To Velcro Beach

Friday 19th December (Cont.)
Up anchor and away we go down to Palm Coast to the Palm Coast Marina where Tom and Trudy are to pick us up. They gave us a wonderful time, drove us round to see the local sights, like this 2000 year-old live oak.


They then wined and dined us in fine style and ferried us back to the boat.

Saturday 20th December
Next stop was Daytona Beach, although we anchored at Sea Breeze a little before Daytona proper, for its better shore accessibility for Buddy's run.

Sunday 21st December
After a dinghy ride to the West Marine store the next morning it's onward again on a truly splendid warm and sunny day. Our chosen anchoring spot for the night was just past the Ponce (Ponce de Leon) inlet in Rockhouse Creek just a short way from the main ICW channel. Great little sheltered spot with a beach for Buddy and big open areas where he could run free. You can see the relatively famous Ponce lighthouse which is still in use.

The weather changed for the coooler again as a cold front came through that night and the wind changed to the north and really increased.


Monday 22nd December
We moved on the next day although in retrospect we might have been better staying because when we got to Titusville the destination anchorage was in 25 knot winds with 2 to 3 foot waves. So we chickened out and went to the marina where we stil got bounced around all night, though not nearly as badly as we would have 'outside'.

Tuesday 23rd December
We're really pushing to get to Vero Beach for Christmas so we press on the next day and made it to Dragon Point where they've had some bad luck with first a concrete dragon and then a fibreglas one. A nice anchorage but poor shore access.

Wednesday 24th December
It's Christmas Eve and just 37 miles to Vero Beach - somewhat of a Mecca for cruisers on the ICW. Vero Beach (or Velcro as it's nicknamed because people tend to 'stick' there) has no anchoring but for a reasonable fee you can have a mooring and on-shore facilities and all the shops you need are a free bus ride away. Some people stay for months.

One slight hitch is that because of it's popularity the moorings must be shared. Here we are rafted up next to Mike and Kathy Moore (plus the cats Spooky and Fuzzy Wig) in 'Cgull Seeker'.


On the other side is 'Bilbo' with John and Rejeanne Easton who we had aboard in St. Augustine. They gave us a great welcome and invited us over for supper. Didn't get to bed until 3 am, its' amazing how the warmer temperatures improve the boating experience and sitting out chatting on deck at night with no bugs is hard to beat. Here they are below in Bilbo which John built from scratch over 15 years.


Christmas Day
After the late night it's a really slow start to the day but there is nothing much to do except prepare for the pot luck Christmas dinner on-shore with all the cruisers.

It was truly a spendid feast and totally made up for the complete lack for Christmas atmosphere you get when it's 27degC and the sun is beating down.

After the meal we took a walk to the beach with John and Rejeanne plus New Brunswickers Mike and Judy McKendy aboard 'Sea Sharpe'. Only two people went for a swim - Judy and myself - bracing, though compared to the Bay of Fundy anytime, or the St. lawrence in June it was warm!

After the swim we had happy hour drinks at a beach bar then walked the mile or so back to the marina and went to our seperate boats.

Grilled Mahi Mahi on the BBQ and a much earlier night.

Into the Sunshine State

Wednesday 10th December
After a late start, on again to our last stopover in Georgia, the lovely little town of St. Mary’s, up the St. Mary’s River. It’s a very cruiser friendly place with a splendid waterfront park

The weather forecast for the following day was not good so we decided to anchor out on arrival and then move over to a dock early the next morning. As we set about anchoring suddenly the engine lost power – very disconcerting. However, the first thing to do when this happens (so all cruisers advise) is two change the engine’s primary fuel filter. Sure enough, problem solved.

Thursday 11th December
We awoke to building winds and a threatening sky, so without delay we moved to the marina dock. The squalls came thick and fast with high winds and heavy rain but by the afternoon they had passed. In between squalls we looked out on the dock to see three otters. On seeing us, two of them high tailed it but the big guy with the fish decided to stay.


The sky cleared in the afternoon and I went in search of shrimp on a bicycle borrowed from Moana, the boat on the dock in front of us. It was a six mile one way haul but I was successful.
That night another cold front came through with 45knot winds. We got pounded against the dock, not pleasant at all.


