Coasting

Ah, St.Augustine. That was while ago. We're in Beaufort, NC right now. In between was a beach day on Cumberland Island, Georgia. With Maritime Forest, dunes and swamps, ruined mansions, and a huge beach that disappears over the horizon. And feral horses for the semi-wild touch.

We recommend a side trip up the Darien River. That 8 miles is enough to filter off some of the commuters and the river runs through a protected area of saltmarsh with oxbow turns and a broad horizon. The free dock makes it easy to drop in and walk the town, as long as you arrive within an hour either side of the tidal slack. We were met by the Habourmasters and chatted about the local scene and history for 20 minutes or so and the current had built to 3 knots or more. It worked out well for a mid-day arrival and an afternoon of walking the town and a Reproduction Pre-Colonial British fort, followed by a stop at an unusual wine bar, a big seafood meal a few doors down, back to the wine bar, and a late morning departure back down river just before high tide. Georgia's virgin Cypress and Yellow Pine forests were in large part floated down river to this town and shipped out. It was all gone by the 1920's and so is the infrastructure. Just a few brick engine or mill supports and some silted in ponds to be seen. The town now hosts a shrimp fleet and just set up a freeze packing system for jellyfish destined for Korean markets. The shrimpers can catch them with the same trawl gear hauled at the surface instead of on the bottom. They ship a million pounds a week. In Beaufort, SC there was quite a bit of self congratulating going on for recently refusing to allow the same sort of operation. Waste water and the Alum used to reduce the water content of the jellyfish flesh is a big sticking point. By-catch is a huge problem with bottom trawling and surface trawling requires turtle exclusion devices, as these creatures feed extensively on the jellyfish.

We did see a big seagoing turtle on our next day out in the ocean. We left a nice anchorage in the Crescent River and as we headed down the Sapelo Sound the weather looked just right for an outside hop. Once we rigged for downwind the wind went down, of course. So the diesel filled in and eventually we picked up enough breeze to hold a nice motor-reach at good speed. So good that we could skip the Savannah River inlet at Tybee Roads and go in at Port Royal just at sunset. It was a 12 hour day, but saved 35 miles of ditchwork. We dropped anchor in the Beaufort River, below the fixed bridge about mile 540. Our turnaround mile was 1021 near West Palm Beach. They do add up, even at 5-8 per hour, every hour, many, many hours. Which brings up another point that has surprised us. Do you think you'll ever need hearing protection on a sailboat? On certain older boats little thought was given to sound damping the engine compartment. It's a diesel Auxiliary after all. In and out of the marina, a few hours from home an afternoon when the wind dies... no problem, right? It's not news that 8 hours in 90 decibels of racket will beat the crap out of your auditory system. We've resorted to earplugs and a pair of my shop muffs that were in the tool kit. You can check the level with an app on your smart phone, you may be surprised.

In Beaufort, SC we finally caught up with friends Roger and Patsy, prepping their recently acquired trawler for the trip back north to the Hudson River Valley. We spent a few days there re-provisioning, laundering, and helping out with some of their projects and then headed out again. The overnight anchorages in Toogoodoo Creek, Dewees Creek and Georgetown harbor were comfy.

Anchored in Dewees Creek, photo taken from the ICW

The ride up the Waccamaw River is a standout favorite. The slack water moment moves up the river and we could keep up using the light tailwind and the headsail rolled out. The anchorage at Enterprise Landing was beautiful on a clear night with a moon just one day shy of full. The whole area is a forest preserve of cypress and live oak, the last wild looking scenery before re-entering the man made canals and Garage-Mahal residences around Myrtle Beach. Thank goodness for three days of a following breeze and roller furling headsails. The current in the ICW that runs through salt marshes close to the coast is variable. You'll have a boost for an hour and a bust for three. Or the other way round. More isolated stretches of ditch can be guessed at by the distance to the closest inlet and the tide state there, but between Myrtle and Beaufort, NC it's pretty interconnected with many small inlets between the big ones. As it was we made it to Southport in one day, 66 statute miles. This was necessitated by the tide in the Cape Fear River. We experienced that on the way down as a sleigh ride and didn't want to fight it on this episode. We were up early and caught the last of the fair current up to the cut over to Carolina Beach, Wrightsville Beach and another few hours to a marina in an excavated basin, in anticipation of some stormy weather. We caught a break again as the front moved through without much more than a shower. Quick fuel top off and another 50 mile day to Spooners Creek, the mudhole surrounded by high priced real estate that gave us an anchoring lesson in December. Forewarned, we left ourselves plenty of room to back down and let the Vulcan muck-dive for solid holding, which it did just fine.


