Beaufort, SC, to Palm Coast. FL

We left Beaufort and were underway early, again by 7. Georgia is so pretty to cruise through. Other states have these nice direct many man-made canals to pass through. Georgia, on the other hand, takes maximum use of the natural waterways that exist in the state. As a result, you don't "cruise through" the state, so much as "meander through" the state.

We arrived mid afternoon at Delegal Creek Marina and met our friend Mark who lives on Skidaway Island on the dock. We had a lovely chance to catch up with Mark and Shirley over dinner at one of their Island Clubs. Good food with great friends always makes for a pleasant evening!

We were up and underway Tuesday again at 7 in the morning. We expected to run into some of the rain and wind from Ida during that day. So the Captain sped us up to 10 knots from our usual 8-9 knot cruising speed. The rain met us at 11:45, making visibility difficult.

Luckily, the rain stopped before we got to Brunswick for our fuel stop and to spend the night at the Municipal Marina.

We walked to a great restaurant in town that we enjoyed so much last spring that had been recommended to us by Mac and Shirley on Cat's Paw last year. The restaurant is Cargo's Portside Grill and they did not disappoint us again this year.

After dinner we arranged to have a cab take us to a location in Brunswick, right off 95 where the Tea Party Express was due to stop at 7:30 that evening. Along with several hundred folks, we the presentations by the Tea Party group along with some music. I was so happy it stopped raining through the whole event that evening. The Tea Party Express had made two other stops that day, the first in Augusta, GA, and Beaufort, SC, then in Brunswick. They have just one more day on this tour.


Me, in front of the Tea Party Express bus


Musical entertainment provided by the Tea Party

Bob had us underway again by 7. So far, the rain has stopped, but it is still overcast making the world around us monochromatic. We are expecting winds to pick up to a possible 25 mph.


Passed this interesting wooden sailboat near Kings Bay. At least they had built a nice enclosed cabin.

We passed Kings Bay Naval Base in Georgia. The mission of this base is to maintain submarines. They have two huge buildings that you can see for miles and this funny looking birdcage like structure where they do deguassing (to reduce the ships magnetic signature).


The "Bird Cage"


Two sub maintenance buildings at Kings Bay that you can see for miles. Sorry it wasn't a nice clear day.

We then passed Fernandina, Florida. This may be the first time we haven't stopped here for the night. Since it was only 11:30, we pressed on.

By early afternoon, the sun peeked through the clouds slowly turning the work back to technicolor.


We decided to let this guys cross in front of us in Jacksonville, FL

We anchored for the night at 5 - late for us. Bob picked an anchorage off the ICW that already had 5 sailboats and a large trawler. In the morning it is my job to wash the anchor chain as it comes into the boat. At this anchorage the chain and anchor was buried in plain thick mud! What a mess! I deserved a really big cup of coffee when I got done. My feet and hands were freezing.


Two porpoises followed us to the anchorage - do you have any idea how hard it is to try and capture a porpoise when it surfaces? There are two fins here anyway.

We have been very unhappy with our generator. It is a Westerbeke and it has broken down umpteen times each cruising season and every time it fails, it is a different problem. I'm beginning to think it is haunted. So, we thought we should add some levity to the situation and give the darn thing an appropriate name. This is what we've come up with so far, Buck-Buck, Broke Beek, and Wicked Westy. We'll take a look at all other contributions anyone has to offer for a nick-name for the machine too. I think we have finally decided to replace it next summer during our annual maintenance period.

Thursday is overcast and chilly. I've been wrapped up in everything I could possibly wear at one time this morning, feeling a little like Heidi. I finally put my hand warmer in the Microwave and that is helping.

We arrived at Palm Coast Marina at 11:30 today and expect to remain here for a few days while we have engine maintenance and the generator fixed. At least, with shore power now, I have heat, and I am happy! The Captain will tell you, that when the Admiral ain't happy, nobody's happy.

Snead's Ferry, NC to Beaufort, SC

View of Nauti-Gail II in her home dock (mentioned in earlier post)


Passing Carolina Moon

We enjoyed our visit with Krista, Ryan and Sammy. They are excited that Randy, is coming home from deployment in Afghanistan for 15 days of leave the latter part of November. We were sad to miss his visit.

Thursday night we anchored for the night in Wrightsville Beach. There we had dinner with Bob and Carol. Bob used to work with Bob years ago and shared a notorious carpool. It was great seeing them after many, many years.


