Visiting Steve And Dale

We left the ICW where it crosses the St. Johns River and then headed up the St. Johns toward Paltaka, Florida to visit Linda's sister Dale and her husband Steve. It was a little strange getting away from the cruising boats migrating south. We had been in company with these boats since Long Island Sound. We pretty much had the St. Johns to ourselves other than a few fishing boats. The river goes through downtown Jacksonville. In Jacksonville we had the Main Street Lift Bridge open for us. This is a landmark in Jacksonville. We worked our way to green Cove Springs about 40 miles up the river. This was as far as we could go being limited by a 45' bridge just beyond the town. Steve and Dale live on a canal off the St. Johns about another 20 miles further up the river. We anchored out a couple nights until the wind settled a little and then moved to the town dock. The town has some floating docks at the end of their fishing pier, but they are very exposed to wind and waves. We had not seen Steve and Dale's new home, but had seen the property which they have been developing having begun with a sea wall. They have a wonderful home very much in the Florida lifestyle which takes advantage of the warmer climate.

I developed a problem with a tooth that chipped a few weeks ago. It was a challenge to find a dentist that would take me on short notice, but when I finally found one and it worked out great. They understood my situation and were able to accommodate me. They gave me a 25% discount which brought the rate right in line with what we were charged when we were insured. We are spending a little more than a week here, with plans to leave Sunday to get down to Titusville for the scheduled December 6 Space Shuttle launch.

Day Sailing On The St. Johns

A Cruisers' Thanksgiving Gathering

Iain and Jan on Jock's Lodge always had the goal to be in St. Marys for Thanksgiving. A few days before arriving at St. Marys we decided we would also spend Thanksgiving in St. Marys and Windsong decided the same as well. We radioed ahead that we would attend and arranged for our dish to pass. All of the coordination is done by radio which is the way cruisers communicate. This was our first big family holiday away and this gathering was the next best thing. We arrived to find the entire river filled with anchored boats. There were in excess of 100 boats in attendance and about 250 people. The main events were held at Seagles, a small hotel in town. The gathering has been growing rapidly each year and so it was tight quarters with every space taken over. We had Happy Hour Wednesday night, but Thanksgiving was the big event. The turkey and ham was furnished but all other dishes were provided by the boats. It was an amazing feast to see as every boat brought a dish and it had been well coordinated so that the quantities were right and included all of the traditional Thanksgiving foods. We are already planning to be back next year. Friday morning was difficult as we went on our way saying our goodbyes to Jock's Lodge and Windsong. We know we will see them again soon but it was still hard. We will keep in touch and probably meet up in late December or early January. We are now off the ICW as we are working our way up the St. Johns river.

Georgia

Between Savannah to the north and Brunswick to the south are miles of marshes, serpentine rivers, vast sounds and uninhabited barrier islands. The tidal range in Georgia is 8 to 9 feet and many areas are only safely navigable during mid to high tide. We took advantage of favorable tides with two very long days putting us just north of Jekyll Island. The tides were not favorable for the next day so we went offshore at St. Simons Sound and came back in at the St. Marys River. We turned north on the ICW after re-entering to anchor off Cumberland Island at the Cumberland Island National Seashore. We were in early and so our treat was to spend the afternoon on Cumberland Island. Access to the island is by ferry or by a dinghy dock. Once landed we paid our $4 per person fee on the honor system, and then we were free to explore the island without hindrance. The temperature was near 80 so it was a perfect day. There were hardly any other people on the island, but lots of wildlife and breathtaking beauty. Horses run free on this island. Millionaire Thomas Carnegie built a huge turreted mansion shortly after 1882. This burned in 1959 after lying idle for several years. Private ownership throughout the island's history spared it from development and now it is a national seashore.

Cumberland Island

Cumberland Island

Jab, Iain, Ted, Alice

Cumberland Island

Cumberland Island

Burned Out Mansion

Cumberland Island

Beautiful Beaufort

After a short day Friday as we waited for repairs to Windsong we made very good progress on Saturday and arrived in Beaufort, SC. This is another cruiser friendly town and another beautiful southern city. We wound up starting with some wine tasting. The shop owner noticed us trying to figure out his winery on a main downtown street and re-opened and invited us in. He does the fermentation at that location but other processes off site. Of course it paid off for him as we all bought something, in our case wine made from raspberries. We had a nice dinner at Plum's which was very friendly. Beaufort is on our list to spend a few days on the return trip.

