14-19 Feb, St Augustine, FL

    Up early to transit down to St Augustine but, we have a problem. The windlass was struggling to pull up our anchor and I soon learned what the problem was. Our chain had somehow worked its way underneath another abandoned chain on the river bottom. 

   I had to get a dockline under the old, heavy chain to take the load off our chain, then we were able to retrieve our chain. But, the next problem was how to get the old chain over our Bruce anchor which has 3 flukes which catch the river bottom - and catch on the old chain. 

    I got two flukes over the chain but every time I tried to get the 3rd over the anchor would spin. Since it took me two arms to hold up the 80lb old chain I didn't have a free arm to spin the anchor. Sue had to come up forward from the helm to spin the anchor with a boat hook. That left noone at the helm and we nearly drifted into another anchored boat nearby, but she was able to race back and motor us forward and save the day.  Thirty minutes later, we were on our way for St Augustine.

   It turned out we hadn't wasted 30 minutes because 30 minutes later we caught up with the American Eagle cruise boat who was delayed passing through the very narrow railroad bridge south of Fernandina. If we had left on time, we would have had to wait for 30 minutes behind the cruise boat as he worked his way through the narrow railroad bridge opening. 

   For those interested in an ICW cruise without your own boat, this cruise line offers cruises along several sections of the ICW and Chesapeake Bay.

     White pelicans on the shore. We are finally in Florida, although the weather temperatures don't reflect it.

   Several hours later we have arrived at St Augustine and picked up our mooring ball. We asked for the north mooring field as it is the closest to the marina so the shortest dinghy ride and, we got the first ball next to the bridge. That was very fortuitous as the winds blew from the north for most of our 6 day visit which gave us a wet dinghy ride back to the boat each trip, but it was the shortest trip possible.

   We ended up staying 6 days at St Augustine, which is longer than normal, but it gave us time to get our laundry done, take Rivah to the vet, and visit with our nephew Johnathan at Sailors Exchange. They have a new building, larger than the old site, which lets them display all their merchandise.  And they also have a new AirBNB house available to rent.

  We walked out to the lighthouse to get some photos and also to stop by the Old Coast Brewery and taco shop. 

   Turns out Rivah has an infected anal gland that we had to get checked and medicine prescribed. Now she's on 2 weeks of antibiotics and the no licking collar. Turns out one of these donut collars wasn't enough so she has been wearing two of them. Not that happy but she doesn't try to get it off - just mopes. 

   St Augustine is a very picturesque city with lots of tourists even though it was quite chilly. At least when the sun was out it was warm. We had two days of rain while we were here with some cold temps at night. Nothing like jumping into a cold, damp bed at night.

   Soon it was time to push on further south, hopefully to some warmer weather. 

   Another early departure as we have a 10hr trip to make today to get to New Smyrna. Off the mooring ball and through the 0700 bridge opening with no problems. 

10-12 Feb, Charleston and Fernandina

 

   We arrived at Charleston Harbor and anchored off Fort Johnson, just inside the inlet, positioned for an early morning departure for Florida. 

   Unfortunately, no time to tour Charleston (which we have done several times) as we have to depart tomorrow morning for our weather window.

   First light Monday morning and we are departing Charleston, passing by Fort Sumter, heading out the channel. 

   The winds are light at daybreak but forecasted to build from the northeast and push us straight down to St Mary's Inlet at Fernandina, FL We have a 30 hr window to make this 24+ hour trip before the wind shifts to the south on our nose.

   The winds are just about 30deg off from dead astern so we have poled out the headsail and have a preventer line on the mainsail to prevent it from swinging across the boat and perhaps breaking. We have two deep reefs in the sails as the winds are forecasted to be 20-30kt.

   During the morning the winds were light and I took a reef out of the mainsail. Within a couple hours the winds had built to over 20kts and we needed that reef back in. That means furling the headsail and turning up into the wind to take the load off the mainsail so we can pull some more in. Accomplished that feat, then back on course to St Mary's with 3 reefs in.

   No heat from the sun during this passage so it is a bit chilly, around 50degs. The crew are all curled up with lots of blankets in the cockpit.

   This will be a tough passage for Riveh as it is way to rough to go out on the deck to her potty spot. She'll have to go in the cockpit or hold it for 24hrs. Turned out she went once in the cockpit.

   Passing by anchored ships off of Savannah, the halfway point. Usually we pass through here in the middle of the night when we depart from Georgetown, further north that Charleston.  It's a shorter trip offshore leaving from Charleston and not as spooky passing the anchored ships in the daytime.

   The winds are strong and seas at 5-6ft from astern, rocking and rolling us, but we are making good time averaging over 6kts.  We had some surfing speeds up to 8.5kts before I put the reefs back in and slowed us down to safer speeds.

