19 Apr Dismal Swamp Canal

 

   Normally we would spend several days in Elizabeth City hitting several of the breweries and restaurants, but the USACE was closing the Dismal Swamp Canal down for several days of maintenance so we had to zip through the canal on the 19th. 

   It was just as well as there was a cold front blowing through with light showers throughout the day, so a good day to motor up through the protected waters of the river and canal. 

    The Pasquotank River north from Elizabeth City, along with the Waccamaw in South Carolina, are the two prettiest sections along the entire 1000mile long ICW from Norfolk to Miami. We love to take this route and see the cypress forests bordering the river and listen to the birds. We always see ospreys here and occasionally bald eagles. (We also see snakes in the Pasquotank) There are reports of more alligators being sighted up this far north but it was a fairly cool day so I expect they were huddled up.

 

    At the head of the river we enter the Dismal Swamp Canal through the South Mills lock. Going up 8 feet to canal height. At Deep Creek lock to the north we will drop back down 4 feet to the height of the Chesapeake Bay.

   Through the lock before the rain came so we were happy. 

17-18 Apr, Elizabeth City, NC

 

   Two long 12hr days brought us to Elizabeth City. We tied up at the Jennette Bros food services warehouse who provide free docking for visiting boaters so you can spend money in town. We took Rivah for a walk, then headed out for a local brewery with live music and had an enjoyable evening.

    The next day it was coffee in the morning at Muddy Waters then, lunch at Bistro Tropical along the Liz City waterfront. We didn't have time to visit the other excellent breweries in town that we have stopped at before. 

   With the great weather it was a very nice visit to this quaint waterfront town. 

    They are continuing to improve the waterfront facilities and have added two new extended docks that can handle up to 40ft boats - in addition to the existing slips with short finger piers. 

12-16 Apr, Cape Lookout, NC

    Once the northerly winds blew through, we could continue transiting up the ICW and up the Cape Fear River, through Wrightsville and Camp Lejeune and Beaufort and ultimately to Cape Lookout, just south of Hatteras. 

   There is a well protected bay inside the Cape (very similar to Cape Cod but much smaller area) and open area to anchor with good protection from the Southwest winds expected for the next 3 days.

    This is where there are lots of shells both inside and outside the cape. We spent 3 days here walking the beach and collecting a couple buckets of shells.

    A picture of the dunes taken from the ocean shore. The entire area from the dunes to the ocean is piled with shells thrown up here from previous storms.  Most of these shells are old and worn and broken. Sue likes to walk the shoreline for the new shells.

   I'm sure this beach is full of shark's teeth but we have never found one during several years of searching. Of course we don't use any sieve or sifting tools which apparently are the key.

 

       Rivah enjoyed the short walks along the beach but her long walking days are over. 

   We have the shower bags on the deck heating in the sun but with the cool 70degree temps and brisk breeze we only braved one shower during our stop. 

    Soon it was time to take advantage of the break in the wind and move on. We made two long 12hr passages to get from Cape Lookout to Elizabeth City, NC.

 

8-11 Apr, Holden Beach, NC

    There were some strong northerly winds forecasted for the next few days so we reserved a spot at the Holden Beach town dock. 

   We enjoy stopping here, primarily for Sue to collect shells on the beach, and also we get to normally visit with my brother who has a beach house here. 

    There weren't as many shells as we've seen before but still some. Sue walked the beach each morning and evening.

    A cute touch at the northern end of the island, at Lockwood's Folly, is a mailbox for visitors to leave messages.

 

5-8 Apr, Waccamaw River and Bird Island, Little River SC

    After our offshore passage to Charleston, we continued up the ICW to the Awendaw Creek anchorage. This is a nice, fairly protected anchorage that opens to the ocean through narrow marshlands. There are no houses or boat traffic through here.  Very relaxing after 30hrs in the ocean. 

    We motored up the Waccamaw River, one of the prettiest sections of the ICW (sorry no pictures this trip) and proceeded past Myrtle Beach and Little River and anchored at the Little River Inlet off Bird Island.

   This is another isolated anchorage with little boat traffic except some fishermen. We spent two days here walking the beach, not too many shells, waiting for our reservation at Holden Beach up the ICW. There will be shells there.

