21 - 27 May: Georgetown, SC to Deale, MD

Forgive us if we don't have any pictures as once again BlogSpot is having software problems.


Well, after three nights and two days in Georgetown, we sat down with the calendar and did some calculating. We had to be back in our slip at Herrington Harbor North (HHN) by 31 May – the day I had my pre-op appointment at the hospital – and we really wanted to give ourselves a day or two (or three) as a fudge factor for weather and other contingencies. Georgetown is at mile marker 402.5 along the ICW and Norfolk is MM Zero. It is another 140 miles from Norfolk to Deale, MD, which was our destination. At an average of 80 miles per day, it would take us just under seven days to travel the ~ 540 miles to Deale. So, we packed up everything, pointed the boat north and started the journey.

21 May: Georgetown to St. James Plantation

The first day was beautiful. The weather was great and the scenery indescribable. In places, the Waccamaw River, on which we were traveling, is several hundred feet wide and almost everywhere it is between 15 and 30 feet deep. There is no “ICW hunch” taking place here! Even the little creeks that feed the river are ten to fifteen feet deep. An enterprising cruiser could easily pull down one of those creeks, drop an anchor and a fishing line and while away an afternoon or two. Moreover, on the banks of the river are large cypress trees just beyond which are what the charts call “abandoned rice fields.” It is almost as if you went back in time. You can’t see any signs of civilization, just cypress trees, abandoned rice fields and nature. The one exception is that once in a while you come across a decent-sized marina. But these marinas seem to be in the middle of nowhere. I am sure there are towns nearby, but you can’t see any houses, businesses or roads from the Waterway. It is really idyllic. The next time we come through here we are definitely going to anchor a couple nights along the Waccamaw.

A little further north, we passed through Myrtle Beach and North Myrtle Beach. This part of the ICW is far more developed and touristy. There are some pretty nice housing areas along the Waterway and in one place they even have free overnight docking in the back of a shopping center. The catch is that you have to do some shopping while you are tied up. (I don’t think that would be a problem in our case.)

That night we stayed at St. James Plantation Marina at Mile Marker 314, just to the south of Southport, NC. If you want a little more action you can go to one of the marinas closer to the town of Southport. There are more restaurants, more bar-and-grills, and generally more nightlife than at St. James. But for the next several days we aren’t in a real party mood. We are in a pedal-to-the-metal, 80- miles per day mode. St. James is exactly what it was billed as: a nice, quiet marina. The last time we came through, our son Tim was with us and it was cold! How cold was it? Well, they have a small gift shop on the marina property and Ann only visited it for a few minutes! They also have a small restaurant and, since I was on crutches and didn’t really want to hobble to the facility, we ordered out. You know what, it wasn’t half bad. This time we ate on board and did nothing but prepare to leave early the next morning.

22 May: St. James to Mile Hammock Bay

There are three places along the ICW where the time-space relationship among the area bridges are especially poor. Just north of Southport, around Wrightsville Beach is one. The Wrightsville Beach Bridge, at MM 283.1 opens on the hour. Figure Eight Island Bridge, at MM 278.1 opens on the half-hour. By themselves, these aren’t too bad. Coming north, you could hit Wrightsville Beach on the hour, then go 10 MPH and hit Figure Eight on the half hour. If you don’t go 10 MPH, you can go 5 MPH and hit Figure Eight a half- hour later, on the hour. The real problem comes with the Surf City Bridge at MM 260.7; it only opens on the hour. It is about 18 miles between Figure Eight and Surf City bridges. If you are a ~10 MPH boat (like us), you have to cover the 18 miles in either 1.5 hours (averaging 12 MPH, or you have to go slow, averaging slightly over 7 MPH). At 12 MPH we burn WAY too much fuel and leave a large wake behind us. Moreover, when we have to average 12 MPH, we really don’t have time to slow down for sailboats or anybody else in our path. So, though we have done it once before, we won’t do it again. Going at 7MPH, on the other hand is going way to slow. Imagine going 30 on the Interstate. You feel like you are going way slow, burning daylight and wasting time. Anyway, we averaged probably 8 MPH, then got to the bridge and had to wait for it to open. And waiting for a bridge to open is like waiting for paint to dry: B-O-R-I-N-G!! Eventually, though, we made it under all the bridges and continued on our way.

Mile Marker 244.5 is in the middle of the Marine Corps’ Camp Lejeune. Decades ago the Marines dredged an area that is maybe ½ mile by ½ mile to a depth of ten feet. It is just off the ICW and was probably designed for some kind of amphibious training that they do not do any more, as the Marines have opened Mile Hammock Bay, as the area is known, as an anchorage for boaters. There is only one caveat – you cannot go ashore. We have stopped there three times now and this was the first time we saw anyone go ashore. One was a couple taking the dog ashore. They shouldn’t have done it but it is at least understandable. The other guy got in his kayak and toured the anchorage, stepping ashore whenever he wanted. Personally, I wish the Marines would have shot him, but no such luck. Maybe next time. 

While we were anchored, we had a small boatful of locals come up and start chatting. It turns out they are from … Occoquan, VA – our hailing port (stenciled on the back of our boat). We talked to them for a while until they had to get going. About that time the entertainment began. Although the Marines don’t use Mile Hammock anymore, they use the area around it extensively. The last time we were here we saw the MV 22 Osprey. It is a strange looking, tilt-rotor bird, that can fly at speed with its rotors at right angles to the ground (so it looks like a regular airplane) or it can land and take-off vertically with its rotors parallel to the ground. We watched them fly in and fly out several times, presumably dropping off and picking up troops with each landing. The entertainment continued until about 10 PM making sure no one in the anchorage got too much sleep.

