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!

Wayfarers Marina to Cedar Creek (Days 39 to 41)

Friday, November 6th (Day 39)

On my way back from the marina bathroom this morning, I walked out to the point by the Neuse River to check the winds.  They were still light and from the Southwest which wasn't helping bring up the water level here.  I also checked the floating dock on my way back to the boat.  The water level hadn't changed more then an inch since Tuesday.

I mentioned to Laura that this seems like the movie Groundhog Day.  Each day we wake up hoping to leave and continue our trip south because the weather forecast called for NE winds. But, the actual winds are SW which are not helping us and we do it all over again for another day.

D and Don's friends Ina and Kusura on S/V Papillion came into the marina today.  They only need about 5 feet of water for their boat and didn't have any problems.  Laura and I worked a few boat jobs and I practiced the flute in the afternoon.

We invited D and Don, Minta and Rob, plus Ina and Kusuru over to the boat for cocktails and munchies.  Minta and Rob are waiting to get a new autopilot installed so will be here for another week or so.  Ina and Kusuru are having their boat hauled out on Monday for some work on their rudder.  D and Don were still working on their inside struts - their boat is wooden.  We are the only ones leaving soon (we hope).

Laura took this picture of her favorite friends - turtles.  They were sunning on a sunken dock by the marina.

 

It was fun having the group over for cocktail hour(s) but I neglected to get a picture of everyone.  We all talked about the places we've been and where we want to go next.  I drank a little too much red wine which means I will probably have weird dreams tonight.

Saturday, November 7th (Day 40)

Once again the winds were supposed to pick up from the NE today but it doesn't happen. Another Groundhog Day as we sit waiting for just a few more inches of water.

After lunch, Laura and I decided to do some real work and pull the starboard aft railing off the boat to caulk underneath.  We've had a leak coming from that area into our cabin for the past couple years.  I've repaired or caulked everything else so we are down to this dirty job.  The job took about 3 hours of working on our knees and we ended up with caulk everywhere (which usually happens with us).  But, we did find some places where the rain could have gotten into the Toe Rail so maybe we fixed the leak.  The next storm will tell.

The gang got together on Papillion for cocktail hour tonight which I skipped to give my liver the day off.  I hadn't been feeling that well all day and 3 hours on my knees didn't help.  Laura went over with some munchies for a bit.  I heated up some chicken soup for dinner - always best when your tummy doesn't feel so good.

Sunday, November 8th (Day 41)

When we got up this morning, the water had gone up about 3-4 inches.  Yea!  Plus, the forecast for the next few days showed the winds going back to the south which would make the water go down even farther.  We were leaving!

In order to make Swansboro (our next destination), we would have to leave by around 8am.  As it was already 9am, we took our time and I decided to clean the boat - we would anchor someplace before Swansboro.  I took down our Wi-Fi extension and put the antenna back on the aft rail which is it's normal home.  Then I got out the scrub brush and SoftScrub to clean the decks and walkways from the ground-in marina dirt.  I couldn't believe how bad I had let the boat go.  I had washed down the dirt from where we walked on and off the boat but hadn't scrubbed the decks.  It took me a couple hours of heaving cleaning including some time on my hands and knees with a scrubby pad.  I also washed down everything in the cockpit after taking out the seats and cushions.  The whole boat was a different shade now!

After breakfast, we finished cleaning up the decks and I started untying lines from the starboard side of the boat.  The lines on the port side would hold us nicely until we were ready to leave.  I also performed my engine checks to make sure Gertrude (our Perkins diesel) was ready.  It all looked good.

The engine started right up after sitting for 3 weeks.  D and Don came down to help us off the dock and by 11am we were motoring out of the marina.  D took this picture of us motoring down the fairway.

I wasn't too worried about getting out as we had sounded the whole entrance with the dinghy.  I was pretty confident I knew where the deeper channel was and could stay in it.