 

3-4 Apr - Offshore to Charleston

 

   The predicted weather was for light winds from the southeast throughout our 24hr transit from St Mary's to Charleston, pretty much ideal. We were hoping to sail for much of the trip but knew the winds were supposed to die after midnight.

   It turned out we were only able to sail without the motor for 1hr the whole 24hrs. The winds were just too light and too far too the east to let us sail on course.  

 

     Of course, if we were "real sailors" we could have sailed at 3kts and tacked up the coast and made the trip in about 3 days, hopefully arriving before the strong cold front with northwest winds and thunderstorms arrived on the 6th. Instead, we turned on the motor and motored steady at 6kts with main and staysail out (which can be tightly sheeted for the apparent winds on the nose) and arrived at Charleston at 10am the next morning. 

 

    We passed by Fort Sumter at 11am and turned north up the ICW and were anchored in Awendaw Creek, our favorite spot between Charleston and Georgetown early that afternoon, ready for a good night's sleep after 30hrs at sea. 

   We hurried on north the next day, bypassing Georgetown and were safely anchored in the Wacamaw River when the cold front with its thunderstorms passed through.  

31 Mar - 2 Apr, Cumberland Island

 

   We have 3 days to wait for the best weather window to make the transit offshore from St Mary's Inlet to Charleston, and a great spot to sit for several days is anchored off Cumberland Island, GA. 

   Cumberland Island is a national park with no motor vehicles and only accessible by boat. There are several people ferries that shuttle campers and tourists over and a well protected anchorage area for private boats.

 

   The island is covered by old live oak forests that create unusual scenery and, it is the home of the largest herd of un-managed, wild horses that wander around and basically don't interact with the people. 

 

   A trail takes you across the island and eventually to a boardwalk that crosses the shoreline protective sand dunes leading to the beach.

 

   The beach about 13 miles long of fine sand and perhaps 20-50 people depending on the day of the week and weather.

    We carry our small shibumi sunshade and folding chairs in a couple bags, ready to quickly setup on any beach. Snacks and a couple cold beers make it a great day at the beach. 

 

   There are not many shells on this beach but enough for Sue to collect a small bag full. No shark's teeth found though I'm sure there are some there.

 

   Cumberland Island is famous for being the winter vacation grounds for the Carnegie family from cold and snowy Pittsburgh. At one time they had a mansion with multiple support buildings and servants on the southern part of the island. Now the mansion ruins are the prime grazing area for the island's horses. 

 

   We spent 3 cool but sunny beautiful days anchored off the island then, it was time to make the offshore run to Charleston before the next cold front with strong northerly winds pushed through.  

29-30 Mar, St Augustine anchorage and St Mary's

 

   We had a dolphin escort as we departed Daytona Beach heading north.

 

 

 

   Through the Bridge of Lions in St Augustine and continuing on north.  Since we visited with Johnathan in Daytona, we aren't stopping in St Augustine as we head on north.

 

    Our peaceful anchorage north of St Augustine just off the ICW. The wind has been blowing 20-30kts for several days since we left New Smyrna but, has finally blew itself out. Barely a breath of wind and few ripples on the water. Its good we have screens on our ports/hatches as this is when the no seeums come out.

 

   I guess we are trying to relax a bit more on this journey. We motored right past Fernandina and proceeded up to the quiet, laid back St Mary's marina in Georgia. This is a quaint town with only two main restaurants and one coffee shop. Unfortunately, the brewery is only open 3 days a week and we missed it this visit.   

26-28 Mar, Daytona Beach

 

   We had a quick transit up to Daytona and anchored on the east shore by the Veterans Memorial Bridge, directly across from the entrance to Johnathan's marina. 

 

   Daytona has some of the prettiest bridges on the ICW. They have amazing lights and some have great ocean scene mosaics and paintings on the supports - not just raw concrete as most bridges are. 

    Turned out we were able to participate in the 'No Kings Day' demonstration in Daytona. Sue made some signs up for us to display. We were surprised by the large crowd and supportive drivers in this very Red state. 

    In the afternoon, we dinghied over to Johnathan's new boat and got the tour. He is beginning to realize why you need to be retired in order to keep up with the repairs and maintenance on a big boat. 

