Beaufort, NC   11/11/2004
We spent three days in Beaufort, NC anchored in Town Creek, which is the back side of the town.  This anchorage offers fairly good wind protection and very little in the way of currents, but lacks the interesting view of the town waterfront you get from Taylor Creek.  It also has a couple of convenient dinghy docks only a short ride away. It's also possible to dinghy under the bridge and around to Taylor Creek  an tie up there. A cold front came through again this year with enough rain to rinse the salt off the boat and drop the temperature down to fleece weather.

We left Beaufort on the 15th.  We thought about going outside to Wrightsville Beach until we rechecked the distance and realized the shorter days of November would mean either leaving or arriving in the dark. So, we decided to do the ICW and make it a two day trip.  Since the wind was out of the north this year, we were able to use the jib most of the day with low rpms on the engine and make good time on the ICW.  The Marines weren't shooting across the ICW either, so we didn't have any delays. By mid afternoon we were anchored in Hammock Bay along with a bunch of other cruisers and what looked like a derelict military vessel taking up a corner of the bay.


The next day we had an easy trip to Wrightsville Beach, arriving early enough for a long walk through town and back along the beach.  The surfers were out in the Atlantic using the tail end waves from the cold front that had passed. The next day, after a dingy ride up the bay side of the town and morning walk, our plan to do an overnight sail to Winyah Bay and up to Georgetown, SC, had us sailing out of Masonboro Inlet around noon. Our arrival into Winyah bay was timed to make use of the strong currents running up the bay.


Given the wind forecast we expected to motor all the way, but we were pleasantly surprised to find a breeze had filled in and were able to sail until 8 pm before we had to start motor sailing to keep up a reasonable speed (3 knot rule). It was a beautiful night, warmer than we'd anticipated, as we made our way around Frying Pan Shoal.  As the moon set around 2230, I was joined on watch by a pod of dolphins that kept me company for about half an hour.  The sky was clear enough to see the stars rising on the horizon.  It was hard to tell if the light was a ship or a star until it got a bit higher on the horizon.  There was very little traffic which made for an easy passage.

Georgetown 11/18/04
We saw less wildlife this year because it was mid-morning as we headed up stream, but the 1.5 plus currents made for a quick trip up to Georgetown, and we had the hook set in the anchorage off the town clock less than 24 hours after leaving Wrightsville Beach. We were so close to the dinghy dock this year that we didn't bother to attach the outboard but rather paddled ashore.

Georgetown is an interesting place to visit, especially when you are upwind of the steel and paper mills.  It's the 3rd oldest town in South Carolina and has lots of historic homes and buildings on streets lined with live oaks.  The boardwalk on the waterfront adds to the feeling of accessibility of the town.  We found a local bakery/deli/wineshop after talking to another cruiser and stocked up on treats.  Just about everything you need is within a mile walk of the dock, with the exception of marine supplies.

We thought we might have to buy a new freshwater pressure pump. It stopped working as we headed up Winyah Bay, just as Leonard was finishing his shower.  It was interesting to revert to heating water on the stove and hand pumping water.  It also rendered the two stage drinking water filter system useless, but we had planned for that possibility with a stash of bottled water.  Leonard spent several hours jury rigging a bypass of the pressure switch, but when I tried to run water, the over pressure sheared a screw off on the backside of the pump.  Since it was now officially "broke", he took it apart and realized that the original problem was most likely a loose connection, rather than a broken connector.  He managed to extract the broken screw and reassemble the pump with slightly bent diaphragm, and it works, but not exactly like it used to.

Leaving Georgetown, we followed the ICW south to anchor in Whiteside Creek so we could spend a day on Capers Island State Park.  We dinghied over the first evening to check out the impoundment.  There were birds, but not as many as last fall.  We did watch a couple of skimmers feeding, and there were some white pelicans along with the usual shore birds.  You could hear the herons in the salt marsh, but with the tide out they were hidden in the grasses.  As we were leaving a sailboat from Charleston came and tied up at the floating dock. It was a centerboard boat and could reach the dock without a problem with the shallow approach.


We spent the next day exploring almost the entire beach (the island is 3.3 miles long) and returned on a trail behind the dunes.  In places there is not much beach at high tide, and what little there is, is covered with downed palm trees and remnants of life oaks.  It would appear by the remaining root systems that about 4 feet of sand has been lost.  Since it was Sunday, we didn't have the island entirely to ourselves.  A group of kayakers were camped on the dunes at the south end of the island, but we didn't see anyone for most of the day.  On our way back to the dinghy we did see "Mama 'Gator" in her usual spot.  We hadn't seen any alligators on the way in.
 

