Since Bob's daughter Krista and family could come and see us on Sunday in Swansboro, we stayed another day. They arrived in the afternoon and we had a nice dinner at one of the local restaurants.
Monday we headed out and stopped for the night at Bald Head Marina in Southport, NC. This marina is adjacent to the ferry dock that takes people to Bald Head Island. Every hour, a ferry departs and sounds their horn. Since we are right off the bow of the ferry boat, the blast sounds like it is in the boat! Luckily, they ferry stopped sounding the horn at 7 PM till they stopped at 11 PM.
Ferry at the dock adjacent to our boat.
However, they start up the ferry at 7 AM with a horn blast. I did jump out of bed when they sounded that blast however!
This marina is well equipped, and has a free washer and dryer, so I took the time to get some much needed laundry done. We both had nice hot showers as well.
We got underway shortly after 7 heading south with plans to stop at Barefoot Landing Marina in North Myrtle Beach. The day's adventure included passing through an area known to boaters as the "rock pile." This is a blasted out channel that is not only lined with huge unforgiving boulders on each side, but parts of it are very narrow as well. With our 23 feet beam, meeting a tug and barge coming the other direction could be deadly. Bob always announces a "security" message as we are about to enter the area. Luckily, we didn't meet any large north-bound vessels in this 5 mile stretch of the ICW.
We met some folks last year in the Bahamas that almost lost their sailboat to a tug and barge coming through this area.
We got underway shortly after 7 heading south with plans to stop at Barefoot Landing Marina in North Myrtle Beach. The day's adventure included passing through an area known to boaters as the "rock pile." This is a blasted out channel that is not only lined with huge unforgiving boulders on each side, but parts of it are very narrow as well. With our 23 feet beam, meeting a tug and barge coming the other direction could be deadly. Bob always announces a "security" message as we are about to enter the area. Luckily, we didn't meet any large north-bound vessels in this 5 mile stretch of the ICW.
We met some folks last year in the Bahamas that almost lost their sailboat to a tug and barge they encountered in the ICW. Even though they had announced they were entering the area on the radio and no one responded, they met a large barge in a very narrow part of the channel. They tried to turn around, but the channel was too narrow and they lost their prop and were dead in the water with the barge heading straight toward them. The Captain threw a hook to shore and pulled the boat as close to the rocks as he could go and the barge scrapped theie boat on one side and rocks on the other side. They survived, but the boat took serious damage.
I told Bob if we couldn't turn the boat around, he should just run it backwards as fast as he could!
Barefoot Landing Marina is really just a single long dock along the ICW. They have electricity and water, but little else in the way of amenities. No showers or laundry. There are bathrooms, although they are in the shopping area right off the ICW and they are only open during store hours. I like to stop there because it is a location with many restaurants, making it easy for my son and family to come and visit us on our way south and have dinner. Also because I enjoy the shops. I have watched the docks deteriorate over the years and many of the name brand shops leave, being filled by cheap T shirt and shell shops. If this continues, we may have to choose another marina in the area to stop at.
We were up and underway by 7 in the morning heading into the Wacammaw River. I love this beautiful river. It is tree lined and uninhabited. We see Eagles and other large birds nesting in the trees. I half expect to see Katherine Hepburn and Humphrey Bogart come paddling by like in the movie the "River Queen." Luckily, there is still some color in the trees through this area now - it will be lush and green when we return in May.
We stopped Wednesday night at Leland Marine in McClellanville, SC. This place is hardly anything more than a rickety dock where two or three boats can tie up to. Bathroom and shower feel like somebody's closet, but the price is cheap. Bob likes it because many shrimp boats return to this area from a day shrimping and will sell their fresh caught shrimp by the bucket. I can usually count on having shrimp and grits for dinner here.
McClellanville is a town that time forgot. Beautiful huge Pin Oak trees line the streets of big old homes. So, given the fresh shrimp and pretty town, we overlook the lacking amenities of better marinas.
We we arrived, we found out that the shrimp have moved farther south as have the fishermen. We were able to buy some fresh shrimp and scallops from a local fish market. Bob made us shrimp and grits for dinner. We had walked to the local market by the docks and found the pin oak trees to be very old and beautiful, but the mosquitoes to be "killers."
The moon was full and Bob was up in time on Thursday to see the moon set and the sun rise. We got underway early in the morning as we had a longer than usual day. We need to reach Skidaway Island on Friday in time to take showers and clean up for dinner with Bob's former boss, Mark and his lovely wife Shirley.
Two eagles resting along the ICW
We managed to pass through Charleston around 11 A.M., too early to stop for the night. I keep hoping that we would hit Charleston later in the day and I could get the Captain to stop for the night. I would love to take a day and explore Charleston. It was a really nice calm day to cross Charleston Harbor.
This schooner is a charter tour boat. She is always a beauty to see underway.
Once we get south of Charleston, the number of cruising boats we pass decreases dramatically. Many boaters choose to take the outside route and avoid all of Georgia. This requires overnight travel, which neither of us are interested in doing, so we just plod along the ICW. I find Georgia to be some of the most beautiful land around the ICW, so I would miss that if we went the ocean route.
