Well it’s been a month since I posted something. The main reason for the delay in updates is because our camera broke and so didn’t feel motivated to add text without pictures. So sorry for our delay in updates and hope that you will continue to travel with us and keep in touch.
Awe – the salt air and different smells of fall decay! We are currently near Brunswick, GA (anchored in Sapelo River/Jekyll Island) waiting out another 25+kn storm but having fun bicycling around this National Historic Site which prior to GA purchasing in 1947 was a private resort club exclusively for the wealthy (Rockefeller, Vanderbilt, Crane, Pulitzer, etc.) It is a very beautiful and restfull place. So we now have 6’ tides which has a major affect on anchoring scope. The salt air seems heavier since the ICW is so close to the ocean. The sunny 65’F days warm us to endure the 40’F nights. We are meeting cruisers that winter here. So it can be done. The beaches/sand dunes here are beautiful! We will meander thru Cumberland Island (another GA purchased National Seashore versus letting it be developed) and then to St. Marys for a cruisers Thanksgiving gathering.
Since leaving the Chesapeake Bay area we went to Norfolk, VA, traveled down the Dismal Swamp via visiting NC Welcome Center and Elizabeth City NC where we had free dockage and met Fred (one of the original currently at age 92) and others doing the Rose Buddy cruisers gathering. We continued down the ICW to a few anchorages in rivers off the ICW (traveling with a couple boats and waiting out a gale), anchored in Oriental NC, picked mooring for @$25 in Beaufort, NC (on the way we saw many pods of dolphins following shrimp boats – it was very exciting!), anchored at Cape Lookout National Park with buddy boat and next early morning mostly sailed 12 hours in Atlantic to Wrightsville Beach, NC. A wonderful trip! Visited Wilmington, NC via taxi/bus with other cruisers. Then continued against current in Snow Cut motoring at 3 kn and down Cape Fear River on falling tide at 15kn (we usually motor at 6kn max) to get to Southport only to be aced out of the free dock by letting 2 other boats go first while setting up mooring lines so off to a marina @ $1.25/foot as that was the only option. So now you see the affects of currents! The next day was abit scary as we had to quickly find a dock as our bilge was full of salt water (more below). This delay caused us to miss the hourly bridge opening and unfortunately to another marina before dark. Then off to Georgetown, SC, a few river anchorages, Charleston, SC, a few river anchorages then Beaufort, SC with a buddy boat. From their we decided we had a good weather window to travel outside to current location. We left Beaufort (Port Royal Sound) around 5pm to catch the falling tide and into St. Simons Sound around 10am to catch the rising tide and to give us abit more depth in Jekyll Creek. At low tide it is 5’ at MLW and we draw 6’. So this was our third ocean crossing at 107nm! This crossing we did by ourselves but communicated via VHF with a couple faster boats that evening that came out of different sounds. The NOAA weather/wind report wasn’t correct so wind was on the nose for first few hours so had to motor sail tacking across our rhumb line but finally changed so were able to sail with motor off for 3-4 hours (helma our windvane did a great job) and then motor sail as the wind died.
– So we have now gone 3048nm so have learned abunch about ICW shallow depths, Ocean Inlets and the affects on tides/currents
– Fall is definitely in the air and colors along the ICW are finally showing up. It’s beautiful but has been quite COLD a few days during day/night. Encourages you to keep going south! Its supposed to be REALLY COLD 60 during day and 30’s at night!
– The affects of these Ocean crossings is SALT. Once it dries it leaves salt crystals everywhere. I use the morning dew to wipe the boat down to attempt to wash it off. We are trying to minimize the stainless and everything getting rusty!
– Anchorages are all MUD. The wash down pump REALLY gets a workout.
– The depths of some of these creeks is abit challenging. We wait to leave at times to make sure we arrive late enough to be on a mid tide so we have enough depth to get through! But that can mean that you are motoring against a current on one side of the inlet and with on the other side down the ICW. Our motor isn’t very strong @ 28hsp with our 10 ton boat so have needed to use our sails anytime we can. Now that means we have to be very careful down the narrow ICW ditch/river. One day we even had the main up which seemed very odd. The other issue is that you need to time the bridges such that you don’t have to wait as some of them only open on the hour and from 9am-4pm.
– We have been very impressed with other motor yachts and their courtesy of passing etiquette. They hale you to inform of their intent, slow down abit and then cross right in front to minimize their wake. We often don’t slow down as we motor so slow anyway.
– The bird life has been enjoyable as we watch the pelicans dive for food. There are so many birds I don’t recognize so need to pick up a bird book.
– I am proud of the skills we have learned while in MN and learning while cruising. It still is a lot of work to plan the next day, keep the boat running and meals planned. It continues to amaze us how fast days go by as we have now been gone for 5 months. Taking solar showers in the cockpit is becoming abit more challenging with this cold weather – but we are getting creative!
– Now for our first problem under way. We fixed a coolant leak but still seeping abit so I was checking the engine underway and noticed water in the engine compartment. This meant that our bilge which is about 5’ deep by 2’ square was full. We immediately called Tow BoatUS to ask where we could find a dock/marina deep enough to determine the issue. During this we noticed that the automatic bilge had been turned off so turned on and started pumping the manual one. We did get to the dock and determined that after emptying out our quarter birth and checking other areas that there was nothing leaking. It could have been a combination of spraying water in the anchor locker with the bilge turned off and possibly the anti-siphon on the bilge thru-hull was below the waterline while healing. So we fixed that and are monitoring the bilge switch.
– We saw a HUGE tree pulled out of the Dismal Swamp by the Corp of Eng. As this channel is around 6.5’ so were glad to see them remove this. We believe that Johesa and a few others hit this tree.
– We have been meeting up with a 200’ and 65’ ICW cruise ship. It’s amazing that these 6.5’ depth boats can meander down the curves of these rivers and challenging depths. They REALLY need to wait for tides to be high enough. They go from possibly Baltimore, MD to Jacksonville, FL.
– We unfortunately have determined that our heat exchanger is leaking raw (salt) water at the bracket weld joint and replacement Volvo part is $728 (from a discount parts supplier) So this is again hitting our budget unexpectantly. We will replace probably in St. Marys.