle Beach and also down the river.  

Pretty sunrise as we were leaving the marina...

We did catch the flood current and ran 7 knots all the way through Myrtle Beach and the three bridges that had to open for us.

Shortly before the last bridge, a trawler passed us.  We chatted on the radio a bit and he said he was stopping at the next marina for a carpenter estimate.  I mentioned we would be stopping there too for fuel.  

He pulled into the marina about 1/4 mile in front of us.  The fuel dock at Osprey Marina is pretty small with a 50 foot slip on the side and about 30 feet on the t-head.  I thought he would be going to a slip for the carpentry work but instead he tied up to the longer fuel dock.  We were able to tie up at the shorter t-head which was OK because we wouldn't be staying long.  

The trawler was there first so they grabbed the only diesel pump and started filling.  1/2 hour and 300 gallons later we were able to take our 65 gallons.  Hey.  He was there first but I hoped he would understand our sailboat would take much less time.  Nope.

We motored out of the marina around noon and headed down the Waccamaw.  The currents were slightly against us but would help more as the day went on.

There were a few squalls during the day that washed the boat and canvas but the afternoon got much better.  A major storm was crossing the U.S. and we were right on the southern edge of it.  By the end of the afternoon, we were motoring into a light south wind and almost clear skies with helping tidal current.

I had originally planned to anchor somewhere on the Waccamaw River.  There are several really nice anchorages we've stayed in before.  But, I calculated that the currents would be against us in the morning and we were making good time so did the whole river into WinYah Bay.  

In front us us was about 45 miles between WinYah Bay and Charleston Harbor.  In previous years, this section has been one of the worst for shoaling (shallow spots) in the whole ICW.  I decided to keep going for another 5 miles to Minim Creek anchorage.  This was a great spot to anchor and we would have some altitude help from the tides all morning tomorrow.

We anchored in Minim Creek just before sunset.  Another long day with 61 nautical miles, 3 bridges that had to open for us and a stop to fill up our fuel tank.  Phew!  Laura got this nice sunset just after we anchored.

The winds were still out of the south but supposed to clock to the north during the night.  It was warm in the evening and we sat in the cockpit with a cocktail for a bit.  But, we were overrun by mosquitoes and had to go downstairs to get away from them.  Unfortunately, they had come into the boat before we close up and I spent a miserable night being too warm to sleep but couldn't take the covers off because the bugs would attack.

Finally, around 3am, the winds clocked to the north and the boat cooled down.  I was able to sleep soundly until the alarm went off at 5:45am.

Monday, November 16th (Day 49)

We were up early again and underway at 6:20am when it was just light enough to see the ICW channel markers.  The tide was rising so we had plenty of water under us for the first few shallow spots.  High tide was at 9:45am.

Winds were only about 10 from the NE so we rolled out the jib to help a little.  No problems as we cruised through McClellanville (usually shallow but was dredged in the last year) and the rest of the trip to Charleston.

I was worried about the 3 miles before the Ben Sawyer Bridge because we had run aground 3-4 times over the years right in the middle of the channel.  Because I ran the engine a little faster and had some help from the wind, we still had about 1 foot of tide when we got there around 1pm.  But, we didn't even need that as this area had also been dredged.  All my worries were for nothing.  

We passed through the Ben Sawyer Bridge and motored out onto Charleston Harbor.  Laura took this nice video of the harbor entrance.

The ebb tide currents now turned against us as we motored across the river and up the Ashley River to the ICW entrance.  I was trying to make the 2:30pm opening of the Wappoo Creek Bridge.  They only open once every hour so, even 5 minutes late, we would have to wait almost an hour.

We made it just in time after, once again, running the engine at higher RPM.  I checked the tide forecast for Elliott Cut (just past the Wappoo Creek Bridge) and it showed there would be 1.3 knots of current against us.  I didn't believe it.  It's almost never been right in the past.

Once in the cut we slowed to a crawl.  Actually, slower than a crawl.  Even with an extra 200 engine RPM, at one point we were only doing 0.8 knots.  This means we had over 5 knots of current against us.  Snails go faster!  Luckily, it only lasted for about 15 minutes and we finally popped out onto the Stono River.  Laura and I decided to anchor for the day so we turned north into the corner of the river and dropped the anchor at 3pm. 

After securing the helm, I started on the blog.  Sorry I hadn't updated it lately but we've been a little busy.  This is the first day in a while that we've stopped before dinner time.

