We left Annapolis a day later than planned. But first: We picked up and left Weems Creek after a few days and went to look for a mooring. None to be found so we anchored in Spa Creek. A bit better holding in this creek vs Back Creek. After 4 nights we finally were lucky enough to get a City mooring. We paid for a week, stocked the boat, did the engine oil changes and went to the boat show.
We spent about $2000 on a new GPS and EPIRB at the show. We also got good news. For a change. GEICO insurance will be sending a check to cover our rudder repair so we'll get back some of the many dollars we spent in September. Yay!
The day we planned to leave Annapolis had a nasty forecast: gale force winds with a cold front passage in the afternoon and before that, winds out of the south. The winds out of the south would make the trip uncomfortable and slow and if we didn't get to shelter before the weather change it could have gotten somewhat dangerous. Okay, very dangerous. So we stayed put. The following day had Small Craft Advisories but the wind was going to be behind us so we headed out. 2 foot seas abaft* the beam or, later on, on the stern meant it wasn't too bad of a day. Quick, also. (*nautical talk).
So we got fuel and anchored at Solomons Island, MD. Gusty but okay up Mill Creek. Leaving Solomons was supposed to be the same as getting to Solomons, winds behind us and seas about 2ft. Nope. We began that way but when we started across the front of the Potomac River things got more exciting. 4 to 6 foot seas and winds closer to 20kts with higher gusts. We were surfing down the waves at speeds up to 10kts and steering was a lot of work. Hard work. Waves were splashing up the cockpit floor drains as well as coming over the side of the boat. We were never in any real danger, mind you, but nowhere near as comfortable as the day before. Same forecast. Go figure. That night our anchorage at Jackson Creek, Deltaville, VA was near flat calm with the almost full moon reflecting in the still water. Still water. Nice. For a change. We then headed down the Bay again. Lighter winds and smaller seas forecast but the slightly smaller seas were a bit odd and caused us to have some minor (and infrequent) queasiness. Not seasickness, just off a bit. A small LBJ bird joined us for a while on our passage. Resting I guess. Heading into Hampton Roads, leaving the Chesapeake Bay, was smooth and relatively quiet. Not a ton of traffic. We tied up at the free dock at High Street Landing Basin in Portsmouth. A nice spot but not quiet due to city noise, ferry noise and shipyard noise. The amplified street preacher didn't help but he gave up after a while.
This is the ICW beginning and it was an easy trip down to another free dock at Great Bridge, Chesapeake, VA. All the bridges and the lock worked out well. We get fuel, food and goodies in Great Bridge. We take down some gear from the top of our mast to make life on the ICW easier and we do laundry. It's one of our favorite spots. Did I mention it's free? Met some folks on other boats on the dock and on the second day several Kady-Krogen trawlers filled up the rest of the dock. They pretty much travelled with us down the Virginia Cut of the ICW the next day. Although it got breezy, it was an easy day. We almost made it to North Landing Bascule Bridge for the 0900 opening. Not quite. So it was a 20+ minute wait for the 0930. Expected. Along the way we saw at least 4 eagles in the trees along the canal. Very unusual this time of year in this area. We could hear them chittering away. Also unusual. A couple of brief, light showers caught us during the day but we made it to our Broad Creek, Shiloh, NC anchorage just before the heavy rain and thunderstorms started. Close call. Also, we didn't get inundated with bugs this year while anchored.
From Broad Creek the next passage is across Albemarle Sound and down the Alligator River. Seas were worse than forecast on the Albemarle. They built to near 6 inches. Whew. The Alligator River was not near as rough and the whole passage was uneventful. Yay! This leg is one of our longest, near 10 hours, on the ICW. It has to do with anchorage spacing. We could choose one to give us 90 minutes more time to rest but, if it's a nice day, we go to Belhaven, NC.
After Belhaven it's a day on the Pamlico, Bay and Neuse Rivers. All part of Pamlico Sound inside Cape Hatteras. This can be one of the worst sections of the ICW but this time it was completely uneventful. Light winds on the stern and small wavelets. We anchored in our usual spot in Cedar Creek off Adams Creek. Cell service was way worse than usual here so despite a poor forecast we left the next day. We went through a very nasty 30 minute squall just north of Beaufort (Bo fert) but the balance of the day was just showery a few times with a strong breeze on the stern. We stayed behind a tug pushing a very wide barge during the squall so the poor visibility in a tricky area was not a problem. We just stayed behind something easy to see and going the same way. The shallows on Bogue Sound were traversed with no problem, too, and we spent the night in Mile Hammock, an anchorage basin at Camp LeJeune, a US Marine Corp Base.