   Its a one overnight 24hr trip so we now have 12hrs of nighttime sailing. Sue caught this interesting moment in time with the ocean depth at 56.8ft and our speed at 5.68kts.  

   Nighttime is when you think of all the things that could go wrong with the boat. On two previous trips we have had hose clamps break on the engine causing flooding in the engine compartment. Nothing hard to fix but scary when the bilge pump goes on in the middle of the night unexpectedly. (I replaced the leaking oil cooler this summer that was causing the clamps to corrode.)

   We are sailing this time so no worries about the engine. Still making great time and we will be arriving at St Mary's about 6am. The wind is forecasted to die down by 6am so that will be good and we can slow down and arrive in the daylight. Meanwhile, it is a roller coaster like sleigh ride sailing downwind.  Good thing is no bashing into waves, but still some sharp rolls back and forth. Amazingly, Sue has not gotten seasick, a first. The Bonine and wrist bands seem to be working.

   St Mary's Inlet at 7am, can't see a thing. The wind died down so we slowly approached the Inlet waiting for the sun to rise. 

   Fortunately we have a chartplotter with GPS that shows you where you are, where the channel is, where the commercial and fishing vessels are that have AIS, and we have radar if we need it.

 

   Of course the wind builds back up as you are passing through the inlet and the waves build in the shallower waters and two dredges are working in the inlet plus a shrimp boat is exiting in the fog, but we made it through with no problems.

   By 8am we were in an anchoring spot inside the inlet in safe and calm waters. There was a tug and barge sharing our anchoring spot, but lots of room for both of us.

   We spent the day at anchor, sleeping and relaxing. Tomorrow we will move our anchorage spot to just off the city marina where it is a short dinghy ride to shore, with showers and laundry.

   A safe and quick passage, but still physically and mentally exhausting. Nice to be anchored and calm.

8-9 Feb, Georgetown to Charleston, SC

   Departing Georgetown for Charleston. Was a nice visit with warm, sunny days. This time of year the town dock was free each day giving easy access to town without putting the dinghy in the water.

     Heading into the ICW from the Waccamaw River.  Up ahead is the floating swing bridge that crosses the ICW. This is are first time down the ICW from Georgetown in last 10 years. We've been going out to sea at the Waccamaw Inlet for the past few years.   

   This year we only have a 24hr wind window to transit offshore on Monday to Florida so we head down to Charleston and put out to sea there.

    This an interesting bridge. It is basically a barge with an asphalt road on the deck.  Here it's in its berth next to shore. When vehicles need to transit it swings out across the ICW. 

   This is an upgrade from what used to be here when we came through 10 years ago. Then it was a small one vehicle barge that was pulled back and forth across the ICW via cables. 

   We could get to Charleston in one day but the winds don't shift for us until Monday morning so we'll take two days to get there.  Halfway to Charleston is a nice anchorage at Awendaw. We've stopped here several times. Usually its very quiet and isolated, but these days they are depositing dredging residue on the island. There were several construction cranes and dozers there, but thankfully on Saturday night all was quiet.

   Sunday morning sunrise after a quiet night. We are off for Charleston today.

    This is the view for most of the day. Marsh lands between the mainland and the ocean. A few fishermen out this morning but very few people live along this area.

  Anchored off Fort Johnson, just up the river from Fort Sumter.  We have one other boat neighbor. 

   Nice spot to watch the Charleston sailing races on a Sunday morning. Three classes of sailboats raced a couple races each.

   A bit rolly here with lots of boat wakes from far away boats, but we will be leaving early in the morning, heading out the inlet and on to Florida.  

5-7 Feb, Holden Beach to Georgetown

 

   Sue did her sunrise walk along the beach, picking up a few shells and watching the sunrise. She was excited finding 3 welks, one really nice one.

   We had to wait till 0900 to depart as there is construction on the bridge at Myrtle Beach and it doesn't open until 2pm. That means we can't get to Wacca Wachee marina tonight for drinks and appetizers. We'll have to anchor in the Waccamaw River.

   Our anchorage spot in the Waccamaw. This is one of the prettiest sections of the ICW, that is in the Spring when the leaves are out. In the winter its pretty dreary and spooky looking. It's all swampy along the winding rivers in this area. 

   You can still see the flood line on the trees from the great flood from Hurricane Matthew in 2016 when the river rose 8ft above its banks. 

   Up the next day and proceeding down the river to Georgetown. We fueled up at Wacca Wachee. Turns out the restaurant is closed so we didn't miss anything by not being able to reach the marina last night. 

   Down the river closer to Georgetown it broadens out. Behind the cypress tree lined banks you can see the flat fields. These are all full of cattails today but couple hundred years ago they were rice fields, a key export crop from Georgetown to Europe.

   Tied up to the town dock at Georgetown. They have 3 spots for transients but you can only stay during the day, no overnight stays. We stayed here two days and moved off the dock at the end of each day and moved up to the anchorage further up the creek. One day there was another sailboat at the other dock but today we are the only transients docked. 

