We departed our small anchorage near ICW mile 30 (north end of Currituck Sound, VA) Wednesday morning about 0615. Made all the low bridges with restricted openings in good time, and by 1130 we had crossed mile 0 off Hospital Point in Norfolk. Pulled into the Rappahannock River Yacht Club (friend arranged a slip for us) at nearly 2000 last night – really tired and ready for a shower and dinner. No “pizza” listed with the information operator so couldn’t order out! Had a quick meal of hot dogs and beans aboard, after visiting with our friends for a short while.

Departed this morning about 0730, later than we had hoped due to some concern about the condition of the Chesapeake with winds from the west at 15. However, not a problem, and although we had some bumpy seas between the Rappahannock River and the north shore of the Potomac, the waves were no more than two feet (nothing to write home about on the Chesapeake).

Now we’re back in calmer waters, making about 7.2 KNOTS. Not sure where we’ll end up tonight as I haven’t projected that yet. We had hoped for Annapolis, but the long run from the Yacht Club to the Chesapeake and the late start cost us over 2.5 hours, so we may be stopping short (of Annapolis).

We’re switching everything from statute miles to nautical miles for the rest of the trip north. Only the ICW uses statute miles and miles per hour; everything in the Chesapeake and north is nautical miles and knots. To refresh your recollection, a nautical mile is 2,000 yards – longer than a mile. Seven nautical miles equals eight statute miles; seven knots equals eight miles an hour!

Forecast for the next 3-4 days looks good, so we’re still hoping to make Cape Cod by the 21st at the latest!

We tied up to the $10.00 dock at the Sanitary Fish Market and Restaurant
in Morehead City (near Beaufort), NC, on Sunday night, then departed
about 0700 Monday morning. Made it past Bellhaven, NC, to the east end
of the Pungo River last night (Monday night) and anchored in a very
remote and quiet anchorage for the night. Three sailboats and another
trawler joined us for the evening.

Up early and departed at 0600 this morning. Hope to get north of
Coinjock, NC, by tonight (almost 100 miles from last night). If we can
do that, we’ll make it through Norfolk on Wednesday and into the
Chesapeake! Yeah!!

Don’t remember if I mentioned that we no longer have an oil leak – the
mechanic in Georgetown, SC, fixed it! What a relief not to have to mop
up a thin film of oil from the engine room deck every morning (I check
the engine oil level when the engine room is cooler before starting out
for the day).

We still have a shot at making the Cape on time!

We left Wrightsville Beach anchorage this morning at 0635, and tied to the dock at the Sanitary Fish Market and Restaurant in Moorehead City, NC, (right next to Beaufort, NC) this afternoon at 1730. Even though we were only on the water for about 11 hours today, we covered over 80 miles! Not bad.

Came through an area where there were several low bridges which only open on a fixed schedule, so we had to wait up to 20 minutes for them. Also several areas with severe shoaling, so we slowed down quite a bit and felt our way along. As luck would have it, we had mixed tidal current, so at times we were moving along at 9 MPH, and at others 6.2 MPH – mostly above our speed in still water of 7.2 MPH.

We took showers aboard after we arrived (we are anchored right next to the restaurant where diners can watch our every move, so thought better of showering on the aft deck), and will soon go to the restaurant for dinner. The dock is only $10.00 per night, as long as we eat dinner.

Shortly after we tied up a Herreschoff 50 built in 1904 pulled in behind us. What a beauty! The owner has had her for 35 years, and just last week Halsey Herreschoff (grandson of the builder) was aboard to sail with them. I sailed once with Halsey when he brought a boat his grandfather built from the Chesapeake to the museum in Bristol, RI.

The cats prefer to anchor out, since we have to keep screens on the doors and them inside when we’re on a dock, otherwise they might jump ship!

Tomorrw we’ll leave early and hope to make it north of Bellhaven, NC, and the Pungo River.

We stopped yesterday afternoon in Georgetown, SC, before noon, in order to have a mechanic check out the engine that was leaking oil, and so that Charlie could get a rental car and start home this morning.

The night before (Wednesday night) we anchored in a little tidal stream about four hours north of Charleston. It had been a hot day, and we were planning on taking showers on the aft deck. Charlie decided it would be a good idea to take a quick dip in the stream before showering, so he jumped in off the swim platform and got wet. After we showered, and were cooking dinner (pork tenderloin and salad) a couple of young boys came by in a boat, having been fishing. I asked them if there were alligators in the area, and they said “Oh, yes, sir!” with some emphasis on the “yes.” The next morning before getting to Georgetown, we spotted five or six good sized gators in the ICW!

Everything was a success. As far as I can tell tonight, the leak was stopped. It was being caused by a small fitting that got bent when the port engine was removed or replaced, allowing a small amount of oil to escape. The mechanic spotted it right away, and was able to remove it and straighten out the base, then replace it with a slather of silicon added for good luck!

The three of us ate out for the first time in a week, last night, in Georgetown, had an ice cream cone, then returned to the boat to read and talk. Charlie couldn’t get his rental car until 0800 this morning, and then took me shopping to restock a few items. Judy stayed aboard to rearrange the v-berth into the cats’ room, get ice, and fill the water tanks. By the time Charlie and I returned about 0915 everything was ready to go. Charlie departed as soon as we unloaded the groceries – we’re going to miss him – he was a big help. We got underway about 0935.

We seemed to hit the tidal current at the wrong time throughout the day, and for eight of our nine hours underway had a current running against us. As a consequence, we didn’t make very good time – only 55 miles in nine hours (exactly).

We’re tied to a dock in North Myrtle Beach at Dock Holidays Marina. We were in a stretch of the ICW where there isn’t an anchorage for over 40 miles, and between our late start and the setting current, we couldn’t make it through that area today.