23 May: Mile Hammock Bay to Bonner Bay

We left Mile Hammock Bay at around 0700. By 0800 it was raining and raining hard. It continued raining all day long until, about  3:00, when it started letting up a little bit. We could still see the river, but it was not a particularly good day for boating. It wasn’t that good of a day for anchoring, either.

Some of you may think that anchorages are a dime a dozen on or near the ICW. That would be a mistake. Good anchorages have several characteristics. First, they must not be in a channel – the ICW or any of the local channels that boaters use to get to and from where they are going. Second, the bottom should have good holding. If the bottom is rock, for instance, the anchor can’t get a purchase and will just skip around on top of the rock. Similarly, if there is a solid bed of sea grass or a carpet of leaves on the bottom most anchors can’t take hold. Sand and certain kinds of mud/clay are best as they will generally hold the anchor pretty snug. Third, we generally want anchorages that block the wind and current; thus a place surrounded by hills, trees or even relatively flat land of any kind is better than one without a current/wind block. Fourth, you want an area where the water is deep enough but not too deep. We draw 4 ½ feet, so I want a depth of at least 7 feet when we anchor, though we can go to six if we have to. Conversely, I don’t like to drop the anchor in much more than about 25 feet, though we can if we have to. And finally, we want some swing room. The boat is going to be facing in the direction of the wind/current. As the wind and current changes, so will the direction in which the boat points. So, if you have out 100 feet of chain, you need to be able to swing a total of 200 feet. And of course, a nice view or access to shore can also be useful.

I went into this little dissertation on anchoring so you will know why we went to Bonner Bay to anchor. It is about 5 miles or so off Mile Marker 164 of the ICW, which, for us, of course is about 30 minutes from the Waterway; so we wasted about an hour or so getting to and from our anchorage.  The problem was that there just wasn’t anyplace else to anchor. Anyhow, Bonner Bay wasn’t too bad as there were about five or six anchorages in the vicinity and there weren’t any boats in any of them.

There were, however, crab pots – the bane of the boater’s existence. It seems no matter where you go in the world, no matter how isolated, no matter how devoid of boats, no matter how empty of wildlife, there are crab pots. If you run over one, the line between the float and the pot can get wrapped around your propeller and then you can have all sorts of problems. And, oh by the way, I am not that big of a fan of crab. Anyway, we anchored in an area between two strings of pots. The closest was about ten feet off our swim platform and it worried me for the rest of the evening. I seriously thought about just picking it up and moving it so it would be out of our way. That was going to be my back-up position in case we got any closer. I needn’t have worried, though, because in the morning when we awoke, we were nearer the other line of crab pots. Great. Something else to be concerned with as we departed the area. Oh well, we got out and a half-hour later we were back on the ICW.

24 May: Bonner Bay to the Alligator River

The morning was relatively painless. We went from the Pungo River to the Alligator – Pungo Canal. The water was about 10 feet deep most of the way and it was relatively smooth-sailing. It wasn’t ‘til we reached the Alligator River itself that we realized this wasn’t going to be a typical afternoon. As soon as we left the canal we noted that it was definitely getting choppier and we saw one 30-foot sailboat anchoring and battening down the hatches. We thought we might have missed some weather warning or something so we turned on the NOAA weather broadcast and listened. There was nothing out of the ordinary so we continued on our merry way.

About ½ hour later we understood why the sailboat was anchoring. The seas were about 3-5 feet, which wasn’t THAT bad, but waves were head-on and the period between waves was maybe 4 seconds? Now we have been out in 4-6 foot seas before, but the period was six to eight seconds. For us, it wasn’t scary, it was just choppy – very choppy. For a couple of sailboats we heard on the radio, though, it was scary too. One had already turned back to the river’s entrance (maybe the sailboat we had seen anchoring?) and the other was in the process of turning around. I am telling you, it was not pleasant. Actually, I think it is fair to say that we had more water coming over the bow than we have ever had before – even out in the ocean. And our bilge pump (which pumps water out of the boat) was going off almost constantly. We know because we have a high-pitched alarm that goes off when the bilge pump pumps. Now THAT can be annoying. Anyhow, it was N-A-S-T-Y weather.

About half way across the Alligator River, there was an 85-foot yacht hanging around a small 26-foot sailboat. The yacht was trying to help the sailboat which had issued a mayday because one of its lines fell off the boat and wrapped around his propeller. Yikes! That meant that the sailboat captain had absolutely no control over his vessel. Periodically, the sailboat would turn broadside to the wind and waves and looked, once in a while, like it was going to capsize. You could tell that captain was – though not panicky – very concerned about his boat. He was on the radio to the Coast Guard trying to get some help. Now I have to say that normally I am a strong supporter of the Coast Guard. This time, though, they were on the radio asking questions so they could fill out the appropriate paperwork. Now I am a believer in paperwork as long as there is going to be a positive outcome at the end of the day. In this case, the only thing the Coast Guard was going to do was call one of the local TOW Boat US operators. In short, there wasn’t going to be any coast guard boat to the rescue, just another piece of paperwork filled out.

