Port Royal to Thunderbolt to Kilkenny to Duplin River to Jekyll Island to Sisters Creek

Day #435; Loop Miles to Date = 5,159

Phew! The last week just flew by...since our last posting, we left South Carolina, blew through Georgia, and now are finally in Florida! We also crossed a milestone of sorts this week, as we crossed over the 5,000 mile mark in our journey thus far. So, now a brief recap, and a bunch of pics...

Thunderbolt Marina (Thunderbolt, GA) was a nice stop for us. We ended up staying an extra day here because of some fog that rolled in. We needed to depart this location fairly early in the morning to time some tidal fluctuations, and the fog prevented us on the morning we planned to depart. So, we stayed an extra day here, which gave us the chance to take an afternoon and go into Savannah to walk around. We ate some mediocre food, had fun poking around a bunch of shops, and eventually got chased back to the marina by a rainstorm and darkness.

Nothing really notable about this...we saw it on the riverfront in Savannah. And since it was a tug, we were compelled to take a picture.

This section of travel has some extreme tide conditions. On this day, there was a 10+ foot tidal change during the day. The implication to us is that we need to account for this in our trip planning...both from a depth perspective and from a current perspective. This was obviously at high tide, but most markers aren't like this...this one needs to be replaced!

From Savannah we stopped at Kilkenny, GA at a small marina just about 2 miles off of the ICW. This was a really small marina, probably family owned, old and a bit dilapidated, but functional for us for one night. We got rained on walking the pups, but otherwise a peaceful night.

Kilkenny had floating docks...more or less. They floated, but they were some of the ricketiest docks we've been on. To the point that when it was raining and dark, we chose to walk the dogs one at a time - it was easy to envision a potential disaster!

This was the entire flotilla of boats spending the night here.

One cool thing was that late in the day, 30 or so egrets flew in to the trees right near the boat. This picture doesn't do it justice, but all of them roosted here all night. And the next morning we also discovered that there were a handful of night herons who flew in overnight and were spending the morning in the same roost. Kinda neat.

After Kilkenny, we headed for an anchorage that we had used on the way north...Duplin River. And as it turned out, both of the boats who were on the dock at Kilkenny joined us in the same anchorage. Each of us had 2 dogs aboard, and this is one of the few spots in this section of the ICW where there is anything useful for walking the dogs. This is a ferry stop on Sapelo Island, and there is a floating dock here that we can use for dinghy-walking the pups. The only real issue we had was in the morning...we needed to leave early again, and we awoke to find a fairly heavy wind was fighting a fairly strong current. This wasn't unexpected, but the conditions for launching the dinghy and getting on and off the boat were much less than ideal. We managed...but it wasn't fun.

From the anchorage, we traveled to Jekyll Island, GA. This was a great one-night stop. Friendly folks, floating concrete docks, courtesy golf carts to run into the small town there and see the beach. We enjoyed it.

The beach was nice...but cool and very windy. It looks like Sandy got a new hairdo, but it's really just the wind blowing her hair sideways!

Our departure this morning from Jekyll Island was early...this was the sun just starting to rise...we are already underway.

The reason that we left so early was that our destination was Sisters Creek in Jacksonville. This is a free dock, so there is really no way to know if there is going to be room until you show up. We also were able to time the currents and tides to our advantage and made terrific time. We had 56 miles to cover, and we were all secure in our spot at the dock before 1pm. As it turned out, it is now about 4 pm and no additional boats have arrived. There are 3 sailboats here who were here when we arrived, and there is room for a couple of more boats as well. It was a nice travel day...we had some heavy seas in St. Andrews sound for about 20 minutes, but otherwise a delightful day.

Some of the collateral damage from Matthew still being cleaned up. This was near Fernandina Beach, FL. Obviously this barge was loaded with unfortunate casualties from the storm...a real shame.

Just one example of some of the other types of damage that we saw on the way down.

All for now...tomorrow we will finally be at our destination for Christmas...Ortega River Marina in Jacksonville. It is only about 25 more miles to go, and we've been there before, so we expect a peaceful transit through the Jacksonville port and downtown area. We are looking forward to being stationary for a bit!

