We continued south from South Jacksonville. It’s sort of . . . barren looking.

Who lives here? And through St. Augustine, here is the St. Augustine Inlet.

The inlets all the way down the coast can be scary. Last time we were here this one had standing waves of three feet or so from changing tides. . . this time we were lucky.

Talk about lucky, we have Phil and Sarah as friends in Palm Coast. They arranged for us to dock our boat on a private dock near them, so we rented a car and drove home for Christmas. We looked forward to being home and had a wonderful time with our families! And we really looked forward to being back on the boat and heading south again.

Phil and Sarah have two dogs, Maggie and Casey. Well, gotta tell you, Niya thinks Casey is BEYOND the cat’s meow! The two of them are pretty evenly matched; sometimes I think Casey is faster and Niya is more agile, and other times I think Casey can definitely turn a prettier corner and Niya is gaining on him. Can I just say that Niya is smitten? Here she is WATCHING THE HOUSE WHERE CASEY LIVES! Waiting for him to appear.

They had a ball, and someday I’ll be fast enough to get photos or a video of them playing.

We did some organizing and provisioning, and left the day after we arrived, December 29, at 10 am heading south through the rain.

Got to New Smyrna Beach in the early afternoon.

We enjoyed our stay there last year going south, as it’s PELICAN CITY, with lots of egrets, great blue herons and White Ibis thrown in. They grunt, hoot, and growl, and lift as flocks, soar forever, and they all seem to roost on the tiny island outside of the marina. It’s a wonderful show.

There’s a young man at a dock next to the marina who I am CONVINCED has just purchased this semi-derelict fishing boat. He has spent (so far that we know) seven solid hours cleaning, adjusting, fixing and improving this boat, long into the night.

I’m not sure it’s worth his effort, but there you are: you have to believe, and he obviously does.

From New Smyrna Beach we went down through Mosquito Lagoon, an interesting area with many “fish camps” (largely campers or single wide mobile homes that are almost at water level!) I wonder who is having more fun, these folks living a very basic life or vacation, or the ones that are living in the high class, lengthy dock, many toys, even more levels of deck to watch the water. . . Well. I do wonder.

At one point we were joined by a young couple on an outrigger canoe. Vicki and Del told us that they go up to the Kent Island relay for outrigger canoes, and I can tell you, this is one hot team!

We were cruising along at 9 ½ knots (about 10.45 miles an hour – amazing for US!) and they kept right up with us. It was very cool! I’m going to try to post the video I took of them. Those of you with high speed internet can download it from YouTube, but beware, it is 16 megs.

We turned right (west) through the Haulover Canal to enter the Indian River heading south to Harbortown Marina on Merritt Island.  The day was punctuated by sights of wildlife; we see many, many, MANY “Slow Speed, Manatee Zone” signs along the way, starting in Georgia. Today we saw THREE MANATEES! That’s the first time we’ve seen them outside of Boot Key Harbor, in Marathon. We saw a young bald eagle sitting atop a green course mark. He was definitely not concerned with us. In addition, Niya had a good long dose of dolphins, who joined us and stayed for ten minutes or more, laughing at her howls and yips.

So finally this evening we watched as a flock of hundreds of cormorants flew in to their night time roosts.

It was amazing. And their noises. . . growls and snarls, is it a zombie or an alligator? YIKES! Notice that they all look like they have no heads.Once they land they instantly start to preen, clean, separate saturated feathers (these are divers!) and then, finally sleep. The one on the left, second branch from the bottom, is what they look like.

Merritt Island is the gateway to Canaveral, although there’s not much going on there these days.  We’ll be here two nights. Hans will catch up with some repairs. . . wait, MORE REPAIRS? Well, we have this problematic fresh water pump. It’s obviously leaking somewhere because about every three minutes it comes on with a loud buzz to accommodate for the loss of water. And I will walk the dog, and get some work done. I may even – gulp – vacuum up some of the many “puppies” that Niya has shed along the way. Uh-ohh-h-h-h.

After leaving Georgetown the winds picked up during the day and we saw green water with foamy whitecaps along the waterway. We were surprised to see a large flock of white pelicans. They’re bigger than their relatives, the Brown Pelicans, and do not dive for their fish as the Browns do. Instead they work in flocks to herd their prey to the shallows. These birds normally winter on the west coast of Florida or along the Texas coast. And we’re seeing more and more of them. . . wonder why?

We had a moderate passage across the inlet where the Cooper and Ashley Rivers rush into the Atlantic to our south – it’s always confused seas where those three bodies of water meet. Charleston was right there, to our north. We had hoped to stay in that historic city for several days, but we’ve lost so much time along the way with delays that we’ll just keep going.