We waited until the sailboat skipper dropped his anchor then, since there wasn’t much more we could do, both we and the yacht continued down the river. (It had previously been difficult for him to get forward on his boat to drop the anchor. The seas were so bad that he was fearful that he would have gone overboard with the anchor. At some point the seas calmed down long enough for him to get forward and get the anchor down.) With the anchor down, his boat faced into the wind and waves and he was no longer in danger of capsizing.

Our next challenge was the Alligator River Swing Bridge. The river is about 2.8 miles long with a swing element (about 200 feet?) in the center and a vertical clearance of 14’. The problem is that when winds are too high (34 knots) the tender won’t open the bridge. So, what would happen to boats arriving at the bridge if he decided not to open the bridge because of high winds? I don’t know. We got out the charts and tried to find someplace we might be able to anchor on the south side of the bridge in case the tender wouldn’t let us through. All we really wanted was to get out of the wind and chop. We came up with a couple of (poor) candidate locations, but we REALLY hoped he would open the bridge for us. I won’t keep you in suspense; the tender opened the bridge right when we asked him to. Whew! That could have been a problem.

When we started the day we weren’t sure whether we would anchor or go to a marina for the night. In the event, we decided that after the chop that day, a little marina-action would be appropriate so we went to the Alligator River Marina – which was the only one for about 20 miles in any direction. We stayed there last year and I described the marina then. Let me see if I can do a better job this year. Imagine coming up the Alligator River and seeing a bridge. On the far side of that bridge, you see a Shell filling station. Now there is nothing special about this filling station except that there is a marina attached with about a dozen boats out the back door! No, No, no. How about this: Imagine driving down North Carolina Highway 64 when, off to your left, you see marina WITH A FILLING STATION attached! Okay, I am not going to be able to describe the vision that is the Alligator River Filling Station Marina. For those of you who were wondering – yes, this is the place that advertises “world famous hamburgers,” but then doesn’t have them on its menu.

25 May: Alligator River to Atlantic Yacht Basin

NOTE: After I wrote the following section I realized that not many of you care about the complexities of bridge openings on the ICW in Virginia. On the other hand, I suspect that some of my West Point classmates (among others) will really enjoy doing the linear program that yields the optimum strategy for passing through the bridges and locks. (I could list you guys here, but you know who you are.) Me? I ain’t no linear programmer. All I want is the solution.

If you will recall, earlier I told you there were three places along the ICW where the time-space relationship among bridges was askew. One was Wrightsville Beach in North Carolina. Another is the area around Great Bridge and Norfolk, VA. Although it used to be worse (they have raised the Gilmerton Bridge from 11 feet, which required an opening for just about everyone, to 35 feet, which requires an opening only for sailboats and huge powerboats), it is still problematic. When approaching from the south, the best solution is to hit the North Landing Bridge (At MM 20.2) on the hour. Then proceed at 10 MPH to arrive at the Centerville Turnpike Bridge (MM15.2) on the half-hour. If you do that, you have to proceed at an average speed of 6.4 MPH to hit the Great Bridge Bridge (MM 12) (yes, the location is called Great Bridge and the Bridge itself is Great Bridge Bridge) on the hour. That means you will be ready for the Great Bridge Lock immediately thereafter. But you are not finished.

After the lock, you have to deal with the Steel Bridge (aka the Dominion Blvd Bridge) at MM 8.8 that opens on the hour and is 2.7 miles from the Great Bridge Lock. Now, usually the Great Bridge Bridge and Great Bridge Lock take about a half-hour to traverse. If there are a lot of boats it can take longer; if you are the only boat, it can take shorter. The bottom line is that even if you go at the rip-roaring speed of 5.4 MPH after the lock, you will probably sit on your keester in your captain’s chair for up to 30 minutes burning daylight and waiting for the Steel Bridge to open. I know, I know. They could solve most of the problem by having the Steel Bridge open on request, but that would be too simple. Remember this is a Virginia Department of Transportation project. The same VDOT that brought you the traffic patterns of Northern Virginia – and, since we are from Northern VA, we could speak for hours on that topic.

26 May: Atlantic Yacht Basin to Little Bay, Rappahannock River

Okay, since this plan left us sitting on our butts for a long time, we decided to make an adjustment. After the Centerville Bridge and before the Great Bridge Bridge, there is a marina – the Atlantic Yacht Basin – whose rates are very reasonable and that is right behind a major shopping center. We figured that if we stayed at the AYB we could start early the next morning, catch the bridge and lock for their 0700 opening, then proceed up the ICW. It was a very good plan. There is, however, a little known provision to the Waterway Rules that says if a large hazardous material barge comes through, it gets priority. Moreover, no other boat can be in the lock at the same time. So, if you get up early so you can make the 0700 opening – and there is a hazardous materials barge coming through, you really can’t get through until about 0745. And them, because the lock opening and the Steel Bridge openings aren’t synchronized, you end up waiting at the Steel Bridge even longer.  AARGH!

