We left Marathon in the hoped for benign conditions. Near calm. Sunny. The downside was it became very hot. Uncomfortably hot. Blazing hot. We ended up at Tarpon Basin at Key Largo, a regular stopping place. From there it was another hot day to Miami. A strong breeze on the stern picked up towards the end of our passage. Got choppy but still okay because of the direction (behind us). The Marine Stadium Basin anchorage at Virginia Key was crowded and very breezy but it was fine for us. Good holding.
Miami from Virginia Key.
From Miami we must go outside into the ocean because of a @##$&$@$ bridge in the Miami area that was allowed to be built lower than the ICW standard 65ft. Someone paid off? Uh, this is Florida. Anyway, the forecast was for a brief drop in the winds and for once, the forecast was correct. 6" seas max. for the passage to Port Everglades Inlet (Ft. Lauderdale) and the wind did not start to pick up (on the nose) until we were about to exit the ocean towards the Waterway. Small Craft Advisories (SCA) started about then and continued for a few days. That's why we take the inland route when neccessary even though the ocean route is nicer and shorter. It would be good to have that option through Miami but... that @#$%#$ bridge.
North winds on the ocean when northbound are no fun at all. Remember we got beat up pretty badly last spring attempting to go to Charleston directly from St. Augustine. Anyway, we anchored for the night in Lake Boca, Boca Raton. A nice spot if a bit crowded. Spring break crowds? Maybe. After the big rat 🐁 we had a windy, rainy day going through all the bridges in the entire Boca, Delray, Palm Beach and Jupiter areas. It is impossible for a sailboat to make all the scheduled openings for the bascule bridges but we did all right. Only one long delay. We ended up in a wide spot in the road in Hobe Sound, Jupiter, FL. I had to make an urgent replacement of one of our raw water cooling pump impellers. This is a lot of fun in a very hot engine compartment after a long travelling day. Sigh.
The ICW from Jupiter is narrow so the wind direction and strength is not an issue but once we got to the St. Lucie Inlet area a lot more fetch made the waterway lumpy in the strong breeze. Fetch is the distance the wind blows without trees or other obstructions to block it or slow it down. It's why the wind is stronger on the ocean. From St. Lucie it was choppy all the way to Ft.. Pierce but north of Jensen Beach we put out our genoa and our speed really picked up. A lot. 😁 Fun. ⛵
We stopped in Ft. Pierce to get fuel and picked up Mike Guay for the rest of the ride to Vero Beach. We got a mooring at the city marina for a few days to get supplies but ended up staying longer waiting out some inclement weather. We prefer clement weather.
We got groceries, went to the farmers market, met up with Mike and Carol Guay a few times and went out to a couple of restaurants with them. We also topped off our water and went for some walks. The weather turned out not to be as bad as forecast (less rain) but still was very breezy. It would have been rough on the Indian River. We could have left several days before we did but we would have had to hide out from some of the winds and there are few places better than where we were in Vero. We've been burned in the past with bad experiences pushing on into marginal conditions. Perhaps we are wiser now. Perhaps just older.
We left Vero after 5 nights on the mooring. Another catamaran was rafted with us but he wanted to depart the same time as us so no issues. Heading up the Indian River was easy. The north wind was light to begin with and never got too strong with less than 6 inch wavelets. We were a little slower than last year due to the wind direction and an adverse current until Sebastian Inlet so we got to the NASA Causeway bascule bridge 15 minutes later than planned. This only gave a 15 minute cushion before the closure for rush hour traffic. We made it through, however, and anchored just to the north and east of the causeway.
Our passage to Daytona was simple and easy. Mostly calm until Daytona. We saw many manatee in the Haulover Canal, made it through the George Musson bascule bridge without much delay and stopped for fuel in Daytona before anchoring in our usual spot just south of Memorial Bridge.
Our trip to St. Augustine was smooth except for a few moments in the mud on the side of the channel. Sigh. Met up with friends Bob & Jane for dinner. Sleeping was rough on the mooring due to wind and current but it faded before midnight and all was quiet. We got underway before 0700 and headed out into the ocean.
Light winds but a swell from the SE at 2-3ft. or so. Not uncomfortable and not a cloud in the sky, either. We turned into the St. Marys Entrance channel and it got lumpier for nearly all of the hour it took to get inland. It was slow because of the current ebbing against us. This negated the fast passage we had at sea. We anchored at Cumberland Island, Georgia. Wild deer and horses were sighted near the shoreline.
We left Cumberland Island about low tide which meant going aground in the middle of the channel a little before the Cumberland Dividings area. Soft mud so we got right out and went to the extreme right (green) side of the channel to get through. By the time we got to Jekyll Creek the water was higher and we got through that shallow area okay. We stopped early in the afternoon in the Frederica River along St. Simon's Island so we would have good cell coverage to watch a basketball game. Priorities.
While anchored in the Frederica we endured a heavy thunderstorm and a UConn WBB loss. First one at this NCAA stage since 2005. Simply outplayed. ☹
We got underway and headed south on the Frederica. The north entrance has a shoal we've hit before so we went the long way around. Poor choice. We went aground briefly in the Fred (and that's hard to do) and the long way added nearly an hour to our passage. The shallow areas on the ICW require close attention by two people making it a stressful morning. The tide was rising so we made it through all the troublesome spots. We anchored in Lincoln Creek off of Kilkenny Creek. Not sure if this former regular spot is legal anymore. It's legal if there are no shellfish beds on the bottom. No idea. Sure was buggy 'tho. Georgia. Sigh.
