On Friday, November 6, we left St. James, NC, with two new hydraulic cylinders and better steering. It was cool, 44 degrees at wakeup, but warmed up to 70 degrees by end of day. Our travels included three bridge openings and some shallow areas. The Sunset Beach Pontoon Bridge is one of the most archaic bridges we encounter. It is built on a barge that swings out of the way by means of a cable that must drop low enough in the water before boats can go through. The Bridge tender stands outside and writes down the names of boats passing through.
The bridge does mark a milestone....we are now in South Carolina.
We got through the shallow areas without incident. During our travels we saw deer on the river banks and turtles on tree trunks laying in the water. We also saw sea turtles in the ICW for the first time, but couldn't get a picture.
We stopped at Osprey Marina to get fuel and dockage for the night.
The Waccamaw River is like driving on a two-lane road in New Hampshire with lots of huge, tall trees on each side; you have to be on the lookout for tree trunks floating in the ICW.
This was one of our longer days, 110 miles. We went through Charleston Harbor, which was pretty busy with tour boats, commercial ships, cruisers and racers. By this time, the day had warmed up and was a great day to be on the water.
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We stopped at the Church Creek anchorage, which is one of our favorite places to stay. It is right off the ICW and a perfect location for beautiful sunsets and sunrises...can you tell them apart?On Sunday, November 8, we traveled through the marshland of South Carolina to Beaufort. This was a very short trip and another beautiful day to be on the water.
We love to see the huge live oak trees with the Spanish Moss hanging down, which is so typical of South Carolina. The second picture below is taken onshore; if you look closely, you can see Duetto on anchor.
We anchored next to Bill Owens (BYC member) on Snow Goose. He is on his first ICW trip from Branford, CT to Florida. John coached Bill on the challenges of transiting the ICW in Georgia.
We took a walk around Beaufort. There was a cruise ship at the dock that was on a 15-day ICW-cruise from Baltimore to Jacksonville, FL.
Tropical storm Ida was about to affect our weather. The intensity and duration of the storm kept changing; however, we didn't want to take any chances so we decided to get to a "bomb shelter" Marina, Shelter Cove, on Hilton Head Island. So, on Monday, November 9, we traveled to Hilton Head Island. On the way, we heard that we could possibly see gale force winds. Well, it turned out that the worst of Ida went farther north, so the most we got was rain on and off but not much wind. We did get some breaks of sun on Tuesday, so we took a bike ride to the beach and took a walk. We had dinner at Scott's Fish Market Restaurant, which was located right on the dock.
On Wednesday, we got up at 5:30 to rain, but the wind seemed lighter than predicted. The weather reports were still calling for heavy wind. We left Hilton Head at 7:00 a.m. and wanted to get to the South Newport River to visit with the Vicker family. We had a bailout plan to stop in Isle of Hope if the weather was really nasty. It rained on and off but not a lot of wind, so we were able to get to South Newport River. As we were approaching the dock on Belvedere Island, we saw a huge black cloud and knew that the weather was about to deteriorate. The wind came out of the North at about 25+ knots; we were glad we were at the dock.
Another milestone today....we crossed into Georgia.
Belvedere Island Plantation is a beautiful gated community.
Corey and Kari were kind enough to open up their house to us and give us their golf cart to get around.
The weather was cold, damp and windy. We spent the second day doing laundry and did manage to take a bike ride around the area.This is always a fun visit for us; our first visit was just before
Delaney was born; on November 22 she'll turn four. Time really flies!
the day, the sun came out as promised. This happen to be Friday the 13th.
Travel through Georgia is mostly through salt marsh for miles in all directions and very challenging due to very low water and narrow channels that twist and turn. Many cruisers on sailboats go offshore for this stretch. Some of the common sights through Georgia are interesting.
A set of range markers are used to guide boats through narrow passages. You have to line up the white center to find the deep channel.
We always love to see the fishing boats with the birds flying about.
And then there's the very long docks stretching out into the ICW from the owner's home.
Diane finds it relaxing traveling through the salt marsh, but John gets bored.
We seem to always see dredging equipment being moved from one area to the other or in the process of dredging.
We see the wild horses on Cumberland Island as we travel Cumberland Sound.From Belvedere Island, GA, we traveled to Fernandina Beach, Florida. We picked up one of the town's moorings. The marina showers have been upgraded and a Captain's Lounge has been added.
We are happy to arrive in the Sunshine State.
We saw a great dolphin show in the mooring field and was able to capture a baby dolphin doing a flip.
Then they came right up to our boat.On Saturday, November 14, we traveled to St. Augustine and anchored right next to the Castillo de San Marcos Fort. We took a walk into town, which was crowded because it was Pirates Weekend; we saw lots of people dressed up as pirates.
On Sunday, November 15, our plan was to travel 60 miles to Daytona, however, we learned that there was a space launch on Monday, which could affect travel in the ICW in the Cape Canaveral Area for several hours prior to blastoff. So, we decided to get up early and get through the area that might be closed, which was 120 miles. The weather was warm and crystal clear; the ICW very calm and we had the current pushing us for most of the trip. We saw several cruisers along the way, many stopping in Titusville to view the launch. We continued on to Cocoa.
During our travel we saw lots of white pelicans and a couple of manatees in Haulover Canal.
And then we saw a young man rowing a small dismasted sailboat, which was very weird. On the side of the boat it said "habitatcrew.com", so we went online and read about the two guys who are rowing from Cleveland to Key West and working at Habitat sites. It's amazing what you run into on the ICW! There's great pictures on their website.
On Monday we toured Coca, which has a very small, funky village with lots of restaurants, unique shops and theaters. We had breakfast at the Amish Cafe which had a fortune teller setup in its side sitting room. John spent an hour in the S.F. Travis Hardware store, which is the largest he's ever seen. We watched the space launch from a dock along the ICW. We were lucky that the weather cooperated and it was launched right on schedule. This was a nice unexpected treat.
We then traveled to Melbourne to visit Carol and Rich, who we last saw in St. James, NC. We arrived in Vero Beach on Wednesday and will stay through Sunday, visiting with fellow cruisers that we haven't seen since Spring/Summer. Then we'll travel to Bessey Creek in Palm City, where we will spend Thanksgiving with friends, Lenora and Dan Tortora. Duetto will stay at their dock while we are back in CT for Christmas, December 3 to 28.
