We beat the cold front to Florida! We finally pulled into our slip at Manatee Cove Marina a little after 1100 on Tuesday, November 29th. We almost made it home on Monday, but by the time it started to get dark we were still 14 miles away, so decided to anchor for the night (just off the Canaveral Barge Canal near the locks into Port Canaveral) and continue the next morning. It was nice being able to sleep in on Tuesday, knowing we only had to make 14 miles that day!

Saturday evening we anchored in the Umbrella River, just north of St. Andrews Sound, Georgia. With a pre-sunrise start on Sunday, we passed the sub base at Kings Bay, Georgia, then entered Florida on the St. Marys River just north of Fernandina Beach, Florida. Then across the St. Johns River (east of Jacksonville) and made it as far as Daytona late Sunday afternoon when we pulled into a marina for a little bit of fuel (40 gallons) to ensure we’d make the rest of the trip and stayed the night. An early start the next morning raised the possibility of making it home in one day, but the tidal currents were against us most of the day, and we ended up short!

We have had a great trip and enjoyed seeing old friends and meeting new ones. Now we have a lot of work to do to get ready for our next trip north in the late spring.

Well, we’re getting closer to home. We departed an anchorage SE of
Brunswick GA at 0700 this morning, just as it was light enough to see,
crossed St. Simons Sound early in the morning before the wind picked up
(along with the waves), and almost 80 miles later we’re anchored for the
night just north of St. Augustine, Florida. We should arrive back at our
home marina no later than the morning of the 29th (Tuesday), possibly
late in the afternoon of the 28th (Monday).

We’ve had some fair tidal currents which pushed us along at up to 9.5
MPH when our normal speed through the water is only 7.5 MPH, so we’ve
made good time the past several days. The temperature is starting to
warm up a little during the day, but the early morning temps are still
in thye 50s. Nonetheless, we’re enjoying the warmer weather.

We’ll depart this anchorage about 0700 on Sunday morning, and be well
south of Daytona by tomorrow evening.

We arrived in Charleston, SC, on Saturday, planning to spend two nights so we could do some sightseeing on Sunday. Our location is on the west side of Charleston, on the Ashley River, just south of the first large bridge across the river (coming in from the harbor). A great location, and the marina (City Marina) has an hourly shuttle van for trips downtown, or anywhere in the local area.

We spent Sunday afternoon sightseeing. Took the marina shuttle to the visitor’s center, and from there took a 1.5 hour tour of the city by van, to get the lay of the land. Afterwards, we walked back downtown and through the market, then south to the Battery where we toured a historic home. Then walked back through the market and a little north to a large grocery store where we bought a few things we needed, and then had the shuttle meet us to take us back to the marina. We ate dinner with boating friends who have an 1820s era home in the old city; went to a restaurant across the Ashley River from the marina. My only criteria for the restaurant selection was that they have shrimp and grits (a Charleston specialty according to Norm Wulf and Emeril) – and of course, the restaurant served up some great seafood, including shrimp and grits.

Today we took care of some housekeeping on Sanderling, then went to the Charleston Museum.

We had decided by late afternoon yesterday that we would depart today (Monday) as planned, despite a forecast for heavy rains today, and very windy conditions tomorrow. We reasoned that we would be well protected on the ICW by the time the wind worked its way up in the form of a Nor-easter running up the coast (remnants of the last tropical depression). Last night during the night it rained almost five inches! When the alarm went off this morning at 0615 I checked the weather radar (cable TV) and we were surrounded by heavy rain, and the forecast for tomorrow, although sunny, was still for high winds (20-30 MPH). We have a couple of large sounds to cross the second day south of Charleston, so we decided to stay here another day or two and enjoy the amenities of the marina! We’ll depart whenever the forecast improves or the windy conditions pass.