 

   The weather held off for us to demonstrate in the morning, visit in the afternoon, then get back to the boat before the rain came in that evening. A great visit to Daytona, including an 8 mile walk out to Aldi's and WaWa.  

23-26 Mar, New Smyrna

 

   

    Back to New Smyrna meant spending more time with Carol and Tara. We were able to hit the New Smyrna Brewery, do wings at Merks and spend a game night at their house during our visit.

 

    We spent a lot more days at marinas this trip, mainly at New Smyrna and, enjoyed the luxury of not worrying about the weather, being plugged into shore power for heat, and access to hot showers and laundry. Visiting with Carol and Tara frequently was a treat. We'll do this again next year.

 

   After a great 3 days in New Smyrna, it was soon time to depart. We are planning to meet with my nephew, Johnathan, in Daytona Beach to see his new (to him) 40ft catamaran that they just bought.  

17-23 Mar, Banana River, Pineda Bridge, Cocoa Bridge, Titusville Bridge and Railroad Bridge and back to New Smyrna

 

   It was nice and sunny when we departed from Vero Beach but we knew there was a cold front coming through so we were heading for the Banana River anchorage which has good protection from all wind directions except due north.

   Just as we went under the bridge and turned towards the river entrance, the front overtook us with heavy rain and lots of close aboard lightening. Fortunately, no strikes on us.

 

   We loitered about for a half hour waiting for the thunderstorm to pass over before entering into the narrow river entrance. 

   Very thankful for our full enclosure of the cockpit that keeps us warm and dry even in hard rain.

    Soon we were in the protected river and anchored just north of the Mathers bridge. You can see the narrow Banana River provides good protection from winds except straight up to the north - which will become a problem in a couple days.

   Our plan was to spend several days anchored in the river enjoying the protection and walks ashore but, the winds were not to cooperate.

 

   From our anchoring spot we can dinghy into shore up a short canal that leads to a public park. At the park is the local rowing club and the rowers were out every day in racing canoes, single, double and 4-man sculls. They have 8-man sculls but we didn't see any out.  

    We had warm, short sleeve weather while in Vero but, with the cold front that blew through it was back to quite chilly temperatures and north winds on the beach. 

   

   With 20-30kt north winds forecasted, we decided to leave the Banana River and move up to the Pineda Bridge and anchor behind the protection of the causeway. This turned out to be a smart move as the waters were very calm despite the 20-30kt winds,

 

      It was a smooth night as the wind howled and we played dominos enjoying the calm waters.

 

      The only problem with the Pineda bridge anchorage is there was no where to go ashore. So the next day, as the winds came down some, we moved up to the next bridge at Cocoa Beach where we could dinghy ashore.

 

   Anchoring on the southeast side of the Cocoa Beach bridge, the dinghy path takes you through a small, low cut through of the causeway to get to the dinghy docks on the northern side. 

    Walking to WaWa at Cocoa Beach, Sue noted the Big Red Bus blood donation bus. She donated blood and got a $20 WaWa gift certificate.

   Next stop up the ICW from Cocoa is Titusville. With the winds now light from the northeast, we anchored on the southern side of the Titusville bridge.

   This is a great spot to watch rocket launches from Cape Canaveral. You can see the Space Shuttle construction building in the photo.

 

    We watched another Space-X satellite rocket launch from the Titusville bridge. I think this was our 6th Space-X launch we watched this trip. 

    A stop in Titusville means another trip to the Hardware Brewery for an IPA and stout. We were able to make it here two days in a row.

    So, mechanically everything has been going great this trip - until we got underway from Titusville. Within a few minutes, the engine overheated and we had to clear away access to the engine compartment and investigate.

   It turned out, the coolant hose within the hot water heater had sprung a leak and we lost all our coolant into the bilge. We were able to anchor, dinghy to shore and walk to Autozone for a short piece of radiator hose to bypass the hotwater heater. Then back on our way.

    By the 23rd, we were back in New Smyrna where we will spend a few days.

   Tides Inn looks pretty small next to the Nordhaven 55 trawler parked beside us. You really have to wonder why people want a boat (ship) this size just to cruise the East Coast.