Passing through the area around Norfolk is always fun. There are Navy ships like aircraft carriers, various kinds of amphibious vessels, cruisers and a whole bunch of others.  There are also huge civilian ships like cruise liners. After winding our way through Norfolk—at the “no wake” speed of 6 MPH – we finally made it to the Chesapeake Bay. We had been here before so we just wound around Point Comfort and headed north to a place called “Little Bay” near the mouth of the Rappahannock River. Because getting though Norfolk took longer than we had planned, we didn’t arrive at our anchorage until almost 1900. And when we got there, we discovered that Little Bay is a wonderful place for locals to anchor on – you guessed it – the Sunday of Memorial Day weekend. I don’t know, but I am guessing there were 40 or 50 boats anchored. There was plenty of room for us – and the weather was such that we could have anchored just about anywhere in the Bay – but we tried to stay away from the revelers. You could tell, though, that they weren’t quite sure about us.  We are a BIG powerboat whose captain and crew wanted nothing more than a good night’s sleep. All the locals, by contrast, knew one another and were taking advantage of the park and beaches on shore, oh and copious amounts of beer and other alcoholic beverages that seem to be in the area. We know that because the folks on the closest boat to us, about 300 feet away, stayed up until 3AM drinking and jabbering. I am not complainin’ mind you, I‘m just sayin’.

27 May: Arrival at Herrington Harbor North

The day we traveled from Little Bay to Herrington Harbor was one of those perfect boating days – a little chilly perhaps, but otherwise perfect. The seas were maybe six inches and the winds between five and ten knots. As we passed points where we had stayed before – the Great Wicomico, Lookout Point, Solomons Island – we reminisced, and kept heading north.

About 2:30 or so we pulled into Herrington Harbor North. As we were heading north our friends Dave and Joan Wolf had taken a look at the slip where they intended to send us. Dave called and pointed out that it was a good quarter-mile walk from the slip to the parking lot. And we knew that part of the time we would be in HHN I would be on crutches. Ann called the office and asked that we be moved to a more crutch-friendly location. And you know what? Linda Wells in the office did just about everything  she could to get us a good slip. We ended up on Club Dock #10 which is maybe a hundred yards from the parking lot and quite close to the pool. Again, we were impressed with the customer focus of the folks at HHN.

Dave and Joan were there to help us into the slip. Although we had heard that some of our neighbors were a little upset that we were taking up a slip on their dock (yea, some of them are that kind of neighbors) for us, what they thought didn’t make that much difference. Between the IV and the crutches, I was going to spend most of my time on the boat and Ann was going to spend most of her time taking care of me.

So that was the story of our trip from Georgetown to Herington Harbor and the end of our journey for the summer. We arrived at HHN in May, I had my operation and hospital stay in June and, now that it is July, I am well on my way to recovery. This month we are having some work done on the boat – on which I will report later this month – then, in August, we are going to putz around the northern and middle Chesapeake for a few weeks, hitting some of the places we have visited in the past and, possibly, some new ones. In early September we’ll head to Deltaville so the boat can be bottom painted. While that’s being done, we’ll travel west to see our respective mothers. And then we’ll start south again.

ANN’S NOTES:   I had to get my journal out and find the wildlife count before I started to type. It seems like a long time since Traveling Soul has had her engines running. Michael pretty much told you everything that happened on this leg of the trip. The weather at times was rather rough and it was a reminder that ‘weather’ can sneak up on you and  that NOAA  sometimes does not know what is happening out on the water.  I did feel afraid for that small sailboat with his line wrapped around his rudder…that boat took some heavy hits of water and was on its side a few times…never rolled over but man it came really close. We could hear him on the VHF taking to the Coast Guard and the other yacht that stayed with him. He was a lot calmer than I would have been. The questions that the Coast Guard wanted answers to were dumb...ie…his Boat US membership number. This man is holding on for dear life and they want to know his membership number? GEEZ….come on guys… Anyway , the line came loose and we talked to him at the Alligator Marina…safe and sound. Actually…I am not so sure about the ‘sound’ part but he lived another day to go sailing.

I want to thank Dave and Joan for doing a recon of our slip choices and also Linda Wells for making this slip available to us. It is a perfect slip and we have enjoy being here very much.

OK…time for the Wild Life Count (I found my notes!!!)

Wednesday 22 May 2013 St James Marina NC to Mile Hammock Camp Lejeune NC

·         Dolphins 1

·         Dolphins  Pod of 2

·         3 Dolphins playing in our wake

Thursday 23 May 2013 Mile Hammock NC to Bonner Bay NC

·         Dolphins 1

·         Dolphins Pod of 3

Traveling Soul….OUT

 

17 - 21 May: Inside, Outside and Up the ICW

NOTE: Before you read the following paragraph you MUST find someone with a deep, coarse voice. James Earl Jones’ is deep enough, but far too smooth; Lee Marvin, now Lee Marvin could make it work.

AARGH! Thar we wuz, anchored in the marshes near Fernandina Beach, ready to run the line and stay ahead of the King’s Navy. We were in a good anchorage; it was quiet and so were we. Neither of us had any desire to hang at the end of a yardarm – which is what we suspected them Limey Tars had in store for us. We could see one of their boats. It crawled forward slowly, looking into each little creek and all the little rivers. As they sailed by we could see them; they wuz  just  polishin’  their cutlasses and cleaning their pistols.