We stopped that night at the St. John’s Yacht Harbour, which is a beautiful marina west of Charleston on the Stono River. The setting is in the marshes. When I commented on the rich gold of the autumn marsh grasses to one of the people who live aboard there, she looked around, a little surprised. She said, “Well, people say we don’t have fall colors here, but I don’t know. It’s pretty.” Yes indeed. . .

Another early departure the next day, this one without hitting anything, and we were off to Beaufort, South Carolina. This particular Beaufort is pronounced “Bew-furt.” The one in North Carolina is “Bo-furt.” Evidently they were both named for the same English earl, and no one can explain the different pronunciation. We stopped in “Bew-furt” last fall and saw the Christmas boat parade, and next day the hours-long Christmas marching parade. It was a spectacular window into small town America.

This year we decided to stay across the river at the Lady’s Island Marina. A charming smaller marina with very personable marina managers, we know we’ll go back there. I took advantage of the free laundry (YES!!) and then we went out to dinner.

Although there’s a bar/restaurant on the premises, it was suggested that we walk down the road to the “Fillin’ Station,” where they have $4 burgers on Wednesday night. Okay. . . this was SMALLER small town America! We first tried the door with a handle, but the guy in the pickup truck out front said we should use the other door. In the other door there was an empty hole where the doorknob had been. . . okay. That might have been a giveaway, but we went in, into the darkness. There were a few Coors Lite and Yeungling signs lighting the space, and some Christmas lights along one wall.

Five or six tall tables with high bar chairs, a pool table, and the bar, and that was it.

The charming lady bar tender told us they had no waitress, but if we wanted to order food we should go “over there.” Over there was out another door onto the deck, where there was much laughter, smoking, and a lot of beer. In a lean-to on one side was a big charcoal grill, a counter in front of it with all the fixin’s, and a gnarled older gentleman who looked like he might have been homeless. Other than on Wednesdays, when he cooked the burgers.

We ordered. $4 for a big cheeseburger, a small hot dog, a scoop of excellent potato salad and a bowl of cold baked beans. It was DELICIOUS! Thursday nights they do pork chops, and Fridays the steak is $10. There is no menu, what they got is what you get.

Off again early morning, Thursday, and we were in Georgia. After almost 78 miles of circuitous cruising, we were at anchor in the silence of Kilkenny Creek. You do have to wonder; did they kill Kenny here? Small streams running through the marsh grasses form the shadows and landscape of this place, and we were treated to a lovely sunset.

Friday, after another 77 miles through the choppy Sounds and narrow, shoaling channels of Georgia, we anchored next to Little Cumberland Island. A peaceful, somewhat exposed anchorage, we had another even more beautiful sunset. We were rocked to sleep by the waves that were leftovers from St. Andrews Sound to our north.

Woke at 2:45 am to turn off the heat and take off the blankets. The air was still, water flat. Looks like we’ve finally gotten to the warmth of the SOUTH!

We had two stops in South Carolina where we had free dockage, the first at Harbourgate, in North Myrtle Beach. This is a small marina connected to a condominium, where we were directly on the ICW, on their fuel dock. It was cold and misty, and in their parking lot there was a group preparing their float for the Christmas Parade that was to be held that night. I hope they had some people brave enough to be an audience.

The next stop was Osprey Marina, in South Myrtle Beach. This stretch of the waterway is lovely, with lots of Spanish moss draped from tall cypress trees. They have a beautiful facility cut into the swamp of the waterway and protected from wind and traffic. They also had a small herd of goats, which Niya thought were very, VERY exciting.

12-9-13 We left Osprey Marina in fog. . . It doesn’t look terrible, and we had about a quarter of a mile of visibility, but when you looked straight ahead it was like the end of the world. There was nothing. Very unnerving.

When we finally got clear skies it only lasted about ten miles, and just before we got to Georgetown, South Carolina we were socked in again.

We went in to Georgetown Harbor, always a favorite of ours.

It’s a charming town, with a couple of good restaurants. They had a disastrous fire in the early fall this year and lost 9 buildings along the historic waterfront. They are still cleaning up the debris.

We had a lovely dinner at the River Room with Hans’s friend Kenny, who lives nearby. They were fire department buddies in the “old days,” and had much to reminisce about and catch up on.

Unfortunately when we left the next morning we were pinned by wind into the dock, and we wiped out the power pole we’d been plugged into over night with the broad sweep of our bow. We e-mailed the Dock Master about it, as he wasn’t in yet and we wanted to leave. We now have a bill for $478. That was an expensive overnight stay. . .