This delay is going to put us back home around the 29th/30th, if we can keep going once we depart. If more bad weather intervenes again, we may be cruising into early December! We’ll certainly be cruising on Thanksgiving Day. Actually, Thursday’s forecast is for warmer weather and sunshine, and we’ll be further south by then, so all in all we should have some nice weather again.

Our thoughts will be with you on Thanksgiving.

As I send this, late in the afternoon, the wind has clocked around to the northwest and is blowing steadily at around 15-20 mph. We’re glad we’re in the marina tonight.

Just wanted to let you know that we are currently at the Myrtle Beach
Yacht Club. We’ll depart Myrtle Beach YC marina Friday morning, anchor
out one night, and will probably be in Charleston by mid afternoon on
Saturday, the 19th (weather permitting). We have a reservation at the
City Marina in Charleston for Saturday and Sunday nights, so will have a
day or more to explore the downtown part of the city and see some
boating friends who live there.

We stopped here for a full day at Myrtle Beach in order to work on our
port engine that decided to stop running, twice, yesterday – the last
when we were about six miles away from the Yacht Club, so got to
practice backing into a slip with a single engine! Turned out to be an
air leak just before the fuel pump – have no idea why it shut down the
engine, then tightened up enough to allow the engine to restart about
half an hour later and run for more than six hours before shutting down
the engine again! Oh, well, we hope that was the problem.

We departed Camp Lejeune, NC, (Jacksonville, NC) on Tuesday morning, and
again returned to the ICW about 1100. The weather was a bit overcast,
not quite warm enough to be topside, so we stayed inside all day.
Anchored for the night about three miles south of Wrightsville Beach, on
a little cove off the ICW. The porpoises were fishing most of the
evening and night, and we saw numerous schools of them, chasing fish,
and even “broaching” and slapping their tails on the water. Must have
been some escapees from a aquatic show!

The next day (Wednesday) in addition to the problem with the port
engine, which decided to quite just after we’d entered the Cape Fear
River, and then again just before we reached the marina we’re in now, we
encountered quite a bit of shallow water, due to the full moon. In fact,
the floating swing bridge at Sunset Beach couldn’t open on the hour at
1400 because the water was so low, so about a dozen boats waited until
the bridge tender finally opened a little after 1500 when the water
level had gone up enough. After waiting about 20 minutes, not knowing
whether he would open the bridge, or not, he announced on channel 13
that he wouldn’t open until 1500 at the earliest, so we (and several
other boats) simply anchored in the middle of the channel.

We encountered a few other areas where the water on the ICW was very
shallow due to the low tide, but we only draw a little over three feet,
and very seldom have a problem unless we unintentionally get out of the
channel. Some of the mid to large size sailboats frequently go around in
some of the shallow areas.

Today is sunny and the air is warm, but the wind is making it a bit
chilly in the shade. The engine is repaired, and I’ve done some other
work in the bilge to tidy things up a bit since I was working down there
anyway. Judy did some laundry and took a walk around the periphery of
this beautiful marina/apartment/condo complex built on the site of an
old stone quarry. We ate in one of their restaurants last night, and
probably will again tonight – we’re making this a little vacation rather
than trying to eat in all of the time.

After an enjoyable week at the Navy Recreation Center
Marina in Solomons (Sanderling's former home), we're
going to leave tomorrow morning (Wednesday) and head
to the eastern shore. We'll visit Salisbury on the
Wicomico River, Oxford, St. Michaels, and Chestertown,
before heading to Baltimore where we'll stay three
nights or so. We then head south back to Solomons,
stopping in Annapolis on the way, where we have to be
by the evening of the 11th so we can have Sanderling
at Washburn's Boat Yard on the 12th. 

Have had a great time at Solomons, revisiting our
favorite restaurants and the Chesapeake Maritime
Museum. Jennifer and Mark came down from Baltimore on
Saturday, and we had a nice cruise up river to
Stoney's Restaurant for crab cakes, and back (of
course). 