We’ll make the Chesapeake in another 4-5 days. I was thinking about running the length of the Chesapeake without stopping, but I heard from a friend that the Chesapeake (and presumably the Delaware Bay) is full of debris from the heavy rains of the past couple of weeks, so running at night may not be practical. We’ll have to make that decision later.

We passed through Beaufort, SC, yesterday afternoon and considered stopping to enjoy the fireworks planned later in the day, but in view of the hundreds of small boats already anchored out in the ;prime spots, we kept on going and anchored up the Bull River. Had hot dogs and chili to celebrate while watching the Capitol Fourth on TV (a bit of a let down).

Charlie needs to depart on Friday morning, so we’re going to pass through Charleston SC in a few hours and anchor out tonight, then go into a marina at Georgetown SC tomorrow (Thursday) afternoon. I’m going to arrange for a mechanic to come aboard and check out the oil leak after we arrive. We’ll have real showers in a marina and eat dinner in a restaurant that night, Charlie will depart by rental car the next morning, and if need be, we’ll stay another day or two to get the oil leak fixed.

Weather has been a little hot, although there are showers forecast for this afternoon along with a cold front, so we might get some lower temps. Nothing as hot as last year, however.

If we don’t have to delay more than a day or two to get the oil issue fixed, we’ll still make the Cape by the 20th by boat!

Khepera has been venturing out from under the covers on the bed while the engines are running, and now lies on the floor on the starboard side of the bed – it’s much cooler there and not over the engine room. Julie stays there, also, during most of the day. He still doesn’t come out to eat during the day, but waits until the engines stop at the end of the day’s run!

Hope everyone had a nice Fourth of July!

We’re anchored about 15 miles north of Kings Bay, Georgia, just before St. Andrews Sound. We met up with Charlie yesterday afternoon in St. Augustine, and departed there this morning at 0635.

Refrigerator is working fine. Only problem is an oil leak that is spraying a little bit of oil out of the forward part of the port engine onto the deck plate between the two engines. I haven’t been able to isolate it yet, but have put up a “curtain” of oil absorbent material to  try to determine exactly where it is located. When the engine room is cooler tomorrow morning, I’ll check it out and clean up today’s mess.

We’ve decided that with all the work remaining to do today, we’ll leave bright and early tomorrow (Friday) morning. We moved quite a few things onboard early this morning, and have done our running around town to arrange for the pool maintenance while we’re gone, picked up dry cleaning, etc.  Still have to go shopping for food, and prepare the house.

We’ll still be in St. Augustine in plenty of time to meet Charlie on Saturday. Charlie, we’ll give you a call on your cell when we’re getting into the area, and then we can arrange a time to meet at the dock. Depending on other things, we might come into the Municipal Marina for the night, then we could eat dinner in a great Cuban restaurant right across the street from the marina, get fuel, water, shower, etc.

Sanderling is just about ready to depart. Everything is aboard except for our personal items and food. We still have to hurricane-proof the house, but that is just a matter of picking up everything that is outside and moving it into the garage, or other areas indoors. Our house-sitter will take care of things if a hurricane invades the area.

We’ll be departing either Thursday afternoon (the 29th), or early on Friday (the 30th). We’ll have to watch the shuttle launch while underway north of Daytona, Florida.

Sanderling is just about ready to get underway. We only have to place our personal items aboard, do the food shopping, and get the house ready for hurricane season.

We’ll be departing either late Thursday afternoon (the 29th) or early on Friday (the 30th). Either way we’ll be in St. Augustine in plenty of time on Saturday to meet Charlie Matterson who is going to join ship’s company for a week on the way north.

We should be in the Chesapeake in about 14 days, and will continue north without sight-seeing, since we did that last summer and we’re trying to get as far northeast as we can in order to be on Cape Cod by the 21st of July. If we don’t get that far we’ll put Sanderling in a marina for a few days, and rent a car in order to be on the Cape that weekend. We’ll probably be going through Long Island on the way up and on the way back down.

After that we hope to cruise around Cape Cod Bay and Massachusetts Bay, then head north along the coast of New Hampshire and Maine, perhaps as far north as Eastport, but that will depend on the weather. Then we’ll start working our way back southwest, visiting more places along the way. By the end of September we hope to be in Solomons, Maryland, for TrawlerFest, and afterwards will depart once again for Florida.

We’ll be in contact by email and cell phone along the way. We’ll also try to keep our blog up to date as time permits, so you can check us out at: http://sanderlingcruise.blogspot.com/

For those of you who live along the way, we’ll contact you when we have a good idea of when we’ll be in your area and hopefully we’ll be able to get together.

Everything has been completed as far as the fuel tank replacement project is concerned. The generator was connected to the fuel line and run this morning. The “shark skin” that had been protecting (with some success) the saloon deck has been removed. The sand and small pieces of gravel cleaned up.

The final item was to haul Sanderling to check her bottom, cutlass bearings, and zincs. The bottom only had a bit of slime, and there was a small amount of growth (worms and small barnacles) on the shafts and wheels which were scraped off. Two shaft zincs needed to be replaced; the remaining zincs were still in good shape. Sanderling was out of the water for no more than 45 minutes.

Now she’s lying against the dock. I reconnected the starting battery and ran the engines for a short while as I was checking out the various electronics, inverter and Link 1000 electrical usage monitor. We ran the generator so we could check out the heat pumps and charger.

Now we need to clean and dust, and put things away. We should finish cleaning tomorrow (Sunday) and then we can take her down to our marina on Monday, and load items we need for our trip north on Tuesday and Wednesday. With any luck we’ll be on our way north on Thursday.