   Georgetown is a very boater friendly town with a long waterfront walkway and too many bars/restaurants to count along the waterfront.

   One block from the water is the main street full of restaurants, cafes, art and antique shops, and ice cream shops.

   The ice cream special was a great deal. I got the 2 scoop special and splurged on a waffle cone. It was great ice cream. I guess these are winter prices we probably won't see we when come back through in May.

  Across from the ice cream shop was the new brewery that opened a few months ago. Had to try a stout for Sue and IPA for Mark. 

   Note the short sleeves for the first time this trip. We finally hit warm weather in Georgetown with temps in the mid-70s, and 60 at night. No need for the electric blanket. 

   There are some 40s predicted for next week but we should hopefully be in Florida by Tuesday if all goes well.

   On our first trip down the ICW in 2005, Sue was talking to a local in southern South Carolina about alligators and how they mostly lived in fresh waters, not salty waters by the ocean. Sue mentioned we had traveled down from Georgetown. "Oh, there's lots of alligators up in Georgetown in the Waccamaw swamps," he said.  While walking along the boardwalk we saw these signs. 

   Georgetown folks on the boardwalk told us there are several alligators that patrol along the boardwalk because people feed them while eating at the restaurants (against the rules). Lots of french fries for the alligators they said.   We didn't see any probably because the temperatures are still pretty cool.

   Here's a good look at the boardwalk. Most of the boats you see anchored are permanent residents. We anchored back to the right around the corner by the old shut down steel mill. We were the only transient there this time of year. People report 12-15 boats anchored in this area during the migration periods in Spring/Fall.

   Another sunset after a warm day in Georgetown. We will be off tomorrow morning and travel half way to Charleston, stopping at Awendaw anchorage, a pretty stop along the way. 

   They are forecasting several hours of rain tonight, then patchy fog in the morning but no more rain. Nice to have the rain at night. 

3-4 Feb, Holden Beach NC

 

   The plan was to depart around 0730 Monday morning to transit to Holden Beach and arrive mid-afternoon and stroll along the beach. But, this was our Monday morning visibility.

   There are a great many things to run into on the ICW if you can't see, even with radar, so we are waiting for the fog to clear. The forecast calls for clearing at 0900, which will still give us time to get to Holden Beach before dark.

   By 0900 conditions were marginal but good enough to go traveling slowly and using the radar and fog horn. We set off from our anchorage spot towards the ICW.

   By the time we transited from our anchorage spot to the ICW, the fog had almost completely cleared by 0930.  We did encounter two center console power boats speeding down the waterway at 25mph or so in the fog - very dangerous, but fortunately far enough away from us.

   By 1030 we were at Carolina Beach turning into Snow's Cut, a narrow, winding, tricky passage over to the Cape Fear River. Murphy's Law, the most dangerous section today was fogged in. 

   Initially the visibility was good enough to allow us to make all the twists and turns through the channel around the red and green buoys. But, it just kept getting thicker and thicker. As we exited Snow's Cut we spotted a sailboat anchored right at the western entrance to the cut, safely off to our port side but a very dangerous place to stop (I did detect them on our radar as well, so knew to be looking out).  I'm not sure what they were thinking. As we passed by they were retrieving their anchor and they followed behind us. 

   We passed another sailboat that was heading northbound toward Snow's Cut and he told us it was clear in the Cape Fear River. Maybe if you were heading north with the sun behind you it was clear, but for us heading south into the sun we could see very little.  We have our radar and we have an AIS (Automatic Identification System) that shows you where all the commercial ships are (and shows them were we are) so it was relatively safe proceeding down the river. 

   Initially we could pick up the buoys visually at 500-700ft. As time went by the visibility improved until it was perfectly clear at Southport. 

   As we rounded Southport and proceeded back into the ICW out of the Cape Fear River, the visibility cleared up. We could see a fog bank sitting just offshore south of Southport.

    The ICW transit was perfectly clear for the next 2 hours until we came to the next dangerous passage point at Lockwood's Folly. This is another tricky place where you have to zigzag around the shoals on either side of the ICW. Another Murphy's Law, the one tricky point along this section of the ICW is the one fogged in. (The fog forms where the cold air is blowing over the warm inlet waters.)

Besides radar, we have a chartplotter with GPS that shows you exactly where you are and, most recently, now shows you where the deep water is according to the latest Army Corps of Engineers surveys (which can be several months old, but are generally accurate). You can follow the survey data and maneuver along the deeper water channel displayed, rather than the navigation buoys which can be out of position.  We passed through without any problems, just some white knuckles. 

   After Lockwood's Folly it was a quick trip to the Holden Beach Town Dock, easy check in, and we walked right over to the beach for Sue to check out the shells. The skies were perfectly clear all afternoon.