So today we just had a short hop to Beaufort. It's cool and breezy and we're spoiled. A day ashore sounds warmer than bucking a damp breeze. Supposedly, the town has avoided being burned by the Union Army and we went in search of older buildings. St. Augustine was a big disappointment in that regard. The Brits burned it in 1702 and it's gone up in flames a few times since, so almost no 18th century stuff exists except the stone fort. The same is true of Darien, GA. It's the second oldest town in the east at 1736 or so, but the Yankees torched it at the close of the Civil War, leaving one brick warehouse shell from 1813. Beaufort has one house from 1709, a few from the 1780's and plenty of Victorian homes in a mix all through the village. Plenty of tourists on this Easter weekend and the bar music is wafting out over the harbor and our anchorage among the various boats, from pristine to derelict. The Chesapeake is 4-5 days travel away. And spring is traveling with us.

Enjoy

And, whoosh! Another couple of weeks slide by. 

But Florida has finally relented and granted us some T-shirt weather. The Palm Beach area is clogged with impressive Naval Architecture as well as silly stucco & glass extravagances that don't even float. The former is to be preferred, in our opinion.

Famous Dead Guy's Boat

We will head North in the ICW without actually backtracking since we sailed down in the Atlantic from Ft. Pierce to Lake Worth. That was our only real opportunity to get outside with all of the considerations of distance, daylight, and inlet currents in alignment. The big day started with a transit of the Ft. Pierce inlet with an outbound current of 1.5 Knots and a few standing waves. We had seen friskier conditions in New Jersey and made the step out with care. The leftover swell from the north was a bit more than I hoped for, and after some bouncy moments raising the main we turned downwind and rolled out the headsail to fall in with the waves and breeze. The whisker pole did duty, but had an oscillation that seemed unnecessary, so I rigged the lazy sheet to a bow cleat as a foreguy and enjoyed some 20 minutes of deep wing and wing until the pole folded up. Not too surprising considering it was a cheapo, spring pin type, almost fully extended and a bit slender for the size of the boat. We rolled in the headsail and finished out the day as a motorsailer, hitting the Lake Worth inlet just about slack water for a flat ride in at 1630 hrs.

But that was a month ago. This day, 2/22, we motored up the ICW between condos and marinas, drawbridge after drawbridge, sometimes in a parade of 3-4 boats until we reached the St. Lucie River junction. Out of curiosity we turned up river to anchor near Stuart. There wasn't quite enough curiosity to dinghy in for an overpriced dinner and tourism, so in the morning we motored right back down the river and turned north again with the idea of making Vero Beach before our fellow North East travelers, the Jones Family, left their mooring. Vero Beach has no inlet, but a deep water creek off the ICW leads to the Municipal Marina with inexpensive moorings and decent facilities. A free shuttle stops there and a great many snowbirds get that far and park. So many that it is policy to double up on a mooring as folks come in and wait for an opening. We got lucky with a ball to ourselves for three nights. The walk into town features Live Oak and Spanish Moss lined streets, leading to a nice beach with enough public access between the not-too-big resort hotels that it feels less exclusive than it probably is.

We caught up with Reese and Anita, Nina & Lala over lunch in the rain, dinghies along side and the Captain's Lounge. They are having a blast and may stay another week or more, giving credence to the 'Velcro Beach' nickname we've heard since Beaufort, SC.