Friday 12th December
We awake to a cold but sunny morning with the continuing high winds and decide another day in the marina is in order. A chance to clean the boat, do various jobs and visit Tom amd Lorraine aboard Moana for some wine and conviviality. We’re all big fans of the Daily Show and seem to share the same taste in movies.
Animal life is plentiful with many many dolphin sightings all along the intracoastal and egrets are everywhere.
Saturday 13th December
Another late start for us as we don’t intend to go very far, just a few miles across the border into Florida to Fernandina Beach. The beach of course is on the other side of the land from the ICW and about two miles away. We took a mooring ball there which gives you marina privileges for 15 smackers. The town is just a tourist trap with the usual parade of jewellery and clothing stores, restaurants and bars. The one shop within walking distance had nothing.
You know you’re in Florida when the pelicans outnumber the gulls.



Sunday 14th December
When we come to leave in the morning we find the mooring ball trapped under the boat due to strong currents in one direction and strong winds in the other. Going forward or backward didn’t rectify the problem so in the end we just loosed the lines and with a loud thwack, the mooring can popped up on the opposite side of the boat.

Let's put it this way, Fernandina Beach was not a high spot and we were very glad to leave and find a very pleasant anchorage in the Fort George River in front of the first slave plantation in the US. Those slaves had beautiful views if nothing else.



Monday 15th December
After the several short hops we went for a longer one to make it all the way to St. Augustine, the US’s oldest and probably most (architecturally beautiful) city.



Tuesday 16th December
FINALLY, the weather finally warms up and shorts can be worn. We take a walk through the city to finally get to a decent supermarket and a West marine store. Everywhere there are stunning buildings.



Wednesday 17th December
A foggy start to the day but that soon clears and it’s another summer’s day. We are anchored out in the river near the municipal marina and for 10 bucks a day you can dock your dinghy and use the outstanding washrooms and laundry facilities.

This is someone's private yacht.


So Carol’s day is mostly spent doing laundry while I do various boat jobs and take another trek to the supermarket to get some shrimps for supper.

Lots of boats never seem to move from the anchoring place and this osprey could usually be found somewhere on this boat.

In the marina, we have again met up with John and Rejeanne (from Quebec City) aboard Bilbo, as they try to get their dinghy repaired. We have been bumping into (not literally) them many times since North Carolina and invite them over to Incognita for Shrimps Alfredo which ends up being a very late night for cruisers – way past the ‘boater midnight’ of 9 o’clock.

Thursday 18th December.
We have a very leisurely start to the day as we don’t intend to go far. Tom and Trudy, who we met way, way back on the Erie canal live in Palm Coast which is not far away. They are returning from Atlantic City and we intend to meet up with them when they return.
So after re-fueling and re-watering we go for a couple of hours to anchor next to Fort Matanzas, founded by the Spanish at the time of a particularly nasty massacre.


Friday 19th December
It's misty morning when I take Buddy to the beach and I pass these fellows on their way up river.

Buddy is not impressed and barked at them. He soon forgot about them doing his favourite thing - racing around on a sandy beach.

Beaufort (SC) to Jekyll Creek (GA)

Sunday 30th November
Forecasted high winds and possibility of tornadoes. Remained at anchor in Wappoo Cr.

Monday 1st December
Forecasted high winds again. Remained at anchor but took the dinghy for some shopping in a great health food supermarket.

Tuesday 2nd December
Finally the weather forecast is tolerable with only moderate winds. It’s beautiful and sunny but cold as we head off down “The Ditch” again. Mostly the current is against us so progress is slow and we don’t get as far as we thought. However, we got to stay on the dock at B&B Seafood on Mosquito Cr. where you can tie to a dock, have power (and thus run electric heater) and buy some more of those fabulous South Carolina shrimp.
As we arrived we were treated to a dolphin beaching himself, apparently to harass a heron on the shore. Again we missed the photo op. The shrimp boat was at the dock when we arrived.

Wednesday 3rd December

The following misty morning he was gone.

But on our way back down the creek to the ICW we passed him in full flight – what a sight.

We decided to anchor at Beaufort (pronounced Bewfurt) not to be confused with the North Carolina town of the same name (pronounced Bo-fort).

Another historic southern town with beautiful historic houses.

Thursday 4th December
A late start after a vain attempt to buy small propane cans for our heater and on we go. Our anchorage this night is again in the middle of nowhere on Bull Creek. The good news (for Buddy) is there’s a great place to run within rowing distance of the boat.

Friday 5th December
Today we left South Carolina, after transiting (successfully) one of the bad places for depths on the ICW, crossing the Savannah River and through the town of Thunderbolt and anchoring in Turner Cr. Wilmington Island. Shopping and a haircut round out the day but we again failed to buy any propane – sold out!!!

Saturday 6th December
Another bad stretch of the ICW today – Hell Gate. We timed it for mid to high tide and there was no problem. Overnight we anchored in Kilkenny Creek which is like most places we anchor – the middle of nowhere in the salt marshes that define the coastline in Georgia too.