From Capers Island 11/22/04
On Monday, as we headed for Charleston, we were followed by a small (184') cruise ship in the ICW. It kept getting closer and closer and just before the Ben Sawyer Bridge, Leonard finally called the captain on the VHF and told him to please pass.  It was just about low tide, and once the ship passed, edge of the channel became very obvious - the ship sucked the water up as it went and bared the edges before washing back over them.  The bridge opened for the cruise ship and we followed it through.  No waiting this year.

The sail through the the Charleston harbor was uneventful. With the tide out, we had no problems clearing the 55 foot bridge just before the Ashley Marina, and we were tied up before noon.  We spent the early afternoon giving the boat a good scrubbing.  We've had enough rain on this trip to keep the salt more or less washed off, but since we usually anchor out, a good freshwater scrub was called for.  We also took a long walk around town before calling it a day.

The next day was for provisioning and laundry.  We walked across town to check out the bakery, a chandlery/outfitter place, and the Cooper River waterfront before heading to the grocery store.  The convenient part of being at the marina is the ability to call for the van after buying more groceries than we could easily carry back to the boat.  Our driver was a college senior, working part time as the van driver.  Since we were the only ones in the van, he gave us a little tour on the way back.  After finishing the laundry we also caught the van back into town for dinner.

Wednesday morning we departed Charleston, heading out on the ICW.  Once again, what would be a viable day sail off shore in the spring becomes awkward in these short days of November.  We managed to catch the 9 o'clock opening at the bridge before Elliots Cut and were on our way. The cut was not as dramatic as last year, perhaps the extra 2 feet of tide with the full moon had something to do with it.  We did fight a 2.5 knot current, but there were no standing waves to fight like there were last year. The weather that had been calm and balmy for the last week was due to change with the passage of a more vigorous cold front.  The south wind ahead of it was a bit stronger than forecast, and when we got to the more open parts of the North Edisto River we encountered a rather nasty chop in the shallow water.  It didn't take much to cover the decks with salt again.  With no destination planned for the night, we stopped early rather than to continue bashing our way into the wind and waves. 

Tom's Point Creek  11/24/04
According to the various guide books, the creek would offer some protection from the thunderstorms that had been added to the forecast. We located the creek entrance after sighting a mast in the general region, and with a way point plugged in the GPS, worked our way past the shoal off the starboard side.  We passed the anchored sailboat and joined a power boat at the next turn where it looked like we would have sufficient swinging room to anchor.  Since the tide was mostly out, it was easy to see where the deeper water was, and using 2 anchors, we parked for the night.  There was a pod of dolphins just up the creek from us busy feeding and splashing around.


I guess we have a lot to be thankful for.  All we got from the rather ominous looking cloud formation was a switch in wind direction and rain.  As the cloud swept eastward, the clouds behind it started to break apart a bit.  We got enough rain to wash off the salt again and the wind started blowing but the anchors held. The wind died back then blew off and on during the night enough to get us up at times to check on things but everything held OK.

Thanksgiving morning brought gusty west winds - 20 to 25 Knots - and, with a lack of need to be somewhere, here we decided to stay put. The wind finally died back late in the afternoon. The next morning we pulled anchors and proceeded to Beaufort, SC. anchoring west of the town dingy dock at about 2 PM.  After a walk ashore, we bought some snacks and came back to the boat for the night. We went to sleep listening to music of the local Friday night entertainment from the waterfront bars.

South of Savannah Sat 11/27/04 
We debated going to Savannah again, as we did last year, but decided to try some different places along the Georgia coast.  So we left Beaufort and headed down the ICW. In the afternoon we crossed the Savannah River and entered the Georgia ICW just before low tide.  A Canadian 40 ft sailboat passed us shortly thereafter and I was happy to follow it as I was having trouble keeping in the channel which in places only seemed to be about 8 ft deep.  We passed through the first bridge together and, at a red mark indicating a turn in the ICW, he suddenly came to a stop.  He had turned to quickly and caught the right side of the channel.  We motored slowly pass him and called on the radio to tell him where the deeper water was.  After a few minutes, he was able to back off and decided to follow us until he pulled into a marina a few miles farther on.


We had picked an anchorage up Turner Creek off the Wilmington River about 15 miles south of downtown Savannah.  As we started up the creek, Lynnea called Hogans Marina which according to one of our guides had inexpensive dockage but only a couple of transient slips.  There was one available and we took it for the night as a weak cold front was forecast to go through.  This turned out to be a very good choice as it was also adjacent to a good sized grocery store.  We made a quick trip to the store and returned to the boat as the rain started.