McCllelanville to Charleston to Steamboat Creek to Port Royal, SC

Day #429; Loop Miles to Date = 4,952

Ok...we've been a bit delinquent on the blog postings, so time to catch up. We left McClellanville a week ago and motored into Charleston...and in the process catching back up with our friends on Corkscrew, which of course meant that we enjoyed ourselves while there. It was a bit of a gray and dreary travel day, but more or less uneventful. Last time in Charleston, we stayed at the Maritime Center, but it took a beating from Matthew and was closed for repairs until further notice. So, we stayed at Charleston City Marina...a huge marina with one of the largest docks on our route (the Megadock). There were some awesome boats docked here, and we were frankly glad to not be on the Megadock, but located on a T-head on one of the other docks. More quiet and peaceful there.

This trip to Charleston brought some good news and some bad news...the bad news was that we were unable to coordinate schedules with Rob's cousin Phyllis this time. We were glad that we saw them on our last visit, and hope to again when we come back north. The good news was that we were able to spend a day with Sandy's sister Lisa. We missed her on the last trip, so it was great to catch up. Lisa drove to the boat to see us and visit for a spell, and then Lisa and Sandy took off to spend the afternoon together...and they had a blast. We're really glad it worked out this time!

Lisa and Sandy on a gray day in Charleston.

And now for a brief detour to share some details about what "a day in the life of Sandrobber" sometimes entails. It isn't always easy and simple. This installment is about puppy walking! Sometimes it is as simple as pie...just grab a puppy, hop off the boat to the dock, and walk about 20 steps to some grass and green space. But sometimes it is quite painful. This last week found us with 3 of our less than desirable situations. #1 was in Charleston...it was a LONG walk to get to some grass. The only walk that has been longer was in Washington DC. The walk in Charleston was also on dock planking that had gaps in it large enough to snag a dogs paw every 50' or so. Each trip to "grass" (there really wasn't any) was about 1/2 hour round trip...4 times a day. Phew!

#2 - Our next stop after Charleston was in an anchorage called Steamboat Creek. This is a lovely anchorage, and one that we used last spring. It has a floating dock available for landing the dinghy to get the dogs ashore. This time around however, we arrived to find the dock was no longer attached to land...Matthew had destroyed the part between the floating dock and the fixed dock on shore. And this area has 6'-7' tides, so landing at the fixed portion of the dock was not always feasible. Needless to say, we had a challenge here...especially after dark, with the wind blowing and the temps dropping into the 30's. This wasn't fun either.

And #3 - We are at Port Royal, just south of Beaufort, SC. The marina is nice, the people are friendly, but once again we are faced with a very LONG walk. With tidal ranges of 7, many of the docks are located far from shore with long walkways to get between the two. In this case, it is all aluminum decking, with no gaps, thankfully. But, each trip to walk the pups is about 1/2 mile round trip...which adds up when we're trying to walk them 4 times per day.

But...enough of that...these are small hardships to endure in the grand scheme of things. In the meantime, we are off to points further south as we reflect on these more peaceful moments from the last week...

Sunset at Steamboat Creek anchorage.

Sunrise from our boat in Port Royal.

Georgetown, SC to McClellanville, SC

Day #422; Loop Miles to Date = 4,835

Georgetown was a nice stop for us...we had been here last Spring, and are glad that we decided to stop here again for a night. It is a small town, and everyone is really friendly. We did our best to contribute to local commerce in the few short hours that we had to walk around...although everything that we bought was edible! We found a great chocolate shop, and bought some treats; a coffee shop and had a latte; and an Italian market where we found some pre-prepared chicken parmesan for dinner, and some wonderful chicken salad for another meal.

We decided to make a stop in a little fishing village called McClellanville on the way to Charleston. The tidal current was against us for most of the day, so we are glad that we opted for a 30 mile day instead of a 60+ mile day. It was gray and cloudy all day, but we had a nice cruise. The highlight of the trip was that we saw 6 eagles along the way. We were traveling through a nature preserve for much of the day, and it was obvious that these majestic birds loved the area. We've seen eagles here and there...but never 6 in a day...it was a real treat.