Thursday, December 5

Can you tell I’m playing catch up with the blog? Here’s the deal: We have internet access on the boat but are limited in the amount of information we can upload or download. We try to keep the photos in the blog at a good quality level (have you tried clicking on any of the photos? They get larger so you can see just that on your screen. High resolution, or almost.) Most of the marinas we’ve stayed at “have internet access.” Let me explain. Most of the time “Internet Access” means you can SEE their signal, but either it is so weak you can’t sign on, or it drops almost immediately. So I save it up and send it when I can.

There was still fog as we left Morehead City but not major.

This section of the ICW seems to be less picturesque than many others, with many areas of straight channel.

Much of it runs through Camp Lejeune. . . there are periodic closings for a variety of reasons.

We arrived fairly early at our chosen anchorage, Mile Hammock Bay, which is actually in Camp Lejeune. It was obvious that some of the people who have access to the base enjoy the leisure activities available in the area.

We shared the anchorage with four sail boats, and had a beautiful sunset. Ah-h-h-h-h. . . .

Tuesday 11-26
We’re in Belhaven. . . a very, VERY small town in the dogleg of the Pungo River. . . The town calls itself the birthplace of the ICW (Intracoastal Waterway) and they have a celebration in September that brings thousands of boaters. It would be great fun to come and check it out!
We’ve hunkered down here due to “weather.” This is part of THE major storm that disrupted so much of the Thanksgiving travel this year, with ice, snow, heavy rain (VERY heavy rain, we had 2.5” last night) and wind. Mostly in other parts of the country, from Texas to New Hampshire, thankfully, but we are getting our share, and it is NOT BOATING weather.
The wind is really what has pinned us here, as it whips up waves and makes travel difficult, uncomfortable. We are an elephantine, lumbering, rocking-and-rolling trawler. Imagine rolling your living room 15 degrees left. . . pause. . . then 15 degrees to the right. Or 20, 25 degrees. Sometimes there isn’t a pause, sometimes it’s a “snap,” and you are rolling back the other way. Things fall, including things that you were sure were tied down, wedged in, secured. As for us, WE are more fragile than the boat. So we just don’t care to be out in it.
We came into Belhaven early afternoon Tuesday with winds and waves urging us on. It’s a tiny spot, interesting, friendly. Les the dock master is passionate about wooden boats, their history, construction, preservation, reconstruction, appreciation. And is very happy to talk about it all, with a lot of knowledge and experience.
A very bouncy overnight and day, with driving sheets of cold rain coming through periodically. COLD! Les took us to the Food Lion which was a couple of miles away. If the day had not been so nasty (cold, very cold blowing rain!) we would have walked the three blocks up to the local museum. Evidently among other things in their collection there are fleas dressed in wedding attire, and a button collection that boasts 30,000 buttons. I truly regret missing these things. . . they sound as if they make a return trip worthwhile!! (Have I said COLD??)
We decided to go to dinner “in town” which is literally three blocks long, and boasts several restaurants. Our choice was “Spoon River” which gets rave reviews, but we discovered it closed. Almost directly across the street was “The Tavern at Jack’s Neck.” Our decision was made. This is a restaurant built in a space which dates back to the 1930s. Open with a full menu for only three weeks, they were doing a good business on the night before Thanksgiving. The space itself is beautiful, with a variety of rich woods milled locally. The atmosphere is warm and inviting, the staff welcoming and attentive. Dinner was not “perfect,” but the experience was, and it too was worth a return visit.
Thursday 11-28
We traveled on Thanksgiving Day down through a canal from the Pungo River to Bay River, passing through an area that was home to some of the local shrimpers. These are huge boats, and I cannot imagine them quietly tied up during the NON-shrimp season, but there they were.
Out into the Pamlico Sound and then in to River Dunes. This is a resort about which we have heard rave reviews from everyone. EVERYONE. I don’t think anyone has given it 4 stars. And we agree, it is worth 5 stars. Inexpensive for transient boaters, it’s extremely protected, has floating docks, and the amenities are amazing. A swimming pool, a clean and incredibly inexpensive laundry, an exercise room with all sorts of major equipment, a beautiful “clubhouse,” with pool table, and free wifi. The showers . . . we have a bathtub on Aqua Vitae, but the showers at River Dunes get bigger raves than anything else about the place, so I had to try. Four small shower heads aimed just above the belly button, and a rain shower above, then you press the button for steam . . . OH MY!
There is quite a contrast between Belhaven and River Dunes.
We took the loaner car into Oriental, which is about 6 miles from here, had a disappointing lunch at M & M’s Restaurant, which we had remembered as “good,” bought some cable Hans needed for a repair to one of the engines and back again. Loaner car – wow! Check this out: http://www.riverdunes.com and you’ll see what I’m talking about.
Tomorrow we are off to Morehead City, North Carolina. I wouldn’t mind staying here for “the duration,” but onward, ever onward. . . . Our goal is Marathon, Florida. In the Keys. Sometime.