Schooner in Charleston Harbor
About two hours south of Charleston, there was a fire off to the left of the ICW and the smoke was so dense, we shut up the boat to limit the amount we would get in the boat. I was afraid we would smell the smoke all through the night, but we got far enough south of it when we anchored that it was gone.
We found a nice little river and creek to anchor in for the night. It turned out to be a pretty cold night to be anchoring out. I quickly got out of bed and put my clothes under the covers to warm them up in the morning before putting them on. We got underway by 6:45, a bit early for us. We need to reach Skidaway Island early enough to shower and be picked up by our friends before 6, so Bob got us going early.
We passed Beaufort, SC and noticed several boats with names we recognized. I expect we will see them farther down the line.
We managed to reach our destination Friday night of Skidaway Island at dead low tide. The Delegal Creek Marina channel has a shoal at the entrance to the creek that is always a problem. We managed to cross it with about 2 feet under our keel, but we made it ok and could breath again.
Bob's former boss Mark and his wife Shirley live on this lovely island and we like to stop and catch up with them on our way south and again on our way north each year. This year, Shirley had made plans for them and a group of friends and neighbors to attend a charity fund raising event for a group called Wycliffe Associates. The aim of this group is to translate the bible into every language of the world. Many of these languages do not have a written form, so in the process of doing this, they also leave the group of people with the ability to have a written language as well as having the bible. It was a fascinating presentation and a goal worth doing. Because of technology, allowing them to use a small solar panel and satellite receiver, they are able to put fewer people in the field, thus saving money and resources.
They are also combining languages into language groups that have similar features and complete multiple language projects at the same time. There are still 2000 language groups around the world yet to be started. It is their goal to have started all these projects by the year 2025. If you are interested in knowing more about, or volunteering for this work, here is a link to their website. http://www.wycliffeassociates.org/
We arrived in Brunswick, GA, at 4 in the afternoon. We had made arrangements to come in to the fuel dock and tie up for the night. They would come and sell us our fuel in the morning, and then we would be on our way. When we arrived a large mega-yacht was at the dock, with just enough room to us to dock also. It turned out that the large boat had just gotten their fuel and the owner was still there, so he sold us ours meaning we did not have to wait in the morning. Because the owner closed and locked the gate when he left, we did not get off the boat and walk around Brunswick, however, we have done it many times before. Our favorite restaurant in Brunswick closed last year, so we had dinner on the boat and went to bed early.
We were underway on Sunday before the sun came up, but not by much. During the day, we passed Kings Bay Naval Base, GA, then Fernandina Beach, FL. On the ICW there are no "You have just entered Florida" or "Welcome to Florida" signs (or any other state), so just exactly the point we move from state to state is not easy to spot. Anyway, passing Fernandina Beach, and entering Florida is another milestone in the trip.
We passed a shipyard of the "rich and famous" where gigantic mega-yachts in some of the biggest drydocks in the area.
Mega-Yacht Drydock
We had received an email from friends Vic and Gigi on Oconee, stating that they were apparently in an anchorage where we planned to stop for the night. We had figured we would catch up with them at Palm Coast Marina, so it was a surprise to see them in the anchorage north of St. Augustine, FL. They were not paying attention and we sneaked up on them and Bob tooted the horn. What a surprise we gave them! They put their dingy in the water and headed over for happy hour after we got the anchor down.
Surprising Vic and Gigi!
It was great catching up with them. We look forward to cruising with them in them this winter.
The next day Oconee left and we stayed at anchor waiting to hear if we were going to get a slip at Palm Coast Marina and it turns out they could not get us in till December! Since that won't work for us, we were able to obtain space at a new marina at Marineland between St. Augustine and Palm Coast. It looks like a lovely new place on the ICW.
Bridge of Lions in St. Augustine
We ended up staying for almost a week at Marineland. Our mechanic Al, could not work us in to his schedule until Friday. We rented a car from Enterprise for the week, so we could get around and do some shopping. One of the first things we did when we got the car, was take Bob to the ER. Bob had suddenly had a problem with his right calf hurting and we feared it might be a blood clot. (He does sit for hours at a time in the pilot chair when we are underway.) Luckily all tests came back negative for blood clots (after over 5 hours). He must have strained a muscle at some point.
Marineland does have a couple of tanks with dolphins, but unfortunately, we didn't make it over to see it. It is open air and I wanted to go on a clear day and we just couldn't seem to work it out. We did get all our last minute shopping done.
Some of our cruising friends, Bettye and Dennis (formerly on Son of a Sailor which they sold after last season) live in St. Augustine nearby and we did get to spend some time with them. Bettye and I went on a shopping spree in downtown St. Augustine. I've concluded the best way to get there is by boat because parking is a zoo! It also turned out to be the evening when they light the Christmas lights all over the downtown area. People were arriving in droves when we were leaving. Bettye and I had a ball shopping. I don't often get a chance to go shopping when we are cruising.
Today we are headed to an anchorage in Titusville, FL.
Our mechanic Al, doing the last task of Bob's list - changing the anchor light. He did this in some pretty strong winds too!
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