Aye, if they caught us, we knew it would be a hard fight, but we also knew if we could just make it past the inlet and onto the high seas that our superior seamanship (and 1100 horsepower contained in two Detroit Diesel 6V92s) would give us a better than even chance of escapin’ them scalawags. We waited until they tacked to port – then I gave the order to “raise the mains’l, the jib, the mizzen-thingie that they raised on Master and Commander,” and I reminded the crew “to set the topgallant studding sail ( … really, that is the name of a sail!) Most of you have already realized that when we did all that we had exactly zero inches of sail up because … well … Traveling Soul is a power boat, not a sailboat.) Anyway, I then had the crew “stoke them boilers;” and that did it. That day, Traveling Soul might have been the fastest ship in northern Florida (or at least the fastest recreational motor vessel in the Fernandina Inlet.) And though it was a close-run thing, we made it into the glorious North Atlantic and away from our tormentors.

Okay, maybe that’s not exactly how it was, but I was just trying to spruce up a discussion of our foray into the Atlantic. With one or two exceptions, it was really a boring trip. What were those exceptions you ask? To learn about those, you will have to keep reading.

You are probably asking why we went into the Atlantic in the first place. Well, some of you will remember the Deadly Georgia Attack flies! Since our adventure last year and Ann’s victory over the flies in the Battle of Kilkenny Marina, we have maintained a nervous cease fire with the flies. We thought, therefore, it would be best if we recognized their sovereignty in the state of Georgia and skipped that part of the ICW altogether. In addition, of all the states along the ICW, Georgia seems to care less about the depth of its Waterway than any other. As a consequence, running the Waterway in Georgia leaves the captain with the “ICW hunch,” where he holds on to the wheel and leans over the instruments, keeping one eye on the depth gauge, one eye on the GPS chartplotter and one eye on the waterway. Yes, I realize that makes him look like a three-eyed hunchback goon, but that’s exactly how he feels sometimes. Anyway, in addition to the flies, the hunched-back captain pose, and Kilkenny Marina itself (dum da dum dee dum dum dum dee – to be hummed to the tune of Dueling Banjoes from the movie Deliverance) there is the simple math.

Because of the winding nature of the ICW, it is 314 statute miles from Fernandina to Georgetown, SC.  Because we go about 80 miles per day, it takes us roughly 4 days to make the trip. If we go into the Atlantic, by contrast, we can travel 178 miles from Fernandina to Charleston, then 40 miles on the ICW from Charleston to Georgetown for a total of 218 statute miles. Moreover, since we go 24/7 on the outside, it takes us about 18 hours on the outside and another four on the inside– or one very long day. It also saves us about 100 gallons of fuel. The logic for us was inexorable; we went on the outside.

I am not sure you can read it, but this is our Lat/Long
list for the night of May 17 - 18

The last time we went outside we made a mistake.  We left Charleston at about 10 AM and arrived just outside Fernandina Inlet at 6AM. Even though the channel markers were lit, at 6 AM it was too dark for me to feel good about running the inlet and making it to the anchorage we had planned. As a result, we hung around the outside of the Channel for about 2-3 hours (it was November) until it was light. This time, before we left Fernandina, we calculated when we would have to leave our anchorage to arrive outside Charleston at 8AM. In the event, we timed it perfectly. We filled up with fuel at 12:30 PM or so, and left Fernandina at about 1:30 in the afternoon. We arrived at Charleston’s outer channel markers at 8AM. We then cruised into Charleston harbor and headed another 40 miles up the ICW before we stopped in Georgetown, SC for the night.

Prior to leaving Fernandina, we filled up at Port Consolidated (cheapest fuel in the area by nearly $1 per gallon) there was one other boat also filling up – the trawler Carolina, a 44 foot Defever. We followed her for a while heading out the inlet, until we figured out that Carolina was going the same direction we were. We called her on the radio and found that she used to make the run from Fernandina to Charleston but now she only goes as far north as Savannah. The reason she doesn’t have to go to Charleston anymore is because the owner’s new insurance company only requires that the boat be north of Savannah for the hurricane season, whereas our insurance company requires we be north of Hatteras. Hmmm. The name of his insurance company is Ace. We will definitely be checking out Ace over the next few months. It is odd how, when and where you learn about insurance companies in this lifestyle.

I had deliberately plotted a course that kept us less than 15 miles or so from the coast. The good thing was that most of the time we could see the coast line. Although not entirely necessary, let’s face it, seeing the coast does give you a sense of security – even if you are not likely to be able to swim the fifteen miles to safety if something happened. The bad thing is that, the closer to the shoreline you are, the more buoys, navigation markers, private navigation aids, ships, recreational boats and other “blips” there are on the radar screen. On the radar, a blip, is a blip, is a blip and it is very difficult to discriminate a boat from a small ship from a navigation aid.

The sunsets can sure look beautiful when you are
off in the Atlantic looking westward. I guess in this shot
we were a little beyond visual distance from the shoreline.

In fact, just as it had turned dark – about 10 PM or so – the radar showed maybe twenty different blips on the screen.  I tried to match up all the blips to the buoys and other kinds of navigational aids on the charts we had, but it was really too hard and I finally decided that there weren’t any boats or ships out there, that they were all NAVAIDS. Well, I was wrong. For some reason I stuck my head out of the hatch (doorway) and about 200 feet in front of us I thought I could see … yes .. I think that is a green light … hmmm, I wonder … YIKES, it’s a boat!!! I immediately turned hard to port (so I could pass behind the ghost boat in front of me) and took Traveling Soul out of gear (to slow her down). I then hit five beeps on the horn (the sound signal for danger). The sports fisherman crossing in front of me didn’t even slow down and continued on his merry way as if nothing was the matter.