This is a one-of-a-kind at least in our travels. We remember seeing it here last Spring, but don't recall if we included a pic in the blog. It is a swing ferry. They swing the ferry out across the waterway, the cars drive onto one side, and off the other side. It is sort of like a swing bridge, but instead of being raised above the waterway, it floats. Neat, huh?

And since it is a ferry (therefor a vessel) it also has a name like a boat.

McClellanville is a true fishing village...commercial fishing is about all there is here. So, when we asked the dock manager if the local seafood store was open today, he responded that it was not. But, he said we might ask "those guys there" as he pointed to a fishing boat parked about 50 feet from us. 5 minutes later, we had about 3 pounds of shrimp that "those guys" had caught a couple of hours earlier...how's that for fresh seafood?! And the best part of the story is that "those guys" wouldn't take any money from us for the shrimp...what a great ending to a nice day of cruising.

Part of the local fleet.

One of the boats coming home after a day of fishing.

And these are "the guys" who gave us the shrimp.

So, next up is Charleston...we expect to be dodging some raindrops, but plan to be there tomorrow (Monday).

Lola's favorite spot while we are cruising...not the most convenient, but obviously the safest spot on the boat!

Southport to Osprey Marina (Myrtle Beach, SC) to Georgetown, SC

Day #421; Loop Miles to Date = 4,807

OK...a little catching up to do. First off, we forgot to mention that we started seeing dolphins again upon leaving New Bern last week. At one point we had 4 or 5 of them riding our bow wake. We saw bunches of them for a couple of days, and then when we started on our way to Osprey from Southport, they started to disappear again...because Osprey Marina is on the Wacamaw River, and we got a dose of fresh water for a couple of days.

We've had a number of nice days of travel. Again, this stretch of the ICW forces us to pay attention with the bridges, current, tides, shoaling and sometimes traffic. A couple of random pics from our travels...

We've had some other wildlife spottings along the way too...today, we saw a beautiful eagle sunning in a tree...unfortunately we couldn't get close enough to it to get a decent picture. And, also today, we had 2 deer decide to swim across the river right in front of the boat. It was a lot of fun to watch, and fortunately, they made it across safe and sound.

And then when we arrived in Georgetown this afternoon, we found that there was to be a Boat Christmas Parade tonight. The pictures don't do it justice, but there were 12 or so boats all decked out with lights, parading right past our boat slip...lots of fun!

The Sheriff boat was the lead boat. There was also a boat from the Fire Department, and also the Coast Guard.

At Osprey Marina we had a moment of merriment that will be meaningful to only about 6 folks who might read this blog entry...before entering the marina, we did a ceremonial 360 degree turn in honor of some of our boating friends. Those of you who have no idea what we are talking about can simply ignore this bit of tom foolery!

And now...a parting shot that again will only have meaning to a subset of readers...the rest of you will have no idea why we bothered to include this picture from our visit to Southport.

All for now...more later from down the road...

Swan Point to Southport, NC

Day #418; Loop Miles to Date = 4,710

We arose before dawn on Monday, which has its upsides and downsides...the downside is that it is EARLY...the upside is you get to see the sun rise!

We needed to leave on the hour (which in this case was 7am) in order to time a bridge opening at 9am. This particular bridge only opens on the hour, so missing it by a couple of minutes would mean waiting for an hour for the next opening. We arrived about 10 minutes early, so it all worked just fine. We had a rather long travel day...64 miles...which had a couple of bridges, some current, some shoals to deal with, and temporary channel markers in new places due to Hurricane Matthew. Basically, it meant that we had to pay attention, and not blindly follow the chart plotter. In the end, it was a rather uneventful day and we arrived in Southport around 2:30pm.

The Theresa Marie...one of many fishing trawlers we see in this stretch of the ICW.

