06-03-2015 - Continuing North on the ICW: FL, GA, SC, NC

After leaving Vero Beach on 5/14/15, and our brief visit to Titusville, Chuck and I were very intent on meeting our insurance goal of getting the boat north of Cape Hatteras by June 1. So the rest of the trip went as quickly as possible, with many 6AM to 8:30PM days. Thank goodness for nice weather, and the long days of spring! It was so different in the fall, when we had to have secure plans for the night by 3 PM. 

Here are the places we stayed, and a few pictures.

Cruisers: refer to Mark and Diana Doyle’s invaluable books for complete details:
      On the Water Chartguides, Cruise Guide for the Intracoastal Waterway (ICW) and
      On the Water Chartguides, Anchor Guide for the Intracoastal Waterway (ICW).

• Saturday, May 16 – Marineland Marina, St Augustine, FL, STM 796.6 (No anchorages nearby, so we had to spring for a marina. It was nice! We enjoyed showering, doing laundry, and running the AC all night. We slept great!)

5/17/15 - The ICW in N. FL is shallow!

• Sunday, May 17 – Sister’s Creek Anchorage, FL, STM 738.9 (Coincidentally, my sister’s birthday)

 5/18/15 - Leaving Sister’s Creek Anchorage, Northern FL, at sunrise

5/18/15, early morning view of the cordgrass, northern FL

5/18/15, 10:03 AM – Kingsley Creek Railroad Swing Bridge,
seen beyond the 65 ft twin bridges over A1A in FL

5/18/15, 2:04 PM – the ICW in GA can be very shallow! However,
with the 9 ft tides, she'll be floating again in a few hours.

• Monday, May 18 – Jove Creek Anchorage, GA, STM 671.0

5/18/15, 7 PM – Jove Creek Anchorage, GA

• Tuesday, May 19 – Redbird Creek Anchorage, GA, STM 607.0

5/20/15 – Sunrise in Redbird Creek Anchorage, GA

5/20/15 - I still haven’t learned the birds,
but I'm pretty sure these are pelicans, just south of Savannah GA

• Wednesday, May 20 – Bull Island Anchorage, SC, STM 565.7

• Thursday, May 21 – Tom Point Creek Anchorage, SC, STM 495.5

5/22/15,  12:03 PM  - Wappoo Creek Highway Bascule Bridge, 

just south of Charleston, SC

5/22/15, 12:55 PM - Dinghy racing, Charleston Harbor

5/22/15, 1:44 – Ben Sawyer Swing Bridge, SC

• Friday, May 22 – Graham Creek Anchorage, SC, STM 438.9

5/23/15, 1:10 – Trees and grasses in SC

5/23/15, 3:43 – Cypress Swamp in SC

• Saturday, May 23 – Cow House Creek Anchorage South, SC, STM 383.6

On Sunday morning, as we were traveling, we spotted a dead alligator in the water, the first and only alligator I’ve seen. Unfortunately, no picture.

5/24/15, 8:03 AM – Cypress trees in SC

5/24/15, 12:17 PM – Gondola at STM 356.3 ferries golfers across the ICW, 

from parking lot to pro shop at Waterway Hills Golf Club, Myrtle Beach, SC

• Sunday May 24 – Dutchman Creek Park Anchorage, NC, STM 311 (We don’t especially like this anchorage because it’s really shallow, but we’ve used it now in both directions. Sometimes there are not a lot of choices.)

5/25/15 – Memorial Day – you must wear blue to fish here?

5/25/15 – Nice weather brings out Memorial Day craziness…

5/25/15 – Lots of small boats, and people working on their suntans

5/25/15 – Memorial Day weekend, 3 days of dodging 
small power boats, jet-skis and towed tubes, yikes!

5/25/15,6:41 PM – Memorial day is just another work day for some

• Monday, May 25 – Mile Hammock Bay Anchorage, NC, STM 244.4 (This anchorage is inside Camp LeJeune, only the water is open to the public. We are not allowed to go on land.)

We left Mile Hammock Bay Anchorage early on Tuesday so we would be through the Camp Lejeune firing range before 9:30 AM, the planned start of live firing. The security zone is STM 235.1 – 241. They were planning to start at 9:30 AM, then break at every odd hour, for one hour, 11-12, 1-2, etc. So we would have been stuck until after 11.

• Tuesday, May 26 – Broad Creek Anchorage, NC, STM 173.9

Mid-day on Wednesday, 5/27, we lost the use of our main sail, when the loop at the top broke. At first we didn’t know what happened. We were shaking out the reef (actually, rolling it out, since we have a furling main), after crossing the Pamlico River and entering the more protected (and downwind) Pungo River, when the main sail started slipping down the mast! We put on our life jackets and grabbed a sail bag, went out on deck and took it down, stuffed it into the sail bag, and continued with the motor.

Fortunately we were planning to visit our friends that we had met in the fall, George and Shelby Royster, who live along Pungo Creek, and they offered to drive us to Oriental on Thursday to get the sail repaired. Oriental looks close, but it takes about 1.5 – 2 hours by car to get there, around the water of the Pamlico River. (Which is still a lot quicker than by sailboat!)