Once through the breakwater, I turned toward the red marker where we had found deeper water in the dinghy.  Right next to the red marker, the boat slowly came to a stop.  Arrrrrrgh!  I was right where I thought the deeper channel was and should have 6 feet of water here.  I backed up a bit then turned closer to the red marker.  The boat was still rubbing bottom.  Now I wasn't sure which way to turn so I just pushed the throttle forward and the boat "plowed" it's way out.  This is not a good way to maneuver a boat because the propeller has much more power in forward than reverse.  If I motor aground at full throttle, there is no way I will be able to back off.  But, at this point, it was a risk I took.  After plowing the bottom with our keel for about a boat length, the water got deeper and the sandy bottom let us go.  WE MADE IT!

This seems to have verified our decision to not leave Wednesday, Thursday, Friday or Saturday.  I don't think there is anyway we would have pushed through if the water was even 3 or 4 inches shallower.

We motored out of the channel and turned east down the Neuse River.  I would have loved to sail this area but the winds were right on the nose.  Instead we motored the 6 miles to Adam's Creek and, once again, turned south on the ICW.  

A short time later we slowly motored into Cedar Creek (off Adam's) and dropped the anchor at 1:30pm.  11.6 nautical miles for the day.  It's beautiful here and so nice to be free from the dock. Laura took this picture of our calm anchorage.

We will leave early tomorrow morning and cruise down the ICW to Swansboro.  Plans are to stay there for a couple days for a visit with my cousins Tim and Karen.  It's possible there will be rain and storms in the area later in the week so we just might stay for a few extra days.  We are still not in any hurry and don't mind staying a few extra days with good friends.

Wayfarers Cove Marina (Days 23 thru 38)

 Wednesday, October 21st (Day 23)

The carpenters were busy until Thursday so we had a day to ourselves.  We relaxed and took a walk around the area.  Our friends D and Don were away on a road trip and were not coming back until Sunday or Monday.  We were not sure how long the carpentry work would take but we planned on staying a week or so anyway.  

This marina is pretty isolated.  The nearest restaurant is at the adjacent golf course and you have to walk across the fairway to get there.  The next closest restaurant is about 5 miles.  A little too far to walk there and back.

Thursday, October 22nd (Day 24) and Friday, October 23rd (Day 25)

Rip out all the bad stuff -

To prepare for the carpenters today, Laura and I had taken down all the trim from the ceiling and walls around the area to be worked.  Jeremy and Justin came on board around 10am and started ripping and tearing away the rotted wood.  Here is what the workshop side looked like before they started.  You can see all the bad wood in the corner.  Laura and I also removed the three portlights - two from the workshop area and one in the salon (that's the big hole you see in the boat on the right side of the picture).  The wood around these ports needed to be replaced (as you can see) and I had ordered new ports which Laura and I would install after the new plywood was up.

It took most of the two days to rip out all the rotted wood and fair the edges.  Here is what things looked like after the guys left on Friday.  Notice the walls are down to fiberglass plus the ceiling and bulkhead are cut out.

Here is the workshop side...

Saturday and Sunday - October 24th and 25th (Days 26 & 27)

The carpenters didn't work on weekends so we had a few days to ourselves.  Sunday was supposed to be rain and thunderstorms but Saturday was beautiful - sunny, warm and calm winds.  We decided to drop the dinghy, install the outboard and go for a ride.

Out of the creek we headed west toward New Bern.  The Neuse River was pretty calm with only waves from powerboat wakes.  Hey!  That's us now!  We zoomed along at 15 knots enjoying the water and houses on shore.  Here is Laura wedged into the dinghy relaxing while we are traveling at almost 20 miles per hour over the water.

A short while later we decided to check out one of the creeks along the river.  We motored slowly into Mill Creek and it was pretty nice.  The red-wing black birds didn't like us around as they chirped loudly when we passed a few places with long grass.  I really like this picture of the creek with the reflections of the trees and clouds.