Sunset Beach Bridge - Unusual Floating Bridge that is being replaced with a high fixed bridge


Another view of Sunset Beach Bridge with view of new bridge supports.

Our next stop was Myrtle Beach at the Barefoot Landing Marina. I love this stop as there is a large shopping area (that includes a Chico's!) right beside the marina. There we met my son, Michael, and his family and in-laws for dinner at Greg Norman's Restaurant. It was great seeing them again and we look forward to stopping and seeing them on the way home.


Swan chasing two ducks at pond across from the slip at Barefoot Landing Marina

Leaving Myrtle Beach, there are all these beautiful homes along the waterway along with many golf courses. One golf course has an overhead lift from the parking area to the course on the opposite side of the ICW with brackets on the outside of the gondola for golf bags. Interesting concept. I imagine it was much cheaper than building a high bridge over the waterway.

In the afternoon, the scenery changes to a very sparsely populated area of South Carolina known as the "low country," and it certainly is that. You can see for miles. It was, a nice day for fishing, based on the number of fishermen out in their small fishing boats among the marshes. It did make for a peaceful afternoon. Got a chance to catch up on email, do a little reading, and tending to the coffee runs and meals for the Captain.

We anchored for the night in Graham Creek just off the ICW. It was a very peaceful night and we sat outside till the sun went behind a bank of trees enjoying the warm sunshine before it got chilly for the night.


This is peace - that is out orange anchor ball in the water


Me, worshiping the warm evening sun


One lonely eagle we passed on the only perch for miles

We were underway again by 7 in the morning. We passed Charleston today at 10 in the morning. It was an almost cloudless day and a very calm crossing of the Ashley River. Bob says that the people of Charleston say that "Charles is where the Ashley and Cooper Rivers come together and form the Atlantic Ocean!"


Charleston Bridge


Fishing must have been good here


Beautiful homes along the Charleston waterfront


Charleston Municipal Marina

We have anchored for the night in Beaufort, SC. The is the first time we have anchored here and not stayed at the marina where we can go ashore easily. We are pressing to get farther south and out of the colder climes. We do expect to feel the effects of Hurricane Ida however, later this week. Next stop will be Skidaway Island, GA.

Elizabeth City to Snead's Ferry

Nice photo of the Pretty Penny entering Elizabeth City taken by the nice folks on Liberty

We were finally able to leave Elizabeth City on Monday. It was a quiet crossing of the Albermarle Sound, but overcast and dreary all the way. We anchored for the night in the Pungo Creek off the Pungo River. I didn't even get the camera out the whole day as there was no sun and nothing of interest to even take a photo of.

In the morning, we pulled up our new Rocna anchor and it was caked in mud, the normal procedure I used with the old CQR anchor did not work very well getting the muck off the anchor. I ended up taking a broom handle and pushing the worst off, then the hose wash got the rest off. In the process, I got my jacket and pants covered in muck as well, so I sprayed myself down before coming back into the boat. What a mess! Once we get to clearer waters, this process does improve.

We had experienced generator problems again. This time Bob thinks it is a leaking radiator cap, but he got it going and we had heat in the boat all evening. I was wrapped up in several layers of clothes and my snuggie worn like a bath robe.

We spent Tuesday night in Beaufort, NC at the town docks. While there we heard from Fur Ellise, a boat that had been docked behind us in Elizabeth City for a couple of days. They were smart, however, and left Elizabeth City on Saturday before the weather turned bad in the Albermarle Sound, keeping us at the dock there till Monday.

We had dinner with Kevin and Ellise at Clawson's Restaurant in town right by the docks. It was a nice dinner and chance to learn about Kevin and Ellise. This will be their first trip to the Bahamas.

When we were preparing to leave in the morning, Bob happened to see the newest Crosswater, the 4th Crosswater, Nauti-Gail passing through the harbor and hailed them. They had just taken delivery of the boat in Urbana and were heading for their home port in Georgia. It is always a treat to see a sister ship and doesn't happen very often given their are only 4.


Our brand new sister ship, Nauti-Gail


Side view of Nauti-Gail

We had a lovely day cruising on Wednesday. The sun is out the temps are mid 60's for a change. Still not shorts weather, and it could still turn colder again, but I'll take this for now.

We will see Bob's daughter Krista and her two boys Ryan and Sammy tonight in Snead's Ferry and spend a little time with them. In the morning we will travel to Wrightsville Beach, NC for the night.

