October 21, 2006 -Isle of Hope Marina, Savannah, Georgia

We departed Charleston, SC, on October 17th shortly after sunrise. Our route took us across the north end of Charleston Harbor, just offshore of the large historic houses on the south end of Charleston, then through Elliot Cut into the Stono River.

We continued southbound through the beautiful low-country of South Carolina and anchored mid-afternoon in the Ashepoo River, South Carolina. We had been advised by friends on another boat about 15 miles behind us, that there was a rain storm approaching later in the afternoon – as verified by some land-based friends who had been driving along I-95 at the Georgia-South Carolina boarder at the time and had been in heavy rain and high winds. We had listened to the NOAA weather broadcasts and hadn’t heard any such warning, but this first-hand warning seemed valid – and it was getting close to the end of our cruising day. We looked for an anchorage that would be protected from winds from the south, and finally found one on the Ashepoo River, just a few miles off the Intercoastal Waterway. We had a delightful, quiet evening to ourselves, listening to the call of birds in the marshes to the north, and the tall trees to the south.

This was an anchorage that wasn’t mentioned in any of our four cruising guides, so we have written the authors of each to advise them of this nicely protected anchorage.

The next morning (Wednesday, October 18th) we rejoined the ICW and again headed south. About noon we passed Beaufort, South Carolina, and a little later cruised past Hilton Head Island and all the resorts of that area. Later in the afternoon we anchored in the west branch of the Wright River. Again – nothing but the sounds of birds in the low-country grasslands.

Thursday morning (October 19th) we had less than 20 miles to go to reach the marina where we are going to stay while Judy travels to Kansas to see her mother. Our start was delayed by heavy fog with visibility of less than 1/4 mile, but by 0900 it had lifted enough that we had visibiity of about 3/4 mile, so we got underway. Almost immediately we crossed the Savannah River, and a few hours later we were making up to the dock at the Isle of Hope Marina, Savannah, on the ICW about 10 miles from downtown Savannah. The area is called Isle of Hope, but it is still Savannah even though it is definitely “country” rather than “city.” We caught a bus from the marina to downtown Savannah, and spent the afternoon touring the historic downtown area.

Friday morning we were up early to get Judy to the Savannah airport for a flight to Kansas. She’s returning the middle of next week when we’ll resume our cruise back to Florida. I’ll be staying with Sanderling, Juliet, and Khepera while she’s gone, doing a little work that I’ve been putting off during our cruise. The Isle of Hope Marina is a great place to spend a few days, with very clean heads and showers, a loaner car, shopping relatively close by, and a very friendly staff.

After returning from the airport, I noticed a diver cleaning the bottom of boats in the marina, and asked him to check Sanderling’s props for damage that might be causing the vibration I’ve mentioned before. He was able to check the props on the spot, and reported that there was no damage to either prop. That’s a good news and bad news situation – the props aren’t causing the vibration but something else it, either a shaft, the shaft/engine alignment, or the engine itself. In any case, we’ll wait until we get back home before doing anything more about the source of the vibration.

Judy returns on Wednesday (October 25th) and we’ll be departing the marina on Thursday the 26th. We have a little over 300 statute miles to go to our “home” marina, and we anticipate it will take us about five days, weather permitting. We’ll make it home by the end of October, as we had hoped (and planned).

October 26, 2006 -North River, Georgia

Judy returned from Kansas last evening. All of us aboard Sanderling were happy that she is back!

We gingerly backed out of the long dock between two rows of mostly sailboats this morning just after sunrise and waited at the fuel dock for the marina to open at 0800. We filled our fuel tanks, pumped out the holding tank, bought ice, and were on our way about 0835. We need to average about 65 statute miles a day in order to get back home on the 30th. That gives us one day to readjust before Judy starts back to work on the 1st of November.

Today we stopped in the North River, about 60 miles from the Isle of Hope Marina and just south of Doboy Sound, about 1615. We weren’t able to continue because there was a 20 mile stretch with no or unsatisfactory anchorages ahead of us, and with the shortened daylight, we didn’t want to locate a new anchorage after dark.

The cats enjoyed being able to walk around outside the boat as much as they wanted. The temperature is in the high 60s, so we can leave a door open for them to come and go as they please.

The anchorage is in a fairly deep river, surrounded with grassy marshes – beautiful country!

We’ll be underway at first light tomorrow morning.

October 27, 2006 – Amelia Island Yacht Basin, Florida

We made it into Florida today, by about 10 miles!

It was so cloudy this morning that we had to wait until almost 0730 before we could see the surface of the water well enough to get underway from our anchorage. Most of the day was cloudy, with the sun playing hide and seek most of the day. We wound through beautiful marshes and quiet streams and saw very few boats.

We crossed St. Simon and St. Andrew Sound without difficulty. They aren’t big bodies of water, but then can get nasty when the wind picks up from the wrong direction. The route across St. Andrew Sound goes fairly close to the ocean, and by the time we turned back away from the ocean we were in 2 foot seas with the wind from the south. There were at least a half dozen shrimp boats plying the waters with their nets on the bottom behind the boats.