 The rain and winds started Saturday night and lasted almost all day on Sunday.  We had put plastic wrap over the open portlight holes and it prevented most of the leaks.  Our stay in Wayfarers had been warm days with cool nights until now.  This front would bring colder weather with highs in the 60s and lows in the 40s.  Now we'll be using using heat instead of air-conditioning.

Monday, October 26th to Friday, October 30th (Days 28 to 32)

This week was kind-of a blur with the carpenters working on-and-off and making slow progress.  I talked to Rick, the carpentry shop owner, about the slow progress and how much this job was going to end up costing.  He said the guys were also working a couple other important projects and I wasn't going to be billed for 8 hours a day.  We agreed on limiting the total cost to $2,000 and I would stop loosing sleep while counting my dollars flying out the open windows.

The bulkhead and ceiling were the first priorities.  They repaired the bulkhead by fairing-in a new piece of plywood, screwing it into the good wood and epoxying over it for added strength.  Here is the bulkhead repaired plus the ceiling patched with new plywood.  Notice they also patched 40 years of holes in the wall.

By the end of Wednesday, they had the bulkhead repaired, new walls in the salon and workshop plus the teak veneer up in the salon.  In this picture the veneer is the lighter shade of wood on the wall next to the door.  

Now that the new wall plywood was up, Laura and I could install the portlights.  We spent almost 2 hours installing the new portlight in the salon.  The next day, she went into town for groceries with D so I installed the two portlights in the workshop area.  As these were # 5 and #6 portlights we've installed, it went pretty good.  I only had to ask the carpenters to help a couple times.

The shelf next to the bulkhead and the ceiling under the window were also rotted and needed to be replaced.  Rick hadn't included the shelf in the price had agreed on so we decided to "split" the additional cost.  It seemed like he was trying to be fair but I wish we had detailed the work required and total cost at the beginning.  We almost never hire outside help for the boat because we have learned to do everything ourselves so this was a learning experience for us.  

By Friday afternoon they had the veneer up on the workshop side (and it looked beautiful), new plywood with vinyl cover (vinyl supplied by us), new shelf and new side plywood on the workbench.

Laura and I had sanded and painted primer on the walls before the carpenters installed them.  On one of her trips into town, Laura purchased the paint for the walls that closely matched what was already there.  After taping around everything, we put the final coat on the walls and they looked pretty good.

We also stapled the vinyl on the ceiling (that job sucked!) then re-installed all the molding.  Rick had given us some powered dye to help varnish the new teak veneer to match our other wood.  It actually worked great and you almost can't tell the new wood unless you look closely.

By mid-day Saturday, we were done and happy with how it looked.  Notice how the new veneer in the corner now closely matches the older wood around it.

Here is the completed repair from the workshop side.  The only part that doesn't match is the ceiling vinyl.  This was from our "spares".  Maybe we'll replace it sometime in the future - probably not.  It all looks much better than when we bought the boat 14 years ago.

Friday night we had D and Don from Southern Cross and Minta and Rob from Caroline over for cocktails and munchies.  Don't know if I've mentioned Minta and Rob before.  The 2nd or 3rd day we were here they motored in and docked next to us.  We started talking and became new friends.  It was a fun evening to celebrate finishing the wood-work on the boat.

Saturday, October 31st (Day 33) - Holloween

We puttered around the boat and took a longer walk today with D and Don.

Laura carved a pumpkin which we put out on the bow for a couple days.  She is very creative and I thought this was cool.  Is it an ugly ghost with crooked teeth or a sailboat on the waves?

The three couples decided to get together for cocktails and dinner up at the marina lounge.  It was chilly and windy (high 50s).  Laura made pizza for dinner.  She made and pre-cooked 6 crusts plus all the fixin's.  Minta brought some chicken and sauce (for BBQ chicken pizza) and D brought a great salad.  

The gals loaded up the pizza crusts then Rob and I cooked them on the BBQ grill.  We had a very nice evening with new and old friends (plus several bottles of wine).

Today is a full moon.  It's the second full moon in October so it is called the "blue moon" which has nothing to do with colors.  Laura took this picture with her SLR camera during the evening.  She didn't edit the picture or color it.  This is the picture her camera took.  Pretty cool!