Tomorrow we have reservations for 2 nights at Lady's Island Marina in Beaufort, SC.  I made reservations for 2 nights so we could relax and get some exercise.  They also have a cheap liquor store nearby - Bill's Liquor.  I love that place!

We've logged 932 nautical miles from Catskill and are at ICW mile 472 (statute miles from Norfolk).  Water temp here is 69 degrees.  The next few nights are supposed to be down in the 40s so it will be nice to be at a marina where we can turn on the heat.  I'll let you know how it goes!

Cedar Creek to Swansboro to Carolina Beach (Days 42, 43 and 44)

 Monday, November 9th (Day 42)

This was our sunset last night.  We were sitting up in the cockpit and the colors just kept getting brighter and brighter.  I ended up with about 20 picture on my phone.  This is the best one and is not edited or altered in any way.  

We were up and underway at the "crack of dawn" from Cedar Creek.  For some reason, neither Laura nor I slept very well last night - only about 4 hours - and we were both tired.  I sometimes don't sleep well when I have set an alarm.  I wake up in the night thinking, "Only 6 hours left until the alarm....  Only 3 hours left..."  But, the weather was beautiful and we had about 40 miles to make Swansboro for a visit with my cousins Tim and Karen. 

A few showers came by a little later in the morning as we turned west at Morehead City.  Laura got this great picture of a full rainbow in front of us.  The pot-of-gold was just ahead!

As we motor-sailed down Bogue Sound, I decided to call for a reservation at the Swansboro Church Street town dock.  We've stayed there several times over the past few years.  They have a 100' floating dock which is a little open to the public but very stable.  I called and talked to a lady on the phone and told her I wanted to reserve part of the large face-dock for a 43' sailboat.  She told me that dock could only be rented to boats 47' or longer (something that was always a rule but not enforced).  After a few seconds, I told her I would pay for 47 feet.  She asked me to hold on.  A few minutes later she came back and said she would rent the dock to us but we would have to move if a larger boat came in.  That's nuts.  The dock is 100' long and we take less than 1/2 when we stick our bow way off the end.  I didn't want to think about moving our boat after we had tied up so told her "no thanks".

Instead I called Casper's Marina next door.  It was a little more expensive ($86 versus $76) and was a fixed dock.  We'd stayed here before and it wasn't bad.  The docks were new because they had been destroyed in the last big hurricane.  The lady on the phone took my reservation without problems.

On the way to Swansboro, I checked the weather forecast which I normally do every couple hours.  Oh oh.  The forecast for Wednesday had changed for the worse and would not be a good travel day on the water.  We had planned on staying overnight at Tim and Karen's so we could spend some quality time with them.  Then we would have motored only about 20 miles to Mile Hammock Bay anchorage on Tuesday afternoon and 40 miles to Carolina Beach on Wednesday.  Now that Wednesday called for showers and thunderstorms, we talked about it and decided to change our plans.  We would not stay overnight because we'd run the 60 miles to Carolina Beach on Tuesday and stay there for several days to wait out the storms.  The town of Carolina Beach runs about 15 moorings in the small harbor with 360 degree protection.  They are always in good shape and we wouldn't have to worry about high winds from thunderstorms.

We tied up around 1:30pm with no problems and Tim came to "fetch us" a short time later.  We spent the afternoon with them at the house and it was great to see our good friends.  Wine and munchies during the afternoon were on the menu then grilled steak with Karen's awesome twice-baked potatoes for dinner.  Tim's friends Mike and Jen also came over from Morehead City to join us for dinner.  We had a really good time before Karen drove us back to the boat around 9pm.  Once again I was derelict and didn't take any pictures of the group.

But, later in the afternoon, Karen, Laura and I walked to the ocean beach only about 7 minutes away.  The surf was up and I took this picture of the ocean with a few shrimp boats working the shore.  Laura took a video but we seem to be having problems with YouTube today.  You can check all our videos on our channel HERE

Back at the boat I became a little worried about leaving early tomorrow when I saw what was behind us.  The marina had parked a 30 foot wide trimaran behind us (we had docked behind a smaller sailboat and left about 15 feet in front).  My normal procedure for leaving this type of dock is to spring the stern away from the dock then back off.  Now I wasn't sure it would work - especially if the winds were blowing toward the dock which was the forecast.

Tuesday, November 10th (Day 43 - Start of week 7)

I had the alarm set for 5:45am and we were off the dock at 6:20am.  The tidal current was coming on our stern which would help the boat move away from the dock with just a little rudder / engine work.  Also, the winds were calm and wouldn't blow us back on the dock.  