Our schedule might change a bit, as Judy still needs
to head back to Florida for a meeting that was
cancelled when Katrina visited Florida a week ago, but
she still doesn't know the rescheduled date.

After returning to Solomons we'll head to Washington
DC and will be there around the 17th/18th, then return
to Solomons for Trawler Fest starting the 27th of
September.

Julie and Khepera are doing fine. They'll be happy
when we're out of a marina and at anchor so they can
have the run of the boat!

We arrived in Manteo, NC, about 1400 yesterday (Thursday) afternoon, and are enjoying two nights in a marina right in the downtown area, close to shops and restaurants. Nice, quiet, historic area. Virginia Dare, The Lost Colony, all that stuff.

The night before (Wednesday) we anchored in a little wide spot in the Alligator River, about 10 miles south of where it enters Albermarle Sound.

Tomorrow we’re leaving Manteo for Elizabeth City, just on the south end of the Dismal Swamp Canal, and the next day (Sunday) we’ll start through the canal. The locks on each end only open at 0830 and 1530, so if we don’t make it to the end we’ll have to spend the night in the canal and go on to Norfolk the next day. We haven’t been through the canal before, and had heard that there were problems with depth and dead-heads, but in talking with several people who have recently made the trip, everything seems to be ok now, and the Army Corps of Engineers has recently dredged it out (again).

We spent the day today doing a little shopping, bought a few groceries, and I had a few things I needed at a hardware store (all within walking distance). I also did some work in the engine room this morning, while Judy was doing our laundry. Tonight we are eating an early dinner, then taking a taxi to the Elizabethan Gardens and Fort Raleigh National Historic Site for “The Lost Colony”, America’s longest running outdoor drama (I think that refers to the number of years it has been performed, rather than the length of the performance).

Weather continues good, although it is a little hot today. With the AC running in the marina, it doesn’t seem so bad, however, and we have WiFi access through the town’s WiFi system! Nice touch.

Will write next time we have a chance.

We arrived here in Southport NC about 1650 this afternoon in a light
rain, after traveling in rain (light and heavy) since 1300 when we
passed the pontoon bridge at Sunset Beach, NC.

We’ve tied up to a free dock at a really funky, local seafood place (the
term “restaurant” doesn’t seem appropriate) with five free docks for
anyone eating at the restaurant. We were fortunate that they had space
available, since we’re in an area of the ICW with few anchorages to the
south for 20 miles, and a twelve mile stretch of the Cape Fear River is
about 100 yards to the north. We had great crab cakes and steamed shrimp
for dinner!

Last night we anchored in a cypres swamp in Old River at Bucksport SC. A
beautiful spot once the bass fishing tournament came to a close about
1600 in the afternoon! We only made 26 miles yesterday, after getting a
late start from Georgetown SC and a heading current all the way. Again,
we were faced with a long stretch with no anchorages if we had
continued, so we stopped about 1450, sat outside and read for the
afternoon. Enjoyed filet mignon steaks wrapped with bacon last night and
fresh salad. Obviously, we haven’t yet had to resort to the hard tack!

Tomorrow morning we’ll cruise about 12 miles upstream on the Cape Fear
River, keeping a sharp lookout for Robert Mitchum and Robert DiNiro!
Then we take a short channel to the northeast and are once again behind
some barrier islands in the ICW. High tide is at 0600, and we won’t get
started that early, so we’ll have a 1-2 knot current against us most of
the way up the river. Hopefully there will be no wind early in the
morning so the water should be relatively quiet. Once the wind picks up
it will undoubtedly be from the SE and would undoubtedly create some
confused and choppy water on the river.

We’re doing well. The cats don’t like being in marinas because we have
to keep them inside so they won’t jump ship! We have screens for the
doors that serve that purpose. We, on the other hand, enjoy getting out
and walking around a bit.

Weather has cooled considerably, and tonight it’s just plain pleasant,
although humid after the rain today.