Sunday 7th December
We have a late start and don’t make it to the next bad stretch and settle for Duplin Creek that runs through Sapelo Island one of those places with a unique community and also a part of the University of Georgia.

Where there is land on the salt marshes there are flat planes with short vegetation

riddled with tiny holes made by small crabs.

It makes for a great place for Buddy to run.

Monday 8th December
Today we must transit the very worst stretch of the ICW depth-wise. Unfortunately, high tide is late in the day so we can’t leave until early afternoon. So we go in search of the turkey fountain which is in the grounds of the University of Georgia Estuarine Institute.

We meet someone of the ferry dock who works for the Georgia Department of Natural Resources. He kindly gave us a ride up to where R.J. Reynolds (the tobacco magnate) had his dairy and his mansion

which you can tour.

The kindly southern gent who gave us the ride also instructed to take one of the golf carts for the trip back to the dock

This was just as well as we didn’t want to miss our window for passing through the Little Mud River. All went OK without running aground and we got to anchor in another historic kind of spot –Fort Frederica - on the beautiful Frederica River.



You might say we were "Under the gun". And yes, they do grow on trees and I did steal one.


Tuesday 9th December
We probably started too early the next day as the tide was only low to mid, instead of mid to high when we went down the first part of the Jekyll Cr. When we got into water less than 6' we were definitely very worried but we got through unscathed to anchor next to the Jekyll Harbor marina and had great supper with Bill and Joann aboard Buckaroo.

Southport (NC) to Charleston (SC)

Monday 24th November
Again we had decided to leave relatively late in the morning to ensure we had close to high tide at the two inlets we needed to pass by on our way to South Carolina. So, after a three mile walk to buy some more 1lb propane bottles for our Heat Buddy – a propane radiant heater you can use indoors – we set off at about 11:30 onwards down the ICW.
However, we didn’t have enough time to make it all the way to our planned destination of Calabash Creek due to a bridge that only opens on the hour. So we ended up anchoring in the Shallotte River – hope we don’t end up like the lady.
Got to rescue a boat aground with the dinghy. Buckaroo ran aground coming into the anchorage and using a line from their bow to the dinghy managed to pull them off the shoal.

Tuesday 25th November
Very early start to try to make it over 50 miles past Myrtle Beach and it’s 130 golf courses. This belongs to one of them and ferries golfers over the ICW from the course to the club house.

This stretch of the ICW has a mind boggling number of huge houses along its shores with many more under construction. Most of them favour the Parthenon-style architecture so popular in the south but this one was pretty impressive anyway.

The Rockpile is a stretch of the Pine island Cut where there are slabs of rock that are not visible at high tide and many boats have sunk in there. We passed unscathed but unfortunately the current and wind was against us and we only made it as far as Osprey Marina, a really first class operation and at $1/ft one of the best bargains on the ICW (so far). When we got there, the crew of Buckaroo (Bill and Joanne) were already on the dock and suggested we join them in a free ride to an Italian restaurant and some provisioning. We had a superb meal with them and they swore they would call again on their way back north.


Wednesday 26th November
A really lazy start to the day after our big night out, waiting for the frost to melt off the docks and boat. After a pumpout and a fill with water, we set off again and soon were heading down the Waccamaw River past several of these floating cottages.

That's a Confederate flag on the opposite side to the stars and stripes.

Then into the Estherville Minim Creek Canal. We spent the night in the Minim Creek anchorage which is in the middle of a beautiful salt marsh wetlands area and the only life is bird life.

Thursday 27th November
We were almost in range of Charleston, but not quite, so we set off with modest plans for the day. Just as well as it turned out. As they say about the ICW “There are two kinds of boat on the ICW, those that are aground and those that are about to be”. We quickly went from the second option to the first. We can partially blame it on our cruising guide (Skipper Bob) for telling us to favour the right side of the channel, anyway we got stuck. We weren’t too worried as the tide was on the rise so eventually we would have floated away anyway. However, a quick trip out to the middle of the channel with the anchor in the dinghy and with boat engine going full blast and cranking on the windlass, we slid off and resumed our journey.

On this section of the ICW the surroundings are very swampy which makes for some very long docks for the houses.

Lot's of dolphin sightings and many pelicans and other sea birds and if you look really, really closely at this pic you can see the famous US mascot, the Bald Eagle.


Friday 28th November
Just a short hop to Charleston Harbour which appears to be packed with boats at anchor. We settle for Wappoo Creek which is just past the city. We did plan to make the trip by dinghy but settled for shopping at Piggley Wiggley and a movie rental - we've been to Charleston before.