Laura held a forward spring line while I slowly motored forward with full starboard rudder.  The spring line keeps the boat from moving forward and the rudder pushed the stern out.  I watched behind us as the current kept moving the stern away from the dock and, eventually, far enough out to clear the huge trimaran.  Yea!

Lots of clouds but a little clearing on the horizon which made for a colorful sunrise.

We had about 60 miles to cover today plus 3 bridges that only opened on specific schedules.  The first two bridges opened on the hour and 1/2 hour but the last bridge was only on the hour.  I put our GPS to the test timing our arrival and we were at the first bridge - Onslow Beach - right at 8am.  Pretty good speed for us to cover 10 miles in 1 1/2 hours and the tidal currents helped us a lot.  Here we are approaching the Onslow Beach Bridge on a pretty day to travel the ICW.

Winds helped is a little all day as we ran the jib out on a broad-reach (winds coming from behind the side of the boat).  It was almost like we had an extra engine that didn't cost anything.  Unfortunately the apparent winds were only 7-8 knots most of the day so not strong enough to turn off the diesel and make decent miles.

2 miles before the Onslow Beach Bridge the ICW crosses Browns Inlet which is usually a problem area.  This section and the run across New River Inlet (another usual problem area) would be at dead low tide for us this trip.  Yuck.  But, no problems at the Browns Inlet crossing had been dredged last year and I didn't see less then 7.5 feet crossing New River.  Cool!  The rest of the day the tide would be rising and we should have no shallow-water problems.

After the Onslow Beach Bridge we had almost 30 miles to the Figure 8 Island Bridge.  Even though this bridge opened on the hour and 1/2 hour, it was only 5 miles between the Figure 8 and the Wrightsville Beach Bridge.  We couldn't make that in a half-hour so if we went through the Figure 8 bridge on the 1/2 hour, we'd have to go REALLY SLOW because we'd have 90 minutes to cover 5 miles to Wrightsville Beach.  

Well, it turns out that we could have easily made the Figure 8 bridge at 1:30pm which I didn't want to do.  When we were about 10 miles away, I slowed the engine down to almost idle.  We ran about 4 knots the rest of the way and passed through the Figure 8 bridge at 2pm.  Now it was a normal speed run to Wrightsville Beach which we passed through at 3pm.  The Carolina Beach mooring field was now 11 miles away and we should definitely make it before dark.  The rest of our trip was easy and we tied up to the mooring just before sunset.  Nice!  We had a cocktail, nice dinner on the boat and watched the first half of "Storm of the Century" - one of our DVD movies stored on the computer.  Geez.  Those 1980 movies were really drawn-out ...

I had made reservations here (on DockWa) for 4 nights because of the storms coming across the U.S. and Tropical Storm Eta moving up from Florida.  Laura and I were both pretty tired from the long day.  We had run 10 1/2 hours and covered 58 nautical miles plus navigated 3 timed bridges.  But, now we would sit and relax for a few days and not worry too much about the weather in this protected harbor while we were attached to a good mooring.  By the way, these moorings are only $20 / night so the 4 nights costs us less than the one marina night in Swansboro.

Wednesday, November 11th (Day 44)

We hoped to sleep in today after getting up before 6am the past two morning.  But, guess what?  We were both awake at 6am and tried to go back to sleep but it didn't work very well.

It was warm, cloudy and muggy today.  Temps in the boat never got below 74 last night but it wasn't too bad with the window fan blowing on us.  Today was again in the mid-70s with showers predicted for the morning and late afternoon.  Laura and I hoped to drop the dinghy and head in for lunch between storms.

This schedule worked pretty well as we had lots of rain that ended around noon.  The weather radar showed a couple hours with no rain so we headed in for a walk around town and lunch.  We decided on the El Cazador Mexican restaurant and it turned out to be a good choice.  Of course we had to order Margaritas...

We both ate too much and skipped our normal after lunch stop at the Celtic Creamery for their awesome home-made ice cream.  Maybe we can go back in for ice cream between storms tomorrow or Friday.

Back at the boat I hauled up the dinghy on the davits so I wouldn't fill with water from the storms coming.  We had just opened all the windows in the boat then it started raining.  Wow.  We just made it!  Close the windows and listen to the rain.

It really poured this morning so we checked all of our recent work for leaks.  None of the new ports leaked and it even looks like we fixed the leaks in our cabin by re-caulking the aft railing mounts.  The next few days of storms will tell for sure.

I haven't posted stats recently but today's water temp was 71 and we've covered 770 nautical miles from Catskill.  We are now more than 1/2 way to Marathon and the Florida Keys!