As a result of that little experience we made two changes to our routine. First, I took us a few miles further into the Atlantic. I don’t think we went more than two or three additional miles into the ocean, but it took us away from all but a few navigation aids. Now we wouldn’t have more than a few blips on the screen at any one time and would no longer face the problem of the impossible-to-read radar screen. Second, we agreed that every five or ten minutes or so, one or both of us would look out both of the hatches to make sure some sports fisherman wasn’t sneaking up on us.

Other than that, the seas were only about 2-3 feet and the wind probably less than 10 knots. Every hour or so we plotted our latitude and longitude on our paper charts, just to make sure we knew where we were and where we were going.

About 8AM we pulled level with Charleston’s outer channel markers and headed into Charleston Harbor. We had stopped in Charleston on every trip through the area and had stayed for over a month at least twice. This time we decided to keep going until we hit what looked like some really cool anchoring spots up the ICW. We looked and looked and couldn’t find those great anchoring spots. We found a few but in each instance decided to keep going. Eventually we decided that we would go to Georgetown, SC. Georgetown is a hot spot for cruisers and just off the ICW. We called and reserved a slip (it was Saturday and pickin’s were slim). We found one at the Harbourwalk Marina. A number of Active Captain’s reviews swore that this was a five-star marina. It really wasn’t too bad, but I am here to tell you it didn’t deserve five stars. (I have noticed, over time, a decided inflation in the scores reviewers give marinas on Active Captain. They just don’t seem as useful as they once were.)

Anyway, according to Wikipedia (most of the following is straight from Wikipedia) Georgetown is the third oldest city in the state of South Carolina and the county seat of Georgetown County. It is located on Winyah Bay at the confluence of the Great Pee Dee, Waccamaw, and Sampit rivers. In 1526, the Spanish, under Lucas Vasquez de Ayllón, arrived here with North America’s first load of African slaves and founded San Miguel de Gualdape, the first slave-based colony in North America. The colony failed for multiple reasons, including a fever epidemic and a revolt of the African slaves, who fled to join the Cofitachiqui Indians in the area.

 
After settling Charles Town (Charleston) in 1670, the English established trade with the Indians . Trading posts in the outlying areas quickly became settlements. By 1721 the colonial government granted the English residents' petition to found a new parish, Prince George, Winyah, on the Black River. The Indian trade declined soon after Georgetown was established, as planters cultivated indigo as the cash commodity crop with rice as a secondary crop, both dependent on slave labor. Profits were so great between 1735-1775 that in 1757 the Winyah Indigo Society, whose members paid dues in indigo, opened and maintained the first public school for white children between Charleston and Wilmington.

I know, I know. This plaque and the Wikipedia
discussion do not necessarily agree. I guess we need
to pay historians more money to figure out the
truth so we cruisers can always be perfectly correct
in our blogs.

During the American Revolution, the father and son Georgetown planters, Thomas Lynch, Sr. and Thomas Lynch, Jr., signed the Declaration of Independence. During the final years of the conflict, Georgetown was the important port for supplying General Nathanael Greene's army. Francis Marion (the Swamp Fox) led many guerrilla actions in this vicinity.

Following the American Revolution, rice surpassed indigo as the staple crop. It was cultivated on the swampy lowlands along the rivers, where enslaved labor built large earthworks: the dams, gates and canals to irrigate and drain the rice fields during cultivation. Large rice plantations were established around Georgetown on its five rivers.

By 1840, Georgetown County produced nearly one-half of the total rice crop of the United States, and Georgetown became the largest rice-exporting port in the world. Wealth from rice created an elite European-American planter class; they built stately plantation manor houses, bought elegant furniture, and extended generous hospitality to others of their class. Their relatively leisured lifestyle for a select few, built of the labor of thousands of slaves, lasted until 1860.

Main Street in downtown Georgetown, SC.

Nowadays, Georgetown is a perfectly laid out little town. It is not dissimilar from Fort Collins, CO in the 1950’s (my birthplace), from Saugerties, NY (Ann’s hometown) in the ‘50’s or from the hometown that many of you remember from your youth. You get the feeling that you could safely stroll the streets at any time day or night – though why you would want to stroll around after they rolled up the streets at 7PM, I don’t know.

Having arrived a little late on Saturday we decided to wait ‘til the next day before we went downtown to explore. Now the stores and shops in many small towns are closed on Sunday, and that is especially so in the American south. However, our experience is generally that the tourist spots, like restaurants, gift shops and even museums are open on Sunday afternoon. Apparently that general rule doesn’t apply to Georgetown. About half of the restaurants were closed on Sunday, and only a couple of gift shops were open at any time during the day. Well, we decided that since we kind of liked Georgetown, since we didn’t get to see much of the cool touristy stuff and because we were ahead of schedule that we would stay an additional day.

The next day? Of course it was raining all day long. Ann managed to get to a few of the museums and to get a pedicure, but I stayed on the boat. I really don’t like walking on my bum foot in the rain.