Eagles And Dolphins

Today we moved on to a point just short of Charleston. A front passed through at about noon so the winds picked up substantially. We saw three eagles within about a five mile stretch, all very close. Tonight in our secluded anchorage in Dewees Creek we have dolphins swimming around. They can really startle you when they surface close by for air. Tomorrow we will bypass Charleston, except for Windsong which has arranged for a repair of their engine cooling water pump at the Charleston City Marina. We will wait on them just past Charleston. Yesterday it was near 80 degrees for our day in Georgetown, but now the temperatures are moving down again and it is expected to go below freezing tomorrow night.

A Day Off In Georgetown

We have been on a bit of a good luck streak. A couple hours after we passed through a shoal area around an inlet, a four masted 100' schooner drawing 9 feet ran hard aground. They brought traffic to a complete stop and had no choice but to wait for high tide later that night. They came into our anchorage in the dark and anchored just in front of us. That was scary for us having a tall ship anchoring so close. Our luck continued the next day when a swing bridge had mechanical trouble opening for us. They got it open but after our clearing it was then closed for maintenance for at least a couple hours. We have now stopped in Georgetown for a day off the waterway. We have now covered 402 statute miles on the ICW. The waterway is just fascinating. Neither one of us takes a break to do something else for fear of missing something. The experienced couple we are traveling with take turns and read or do chores or as they did the other day, preparing pizza so it would be ready when we all got settled in and they asked us over. They set the pizza dough near the heat of the engine to rise. Georgetown is very cruiser friendly and everyone stops here so the anchorage is quite crowded. The two boats we are travelling with are at the far end, well out of our line of site. Georgetown is a wonderful small city and we wish we could stay longer. We did get caught up on laundry and shopping and had a very nice dinner at the River Room Restaurant which was highly recommended in Claiborne Young's cruising guide. He was spot on and we really enjoyed it. Linda had Shrimp and Grits which they are known for. I went with a more traditional Grouper, but we shared and it was all very good. We look forward to returning to Georgetown in the spring and staying a little longer. Linda did pick up some shrimp at the fish market so we are looking forward to grilling them.

Steady Progress

We are making steady progress south. It has been cold and windy every day. We are selecting anchorage destinations that will accommodate Windsong which has almost a 6' draft so this pretty much dictates our daily distance. The changes are amazing as we work our way along. Some nights we are anchored in very remote areas dark enough to see the Milky Way very clearly, and other nights we will be anchored in residential neighborhoods. We are now seeing dolphins each day which is pretty exciting for us. As a group we are doing well together and we will probably stay together until about the Georgia - Florida border. Windsong needs to hold up in Brunswick; Jocks Lodge is destined for the St. Marys River for a cruisers Thanksgiving get together and we are going to Jacksonville. We get together every day after we get settled on our anchors, alternating between boats or going out to dinner. Windsong ran aground hard today on a falling tide. Luckily Tow Boat US responded in less than 10 minutes and we were on our way again very quickly. We heard Its About Time on the radio so we hailed them. They were anchored in Beaufort getting ready for on offshore passage down to the St. Marys river.

Beginning The ICW (The Ditch)

After the storm moved north, it turned nice very quickly. We visited Iain and Jan on Jock's Lodge to plan the next few days and agreed on a 6:00 am departure which was just before sunrise when we would have first light. Later that afternoon we visited the Virginia Air and Space Center. They have a good collection of planes and the interactive displays were quite good. We noticed that young teenagers really seemed to enjoy these. Later that evening Ted and Alice on Windsong checked in with us and decided to join our small group. Monday morning we were off a 6:00 am as planned.

Passing the Norfolk Fleet

At 9:00 am we reached ICW mile mark 0. The Intracoastal Waterway (ICW) is a (3,000-mile) recreational and commercial waterway along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts. Some lengths consist of natural inlets, salt-water rivers, bays, and sounds; others are man-made canals. It was a very busy day on the waterway. We went through our first lock ever at Great Bridge with a batch of 13 boats in the lock.