By the time we got to Cumberland Sound and Kings Bay Submarine Base, the wind had picked up to 20 knots out of the south, there was an outgoing tidal current against the wind, and waves were running close to three feet. Even with that, we had a fairly decent ride down the Sound and into the St. Marys River, then past Fernandina Beach on Amelia Island (home of the shrimp festival we attended last spring). However, NOAA weather radio and the Coast Guard were broadcasting warnings about an approaching cold front accompanied by winds gusting to 40 knots later this evening, and warning mariners to seek a safe harbor. We had already picked out an anchorage south of Amelia Island, but by the time we got close the wind seemed to pick up even more (still out of the south) and we realized that we there was no anchorage available to us that had any protection from high winds from any direction! If that were the case, we wouldn’t get much sleep during the night, at least while the winds were up. So – we decided to put into a marina in order to get spend a more peaceful night.

We’re now at the Amelia Island Yacht Basin, a very nice marina with good accommodations at a reasonable cost. We ate dinner at a restaurant about 1/4 mile away, and now are back on Sanderling. The wind is blowing at about 15 knots, and we have the lines doubled up to the dock. Hopefully the storm will pass without incident.

We’ll be on our way south again tomorrow morning provided the weather cooperates (and the forecast for the day is a good one). We’re only 200 miles from home, now, so we should be able to do it in three more days.

October 29, 2006 -Mosquito Lagoon, Florida

About 2330 at the marina at Amelia Island, Florida, on Friday night, the winds picked up and the rain started. It continued for several hours, intermittent rain and high winds, but nothing (we think) approached the 40 knots of wind that NOAA had predicted. Still, we were happy to be in a marina rather than being bashed about in an unprotected anchorage (the only option at that point on the ICW).

We had to wait for the tide to come up a little on Saturday morning in order to get out of the narrow and shallow channel leading into the marina, so didn’t get underway until about 0900 or so. We kept a steady pace through northern Florida, and made it as far as St. Augustine by late afternoon. We anchored in the anchorage south of the Bridge of the Lions before dark, along with many sailboats. It was a quiet night, other than the loud music until late into the evening coming from a bar on shore that drifted across the anchorage.

This morning our timing was off a little because of the change to standard time, and I looked around the engine room a little longer than usual trying to decide if I wanted to hunt down a minute leak in the starboard fuel line that results in the engine loosing rpms frequently. Earlier, I had looked for a new fuel filter (part of the cause of the problem – a filter that is getting clogged with fuel detrius) but I had neglected to buy new ones after changing them a month or so ago! I decided against trying to track down the leak – we can live with the engine rpm issue for another two days. I did discover a lose fan belt on the starboard engine, so took the time to tighten it. As a consequence of my early morning activities, we didn’t get underway until well after sun rise!

Despite the late start, we covered 83.8 miles today, through Palm Coast, Daytona, and New Smyrna Beach to an anchorage at the northern end of Mosquito Lagoon (just north of the Haulover Canal on the north end of Merritt Island). The sky was clear all day, and the temperature reached the mid 70s. Since it was a beautiful weekend in Florida, quite a few boaters were out on the water, some causing we slower boaters no end of problems by creating wakes as the drive by at a high speed rocking us from side to side. By the time we pulled off to the side of the ICW and got the anchor down, the sun had set but it wasn’t quite dark. The area is totally unprotected from all directions, but there are no storms or unusual winds forecast for the night.

We have an easy day tomorrow (Monday) to reach our “home” marina. Only about 55 miles to go. We should reach the marina by mid-afternoon, and will be in our home again tomorrow night for the first time in four months.

November 1, 2006 – Manatee Cove Marina, Florida

We departed our wide-open anchorage in Mosquito Lagoon (Florida) as soon as we could see the few crab trap floats that were in the area – about 0610 (EST) – and headed south through the Haulover Canal. As we finished the southerly leg on Mosquito Lagoon, we were treated to a beautiful sunrise and a view of the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) and some launch pads at the Kennedy Space Center. The VAB was in sight for the next three hours, as we made our way into Indian River Lagoon, and then turned into the Canaveral Barge Canal heading toward Port Canaveral and the Banana River.

We then turned south on the Banana River, just before the locks into Port Canaveral. We noticed that someone (state of Florida ?) had removed a number of derelict boats that used to inhabit the area just south of the locks in the Banana River. The only derelict remaining is a large coastal transport of some sort – just rusting away.

About two hours later we turned east into the channel leading to our slip at Manatee Cove Marina, and we had lines to the dock at 1310 – a five hour cruise to complete the trip. It was good to be back home.

All in all, we traveled 4244 statute miles or 3693 nautical miles in 556hours 15 minutes underway. The engines logged over 650 hours.

We have many fond memories of this trip, including the friends we made along the way and the spectacular scenery. It will undoubtedly take us a little while to readjust to living on land, in a house, with lots of space, but planning for the next adventure (Canada next summer) and local cruising for the next six months, will keep us involved with Sanderling and the joys of boating.