We walked the town, the beach and the neighborhoods and cast off to move onward before the grasping tendrils of convenience could ensnare us. Besides, we had tourists of our own to ensnare. Mitch and Julie live near Orlando. Mitch has had bouts of boat fever in his youth and always got sidetracked (or saved) by things like family and career, and Julie grew up around boats in the Keys. They tracked us down and visited on the way down, so we offered to take them out on the way back. It happens to us lots of different ways, but sharing an activity is a great way to rediscover one's own enjoyment of the same. We took down the bimini so the sails would be visible and met them at the Melbourne Harbor Marina for a day out in the Indian River. Perfect conditions, mild temperatures, tacking up river to set up a sweet downwind run under Asym spinnaker and dinner at the restaurant a few steps from the slip. It was so nice to sail for the fun of it again. Thanks M&J!

The next day we heard the safety broadcasts by the Coastguard warning of an exclusion zone for a NASA launch. The Falcon 9 was scheduled again for 6:46 in the evening. This was going to be perfect! We reached the Addison Point bridge and dropped anchor within sight of the rocket, 8.4 miles from the launch pad about 5:00 pm and waited with as many cameras as we could contrive. And waited. Nothing. We checked the Kennedy SPace Center website and saw the countdown move later and later and then change to "TBD". In the morning the story came out. Some fool boater had gotten into the safety zone out in the Atlantic. While the Airforce chased his dumb self out, they were holding the liquid oxygen fueling process. The fuel goes in at the last moment, and they did ignite the engines at 7:21 but the system bailed out due to helium bubbles somewhere they shouldn't have been. Boaters... Jeez. Reschedule couldn't be less than 48 hours, so up came the anchor and off we went. Have I mentioned the anchor?

The ground tackle upgrade has been a very good idea. The boat came with a dead windlass, a 35 lb. CQR and a 16 lb Aluminum Fortress. The CQR is just the marginal size for a 37', 19,000 lb boat. Certainly not storm size, and the fortress is just barely 'lunch hook' gauge for Juniata. The design and holding is excellent, we've kedged off with it twice now, and it's nice and light to handle in the dinghy, but it did fail to bite through a layer of twigs and leaves in a very protected cove off of the Magothy River and let us drag uncomfortably close to shore. Sometimes weight is important for that sort of thing. At any rate, we opted for the 44 lb. Vulcan pattern by Rocna and an all chain, 5/16" G4 rode lifted by a Maxwell windlass with a capstan, and BIG wire to run it. We have been very pleased, even in 35+ knots of wind, completely exposed the boat stayed put. It's hard to put a price on that.  Who the heck needs a capstan? After kedging a 19,000 lb boat off a sand bar with the jib winch, one could be surprised at how deep the kedging anchor has been drawn. I have never pulled 1/2" nylon as tight as that before, and had to pull it almost that tight again with the windlass capstan to retrieve the kedge. 

Where were we? Ah, backtracking. After the rocket-non-launch we motored up to Ponce de Leon Inlet above New Smyrna and found our Rockhouse Creek spot just as it was on the way down, except more boats. But we got to watch an eagle eat his fish dinner on shore. And another repeat anchorage just below St. Augustine the next night set us up to pick up a mooring at the Municipal Marina today.

We expect to be here a few days for a visit to Jacksonville and a rendezvous with Ron & Alex whom we met in Beaufort, SC. And an oil change. And some old buildings. And fresh shrimp.

Enjoy

Taking Our Time

And, whoosh! Another couple of weeks slide by. 

But Florida has finally relented and granted us some T-shirt weather. The Palm Beach area is clogged with impressive Naval Architecture as well as silly stucco & glass extravagances that don't even float. The former is to be preferred, in our opinion.

