Northbound like the old days

     Our passages north continue with this entry with no health issues mentioned. Just like the old days. Like last year old days.

     Oh, okay, one mention: I still feel fine. 100%

     After we left Fort Pierce and headed north on the ICW we stopped at Cocoa/Cocoa Beach. We stopped here last year to get a new alternator from Yanmar but this year it was just because we went far enough for the day. Next it was onto Daytona. The marina we get fuel from was closed but we got slightly more expensive diesel from the marina next door. This closing was supposedly not COVID-45 related. We anchored in our usual spot near the nearly finished Memorial Bridge.

     Next, it was onto Saint Augustine. Enroute our port engine started bogging down with low fuel flow. I knew the Racor filter had junk in it as this had happened a few times before. I had purged the bottom of the bowl for temporary improvement. Now we were beyond that. Normally we get two years of engine time before changing these filters but somehow, somewhere we picked up some junk. Or it's growing in the fuel tanks. That happens, too. It's not quite as clear why one engine's filter got clogged up and not the other. Yes, I checked the other engine. This 15 minute job takes more than twice that when working while underway. With a hot engine. In hot weather. While pissed off. Ah, cruising.

     This year the Crescent Beach bascule did NOT break before we went through it. We normally get a mooring at the municipal marina in St. Augustine but when we called, they were full. We reserved a slip at a Waterway Guide advertiser up the San Sebastian River in St. Augustine. Before we got there we got a phone call saying they did, after all, have a mooring for us at the city marina. Despite being one third the cost, we passed on it. This got us to a very nice nearby fruit and vegetable stand and a Winn-Dixie.

     The next morning it was a later start due the Bridge of Lions schedule and then out the St. Augustine Inlet. The inlet was very rough. Rougher than expected although maybe we should have expected the sea state because of the wind direction. SE brings the swells into this less than perfect inlet.  They say 'local knowledge required' here for a reason. We've been in and out of here before but maybe a little more experience would have helped. Maybe not. Once we got farther away from the inlet it got almost calm. There still was a swell with some very small waves but it was quite pleasant. Genoa was flying and moving us along swiftly with help from the engines. Passage speed is more important to us than sailing pleasure. I planned to take us via the nearer to shore, buoy to buoy route up the coast of Georgia and South Carolina but someone else voted for the direct route to Charleston. This route is shorter but more exposed. You can guess which route we took. It was a nice day with some breeze and small waves. Sometimes we'd get some big swells up to 4ft. well aft the beam but these were not uncomfortable. Sleeping on my first off watch was a little too rolly for me but subsequent sleep periods were very nice. Cleo snuggled up with me (or on me) for hours. At 0200 we finally had to furl the Genoa as the wind faded and came more from in front of us. The stars were very sharp as it was crystal clear out. Cool but not cold. It did get damp. We had a beautiful crescent moon rise about an hour before an equally gorgeous sunrise. We passed through the shipping channel to Chucktown (Charleston) about 1100 and continued on. Late in the afternoon we came to the channel to Winyah Bay and headed in. It got very rough with an increased wind on the beam and a poorly marked channel to make us (me) nervous. Not fun at all. It was about an hour of this until an often used anchorage of ours arrived. 33 hours of very nice and 1 hour of not so nice (horrid) is something we have to trade off sometimes.

     Here is what we accomplished: with two days and one night of continuous traveling we covered the same ground as eight days of ICW travel. How does that work? Remember in my last blog posting I said it took about 24 travel days from where we were to get to Annapolis and we only had 24 days to get there. No cushion for weather or other delays. Not a smart thing to do. We move around 8-9 hours a day (moving on the ICW at night is not a good idea for recreational vessels) and that covers 40 to 60 miles. That's how we figured it was going to take 24 days. This is also our 10th trip northbound so there is a lot of experience to go by. So 8 days of distance covered in 2 days gives us a net gain of 6 days. This our new cushion for weather issues or other unplanned events. Does this now make sense? I hope so.

     From Winyah Bay we went up past Georgetown and up the Waccamaw River to Osprey Marina. We like the low slip and fuel prices here as well as the hospitality. The hospitality has slipped by necessity due to quarantining which was ramping up more since we left St. Augustine. Paying for the fuel and slip was through a window. Minimum contact but no goody bag we've come to expect. Whining and praising past handouts, including the peanuts, eventually got us some of the stuff. It was hand delivered, an isolation violation but I risked it. Yum.

     A long day got us up to Southport, NC. and another marina for fuel and an overnight slip. Our former anchorage in this area has mostly silted in. A little more human contact but we did our best to not get too close. The passage from Osprey Marina to South Harbor Village Marina involved going through the Shallotte Inlet area. It was about 6" above low tide and we saw a minimum of 11ft. of water towards the red side of the channel. There was a shoal before one of the green buoys but we knew to stay away from the green side and could actually see the shoal. The next tricky area, Lockwoods Folly, was straight and deep. No problem. The long passage picked us up another spare day for the future. We often take two days to cover this distance.

     After this we took two shorter passages to Wrightsville Beach and then Mile Hammock near Camp LeJeune, the USMC base. No issues, even at New River Inlet. This area is tricky but it hasn't changed much since last year so we knew the correct route. Right after is another tricky area, Browns Inlet. It is being dredged so we only had to squeeze a bit to port to follow the correct route. It's not the zig-zag it has been in the past. This area does not stay stable long just as Shallotte dredging also doesn't last long.