Saturday 29th November
Still on the hook in Wappoo Creek. It's warmed up but raining quite a bit.

Oriental to Southport

Tuesday 18th November
We have a day in Oriental with a trip to the grocery store and buy even more food. I think we could last to spring on our provisions.

Wednesday 19th November
It looks like the weather is still not right, our batteries are depleted and it's COLD so we move the boat about 100' to the Oriental Marina for some shore power and continuous heat.


Did a trip to the health food store and one more to the hardware but mostly stayed near the heater.

Thursday 20th November
Up at 5:30 for an early start (7 by the time we were off), across the Neuse River and down past Beaufort and Moorehead City where we were greeted by dolphins that escorted us alongside for a short while. Couldn't photograph them as the water is not clear enough and they only surface for an instant. We then went for miles down the Bogue Sound to Swansboro. It's a cute place where we actually managed to buy some fresh fish and wonderfully tasty local shrimp (instead of farmed Thai or Chinese which is what the supermarkets sell) from a shack by the water.

Friday 21st November
Up again at 5:30 and up-anchor by 7 and onwards down the ICW to Wrightsville. A few close calls depth-wise. Lets's put it this way, if Incognita had a 6' keel we would have been aground.
On this leg you have to make it through four opening bridges that only open on the hour or hour and half hour which complicates things just a little. Arriving too late is bad but arriving too early is also bad as there is no way to tie up and you end up with boats milling around aimlessly, trying to avoid running into each other. More dolphin sightings.

We had intended to anchor at Wrightsville Beach but we only got through the last bridge at 5 and dusk is at 5:10 and after a very windy and tiringly cold day we opted for a marina and power.

This is the Wrighstville double bascule (French for see-saw) bridge - the first double we have seen.


Saturday 22nd November
Before we left Waupoos in September, which seems a long long time ago now, we met Rhodes and Ellen Messick on the dock there when they were visiting from Sackett's Harbour where they keep their CS sailboat Skylarkin. They actually live in Southport, North Carolina, not that far from Wrightsville.

They had invited us to call in on the way down south and so we made our next destination the picturesque town of Southport after negotiating the dreaded Cape Fear River which went just fine.

with typical Carolina-style houses.


Ellen came down to the boat and ferried us around to buy propane, engine oil and groceries and we were invited to their home for supper where a game Rhodes met us, two days after having throat surgery.

Why don't they keep their boat down in North Carolina instead of up North? Well, apparently - though it's really hard to believe right now with record low temperatures - it's way too hot in summer.

We tied up to a free dock in Southport which is always a bonus for taking Buddy for walks.

Sunday 23rd November
There are couple of tricky bits on the ICW from Southport to South Carolina so we were waiting for higher tides before we left. However, when we did pull away from the dock we had an engine transmission problem that had us back on the dock pronto. This fellow observed the proceedings from an adjacent piling.


Don't really know what the problem was but after tightening the shaft coupling and testing it at the dock, the problem went away leaving us free to go but too late for Sunday. I also tried to see if there was problem underwater with the propeller but after a frigid dip I couldn't see anything anyway, as the water was too murky.

We took Buddy a walk along the beach in the freezing cold.

Belhaven to Oriental

Friday 14^th November
The day started with fog that persisted into the afternoon.

Some boats with radar left the marina and pressed on but we stayed. We took the opportunity to go shopping using the marina's courtesy car.

The River Forest Marina is pretty unique in that it is also a hotel that used to be a private house in another age.

Saturday 15th November
The weather suddenly turned dangerously warm with temperatures in the 70's but threatened thunderstorms and there was also a tornado warning. Fortunately neither phenomenon transpired but it certainly kept us in the marina giving me chance to finish installing the automatic bilge pump.

Sunday 16th November
More high winds pinned us down for one more day giving me chance to install a Y-valve - don't ask if you don't know - the last of the big things that were to be installed.

Monday 17th November
Up really early (5:20) and we make the most of a good weather window and finally leave Belhaven heading down the Pungo River, across the Pamlico River and up the Neuse River to the sailing capital of North Carolina, Oriental which has three times as many sailboats as there are residents. Here we were lucky enough to find a spot on the town dock which has only space for two boats (we're the one on the right).

The picture is actually from the town dock web-cam (http://towndock.net/harborcam). This link should show us in real time (the picture is updated every 10 minutes) for at least another day, as we intend to stay here and weather out the 35 knot winds that are promised. If you pick the right 'slide show' you can actually see us arrive - sort of.