In the morning, the weather forecast was for moderate northwest winds which would produce good sailing conditions offshore. With high tide mid morning, traveling in the ICW would be on a falling tide all afternoon, a problem if one runs aground and can't get off quickly.  Our guide book didn't discuss the Wilmington River outlet into Wassaw Sound other then to say the channel marks were charted indicating stable entrance conditions.  I was feeling brave and didn't want to spend the day in the ICW, so out the entrance we went.  The channel was as charted and, although long, was easy.  The shallowest water we saw was 17 feet which when adjusted for the tide state matched the charted 10 ft depth.  Once out, we turned south, raised sails, shutdown the engine, and let the autopilot do the sailing.


There were three choices for where we could go back inshore. We could make it a long day and go as far as Brunswick, Ga to the all weather, any time entrance.  Or there were two other entrances before Brunswick, Doboy which was recommended but shallow, and Sapelo Sound which was closer and deeper but not recommended.   As it would be dead low tide when we would reach Doboy, I chose to try the Sapelo Sound entrance where we could continue on to the others if it looked hazardous.  As we started in the entrance, we rolled up the jib and began motoring as the wind was too far forward to sail. The channel was well marked and easy with good depths.  We rejoined the the ICW shortly past the entrance and, since it was still early, decided to continue on. 

The first hour was fairly easy as we we traveling up the sound and were able to motor sail.  Then we started through a land cut things got more difficult as we were now approaching low tide again.  Several times I had to do zigzags hunting for the channel.  There are a couple of recommended anchorages in this section and when we reached the first we could see several boats already there.  Lynnea voted we continue on to the next one which was a little farther off the ICW.  We ended up anchored in Duplin Creek off the Doboy Sound entrance between Sapelo and Little Sapelo Islands.  There were three other boats there but we had lots of room.  Probably it would have been easier just to come in the Doboy entrance even if it was at low tide.  Anyway it was a good day and a quiet night.


Doboy Sound to Cumberland Island National Park 11/29/30
In the morning, we decided to continue offshore and out went out the Doboy Sound entrance.  The channel was deeper than charted - the lowest reading we got was 17 ft which would be about 12 ft at mean low water.  We also decided to skip Brunswick and go directly to Cumberland Island National Park via the St Marys entrance.  The weather radio was warning about fog in the coastal areas, but we had sunny skies and generally good sailing. About 2 PM, we had to start motoring when the wind died.  We were in the inlet and anchored off the park before sunset.


After a quite night, we launched the dinghy, packed a lunch and went to the park for the day.  We didn't see as many horses as last year but the Armadillos were out again. We also saw several new creatures.



On to Jacksonville  12/1/04
It was raining in the morning so we waited for the weather to clear before leaving Cumberland Island about noon.  We planned to stop just before the St Johns River and take advantage of the upriver currents the following morning.  On the ICW just by Fernandina Beach, we passed raised platform that was apparently doing underwater surveys of old wrecks. Lynnea spotted a flock of wood storks - they have bald heads.


About 5 PM, we got to Ft George River, turned off the ICW and started down stream to anchor off a state park.  We could see several boats already there and a long sand spit extending out into the river that was exposed at low tide.  We decided not  to go there but instead drop anchor in the river entrance off the ICW along side another boat.


In the morning, we waited until 9 AM before starting out to avoid the worst of the opposing currents.  We turned up the St Johns River just before the start of the flood current.  The day before we had heard a coast guard radio announcement about electric power lines being strung across the river.  As we passed the Blount Island Marine Terminal, we saw a helicopter take off with two men standing on the skid.  It flew over to a high voltage power line and went into a hover so the men on the skid could work on the line - it looked like a high risk occupation.

On past trips we have had delays with the Main Street Bridge.  I called the bridge on the radio about a hour before I thought we would get there.  The bridge operator said "yes, there was an 1 hour notice required."  I requested an opening in a hour and we continued on.  I didn't allow for the current flowing in which got us there in 40 minutes.  The bridge operator said it couldn't open before the hour was up so, we waited 20 minutes.  Then we had a short delay for the railway bridge as a train was just crossing.  We eventually got through and proceeded on to the Ortega River Boat Yard and into a very narrow slip.  There was just enough room to get our bumpers between the pilings on one side and the boat in the adjacent slip.

Anyway, the boat was cleaned, the sails stored, the holding tank pumped and other chores completed for its three month stay while we are back in Vermont.  The high temperature for the last two days approached 80F with lots of sunshine.  Here in Vermont it has been cloudy for all but one day since we got back.  May have to think some more about why we're here.

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