So, today is Wednesday, and tonight will be our 3rd night here in Southport. It's a nice little town and a great marina. There is also a great boatyard here (Zimmerman's Marine) that we needed to take advantage of. About 3 weeks ago, we discovered a small leak in our exhaust system between the engine and the muffler. In simple terms, this meant that we had a small amount of cooling water and exhaust gases leaking from a joint where it wasn't supposed to be leaking. We put a temporary patch in place, which served us well for the last couple of weeks, but knew that we wanted to discover the root cause of the leak, and get it repaired. Which is precisely what we have been able to accomplish while here in Southport. As we pen this entry, the mechanic is down in the engine room putting pieces back together, and in a few minutes we will sea trial it to ensure that everything is back to being perfect.

Tomorrow morning we will be off again further south...our destination being Osprey Marina in the Myrtle Beach area. We haven't been able to make fixed longer term plans, because we frankly didn't know how long we would be held up with this repair. But, now that we are on the move tomorrow, we can start to put the next couple of weeks itinerary together and know better where we will land for Christmas.

All for now...thanks for reading.

New Bern to Beaufort, NC to Sneads Ferry, NC (Swan Point Marina)

Day #415; Loop Miles to Date = 4,648

We really enjoyed our time in New Bern, and would definitely recommend this side trip to all. There were many good restaurants, lots of nice shops, a great marina, easy dog walking, etc. And it snowed! Well...sort of...we managed to be there when they had a downtown Christmas parade, tree lighting, and Santa visit. They had a couple of snow machines running in the square where the Christmas Village was located, and there were scads of families and tons of kids. It was a bunch of fun!

This pharmacy in New Bern is the birthplace of Pepsi...we stopped in just to have a token Diet Pepsi...although we really don't care for it...we're Coke lovers actually.

The Christmas Village during the day...

A minion in the parade...can't remember if this is Doug or Bob??

The village at night...packed with families!

 

As much as we enjoyed New Bern, it was time to keep heading south. Our travel day wasn't very pretty...early fog turned into drizzle, and it stayed wet and gray for the whole day. But it was uneventful, and we arrived in Beaufort, NC (pronounced BO-fort) in time to see the town for the afternoon. It was a touristy small downtown area, and frankly, we were glad that we hadn't planned to spend more than just one night here...there just wasn't that much to hold our interest. But a nice stop none the less.

 

Our friends on Corkscrew on this gray, drizzly day.

 

Our next real stop is Southport, NC, but it was too far to go in one day, so we are camped out in a small marina just off the ICW in Sneads Ferry, NC. It isn't much of a marina (kind of a dump actually) but a safe, secure spot for the night. We'll be off early in the morning, with a rather long travel day tomorrow, but we should arrive in Southport by mid-afternoon.

 

This doesn't look too great for the owner of this boat...we're guessing that this is leftover damage from Hurricane Matthew.

Our friends on Corkscrew again...obviously a much nicer travel day!

 All for now...further south we go...

 



River Dunes to New Bern, NC

Day #409; Loop Miles to Date = 4,557

On Saturday, we left River Dunes and headed for New Bern Grand Marina in New Bern, NC. River Dunes was very nice, if you like a resort type of marina atmosphere. It was quiet there, but there were plenty of resident boats, and we expect that it is busy when the weather is warmer. It reminded us some of the Herrington Harbor Marinas that we stayed at this summer, and we're glad we stopped, But, there wasn't a town right there, and it would take some work to get provisions, etc.

New Bern is a bit off of the ICW...20 or so miles actually. But it is a great marina and cruisers stop. The downtown area is very nice, and right here at the marina. The marina is big, and has a higher than average population of folks who live on their boats. Within a few hours of being here, we had already met some folks who we had crossed paths with before, met some friends of friends, and recognized another handful of boats from elsewhere in our travels. And there are dogs everywhere...the boat next door has 4 dogs on board, and not small ones...and we thought we had our hands full with 2! Additionally, this is the location for the AGLCA Rendezvous next Spring that we plan to attend. So, we're getting the lay of the land, and it will all be very familiar to us when we return next April. The other bonus is that we are back in fresh water here, so our engine and generator certainly appreciate the break from the salt.