We saw this sign in one of one of the little
shops the only little shop opened in
Georgetown on Sunday. I want to change it to:
Boat Rules

ANN’s NOTES: Michael pretty much summed up this part of the trip. What he did not mention was that we were awake for 26 hours and 20 minutes.  We left Fernandina Beach FL on Friday the 17^th of May at 1:10 pm. Arrived in Charleston Harbor SC on the 18^th of May at 8am. Then kept going on the ICW, arriving at Georgetown, SC at 3:30 pm. That is a lot of hours to be awake, we both got a ``second wind” and we were fine. Plus docking in Georgetown was a slow moving nightmare, they put us in an inside slip by the fuel dock , very close quarters getting in by some very large shrimping boats, where we had to turn into the slip. Add a lot of wind, strong current and two dock hands that were less than skilled and two tired people… a fun time was NOT had by all. I pretty much strong-armed the boat into the slip and the captain was yelling at the dock hands and not me.  To top it all off the marina knew a larger boat was coming in (the boat did dock next to us – all 200 feet of her!) and we had just arrived and were asked if we wanted to move …. Ugh … I don’t think so … FYI … we stayed in our slip.

When we were out in the big blue and very dark Atlantic, I got a lot of practice doing lat/long on our paper charts. Every hour or so we would check the course on the paper chart with what the GPS on the Garmin said we were. Not only was it fun but it made me stay awake and I felt like I was helping in some way. Watching the radar makes me cross-eyed and is sort of boring, but needs to be done in order to stay safe.

OK…I know you have been waiting for the next section….the WILD LIFE COUNT…

• ·         Friday May 17^th 2013    1 domestic yellow finch (sad but true … the poor thing was lost about 20 miles into the Atlantic – well out of sight of shore. He flew and was in our bimini on the second deck)

Michael saw a Sea Turtle (funny how only HE sees them)

• ·         Saturday 18^th of May 2013    2 single Dolphins to greet us at Charleston inlet

2 playing dolphins in our wake

                                                    1 pod of  dolphins

                                                     1 pod of 3 dolphins

Stay tuned for our next blog….thanks for reading…

Traveling Soul…OUT

11 - 16 May: West Palm Beach to Fernandina Beach

Because of my Achilles issues we have fallen behind. We are determined to make it all up, however. Here is Section I of our three part trip up the ICW - 11 May to 16 May from West Palm to Fernandina Beach.

Yesssss! I have finally done it. I am prepared to die and go to heaven for I have seen an alligator in the wild. I know! You are thinking how brave I must have been, as this thing was huge. Ok, maybe not huge, but he was big. Ok, maybe not big, but he certainly wasn’t small! He was at least bigger than a breadbox – maybe as much as four feet long. Yea, it was death-defying: facing such a challenge in my 52 foot power boat, fifteen feet above the water on the flybridge. Well, you just keep thinkin’ that way and we’ll get along just fine! Once again, though, I am ahead of myself. I need to tell you about the nights in West Palm Beach, Vero Beach, Marineland Florida and the Shrimp Capital of the world, Fernandina Beach Florida.

The dinghy on the left, equipped with an external engine and wings, becomes the airborne dinghy on the left -- at West Palm Beach Florida.

When we got back from the Bahamas we left Traveling Soul in West Palm (as we cognoscenti in the boating world call West Palm Beach, Florida) and headed up to the DC area to see more doctors – and this time we finally had some luck! No, the infected area is as bad as ever, but we found a doctor who seems to know what he is doing. I have surgery scheduled for 3 June at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, MD. Present will be an orthopedic surgeon, a plastic surgeon (to close the wound after the operation) and an infectious disease doctor.  OK, enough about that.

While in West Palm, we completed Phase II of our three-phase Head Recapitalization Plan. We have the following:

o   Forward Head: New toilet, old Lectra San waste processing system and new macerator pump.

o   Mid-Ship Head: New toilet, new Elecra Scan waste processing system (basically the same as the old Lectra San, but it now costs more) and new macerator pump

o   Master Stateroom Head: Old toilet, new macerator pump, and new Pura San waste processing system. (While the Electra Scan creates hypochlorous acid from seawater and electricity, the Pura San uses a tablet so you don’t need sea water. We got one of those so we can go places where the water is brackish and use the head without adding salt as we flush).

The plan is to replace the forward head with a new waste processing system next year. Then we will have replaced almost everything that can be replaced.

We also had the bottom cleaned by a diver. Later this year we will have the bottom repainted. I will wait until then to explain how the paint keeps marine life from growing on the boat’s bottom. But the diver, as you might imagine, just kind of scrapes the algae, other tiny sea creatures and barnacles off the hull. Keeping the bottom clean makes the boat cut through the water more easily, increasing speed and/or saving fuel.

On 12 May we left West Palm and immediately headed to Port Consolidated in Fort Pierce, Florida to fill up with fuel. Port Consolidated sells diesel at a substantial great price; it is sort of the Costco of the marine fuel industry in Florida. At Fort Pierce, we got it for $3.85 per gallon, about 50 cents less than all the competition within 50 miles or so – and believe me, I checked.

Lobstah roll, homemade potato chips and Killians ... MMMMMM

After our fuel stop we continued our trip north to Vero Beach. Some of you are thinking, “hmmm … I think I have heard something about Vero Beach before,” and you would be right. According to Ann, Vero Beach is the home of the best lobster rolls outside Maine … excuse me, that should have been “lobstah rolls.” Anyway, Ann’s Mother’s Day present from me was a lobster roll from the Red Onion. It is a good thing we went because, sadly, the Red Onion is closing its doors and moving. We won’t be able to walk from the mooring area to its new location and, as a consequence, may have to forego their Rolls forever. (Deep Wistful Sigh.) We’ll continue to visit Vero Beach, however, as the mooring balls are plentiful and they only charge around $12 per night. I know, I know. After I just dropped nearly a grand on fuel, why am I so happy save a few bucks by tying up to a mooring ball as opposed to staying in a marina? I’ve got no idea – but I am!