George and Shelby

Oriental is a nice little sailing town. We had coffee and ice cream while the sail was being fixed.

5/28/15 - Laura and Gill, of Hodges St Sail Repair in Oriental
(see TownDock.net for Oriental info)

The new and improved mainsail head loop,
repaired by Laura, of Hodges St Sail Repair

In Oriental, we also visited a consignment store, where we were lucky to find a usable bosun’s chair. This is a tiny canvas chair that a person sits in while they are hoisted up the mast with one or two of the sail halyards (lines). We needed to use 2 lines, only one goes all the way to the top, but is not long enough to do the whole job – and it was good to have two on for most of the time.

5/2915, 10:30 AM – Chuck at the top of the mast, retrieving the mail halyard

Chuck was the winner of the round trip up the mast, where he needed to retrieve the end of the main halyard – the line that normally holds the main sail up, except when the sail breaks away. This end of the line usually rides down with the sail at the end of the season, and rides back up with the sail in the spring. When the sail loop broke, there was nothing holding the halyard to bring it back down with the sail.

• Wednesday, May 27 (through Friday May 29) – Pungo Creek East, NC, STM 136.3

The Cape Hatteras line is approximately STM 150 ...  GOAL MET !!!

On Saturday, we continued our northward journey.

• Saturday, May 30 – Little Alligator River Anchorage, NC, STM 81.9

In the South Mills Lock, with Stono II

On Sunday, we locked through the South Mills lock, to move up 10-12 feet. While waiting for the lock, we met our new friends, Dave Richardson and Shirley, his crew and cook, on s/v Stono II, from Charleston, SC. On Sunday night we were treated to dinner at the Welcome Center picnic table, featuring Shirley’s fabulous cooking. We continued to travel with (but usually not within sight of) Stono II. Dave is on the way from Charleston, SC to Annapolis, MD, where he plans to have electrical work done at Hartge Yacht Yard, no doubt by our wonderful friend and electrician, Mike Giannotti, who fixed our chart plotter in Vero Beach.

Dave and Shirley, with Chuck

• Sunday, May 31 – Dismal Swamp Canal Welcome Center free dock, NC, STM 27.8

On Monday, 6/1, we completed our transit of the Dismal Swamp when we locked back down 10-12 feet via the Deep Creek Lock. This time we were the only boat in the lock, (Stono II left earlier that morning), so we had the famous lock keeper, Robert Peek, to ourselves. He is endlessly entertaining, and an authority on the history of the canal, the area, the locks, and most places that cruisers go to and from, including the Bahamas. He has a huge collection of conch shells in his yard, brought to him from cruisers over the years. He has a few shells that he has made into conch horns and he blows them very skillfully at each locking.

Robert Peek, the Deep Creek Lock keeper

After the Dismal Swamp, we continued on to Portsmouth, VA, where a train stopped and waited for us to pass through the train bridge, and then we encountered Warship 107, who was heading out to sea.

6/1/15 - In Portsmouth, I got to talk over the radio with the captain of "Warship 107". 
We needed to negotiate and arrange our positions in the channel. 
Guess who had to move out of the way?

Our run of good weather (mostly sunny since the rain in Titusville) finally ended on Monday, with thunderstorms in the afternoon. Sarah Creek, while quite far into the York River, was a welcome and calm anchorage. We reached it at 7:30 PM, just after the thunder, lightning and rain started. We got soaked! 

And what is this strange feeling – a chill? I haven’t felt chilly since, um, Thanksgiving? I like it!!!

• Monday, June 1 – Sarah Creek Anchorage, off the York River, VA, on the western shore of Chesapeake Bay

And the bad weather continues. After a blissfully calm Tuesday morning, and a light shower in the early afternoon, the rain started in earnest around 3 PM. We sailed in pouring rain, fog and poor visibility until 4:30 when we reached the anchorage in Mill Creek. At the entrance, Chuck had to guide the boat in front of us by radio, “Make a hard turn to starboard!! Now! Turn now! To starboard! Do you seen the green mark right in front of you? Turn right!” It was very hard to see, with blinding rain. The other boat started moving to port and suddenly corrected, turning hard to starboard. Fortunately everyone was soon anchored safely.

• Tuesday June 2  –  Mill Creek Anchorage, near the Great Wicomico, VA, on the western shore of Chesapeake Bay

Today, Wednesday, we are taking a welcome rest from the journey. With small craft warnings, and high wind and more thunderstorms predicted, we decided to stay at Mill Creek and enjoy a quiet day in the warmth of our little cabin.

Sandy & Chuck

on s/v Summer Wind

Double click on photos to see a larger view.

Do you have the address of our blog? It's http://cruisingwithsummerwind.blogspot.com/

And now you can use the signup on the right side of the screen to get notified by email of new posts!

It's hard to keep up with the blog, either we are lacking quiet time, or good connectivity. I'm backfilling with pieces that I didn't get to write while we were living them. So please keep reviewing the contents list to make sure you've seen everything. I change the "posted" dates so things remain in chronological order.