We're glad that we beat the weather here as we planned to. On Saturday night a front blew through providing us with some 30 mph wind gusts - and temperatures fell from the 70's to the 30's in 2 days. It's warming back up a tad, but we still plan to keep heading south shortly. We'll be here for at least a week though...and we are happy that our friends on Corkscrew are with us. We have reservations to enjoy Thanksgiving dinner together at one of the local eateries, and look forward to a major turkey pig-out!

If we don't happen to post again in the next few days...please accept our wishes for a happy and safe Thanksgiving. We have much to be thankful for each day that we are on this wonderful journey...it is nice to pause and reflect once in a while on just how lucky we are!

All for now...stay tuned...

Ocracoke to Oriental, NC (River Dunes)

Day # 406; Loop Miles to Date = 4,520

We had a great time on Ocracoke Island. It is part of the southern portion of the Outer Banks, and only accessible by boat or ferry. Ferries come in at all hours from 3 different directions, transporting folks to and from the mainland for work, etc. We obviously were here in non-peak season, and it was delightfully quiet. It is easy to imagine that it gets quite popular during the summer. The island survived Hurricane Matthew with little major damage, although there were definitely signs that a lot of storm debris was still in the process of being cleaned up.

This trip to Ocracoke (and Manteo as well) are not typically on the itinerary for folks on the Loop. But…for those of you out there who might be planning to loop…take a hard look at finding a way to make this side trip if weather allows. Both of these stops were fun, relaxing, beautiful, and well worth the effort.

Today (Friday) we are making our way back across Pamlico Sound to Oriental, NC. The weather has cooperated again, and we are enjoying another beautiful day on the water. Once close to Oriental, we will once again re-join the ICW, which we will then continue to follow south as we continue our trek.

One of the highlights for the past few days was the afternoon that we spent on the gorgeous, isolated beach on Ocracoke. It was a tad breezy and chilly, but it was glorious to walk this awesome piece of creation for a couple of hours. The only downside was that the marina courtesy car stopped dead as we were headed back to the marina…leaving us with visions of hiking 3 miles back to our boat on a dark 2-lane road in cool windy conditions! Not to fear though…Bill, the terrific dockmaster at Anchorage Marina came out and picked us up in his truck, determined to not let this spoil our day.

So we leave you with a few pics from our afternoon on the beach…

Manteo to Ocracoke, NC (Anchorage Marina)

Day #404; Loop Miles to Date = 4,480 

We had a great day in Manteo yesterday, renting a car and touring around this section of the Outer Banks with our friends on Corkscrew. Just north of the marina in Manteo is a National Park Service run facility that focuses on the Lost Colony. This is the group of early settlers (1580 time frame) who came over from England as one of the colonization efforts that was sponsored by Sir Walter Raleigh. The short version of the story is that after settling here, and being left behind by their leader and captain (who returned to England with plans to return with supplies and provisions) this group of 117 souls completely vanished. The leader of the colony (James White) took 3 years to return due to political difficulties, and when he finally returned to the settlement it had virtually disappeared. There is no factual explanation for what happened to this poor group of settlers, but theories center around them assimilating into local Indian culture, or simply dying off while trying to relocate the settlement, or somehow succumbing to disease. Regardless, there is still no real factual account that historians can pinpoint, and it made for a very interesting educational experience. 

Then we headed to Kitty Hawk (Kill Devil Hills more specifically) to tour the Wright Brothers National Park area. This was also a great learning experience, and it dovetailed nicely with the experience that we had in Washington, DC at the Smithsonian when we saw the Wright Brothers display there. It was a beautiful day to be out walking around, and we’re glad that we took the time to see the actual site of man’s first powered flight.  

 

This marker denotes the spot where the Wright Brothers first flight commenced. The first attempt went as far as the first white marker, the second and third went just past this to the next 2 markers, and the fourth flight went to the marker off in the distance. To give a sense of perspective the first marker is only about 120 feet, or about as far as a baseball catcher throws to second base...and it took 12 seconds! The fourth marker is 852 feet, a little less then 3 football fields, and it took 59 seconds.

Bronze full sized replica of their plane.