Famous Dead Guy's Boat

We will head North in the ICW without actually backtracking since we sailed down in the Atlantic from Ft. Pierce to Lake Worth. That was our only real opportunity to get outside with all of the considerations of distance, daylight, and inlet currents in alignment. The big day started with a transit of the Ft. Pierce inlet with an outbound current of 1.5 Knots and a few standing waves. We had seen friskier conditions in New Jersey and made the step out with care. The leftover swell from the north was a bit more than I hoped for, and after some bouncy moments raising the main we turned downwind and rolled out the headsail to fall in with the waves and breeze. The whisker pole did duty, but had an oscillation that seemed unnecessary, so I rigged the lazy sheet to a bow cleat as a foreguy and enjoyed some 20 minutes of deep wing and wing until the pole folded up. Not too surprising considering it was a cheapo, spring pin type, almost fully extended and a bit slender for the size of the boat. We rolled in the headsail and finished out the day as a motorsailer, hitting the Lake Worth inlet just about slack water for a flat ride in at 1630 hrs.

But that was a month ago. This day, 2/22, we motored up the ICW between condos and marinas, drawbridge after drawbridge, sometimes in a parade of 3-4 boats until we reached the St. Lucie River junction. Out of curiosity we turned up river to anchor near Stuart. There wasn't quite enough curiosity to dinghy in for an overpriced dinner and tourism, so in the morning we motored right back down the river and turned north again with the idea of making Vero Beach before our fellow North East travelers, the Jones Family, left their mooring. Vero Beach has no inlet, but a deep water creek off the ICW leads to the Municipal Marina with inexpensive moorings and decent facilities. A free shuttle stops there and a great many snowbirds get that far and park. So many that it is policy to double up on a mooring as folks come in and wait for an opening. We got lucky with a ball to ourselves for three nights. The walk into town features Live Oak and Spanish Moss lined streets, leading to a nice beach with enough public access between the not-too-big resort hotels that it feels less exclusive than it probably is.

We caught up with Reese and Anita, Nina & Lala over lunch in the rain, dinghies along side and the Captain's Lounge. They are having a blast and may stay another week or more, giving credence to the 'Velcro Beach' nickname we've heard since Beaufort, SC.

We walked the town, the beach and the neighborhoods and cast off to move onward before the grasping tendrils of convenience could ensnare us. Besides, we had tourists of our own to ensnare. Mitch and Julie live near Orlando. Mitch has had bouts of boat fever in his youth and always got sidetracked (or saved) by things like family and career, and Julie grew up around boats in the Keys. They tracked us down and visited on the way down, so we offered to take them out on the way back. It happens to us lots of different ways, but sharing an activity is a great way to rediscover one's own enjoyment of the same. We took down the bimini so the sails would be visible and met them at the Melbourne Harbor Marina for a day out in the Indian River. Perfect conditions, mild temperatures, tacking up river to set up a sweet downwind run under Asym spinnaker and dinner at the restaurant a few steps from the slip. It was so nice to sail for the fun of it again. Thanks M&J!

The next day we heard the safety broadcasts by the Coastguard warning of an exclusion zone for a NASA launch. The Falcon 9 was scheduled again for 6:46 in the evening. This was going to be perfect! We reached the Addison Point bridge and dropped anchor within sight of the rocket, 8.4 miles from the launch pad about 5:00 pm and waited with as many cameras as we could contrive. And waited. Nothing. We checked the Kennedy SPace Center website and saw the countdown move later and later and then change to "TBD". In the morning the story came out. Some fool boater had gotten into the safety zone out in the Atlantic. While the Airforce chased his dumb self out, they were holding the liquid oxygen fueling process. The fuel goes in at the last moment, and they did ignite the engines at 7:21 but the system bailed out due to helium bubbles somewhere they shouldn't have been. Boaters... Jeez. Reschedule couldn't be less than 48 hours, so up came the anchor and off we went. Have I mentioned the anchor?