Norfolk, VA to Elizabeth City, NC

We had a great visit in Norfolk and were underway by 7:30 in the morning. It was a gray and overcast day all day, but at least it didn't rain. The ICW offers you two choices when you leave Norfolk. One is to take the Albermarle and Chesapeake Canal to the North Landing River to Currituck Sound, with a cut through to Albermarle Sound, or to take the Great Dismal Swamp to Albermarle Sound. Both routes join back up in the Albermarle Sound and the ICW is one route south again from there. The past two years we have taken the Albemarle and Chesapeake Canal route, also known as the Virginia Cut. We decided that this year we would travel the Great Dismal Swamp route.

The Dismal Swamp route has two locks instead of one with about a 12 foot drop/rise at each, compared to only one lock on the A & C Canal with only a one foot drop/rise. That was a lot more challenging for us. I found that it was much harder doing the rise that doing the drop. I had to keep pressure on our lines the whole rise. My muscles were sure sore the next day.

Unfortunately, it was a dismal day on the Dismal Swamp. Overcast the whole day. It is so narrow in places, I could have added to my leaf collection by just sticking my hand out and picking them off the trees! It was still a pretty way to travel as many leaves were in color. I'm just glad we never had to pass anyone coming from the opposite direction as it sure is narrow.


View of the Dismal Swamp behind us

We stopped for the night at the North Carolina Visitor Center which serves both water visitors and automobile traffic on Route 17. There is a nice little museum across a foot bridge on the other side of the canal showing the flora and fauna of the swamp area. Another room has stuffed animals found in the swamp. We took the boardwalk they have built into the swamp a short way until it ended to see the swamp and returned back to the boat.


Visitor Center Sign

At this visitor center, there is only a 150 foot long dock to tie up to, so boats have to raft up beside other boats. We tied up next to one sailboat and another sailboat tied up to us. We ended up with 10 boats all tied up in rafts to a 150 dock wall. At 5, we all gathered for cocktails at a picnic table in our warm coats as it was pretty chilly. We gathered wood and started a fire in the barbecue grill provided which was tended by all the teenagers of which there were around 4. One boat also had a 10 week old baby aboard! That was a very brave couple. They also had another child who was about 3 aboard too!


Boats rafted at the visitor center dock

I spent the rest of the night back on board trying out my new snuggie that I bought for this year's trip down the ICW. I wore it backward to keep my back warm as I walked around the boat. It is brown and I looked like a "Wookie" from Star Wars!
I slept under the snuggle, two polar fleece blankets, the bedspread, and a sheet, wearing my hooded sweatshirt, polar fleece pants and socks! Then, I was finally warm enough to sleep.

I woke up at 6:50 hearing voices outside the boat on the dock, so even though it was still dark, we got up and prepared to leave. We needed to be underway so that all the boats could get make the 8 O'Clock lock opening. We all made it through the lock just fine. Although it was still partly cloudy, the sun was out and warmed up the boat.

We tied up at the Elizabeth City dock and when all the boats came through that day, we ended up with another boat rafted to us and another to it the day after that. Elizabeth City advertises itself as a "Harbor of Hospitality" city, and it is certainly friendly to boaters. There were people helping us with lines and answering our questions regarding where to get water, take our trash, restaurants, etc. That afternoon, they had a wine and cheese get-together with the Mayor of Elizabeth City at the dock. It was put on by the Visitor Center and they were there also to answer our questions as well.


Harbor sign


View of City docks from pilot house

Saturday, there was a little Farmer's Market on shore right off the boat. When I woke up and looked out, they were putting all the tents around the square for the vendors who arrived later. I purchased a couple of nice tomatoes and some jewelry.


Farmer's Market setting up

We were having generator problems again - both the boat generator and the portable Honda, so Bob talked with the mayor and he gave Bob the name of a generator repairman who showed up at the boat an hour after the call and got us straightened out in no time. It is always comforting to hear that engine run.

The mayor then drove Bob and the portable generator over to the Honda repair shop where it was looked over by a mechanic and returned. So we are now back in business.

Halloween night the town closed off a section of Main Street to cars for Trick-or-Treating. All the children on the boats at the dock, rummaged for the makings of a costume. This one was made from a king size bed sheet and duck tape!


There is a boy named Chris in there


Pirate Dad and the Pirate Twins!


The kids are all set to attack the town

We planned to leave this morning, but the weather is just to windy to go. In addition, a bridge we have to go under is closed when the winds are this high - so makes sense to stay put today. We may end up here again tomorrow as well - we will just have to see. Time to round up some other boaters for a game of Mexican Train Dominoes!