Great Bridge Lock

It was only noon and they had already put 104 boats through. This early part of the ICW has a lot of bridges and so we were slowed waiting on openings which made for a long day before we could drop anchor. After we were all settled, we invited everyone aboard Ariel for drinks and snacks. Iain and Jan kept us entertained with stories of cruising in Cuba. They are Canadians so there is no issue with visiting Cuba. We agreed that 6:00 am worked well so we agreed on another departure at the same time. Our actual departure was at 7:15 am as we were awaken to find we were in a heavy fog. The next day we crossed Albemarle Sound which can be and was very rough. The going was slow as we were pounding into the wind and waves. Suddenly we noticed Jock's Lodge dead in the water. The rough conditions had stirred up gunk in the bottoms of the diesel fuel tank which then actually clogged the pickup tube. The day was getting late so we took them under tow while Iain worked to solve the problem. After about an hour the problem was fixed and we dropped the tow line. Bad luck struck again immediately as the tow line got caught in their propeller after Jan mistook a hand signal and powered forward before Iain had the line completely pulled in. Windsong took them under tow for the remainder of the day. The sun went down as we were approaching the mouth of the Little Alligator River so we dropped anchor there even though we were still in open water. I told Jock's Lodge I would come over after sunrise with our Hookah system to work on untangling the line. It was a very rough night as the boat bounced in the waves. Our Hookah system (a compressor on deck that provides air through a hose to the diver) worked great and actually Jan did the diving. The line was wrapped about six times but came off easily. The air temperature was in the 50's and the water was in the mid 60's. We both only had shorty wet suits but they were more than adequate for a short dive. We were on our way at 7:30 after fixing the problem and stowing the gear. The next day was uneventful and we all went out to dinner in Belhaven after getting settled on our anchors. It was Iain and Jan's treat. We all agreed to stay another day at anchor in Belhaven.

Nasty Noel

When Noel was first named earlier in the week it was predicted that it would not influence the east coast in any significant way. We took a wait and see attitude anyway and held up in Hampton. Later in the week the winds were predicted to be northwest so we expected to have some wind protection from the buildings. Yesterday we took additional steps to secure our position and since our anchors were well set we opted not to move even though the winds were northeast which is parallel with the river where we are and therefore we were getting no protection from shore side structures. During the day several boats left the anchorage to seek shelter in the marinas. At the end of the day only five boats including Ariel remained in our immediate area. Further down the river were a few more boats, two of which we stay in touch with. The night before several in their area had dragged. For us the wind peaked at around 1:00 am. I didn't check the wind speed but it was up there, but just checked that we were staying put. We have a red channel marker buoy (22) less that a boat length usually just off our stern, This makes it real easy to check our position. In the morning we found that Ted and Alice on Windsong, a Whitby 42 out of Oxford, Maryland had obviously dragged as they were now anchored closer to us, but still downwind from our position. Noel had morphed into a Nor'easter as it passed here. Luckily it was just far enough offshore to lessen the impact to our position a little. The miss was by a mere 40 miles. It was a good learning experience and is helping us to gain confidence with anchoring.

Waiting Out Noel In Hampton

We have extended our stay in Hampton to wait on weather. Once we enter the ICW we will need enough good weather days to carry us through Albemarle Sound and the Alligator River. We are really enjoying our stay here. This is a very cruiser friendly town. While out shopping for groceries we had two offers for rides back to our dinghy. It was only a 1/4 mile so we declined, but the offers were much appreciated. A few years ago while on vacation we stayed in Hampton for a couple days. This was early in our planning (dreaming) for this trip when we could only imagine ourselves anchored off the downtown area. Wow, and now we are here. Pictured are opposite views - downtown Cousteau Society from Ariel and Ariel from the Cousteau Society.

 Cousteau Society from Ariel

 Ariel from the Cousteau Society

We really needed the time to get caught up. We found a really neat area on East Queens Way with several boutique type shops and neat restaurants. We both had crab cakes one last time before leaving the area at the Taphouse. We recommend this place.

Yesterday we set out a second anchor in advance of the high winds as we are pinched between a large high pressure system moving in and Noel which is moving up the coast. Later that same evening Noel was upgraded to hurricane status and winds are now expected to gust to 60. This morning (Friday) we reduced our windage by removing our dodger and connector to the bimini. We also added a third anchor. We put out our Fortress FX37 which is our storm anchor. We should be able to get going again on Sunday.