   That evening the fog moved back into Holden Beach, but was gone by the next morning.

   Tuesday morning and Sue is up walking Rivah along the beach checking out the shells. Haven't been any strong storms lately so not many unusual shells on the shore. Mostly clams and scallops. 

   No fog today.

   Sue walked way down the beach to the Lockwood's Folly inlet. At the island's end is a mailbox you can leave messages for other beachcombers and boaters.

   One reason we stop at Holden Beach in addition to plugging into shore power to give us heat, is the free laundry facility. Unfortunately, the dryer was not working properly. Sue figured out if you held the start button down manually, the dryer would run. If you let off the button, it stopped. So she and I took turns holding the button down for the next couple hours trying to get our bedding flannel sheets dried.  But it was ultimately not successful as there was also a problem with the heating element so only lukewarm air was being circulated. We never got the sheets fully dried.

   Here we are with our laundry hanging to dry. At least the heat is on in the boat and the clothes should be dry by morning.

   So it was a partially successful stop at Holden Beach. We are off to Myrtle Beach area tomorrow and have to pass through 3 opening bridges that will slow us down, the worst being Barefoot Landing that does not open between 1100 and 1400. So we will be anchoring somewhere in the Waccamaw River as far south as we can get after passing through the 1400 opening. At least the weather has finally warmed up to the 40s at night and our electric blanket is sort of working off our new batteries. 

2 Feb Masonboro, NC

    We're underway Sunday morning from Hammock Bay heading down to Masonboro Inlet at Wrightsville.

   Supposed to be a grey day today with light winds and scattered showers.

   No rain yet but we did get to see a pretty rainbow early in the morning. (The colors were actually more vivid than the photo shows)   Another one of Nature's beautiful sights most of us miss seeing while we live our lives in houses and offices. 

   Here we are in Masonboro, in the rain. Sue says this has felt like the coldest day of the trip despite temperatures in the low 50s. That's because there has been no sun and she had to make several trips to the bow in the light rain to try to get Rivah to potty. So, cold and wet and sitting for 7 hours. 

   The good news is that Rivah finally was successful as we anchored in Masonboro. Tomorrow we'll be in Holden Beach after 2 days afloat and she will be happy to do her business on solid ground.

30 Jan - 1 Feb, Dowry Creek and Oriental, NC

 

   Dowry Creek has become one of our favorite marinas now that they have opened a restaurant onsite with craft beers and very good prices. We stop here heading south and north to grab a beer and appetizers. 

  We also used the marina loaner car to run into town and buy a hose fitting at Ace Hardware. Our washdown hose which sits out in the sun all year long had basically disintegrated. We had a spare hose but needed the fitting to attach the nozzle.

   We departed early to be able to make it all the way to Beaufort in case there was no room at Oriental. 

   Sue took this amazing photo of the sunrise with all its pinks and purples and yellows. The greatest part about cruising is the opportunities to see nature at its most beautiful. 

   Its not possible to get photos of it but starlit nights with bright planets are another amazing sight.

   The Pamlico and Neuse Rivers can be very rough just like the Albermarle Sound so you have to watch the weather closely and pick your days to transit. We had light winds the whole day and motored mostly but, we were able to get a lift with the headsail when the wind came up midday.  It was nice sailing for a few hours but soon the wind decreased and shifted astern and we were back to motoring.  We did make good time though and arrived at Oriental early afternoon. 

   

   There are 5 spots to tie up at the free Oriental town docks and we snagged one of them right off the coffee shop. The water was unusually low and we were just able to get into the dock basically touching the muddy bottom.

   We planned on staying 2 days at Oriental because a cold front was blowing through with strong winds. We moved over to a different dock for better protection from the winds, and tucked in right beside a large fishing trawler that blocked all the wind.

   Thank goodness we shifted docks as the wind blew 6 inches of water out of the harbor. Given we were just touching the bottom at our previous spot, we would have been high and dry until the wind blew water back into the river. 

  Oriental is a great place to stop as their are restaurants and cafes and grocery store all within walking distance. Sue ran up to the Piggly Wiggly for a couple items and ended up with 20# of ice to carry back. 

  There's a new Mexican food truck in Oriental just across from the town docks. Sue chatted extensively with the owner and we had breakfast burritos and lunch chicken stew from them. This will be another favorite place to stop along the ICW.

   Also we stopped at the Bean Cafe for a latte and cinnamon roll. Not losing much weight this trip, but we did get several long walks in over our 2-day stay.

    Here's a good overview of the Oriental harbor. In the summer there are a gaggle of boats anchored off the marinas but this Jan, only one lone sailboat. 

   After the frontal passage, which wasn't nearly has strong as forecasted, but nice to be in a protected spot, we are off early Sat morning to get to and through the Onslow swing bridge and anchored before dark.