Myrtle Beach, SC - July 20

Tuesday, July 20

Happy Birthday to our favorite daughter, Michelle!

On July 19, we started our journey to Myrtle Beach, SC.  This is where we'll have to part ways with Jim since it's got a bus station for him to use to get back to his car in Brunswick. 

We travelled the Waccamaw River thru SC ... quite a beautiful cruise.  Deep water, no bridges = no worries for the day!  It looks a lot like travelling in the BWCA, except on a more comfortable boat than a canoe!

We had a leisurely breakfast on the boat in Georgetown, plus a long walk to find a liquor store (followed by a cool shower), so we were slow to leave Georgetown.  The Waccamaw River is full of beautiful anchorages, and that had been our plan for the night, but it was soooooo hot that we didn't want to anchor until 8pm in order to avoid baking in the sun on the hook.  However, by then, we were out of the river and approaching a low swing bridge.  When we started calling ahead to marinas, most were closed for the day.  Fortunately, the Osprey Marina was still open, and they were nice enough to say that they would hang around until we arrived to help with our dock lines.  We had already heard such good things about this marina, so we decided to make them our next stop.  Good choice ... beautiful site and great bathrooms.

The Osprey Marina has a very cool channel that you use to enter the marina from the main river.  That gives it a very secluded feeling.  Nice ....

After getting fuel in the morning, we headed out toward Myrtle Beach.  No problems at the swing bridge. We ended up following this sailboat all the way to Myrtle Beach.

This section of the river was full of beautiful southern homes. Since it's a deep water river, the homes are built close to the water (we are now in fresh water). Very different from the quarter-mile docks we had been seeing.

We didn't go far on Tuesday, the 20th ... about 3 hours up the river, we stopped at Marina at Grande Dunes.  They have a pool and access to the ocean.  No clouds today, or much of a breeze, so even 3 hours of travelling on the water made it a long, hot day.  Jim leaves on the 22nd, so we'll stay here for 2 nites ... enjoying the break, the 2 pools, and time to change the oil on Maja. 

We are currently at mile marker 357 on the ICW ... we started at mm 680 in Brunswick, GA ... Norfolk, VA is mm 0 ... so we are halfway there! YaHoo ....

July 18 - Georgetown, SC

Sunday, July 18. 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO OUR FAVORITE SON, JAMES!

Up at 7:00 am to make some headway during the cool morning hours, with a destination of the Harborwalk Marina in Georgetown.  This was our first day to see alligators in the water ... kinda unsettling, but they look just like a log floating in the water.  This part of the ICW is very pretty.  It's a fairly straight course with beautiful homes on one side and the outer banks separating the ocean on the other side.

View from the bow.

View to port.

View to starboard.

View to stern.

The day should have been an uneventful transit of about 40 miles; the weather wasn't even too terrible because there was ample cloud cover and a nice breeze.

That was before Nancy drove the boat onto a sandbar.  At about 11:30 our pleasant day came to an end.  As I was watching the depth get shallower, I let the boat slowly drift away from the upcoming turn in the river, figuring that shoaling at the curve was the cause.  Watching the GPS track and the depth sounder and the river conditions meant that somehow I missed keeping an eye on the channel marker, and we went hard aground just 10 feet outside the channel.  Stupid mistake on my part ... always stay in the channel... I knew better ... so hearing that "everyone runs aground in the ICW was little consolation.  We were on a rising tide, so we threw out the anchor and prepared to wait a few hours for the tide to help float us off.

Instead, a good samaritan by the name of Robin Leigh came and helped us out instead.  She was a BIG motor yacht, and instead of speeding by like the other 4-5 boats that passed us, she slowed down to see if we needed help.  Boy, do we need help!  So we dropped the dinghy, and Dan rowed our longest rope over to their boat, and once we were connected, it just took one pull from behind to get us off and free again.

Yah! 

No pictures of this event!  It cost us about an hour of our day, and most of my accumlated confidence, and off we went to Georgetown. 

July 17 - Anchor at Grahmn Creek, McClellanville, SC

Saturday

After getting fuel and a pump out (holding tank) at the marina, we were on way from Charleston in time to catch the first opening of the Wappoo Creek lift bridge at 9am.  But first, we had to negotiate Elliots Cut, a narrow 3 mile cut that runs from one river to the next.  It has a fast flowing current and homes/docks on both sides so timing the bridge is very important b/c there's no room to turn around.

Entering the cut.

Between the bridges, the shallow water, and other boat traffic, cruising on the ICW can be very nerve wracking.  Of course, we knew all this before we started out, but we also knew that the ICW has the distinct advantage of letting you make consistent progress every day towards your destination ... with ample towns and marinas along to way for that dose of creature comforts we've come to depend upon!