Almost immediately after Mile Hammock Basin, the next morning, is New River Inlet. It is a tricky spot that was recently dredged so it presented no problem. Right after that a fuel stop that we have passed by in recent years but were meaning to try. Easier than we thought it would be but all the boats we had been travelling with passed us by while we fueled up. We caught some at the bridges they had to wait at for the scheduled openings. The bascule bridge at Wrightsville Beach is a particular pain as it only opens once an hour. As planned we ended up at a Carolina Beach municipal mooring and walked to the nearby Publix. The wind was very strong and gusty overnight but the passage down the Cape Fear River was surprisingly easy. And fast. We also had no issues at Lockwoods Folly or Shallotte Inlets. We went aground at Lockwoods Folly in the spring northbound which caused more than $7000 in damage to one of our rudders. More accurately, the TowBoat/US operator caused the damage. Our first bad experience with TowBoat/US. We've had many good experiences with them. Many. We had mostly good current all day so we stopped early at Calabash Creek near Little River Inlet. Going further would mean a stop at a marina because there are no other good anchorages. Nope. Not for us. We used to go to Barefoot Marina but they changed ownership/management a few years ago and are no longer a good stop.
Myrtle Beach is a very long town that fronts the ocean but many don't know it backs along the ICW. We had no issues with the swing or fixed bridges as we went though the area and we hoped to get to our anchorage in Cow House Creek on the Waccamaw River before the rain and the wind started. Gale force winds were forecast. We stopped at Wacca Wache Marina for fuel for the first time ever and then crossed the River into Cow House just as the rain started. It did get breezy but the creek is very narrow and lined with trees so we were barely disturbed. Many years ago we heard very strange noises in the woods adjacent to us and wondered if werewolves could swim. Too rainy and windy, I guess, during the stop this year. Nothing heard.
The rest of the trip down the Waccamaw the next day was different. It started out calm leaving the creek but got windier and colder as we went south. It was very rough at the end of river going under the Ocean Drive/Lafayette bridge but calmed down as we got into Winyah Bay. Angle of the wind, I believe. Perhaps the shape of the bay. The Estherville/Minim Canal was rough at the start but the strong winds couldn't ruffle the narrow channel much once we were past the strange floating bridge. Our anchorage off of Minim Creek East was a bit rough in near gale winds but settled down late afternoon and overnight. It was only a 4 hour day due to wind conditions and our timing a future offshore passage out of Charleston. No need to get too soon to an uncomfortable anchorage. It was an uneventful trip to that former regular stop in the Ashley River except for a near collision with a very fast racing sailboat in Charleston Harbor. We were in the wrong and tried to avoid them, but they had to make a quick move, too. They were not happy. Shortly after anchoring across from the City Marina we remembered why we no longer come here. Yuck! Current and wind. Swinging around. Yuck!
Then came our offshore passage out of Charleston, SC to St. Augustine, FL. We travelled with Gelato who had been waiting in Charleston for a weather-window for this passage after a medical stop. Sue and Al are from our Power Squadron group back in Conn. They came aboard for lunch and planning the day before our departure. Our plan was go out of Chucktown, go to buoy 17 or so and turn right (south). Then stop before hitting the Florida shore. Sophisticated plan.
The wind started off stronger than forecast (of course) but the 2+ft. seas were on the stern so, although a little tougher steering than hoped for, it was reasonably comfortable. The wind and seas eased later in the day and overnight but they built up again early in the morning off of St. Marys River and St. Johns River. The seas near St. Augustine out in the ocean were big, too. It was a very quick passage and we were moored in St. Auggie a little after 0900, about 26 hours underway. Very, very fast. We travelled with Gelato so they were nearby through the dark.
This is our GPS with the AIS icon showing Gelato. You can see our forecast arrival time at the Florida/Georgia border in the upper right corner.
Us, well off Georgia (25 miles or so). Photo by Sue M.
Because we were on our mooring early we got a nap in, got fuel, showered and paid bills in the marina lounge (via wi-fi). We had dinner ashore with Sue and Al, too, at the A1A restaurant. We split up with Gelato at this point and continued down the ditch the next day. Nice passage down to New Smyrna with a pit stop in Daytona for fuel. Pit stop. Get it? Daytona. OK, terrible.