From Kilkenny the former shallow areas were fine for us as the tide was rising. The Hell Gate passage was not fine but it was about 2ft. above low water so the low spot was about 9ft. Phew. We tied up at Thunderbolt Marina for fuel and to have our windlass checked by a mechanic. They never got back to us with options, information or a repair schedule so we left first thing in the morning. We did go out to eat again at Tubby's. Good, but not as great as the past. We topped off our water and got showers and did some laundry so not entirely a waste of money. The mechanic did get back to me with info about a day later.
We went through several low water areas at or near low tide as we finished with Georgia and entered South Carolina. Slowed down at those spots but made it through rather easily. But carefully. We ended up at Factory Creek in Beaufort, SC. (Bew fert) We anchored there because the nearby marina said they were full. Saw an open spot on their docks but... It rained the last hour or so of our passage but not too hard. The forecast was for storms a couple of hours after our arrival which is why we looked for a slip. We've anchored in this spot many times but it's deep and narrow with limited swing room. It got breezy overnight but we looked fine at 0300 when I got up to do some checking. In the morning it looked like we may have dragged some but we were not any longer. All was fine. We picked up the anchor a few minutes late in hopes the wind would drop a little. It wasn't too bad but in fact it later picked way more than forecast and was a bit choppy down the Coosaw River. Normally we would take the Ashepoo-Coosaw cutoff to go between those two rivers. However, we got there close to dead low tide and there were dredges and other equipment working on the passageway making it difficult at best to get through there. Impossible at low tide. So instead we went down the Coosaw River to St. Helena Sound, around Combahee Shoal and up the Ashepoo River to Fenwick Cut. A 90 minute long cut (opposite of a short cut) that got us around the troublesome area. It also got us to two other shallow areas much later in the tide cycle (deeper water) and we had no further trouble. Well, except for getting briefly confused by buoys not matching the charts. Luckily no bad results other than stormy weather aboard our boat. We ended up anchored in Church Creek maybe ten miles before Charleston. A few days later we heard of a power boat that had both his props damaged in the Ashepoo-Coosaw cutoff.
The next morning was very cold but with very little wind it didn't feel bad. Very pretty, also. There was sea smoke coming up the creek and some on the ICW. 30 or 40 minutes later visibility dropped to near zero. Fog. Well technically it was still sea smoke. Dense sea smoke. Not fog. Still for 10 minutes we slowed to crawl and sounded our fog signal. No such thing as a sea smoke signal. It is very rare for sea smoke to be so dense and so high off the surface. Sea smoke happens when the water temperature is higher than the air temp. The rest of the long day went nicely. We timed our bridge openings well and only the area near Isle of Palms at Charleston was particularly shallow. Made it though there just fine and the other area near McClellenville that is bad was reached near high tide. All good. We ended up at Duck Creek off of Minim Creek which is kinda near Quarantine, SC. Kinda. There was another cruising boat there. First time we were not alone here but Carol says she remembers a small boat here once. Maybe.
We got underway later than normal. Because we could. Short day planned. The trip up Winyah Bay and the Waccamaw River is really pretty and easy. Ok, we once had a really rough Winyah Bay day but, hey, nothing's perfect. The only issue was the current. We went against it all day. It happens. Mostly under 6kts the whole time. We stopped at Wacca Wache Marina for fuel. They have become the cheapest on the ICW recently. Under $4/gal. for the first time in a long time. ($3.65) After fueling up we crossed the ditch and went into our frequent stop, Cow House Creek.
It got breezy while here which made for some noise at night as the boat swings but it wasn't too bad. Our bridle makes a sound while it stretches, the chain drags across the bottom and halyards can clatter if we don't point into the wind. All minor (usually) background sounds. We got underway even later than the previous day because we had an even shorter day ahead. A gale warning was in effect so we wanted to get to the protection of our planned stop at Osprey Marina but check-in time was a consideration. The Waccamaw River, as I mentioned, may be the prettiest stretch on the ICW. It was gusty but not as bad as forecast and it doesn't much matter anyway. The river is tree lined, narrow and curvy enough to prevent any fetch. It was a short and pleasant passage. Only 90 minutes. We tied up at Osprey Marina which is an extremely protected marina. Surrounded by tall trees. The gale never arrived although there were some wind gusts we barely noticed. The only downside was the doubling of their price per foot for transients since we were here last spring. Up to $2/ft. now. Sigh. 😞 We did some boat work, computer work, grocery shopping and visited a now local former co-worker of Carol's with serious health problems.
We got underway earlier than planned (of course) and had an easy, short day. Cleared all the fixed bridges easily and the swing bridges opened in a timely manner for us. The ICW is the back side of Myrtle Beach. Lot's of construction and new (ugly) houses. We ended up at Calabash Creek right on the SC/NC border, a frequent stop for us. We stop here because we can no longer anchor in the Southport area due to shoaling and the marinas are expensive. It could be a very long, tiring day to Carolina Beach or two short days. Two short days are more comfortable. Hmmm, I wonder why we choose the second option. Going through Shallotte Inlet and Lockwoods Folly Inlet the second day was fairly close to high tide and the channel was straight forward. Easy. For a change. The passage up the Cape Fear River had some chop but not too rough. It was slow with the current against us but with the breeze behind us. That's what makes the chop. We tied up to a Carolina Beach town mooring for $30 per night. Another major price increase. 20 to 30. Inflation is not 100% (Osprey Marina) or even 50% (Carolina Beach).
We will stay two nights and then move farther north. Bad weather is coming and we will be stuck somewhere for several days. An extra day here means one day less hiding out somewhere norther than here. Because this edition of the blog is getting rather long, I will post it and resume reporting our travels in the next post. Annapolis probably. TTFN from Carolina Beach, NC.
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