We continue to watch the weather offshore because we still long to go sailing!  The ICW has periodic places where you can leave the waterway for the ocean, and Charleston is one of those places.  So, after crossing the Charleston Harbor and getting a close-up view of Fort Sumter, we decided to duck offshore.  The wind was predicted to be SW 10-15 knots, and since we had trouble maintaining a north heading with a SW wind in Florida, we thought it was time to try it again.  Our plan was to exit the harbor, raise sails, try out a few different headings and then return to the ICW ... now this may sound like a lot of work to go basically nowhere, but our rationale (or Dan's rationale, I should clarify) was that since it was noon when we cleared the harbor, it was too late to begin an offshore passage but not too late to return to the ICW and still make our destination (anchor at McClellanville).

Not such a good idea.  For starters, the wind did not cooperate (always the downside of sailing).  It was from the SW, but it was 20-30 knots with 5-7ft swells....instead of the predicted 10-15 knots with 3 ft swells.  An exciting ride is putting it mildly!  As we motored out, we'd rise and fall on the swells as the water crashed over the bow, reaching us back in the cockpit.  Dan and Jim wrestled the sails up and then we could run with the swells from behind, making a much more pleasurable ride.  But since we couldn't continue on this path, we had to turn around and motor back thru the same crashing swells as before.  Yuck!  As the boat would heel over 40degrees, every loose thing in the cabin when crashing to the floor ... even stuff that was secure in a locker came crashing out (think Comet being ejected across the head and bacon grease being tipped over in the locker under the sink) ....

Tell me again why we did this?

Anyway, once back in the ICW, everything was calm and we had a smooth transit to our anchorage on a pristine creek outside McClellanville, SC.  We anchored at 6pm becauce the sky was thundering and threatening rain ... which never materialized, but it allowed us a pleasant evening reading books in the cockpit, under a cool cloudy sky and nice evening breeze.  Not a bad ending.

July 16 -- Charleston, SC

Friday.

Now this is more like it....65 miles on the ICW finally feels like we are making some progress!  We left Beaufort at 6:15, in time to make the bridge opening at 6:30am.

This is definitely the time to travel as the weather was so much cooler in the morning.  We left the sun shade down so we could roll out our head sail when we were running down straight rivers or crossing large sounds, which give us a 1.5 knot boost. 

Interesting ride on the ICW today ... saw LOTS of dolphins, which never fail to fascinate us.  Jim has been trying valiantly to get a picture, while I gave up several months (and 50 attempts ago!).  The waterway is lined with big, beautiful homes with very long docks stretching over the marshland that lines the coast.

Besides the usual assortment of fishing boats and motorheads we seen on the ICW, today we encountered our first large barge that contacted us on the VHF radio to arrange safe passage around us.

and river boat casino...

and navy boats ...

The GPS (mounted at the steering station) is our lifeline to the ICW.  It shows us water depths, tides, compass heading, and speed.  We ordinarily travel at 5 knots, but note our speedily cruising at 7.1 knots, thanks to favorable tides and currents!

We arrived at St Johns Yacht Club, Charleston, at around 5pm.  This is the nicest marina we've been to yet. There is a pool, a nice grill and dining area, outside bar, and fabulous bathrooms/showers.  We definitely could have stayed another day, but cruise on we must! 

July 15 - Beaufort, SC

Thursday ... July 15

This is beginnning to feel like "the big crawl" up the East Coast as we were only able to make 20 miles today.  Considering that we had hoped to knock off 100mi/day by going offshore and sailing overnight, we are definitley not sticking to any type of schedule! Even the 50 mi/day that we thought we'd get on the ICW hasn't materialized due to the stormy weather, extreme heat, and lure of marinas with swimming pools!

We did not leave Hilton Head until 11:00 am today because of concern over Dan's mom's health.  The news has been up and down, and Dan's been worried that she would take a turn for the worst while we are anchored in some marsh in SC. So in addition to watching the weather and plotting routes on the charts, we also want a backup plan in case the worst case scenario actually happens.  Where would we leave the boat?  For how long?  What marinas are hurricane safe? How would we get to Florida?  It is certainly easier said than done to cut ties with our land life and focus just on a cruiser's lifestyle. Family is always foremost in our minds, and it is very disconcerting to be away from shore and cell phone service, especially when things are happening on land that we want to stay connected with.

We had planned to skip Beaufort and make more miles today ... but, here we are, in lovely little Beaufort ... so much for plans!  As Jim keeps reminding us, we're retired, so "the schedule" is just something to discuss over dinner.  And, he's on vacation, so he doesn't mind taking it easy, especially when we are able to pull into a marina with a pool.  No such luck in Beaufort, but that doesn't stop Jim from making a new set of friends each time he hits the dock.