     We stopped at Casper Marina for fuel only and continued on to our usual anchorage at Cedar Creek off Adam's Creek just before the Neuse River. The anchorage was a bit rough due to the wind direction but the wind shifted to a better direction before bedtime.

     We started out out an hour later than our normal because of the wind speed and our direction on the Neuse. We hate going north into a north or northeast wind on the Neuse. It's awful. It started off slightly less than awful, 10-12kts and 1 1/2ft seas on the bow and improved as we went along. The Bay River was nearly calm as was Pamlico Sound and the Pungo River. A long day got us to an anchorage up the Pungo off the ICW. From there, the next day, we went under the Wilkerson Bridge up the Pungo-Alligator Canal to the Alligator River. The Alligator was fairly rough but the wind and seas were on the beam or slightly aft of it so it wasn't awful and we had an okay sail. The Albemarle was similar, not great, not terrible. We anchored up in Broad Creek, our normal spot here, as it got nice and warm again. We were able to shower outside in private.

     Shortly after we left Broad Creek we ran into very dense fog that didn't lift until we got into the narrower part of the river. Warmth from the land dissipated the fog. Currituck Sound was hazy but except for a brief time at the southern end we could navigate just fine.

     After we went through the North Landing Swing Bridge (which only opened one side of the bridge) disaster struck. The idiot at the helm wasn't paying complete attention, was changing a chart page, and put us off to the side of the canal and aground amongst the submerged tree stumps. For 3 hours. We got towed off by Tow Boat/US for about $1200. We have insurance to cover our dumb mistakes like this so we won't have to pay anything. BOAT/US loses money on us. It seems one of us does something really stupid every couple of years. We make sure we pay the (about) $125 premium. Last year's $1100 tow was due to someone else's lack of maintenance not ours.

     We tied up at Battlefield Park's free dock at Great Bridge, Chesapeake, VA. Stayed two nights, got fuel at AYB, went up the mast to reattach our nav/anchor light and wind vane and went grocery shopping. Grocery shopping is a major project these days. I do not want contact with virus carrying humans. We wore gloves (two layers for me) and N95 face masks. Looked ridiculous but that's what I have to do these days to minimize risk to my stressed immune system. Dressed like I was, some woman still asked me to reach for and hand her a higher up item. I told her I was protecting myself, not contagious. She still got too close to me. Sigh.

     From Great Bridge it was a short trip up to Hampton, VA. Another marina but we had a coupon for a free night to use. We stop here almost every year to do laundry. As long as they keep giving out the coupons at the Annapolis Boat Show we'll stop here. The biggest issue was a nearly one hour wait at the #7 railroad lift bridge for four trains to pass. Grrr.

     After Hampton we go into the Chesapeake Bay. Seas were around 2ft at the start, 1 1/2ft most of the day, near calm for a while, then rougher at the very end. The direction of the waves was not so good, otherwise it could have been okay. We went to our usual northbound stop in  Cockrell Creek, Reedville, VA. Rough weather followed us here. It blew very hard out of the north for days. A couple evenings had near calm conditions to tempt us to leave on a night passage but we didn't try until the fourth morning. A mistake. Turned around after 90 minutes a few miles short of Smith Point and returned to Cockrell Creek. We still had another weather day in the bank and didn't need to bash into the wind and seas for six hours. So we didn't.

     The wind faded later on Saturday so on Sunday we headed out again. It wasn't quite as calm as forecast but it was fine. Mostly 6" seas and very briefly closer to 1ft as we got to the north side of the Potomac River. The direction made the seas no problem all day. Anything but north and we are happy. Wind direction for the passage to Annapolis? North. Of course. Our course? North, of course. Confusing? For non-boaters, wind direction is where the wind is from, course direction is where you're going to. If both are the same you are going into wind and waves. Not what we like.

     Our passage from Solomons Island to Annapolis started off nearly calm and the first few hours were nice. It got a bit lumpy for 90 minutes or so with frothy 2ft seas on the nose but then as we got farther north it settled down to under 1ft seas. Of course going into the wind made it feel colder.

     So now we are finally in Annapolis on a city mooring in the MRE, the Maritime Republic of Eastport. We are going to rent a car to drive to Hartford to start my fourth chemo cycle. It could be the most dangerous part of this spring. Going to a hotel with people. Going to a hospital with sick people. Actually the clinic is next to the hospital and they are keeping non-patients out. Carol cannot come with me for the first time. All the patients have compromised immune systems like me so perhaps they've kept themselves protected. We've avoided contacts with people since my last chemo cycle as much as possible and now we are going into a red zone of infected people, the whole state of Conn. End of medical update. I am feeling perfectly normal. My next blog entry will be about our car trip home and my experiences with my medical issues.

     Before we start our passages further north we'll be doing oil changes and other normal, routine maintenance. All the things we like to do in Annapolis are now off limits to us or closed all together so there is not much else for us. More isolation time. People often ask how we spend so much time with just the two of us on the boat. It's never been an issue. Okay, maybe not never but now everyone knows what it's like. Except our view is almost always much nicer, interesting and fun.