While at Vero Beach we saw our friends Vic and Gigi aboard Salty Turtle. We didn’t get to visit with them for long, but are looking forward to seeing them again next year. Also, we saw Jim Guy aboard Ocean Dance. Jim is heading west through the Okeechobee waterway to the west coast of Florida. We hope to see him again next year, too.

Our next stop was Titusville, FL. Within the cruising community there is something of a Buzz around Titusville. The Municipal Marina there is trying to make itself a natural stop for cruisers like us. They have taken a number of steps including adding a huge mooring field and charging only $10 a night for tying to a mooring ball, making a courtesy car available, and several other things. We had intended to stay there for a couple of days so we could see what the hubbub was about, but we really didn’t have the time. We needed to keep moving north, so we only stayed one night. We’ll be back and try again, but I gotta tell you that it is very wide open with nothing to break up the wind. In Vero, the mooring field was between a wooded island and the mainland creating a somewhat cozy mooring field; in Titusville, not so much. Well, maybe if they have a courtesy car …

We saw more dolphins on this trip than just about any other. Moreover, the dolphins liked to play in our bow wake! Ann always goes out and talks to them. Me? I nod, thank them for keeping my crew happy and drive on.

Although we are very good at catching mooring balls, the wind made it somewhat difficult and a little piece of their Styrofoam float – technically called the mooring “pennant” – came off and is now proudly displayed in our curio cabinet.  In mooring, the difficult part is not so much catching the pennant and bringing it on deck, but keeping the pennant on deck while you run the snubber lines through the pennant (for both sides) and then back to the cleat can be a major issue – especially if the wind is blowing.  Anyway, we got it done and spent the rest of the night in Titusville.

The next day we were on our way to Marineland, Florida. We had passed Marineland a couple of times on our way up and down the ICW, and lamented that we did not have time to stop and check it out. This time, we decided to heck with time schedules, we needed to find out about it. Financially, it was a pretty good deal at $1 per foot – certainly more than a mooring ball, but $1 per foot isn’t bad. Now most of you think you haven’t heard of Marineland Florida; but you have. Formed in 1938 it was the first “marineland” and apparently did very well. It was the first oceanarium in the world and the predecessor to all the “Sea Worlds” and “marinelands” that exist today. Moreover, it was the backdrop for several episodes of the TV show Sea Hunt, starring Mike Bridges, and it was the set for … (drum roll please) … Creature for the Black Lagoon.

After Marineland, it was on to Fernandina Beach. It was during this section of our voyage that I reported last year on the historical significance of Fernandina Beach and won’t go into it again this year. I will say, however, that Fernandina is important to us for four reasons. First, it has a very pricey marina. Second, it has an outlet to the ocean. Third, at Port Consolidated, it has the cheapest diesel fuel in the state of Florida and finally, it has several very nice anchorages. Put that altogether and it gives us an opportunity to ignore the overpriced marina by staying at one of the anchorages (take that you greedy *%#$#$&@#^*@#&) and still make it in time to fill up with fuel and get into the ocean to head north to Charleston. And that is what we used it for. Next time I’ll tell you about our adventures on the high seas. But I want to get this entry out before you thought we had disappeared.

ANN’S NOTES:   Michael did a good job summing up the past month or so…we were on a mission to get back into the VA/MD waters and get settled into a slip before the surgery.  Glad we are here with family and friends close by and our little Miata to get us around.

Vero Beach and the lobster roll were wonderful and it will NOT be the last one I have…I have the new address and the number for the local taxi. I can be one determined woman when it comes to lobster.

I do have a very large wildlife count so I will get to that and let Michael send this off tonight.

§  Saturday 11 May 2013 Ft. Pierce

o   Dolphin pod of 5

 

§  Sunday 12 May 2013 Vero Beach FL Mooring field

o   4 dolphins seen on two different dinghy rides

o   2 dolphins in the mooring field 

§  Monday  13 May 2013 Vero Beach FL to Titusville FL on the ICW

o   Pod of 2

o   Pod of 3 x2

o   5 singles

o   Pod of 5 following us on the side of the boat

o   1 very pink Flamingo flying

o   1 single dolphin playing in our wake 

§  Tuesday 14 May 2013 Titusville FL to Marineland  FL on the ICW

o   Lots of butterflies all  over the place

o   Pod of 4 dolphins

o   11 single dolphins

o   Pod of 3 dolphins

o   Pod of 3 playing dolphins x2

o   1 stingray

o   1 very Large manatee

o   3 smaller manatees 

§  In the Haulover Canal

o   11 Manatees some in small pods, some single

o   4 very playful dolphins that I sprayed water on from a wash down hose on the boat. They loved it, jumped into it, and generally had a great time!!!! 

§  Thursday 16 May 2013 Marineland FL to Fernandina Beach anchorage

o   7 single dolphins

o   Pods of 3…4…6…10 x2…12

o   Playing dolphins  1…2…3…4

o   1 Bald eagle

o   1 GATOR!!!!

 

Travelling Soul ... Out