Jim ... the reading machine.  10 books so far!

The marina does have a loaner car which we put to good use, going to the grocery store, liquor store and hardware store ... those have become the center of our world when we are ashore!

Beaufort is having it's big summer festival starting tomorrow, so we'll be leaving before the dock rates triple!  Right away, we have to negotiate a 20ft swing bridge that is closed 7-9am due to rush hour, so our plan is to leave the marina by 6:30.  Of course, you know by now our success rate with "plans"!.

Stay tuned.....

Hilton Head Island - July 14

July 14.

Yah!  We have finally left Georgia ... Welcome to South Carolina!

We left Savannah at 8:30am after filling up on fuel and water.  Our destination was Beaufort, SC, but the heat and humidity got the best of us, and when we passed a marina in Hilton Head that had a pool, we decided to quickly change plans (once again!).

Jim said it best ... "it's hotter than a two peckered billy goat" ... and since this is vacation time, why hurry anywhere?  Plus, we need our daily supply of cold ice!

The nicest part of cruising the ICW is being able to keep the sunshade up!

It may have been a short day of cruising (~5 hrs), but it was a fabulous afternoon at poolside!

We are at Hilton Head Marina, which is primarily an RV resort ... so we caused quite a stir when we landed with our sailboat! We met a number of "land cruisers" who thought it was either extremely cool or odd that we were cruising by boat.

Not much news to report, except that having access to a pool REALLY makes 90-degree weather tolerable.  As usual, the afternoon brought in a series of very dark clouds, and we're waiting to see if the thunder amounts to another ligherning show and rain. 

We will leave early tomorrow to get a jump on the heat of the day.  We had planned to stop at Beaufort, SC because so many people have told us it is such a cute souther town to visit, but since that is only 20 miles away, it's doubtful that we will stop so soon.  After Beaufort, our goal is Charleston, SC ... but that is too far to make in one day, so we'll mostly likely spend tomorrow night on the hook (at anchor).  We'll try not to whine about missing a pool too much!

Cruising with Jim - July 7-13 - Our 1st BIG Storm

Hot and No Wind

July 7

Our favorable wind forecast didn't really pan out as planned.  The north wind we expected to ride south to Cumberland Island never materialized.  Instead, we had about 2 knots of wind from the east ... not nearly enough to move our 21,000 lb boat!  And if that wasn't bad enough, there was a strong ocean swell from the east, which meant that as we motored the 10 hrs to Cumberland, we also were tossed back and forth, back and forth, back and forth on the swells.  Ye Gads ... what an unpleasant way to spend the day!  Dropping anchor in a deserted anchorage never felt so good!

It's bloody hot here, at least cooling down enough at night to get a decent night's sleep. 

July 8
The wind prediction for today was "calm and variable" so we decided to stay longer at Cumberland.  After a leisurely breakfast on the boat, we dropped the dinghy into the water and motored in, where we proceeded to spend the majority of the day in the ocean!  The water was about 84 degrees and absolutely the place to be as the temps climbed into the high 90s.

Late afternoon, we motored the boat over to St Mary's Marina (site of our imfamous breakdown) and anchored for the evening.  St Mary's is an incredibly friendly place and site of the famous Seagull's Saloon, where the star attraction is definitely the bartender, Cindy Dean, an ex-porno queen (really!).  She is, hands down, the most 'colorful' person we have ever met, and we figured that Jim needed to add her to his circle of acquaintances!  Good food, AC, tasty vodka tonics and baudy conversation -- great way to spend the evening!

July 9
We debated hanging around St Mary's longer because so many nice boaters cruised by to say HI and offer us a ride into town, but we decided to push on... this is supposed to a cruise after all!  Still no wind, so we motored over to Fernandina Beach (about an hour from StMarys). We were here in May for the annual Shrimp Festival. We are now in Florida, which I realize means we are heading in the wrong direction, but we figured we get started by showing Jim the places we are somewhat familiar with.  Fernandina has mooring balls to hook up the boat (great convenience at $15/day) and really nice bathrooms (even better convenience!).  Not much excitement in town ... we walked around, had dinner and returned to the boat and got things ready to leave in the morning.

The plan still is to head north towards the Chesapeake ... and hopefully we'll get moving soon since we've already burned 2-weeks of Jim's month-long vacation.  Watching the weather, hoping for a south wind.