The passage to Eau Gallie was uneventful, too. Dull, gray, boring type uneventful. We usually like boring but this segment is long and gray overcast makes it drag on. We anchored in the Banana River around Dragon Pt. once again and then got underway in the rain as soon as we had some light in the morning. The forecast was very, very bad. Heavy rain with thunderstorms followed the next day by gale warnings. Staying put meant being stuck for at least two days so when the radar did not look too awful we headed south to Fort Pierce. We got lucky. The wind was not too bad and the thunder and lightning missed us. We did get wet. Very wet. Sue and Al on Gelato had opted to stay in St. Augustine a few extra days and had a horrible time. Drastically worse conditions, up to 50 mph winds and big waves, caused at least 4 boats to break lose with one hitting the Bridge of Lions, closing it for a while. By pushing south we missed the worst of the weather. The forecast was still bad for Saturday, the next day, and we did not believe we could safely dinghy from our planned anchorage to shore in near gale conditions so we paid for a very expensive slip at the City Marina for 2 nights. Outrageously expensive. Sigh. On Saturday the wind did pick up to about 20mph but the ICW did not look too rough to cross by dinghy, certainly not the near gale forecast, so maybe we could have anchored and safely traversed the 1 mile dinghy ride in open water but the luxury of the marina sure was nice.
We left Ft. Pierce about 10am after topping off our fuel. The last fuel before Marathon for us. An extra (maybe unneeded) shower was nice, too. We went to a wide spot off the ICW in Hobe Sound inside of Jupiter, FL. to anchor. But first, we finally, after all these years, hit a bridge. With the top of our mast. It was the Sewall Pt./Ernie Lyons Bridge near Stewart/Jensen Beach. The sign board read 63 ft. but there was an almost 2 ft. chop bouncing us around. We've cleared this bridge when it read 63 ft. before but the bouncing did us in. Our 'curb feeler' back up VHF antenna broke off and fell to the deck. We do not know if we damaged the top of the mast or the light base up there. We'll have to look up there while we are here in our winter home, Marathon. When we get a chance.
The strong breezes continued the next day as well as the higher tides. When we got to the Blue Heron bridge near North Palm Beach it was about an hour before high tide and the sign board read less than 62 ft. Not a chance to go under. Did not even try. We turned around and went back about 30 minutes to anchor in North Palm Beach for 4 1/2 hours. Lunch, relax and install our new GPS. We tried again about 75 minutes before low tide at the Blue Heron bridge and made it through with the sign board reading 63 1/2 ft. Close but we've gone through with that reading before. Miss our curb feeler, however. The next morning we were up very early (0500) and picked up the anchor in Lake Worth well before daylight. This was for the bridge opening schedules and to get under the Southern Blvd lift bridge near low tide. This so-called temporary bridge (been in place for years) was built to 65ft clearance at LOW tide not high tide (MHW) as required for the ICW. We do not know why the USCG allows this kind of thing to be done. Repeatedly. Cowardice, I think. The rest of the opening bridges along the way went well. A couple were very nice to us with slightly off-schedule openings and we anchored early at Boca Raton.
After Boca we continued through the rest of the bridges to Ft. Lauderdale. No issues with any of the bascule bridges. Timed them well and we went out the Inlet into the ocean. Still Small Craft Advisories but it wasn't bad. Less than 2ft seas but they were confused, not organized. What we call lumpy. We have had much worse conditions on this 2 1/2 hour passage. We anchored in No Name Harbor on Key Biscayne. It was crowded when we arrived and we had some trouble getting a spot. The locals cleared out later and we reset to a great, safe spot.
Our next to last day south was really strange. It was a bit breezy, not bad, with some showers around when, as we approached the Card Sound Bridge, super fast, cigarette-type speed boats started zooming by us. One or two at a time then bigger groups. Some were nice enough to go well away from us, others came close enough to get us wet with their rooster-tail wakes. Then, as we got to Jewfish Creek, they all backed up to squeeze through the canal and to raft up at a restaurant for lunch. Then they later caught up to us again to pass us. Again! And again! 🤯🤬
We anchored in Barley Basin off Islamorada, well off ICW marker R'84'. Our last day of the 2021 southbound trip started off very soggy. Not heavy rain but a steady drizzle, or slightly more. The ocean, Hawk Channel, after going under the Channel 5 fixed bridge was under 1ft. so not too bad of an ending to our fall migration. Just a bit damp. We got to Marathon, our winter home, about noon and, after lunch, checked in with the office. One of the reasons we like it here so much is, as we approached our assigned mooring, people on boats started waving to us and welcoming us back. And when we were ashore several more folks called out to say hello. Liveaboards, whether snowbirds like us, or just people who mostly stay put, are a different breed of folks. A much nicer breed.
We will see how the winter progresses as we settle in over the next few days. Already have some of our volunteering scheduled and it will be nice to be a tour guide at Crane Point once again. Only early downside is the lack of masks in public or enclosed places. Hope we survive.