We're Underway!

We are underway again on our third "Great Adventure" to the Bahamas. We just love that place, hard to think about going anywhere else.

Our neighbor Barry came to help with the lines and see us off. The day started out cloudy and gloomy, but the rain had stopped. The skies cleared and the sun came out by 10:30. It is a beautiful day.

We will spend the evening with our neighbor Scott, who works in Norfolk, Amanda, our granddaughter now in her second year at ODU, and friends Joe and Monica. Should be a lovely evening.

Mural I painted

Here is a mural I painted this summer. It is on the wall at the ReMax Realty office in Kilmarnock.

Time to Get Ready

Well, hello again. We are getting prepared to leave in less than a week for our third trip down the Intracoastal Waterway from Chesapeake Bay to Florida and then crossing over to the Bahamas for the winter.

Bob has been busy getting the boat prepared. some things we added this past summer to the boat, were 6 solar panels, a wind generator, and a watermaker.

The wind and solar panels were added to the boat by Cameron of Transmarine, Inc. We had met Cameron and his wife Leia, and two children Maya and Finn in George Town, Exuma. Their business of installing wind and solar on boats travels with them. So we arranged for them to do the installation this summer when we got back home and they were "summering" up North in the Chesapeake. The draft on their boat (a 50 ft. metal hulled sailboat with 7 and half foot draft, could not get into the Little Wicomico River to get to us due to silt in the jetty (we sometimes have a rough time getting through at low time with a 3 and half foot draft boat). So they anchored in Cockrell's Creek off Reedville near us and we took our boat to them. There it stayed tied up to their boat for what was to be two weeks of work. Two weeks turned into 3 as the wind generator was defective and we all had to wait for a new one to arrive. The two boats were quite the talk of the town for three weeks.

If you are interested in knowing more about Cameron and his traveling company, check out their website at http://www.transmarinepro.com.


Pretty Penny and Tranquility tied up together in Cockrell's Creek



After the installation, we moved the boat around the creek to Jayne's Boatyard for it's annual bottom check and new bottom paint. In previous years we had taken the boat to St. Mary's to have the boat hauled where they have a travel lift large enough to haul our boat. I had read on one of the boater's lists about Jayne's Boatyard and their "trailer" they use to haul catamarans. So we went to check them out and determined, first, it was a much better way to haul out the boat, and second, it couldn't be closer to us, so using them was a "no brainer."

We discovered a crack in a side rub rail that had to be repaired, along with several other small tasks that Bob had them do for us.


Photo of the crack.


Trailer under the boat


That's me in front of the Pretty Penny - daunting out of the water


One dirty prop!

We did make one road trip this summer to Rochester, NY to visit with my brother-in-law and nephew, David and his wife Nathalie. David and Nathalie took us out for a nice boat ride on their sailboat in Sodas Bay. It was a lovely day to do it. We then had dinner at the yacht club.


We had David's dog Sailor along for the ride

After visiting in Rochester, we traveled to Burlington, Canada to visit Ed and Dee, our friends on Sea Fox X. They had just recently gotten married. They showed us a terrific time in Canada and we thoroughly enjoyed the visit. On our way back South, they went with us to make a couple of stops at wineries in the Niagara Valley. All the wineries in that area are just spectacular. We fell in love with a Vineland Estates Merlot, which if I could have brought back multiple cases of I would have. Instead I had to settle for 4 bottles. It is probably a good thing because if I could get all I want of the wine, I would be an alcoholic for sure! We hope to see Dee and Ed in the Bahamas again this year.

It was Bob's turn for surgery this summer and he got his long-standing problem of a torn rotator cuff finally fixed. He will finish his therapy this week, just in time to leave next week.

I spent the early part of the summer working on repairing the upstairs guest bedroom and bath that were damaged last year by a broken shut off valve under the sink. We will be shutting off the water to the house this year!

The other interesting thing we did this summer was become part of the "angry mob" that marched on DC on September 13th this year. It was amazing to be with so many like-minded people all at one place. The crowd stretched from the Capitol almost to the Washington Monument! It was impossible to get a photo that really shows the magnitude of the crowd, but these do it the best.




Facing the Capitol



We are now waiting for our watermaker to return from the company as it was defective. Bob should install that over the weekend and our plan is to leave Monday or Tuesday, depending on the weather. Last two years we had to sit at the dock waiting through storms for almost a week before we could leave. We are praying that doesn't happen this year.

See our fellow boaters on the ICW soon!