July 10
A south wind of 5 knots was really not much help for us today.  We headed about 12 miles offshore in hopes of finding better wind, but no luck.  Trying to maintain a northerly route with a wind from the south is very difficult because the sails can't hold enough wind to stay steady.  It was a lot of work to keep the sails from flapping around, so we decided to change tacks and at least get some good sailing in.  We could either tack west (towards land and shallow water) or east (towards Spain), so we opted for Spain! We had a great sail for about 5 hours until we decided that we'd better get back on course b/c Spain really is not an option.  This meant turning on the motor and getting tossed around by the swells once more. 

Since we were making minimal headway and the storm clouds were beginning to gather, we decided to duck into St. Simons Island and anchor for the nite.  No sooner than getting the anchor down, the winds started to really blow, along with a ton of lightening and rain.  A TON of lightening!  Dan and Jim enjoyed the light show on deck, with cold beers, while I went below and got out the prayer beads!

July 11..."twas a hot and stormy day
Up early to begin our cruise again.  The weather forecast still wasn't favorable, and while we debated what we do next, we decided to call on one of our lifelines and got on the phone with Art and Mary Jane (veteran boaters from BLM who are currently in Washington DC).  Since our chartplotter is not working, we have no radar to accurately track where the storm systems are moving (just where are those scattered storms occuring anyway?).  Art was able to check the weather for us and recommened avoiding going offshore b/c there was a low system hanging over us, meaning that the winds would stay calm and the frequent afternoon storms would continue.  He advised us to take the Intercoastal Waterway (ICW) which would allow us to make better progress north, while finding safe anchorages at nite.  So off we went ... proving once again that changing plans is all part of cruising.  Thanks Art!

The ICW is an amazing thing.  You can cruise the east coast from FL to VA without ever touching the Atlantic.  The ICW is a series of dredged rivers that run along the coast, snaking through beautiful wetlands and marshes.  The cruising isn't as easy as sailing offshore (where we can frequently get the sails adjusted, turn on the auto pilot and read a book). You motor the ICW, keeping a careful watch on the charts, depth and GPS.  There were some anxious stretches where we were in 6ft of water (our draft is 5.5ft), but for most of the day, we puttered along in 20 ft of water, seeing lots of dolphins and few other boaters.  We had the sunshade up, so the heat wasn't too unbearable, and we were even able to hook up our small AC, taking advantage of the engine to charge our batteries.

Channel markers on the ICW

Crossing the Sapello Sound was big and beautiful, but it also gave us the chance to notice that wind had unexpectedly picked up from 5 knots to 15 knots, and the clear blue sky was quickly filling with solid cloud cover.  Just outside of the sound, we picked a place to anchor for the nite on the Wahoo River.  We dropped the sunshade and only had about 10 mintes left until our anchorage.

But 10 minutes was not enough.

The clouds turned from light grey to dark black in a matter of minutes, and then the RAIN and LIGHTENING and 50 knots of WIND arrived.  We had time to do virtually nothng to prepare for the storm. By the time we finished with all the OMG OMG OMG, we were complelely engulfed in the storm.  Very Loud and Very Wet!  The lightening and high winds were the most scary part ... but the lack of any visibility to where we were going was the most unsettling.  You couldn't even see the bow of the boat from the back cockpit because of the solid blowing rain. The screens that enclose our cockpit were completely sealed with water, and in a matter of minutes, we were all soaking wet.  After 5 minutes (which felt like an eternity) of being tossed around blindly in the storm, hoping that it would quickly blow over, Dan decided that we really couldn't ride it out, and we had to anchor. Yeah, right ... where in the hell is land anyway?  With absolutely no visibility, Dan managed to navigate the boat out of the sound to the mouth of the Wahoo River.  Then he did the unthinkable (at least as far as I was concerned), and he left the relative safety of the cockpit to go to the bow of the boat and drop the anchor. Fortunately, Jim had prepared the anchor to be deployed before all the shit hit the fan, so Dan was able to quickly go forward and get the anchor secure midst all the wind and lightening and blowing rain, while Jim navigated the boat by GPS (what a wonderful invention!).  I had no time to get the prayer beads out, so I basically sat in the rain, relaying messages from Dan to Jim. 

It took us about 10 minutes to get to anchor and another 45 minutes for the HEAVY rain and FREQUENT lightening to subside.  Jim thought it was all rather exciting; Dan felt it was a good exercise in heavy weather boating; and I thought it was something I never wanted to do again!  Needless to say, Jim has been a great addition to our crew!

The weather settled down after an hour, and we were able to raise the anchor and continue on to our intended anchorage up the Wahoo River.  After drying off, and taking a few shots of Pussers Rum, we were able to enjoy the cool weather that followed the storm. Barbequed porkchops and enjoyed a beautiful nite of a starry starry sky. The Milky Way never looked so good!