Sunday, November 1st (Day 34) 

Today is my birthday.  Wow.  I've packed a lot into 68 years!

Laura made a nice breakfast and I think we took another walk during the day.  After looking at several dinner options, I decided on a local seafood restaurant with D and Don joining us.  We took their car to Gary's Seafood Restaurant in Arapahoe.  I feel so bad for local businesses like this during COVID.  There was only one other couple in the restaurant plus the 4 of us.  We had a couple bottles of Pino Grigio and I ordered the fried oyster dinner.  On our RV trip to the Canadian Maritimes last summer, I was looking forward to fresh, fried oysters but every place (but one) had frozen strips.  Gary's had the real deal.  They were awesome and I ate everything on my plate.  Fun times!

Monday, November 2nd to Thursday, November 5th (Days 35 to 38)

Monday and Tuesday we finished a couple other boat jobs we had on our list and were ready to go.  Monday night, we got together for dinner again in the marina lounge.  D had made pulled pork, Laura and Minta made the fixin's, Rob, Don and I showed up for the feast.   It was a fun dinner.  The pork (cooked in the crock pot) was excellent.  Laura made an apple kuchen for dessert that was very tasty.  

Here is our dinner group.  From left to right is me, Don, D, Rob, Minta and Laura.

Tuesday afternoon I worked on getting the boat ready to go.  I filled our water tank, strapped down the dinghy, completed all my engine checks and secured everything on the back deck.  I also walked to the office to pay our dockage for the past 15 days.  Total bill was $245.  Pretty cheap.  We were ready to go!

Wednesday morning is calm and beautiful - a perfect day to get underway.  But, the water level was about 1 foot less than when we came in here when the entrance was only 6 feet deep.  Hmmm.  

I walked up to the office and the recently retired marina manager was there helping out a bit.  Tom has worked here for almost 20 years so he knows all the ropes.  I asked him about the current water level and our 5 1/2 foot draft.  We walked down to the water and he showed me his gauge - stairs on a floating dock that were currently even with the bulkhead.  He said at this water level we would have only about 5 feet over the bar just outside the marina entrance.  Bummer.

The water level in the Neuse River and Pamlico Sound do not have tides because there are only a few inlets from the ocean on a large body of water.  Instead, the water height changes with the wind and air pressure.  Winds from the west or south blow the water north, away from the Neuse.  We would need winds from the east or north to raise the water enough for us to get out.  Thursday the winds are supposed to be NE but less than 10.  We can only hope that is enough to raise the water about a foot.

I paid for another day at the marina and we relaxed for the evening.

Thursday brings more of the same.  Light winds (so far) and the water level hasn't moved more than a couple inches.  Laura and I are going to take the dinghy out to the entrance and measure the water depth.  I have an accurate depth sounder on the dinghy so let's go see!

Tuesday I decided to try and do something about the poor Wi-Fi reception on the boat.  I dug out our extension cable for our amplified antenna and tried moving the antenna around for a better signal.  I eventually settled on the top of a piling near our bow.  I used duct tape to hold it up there and we were able to get slow Wi-Fi now.  So, yesterday I walked up to the office (much better Wi-Fi) and uploaded all our pictures.  This morning I spent several hours writing this blog.  Hopefully, we'll be able to leave here in the next day or so and I'll have more travel stories for you.

A few hours later.....

We sounded the entrance channel to the marina with our dinghy.  The narrow channel is about 6 feet deep at the current water level.  That's enough for us to get out but the channel is narrow and shifts from one side to the other between the breakwater.  If we drift even 10 feet to one side or the other it will be less than 5 feet.  I know where the deeper water is now but don't think it would be easy.  Why take the chance?  This place is cheaper than some moorings we've stayed on and we have power, water and (somewhat limited) Wi-Fi.  I've paid for another day.  Tomorrow the winds are supposed to pick up from the NE so it should get deeper.  We have our fingers crossed!