 

Our next stop is Ocracoke, NC still on the Outer Banks, but down on the southern end of them. We’re actually penning this entry while in transit…it is a rather long 67 mile day today. The really good news is that we have a glorious day to cross the often treacherous Pamlico Sound. This is a big open body of water, and if the wind is up, it can be nasty. However, today the winds are calm, and it is as flat as a pancake out here…of the 67 miles, about 50 of it is simply open water. As we speak, we can see Corkscrew a couple of miles away, but not another vessel or any sign of land in any direction. A really good day to make sure we have calm conditions!

 

Replica of the Roanoke Marshes Lighthouse at Manteo...representative of the screwpile lighthouses, circa 1830.

At sunrise before our departure to Ocracoke.

All for now…we’ll let you know what we thought of Ocracoke…we plan to be there for a couple of days, and then grab another weather window to make our way back to the ICW.

 

Coinjock to Manteo, NC

Day #402; Loop Miles to Date = 4,413

Just a quick update...no pics...

Yesterday we ventured another 43 miles south to Manteo, NC. This trip is one of those times when you have to grab a weather window that you like, because the Albemarle Sound can turn into a nasty body of water quickly, and it requires about a 20 mile crossing over open water. We had been watching the winds for a few days, and the forecasts held for us to have a decent day to sneak across here. It was off and on rainy most of the way, but the winds were below 15 mph, and actually below 10 for most of the day. So, the seas were very manageable, and while gray and wet, it was a nice travel day.

This trip off of the ICW allows us access to the Outer Banks, so today (Tuesday) we'll rent a car and do some driving around...hopefully we'll remember to take some pictures so we have something to share next post. While travelling yesterday we were glad that we had chosen this side trip, as there was a traffic jam of sorts on the ICW near the entrance to the Alligator River...our other option to head south. There is some pretty significant shoaling in this area, and evidently a sailboat had run hard aground. We listened to the whole mess unfold over the VHF. There were 2 boats who stopped to try to assist the sailboat, and by the time they got the sailboat free, one of THEM had managed to run hard aground! It must have been a real mess down there. Both Boat US and the Coast Guard were involved by radio, but in the end, everyone got untangled without any major damage or issue. The whole ordeal took 2 hours or more - we were just glad that we weren't snarled up in it!

Manteo looks to be a great little town...it is obvious that there is a strong summer tourist presence, as it just has that '"look and feel". But the marina is great, there are some cute shops, a handful of restaurants, and most importantly at least 3 different places to buy ice cream...surely one of these will be open later when we have the thirst!

So off to do some exploring...hope you all have a great day!

Hampton to Top Rack (Chesapeake, VA) to Coinjock, NC

Day #401; Loop Miles to Date = 4,370

Well...we finally left Hampton! After about a month there, it was definitely time for us to move on. The weather is getting colder, the leaves starting to change, and we need a dose of warm!

We departed Hampton on Saturday, with only about 25 miles to go to get to Top Rack. On the way down, we passed by the Navy shipyards again, and as well, Waterside Marina...our home for where we weathered Hurricane Matthew.

This particular set of cranes is larger than you can imagine...it reminded us of something that came out of a Star Wars movie.

A shot of Waterside Marina from the waterway...we didn't stop to say hello this time...

It was a gorgeous day on the water...no wind, bright skies, and enough commercial traffic to keep us entertained...tugs and container ships and barges, and more. The highlight of our short time at Top Rack was a delightful meal at the restaurant there, joined by our friends Bill and Ardis, along with our buddies on Corkscrew. This morning we had a bit of a surprise when we got up...something that we hadn't seen in ages...frost!

Frost on the dock lines!

So...southward we go...and today we covered another 40 or so miles to get to Coinjock, NC. Again it was a beautiful day...it really couldn't have been much prettier. A lock and a few bridges to contend with, but very little traffic overall. For now we are tucked in tight here, with plans to head for Manteo, NC tomorrow morning. We hope that the wind will cooperate, as we have the Albemarle Sound to deal with, and we are hoping that conditions will let us get to Manteo so we can spend a few days on the Outer Banks.

All for now...and now that we are moving again, the blog will hopefully get a bit more attention...'til next time...