July 12.

Today was predicted to be a very stormy day, so we were up and on our way by 6:30 am.  We decided that we needed a break from 5 days at anchor, so we headed towards Isle of Hope Marina in Savannah, hoping to arrive safely before the afternoon storms picked up again. 

It was an easy day on the ICW.  Water levels were high after all the rain so we had no problems navigating the rivers.  Georgia has one-third of the marsh area in the US, even though they only have 100 miles of shoreline.  It was a very scenic day, not toooooo horribly hot, and with every turn in the river, we'd pick up a refreshing breeze.  

Approaching Savannah on the Skidaway Narrows brought us to the first fixed bridge that we had to request an opening.  Since they don't open the bridge during morning and evening rush hour, we were happy to make the crossing at about 1pm.

Nothing is better than approaching a dock and finding 2 dockhands to take our lines.

We arrived at the marina around 2pm, where we quickly decided to stay for 2 nites.  Showers, bathrooms, laundry, and a POOL were just too enticing to not linger and enjoy.  Plus, we wanted to watch the All Star Game on Tuesday, so staying put made sense. 

After enjoying the pool for the afternoon, we returned to the boat in time to batten down the hatches for the 5:30 thunderstorm ... so much more pleasant when tied securely to a dock!  The marina also has a loaner car that boaters can use, so we spent the evening driving around Savannah, restocking our food and liquor provisions....and a good night's sleep with no place to go tomorrow!

Next stop:  Beaufort, SC.  Leaving on July 14.

Better late than never - Leaving Brunswick Marina

July 6.
By now, we've learned that flexibility is a key ingredient to living on a sailboat.  If it's not weather, or boat parts, or boat projects, life still manages to put obstacles and detours in our way.

I would have bet money that we would not have been in BLM for 4th of July fireworks ... for the 2nd year in a row!  But, here we are ... it was a fabulous dock party with t-bone steaks cooked on a wood fire grill and an even better fireworks display.

Once again, our intentions were on track, and we went to the dock office on Tuesday, June 29 to settle our bill as planned.  Then, not planned, we learned a few hours later that Dan's mom was in the hospital in Florida.  There was a lot of uncertainity regarding her health which caused us a lot of uncertainity regarding our plans.  In the end, we decided that GA was a lot closer to Florida than any other place we were heading, so Dan rented a car and drove down to be with his mom.  Jim and I stayed on the boat, weathering the daily rain storms, getting the food shopping done, and enjoying life on a boat in the hot south with an air conditioner!

Dan returned on Friday, July 2, with good news about his mom's progress.  With his mind relieved and back focused on cruising, we decided to leave early Sunday morning and forego the holiday festivities in Brunswick.  Until we checked out our electronics and discovered that our chart plotter display was not working.  This marvel of electronics is both a crutch and a wonderful tool ... it tracks our progress on the water, allows us to program specific routes, and provides oodles of useful information when it comes to approaching shore and negotiating inlets.  Sure, lots of sailors before us cruised happily with their paper charts, but who wants to do that?!

Dan and Jim chillin' in the cabin.

So once again, we were practicing flexiblity and changing plans.  Unfortunately, the holiday came at an inconvenient time for us as we were not able to get ahold of Raymarine to send the chartplotter in for repair until Tuesday.  This gave us enough time to collect everyone else's opinions and research other GPS options we could use for a backup.  Back to West Marine to purchase a small unit that sits at our steering station, allowing us to do everything that our chartplotter did (except for the much smaller screen and we don't have radar to alert us to other boats or weather ... but who needs that, right?!  Fortunately, the weather has taken a delightful turn as both the temps and humidity dropped so low that we packed the AC away!

So, it's Tuesday ... the chartplotter got mailed today, the unit was installed, and once again we have settled our bill with the marina!  Tomorrow is the day ... July 7 ... we will toss of our dock lines and leave this marina we have called home for the last year.

Disassemble and mail in. Gotta love UPS!

Since the wind is predicted to be out of the north, we are going to sail with it and ride it south to Cumberland Island, which Jim has never seen.  After a day at Cumberland, we should have 3 days of south wind, 10 knots, which should make for good sailing off shore on our trek north.  Our goal is Georgetown SC which should take 2 days.  There we will either continue offshore to Southport, NC or take the ICW up to Southport.  We will then stay on the Intercoastal Waterway to avoid Cape Fear all the way to Norfolk, VA (to avoid Cape Hatteras) ... this leg of the trip should take about a week.

The Honda generator ... at home on our aft deck.

Finally, new stories are coming!