The ground tackle upgrade has been a very good idea. The boat came with a dead windlass, a 35 lb. CQR and a 16 lb Aluminum Fortress. The CQR is just the marginal size for a 37', 19,000 lb boat. Certainly not storm size, and the fortress is just barely 'lunch hook' gauge for Juniata. The design and holding is excellent, we've kedged off with it twice now, and it's nice and light to handle in the dinghy, but it did fail to bite through a layer of twigs and leaves in a very protected cove off of the Magothy River and let us drag uncomfortably close to shore. Sometimes weight is important for that sort of thing. At any rate, we opted for the 44 lb. Vulcan pattern by Rocna and an all chain, 5/16" G4 rode lifted by a Maxwell windlass with a capstan, and BIG wire to run it. We have been very pleased, even in 35+ knots of wind, completely exposed the boat stayed put. It's hard to put a price on that. The only time it didn't set was in another tiny basin, surrounded by condos and full of fluffy mud. I had lowered it without the boat moving, and backed away. I believe it settled upside down and the mud was so soft that it slid on it's shank like a keel. We only had room to pull a few yards and when it wouldn't set, we tried again. This time with some way on to lay out the hardware, and it hooked up immediately. I had a float and retrieval line rigged for the depth and some slack and the anchor dove down through that muck until it found hard ground and the float spent the night two or three feet under water. So even with a good design, some technique will always be required. Who the heck needs a capstan? After kedging a 19,000 lb boat off a sand bar with the jib winch, one could be surprised at how deep the kedging anchor has been drawn. I have never pulled 1/2" nylon as tight as that before, and had to pull it almost that tight again with the windlass capstan to retrieve the kedge. 

Where were we? Ah, backtracking. After the rocket-non-launch we motored up to Ponce de Leon Inlet above New Smyrna and found our Rockhouse Creek spot just as it was on the way down, except more boats. But we got to watch an eagle eat his fish dinner on shore. And another repeat anchorage just below St. Augustine the next night set us up to pick up a mooring at the Municipal Marina today.

We expect to be here a few days for a visit to Jacksonville and a rendezvous with Ron & Alex whom we met in Beaufort, SC. And an oil change. And some old buildings. And fresh shrimp.

Enjoy

The turnaround.

We spent a few days anchored out in Lake Worth, down near the first of many, many drawbridges between there and Miami. We watched the weather, nursed our coughs and came to the conclusion that it really wasn't going to get any warmer no matter where we could have gone. Two days of ICW to Biscayne Bay and the Keys with 20+ bridges and then nowhere to tie up without a waiting list. The cold fronts were so close together there was no chance for the Gulf Stream to lie down and let us cross. So with news of our friends Chris & Eric turning up at Lake Park we poked back in to the marina and caught up with them. Our slip was next to the day trip fishing charter and we received the bounty of a party that didn't want their fish. 

The fish were Porgies, Yellowfins, Puddingwife or something and numerous others I can't remember. They all filleted nicely and fried up firm and flakey. Competition from these fellows at the dock was intense: thanks to Eric for the photos. 

On Sunday Chris took us up to the Jupter Lighthouse Park, where a long standing afternoon music jam takes place. I had a few old time tunes on the museum porch while Laura got to take the 146 foot lighthouse tour. And today as we started back North on the ICW we passed the same park and watched the water change to turquoise as the incoming tide from Jupiter Inlet mixed with the rivers' flow. 

It's just about a 35 mile hop to the anchorage near Stuart where we stopped but it is the start of the journey back. The Bahamas will just have to wait. There's so much to stop and see that we missed on the rush down that there's no regrets. 

Enjoy,

Welcome back.

Mercy, what a circus the past few weeks were. Travel, blizzard, canceled plans, travel, zigzag Florida with the band for three shows, hop on the Cayamo Cruise for a week and 3 more shows, hop off in Miami and rent a car to drive back to West Palm Beach and reboard Juniata with.... ??!!?? Yes folks it's the Flu. Congratulations. You've won a week full of lethargy and mucus! Trips to the pharmacy! Extended marina bills! Eyeball busting coughing jags! But there are palm trees and sunshine. And because we are such relentless optimists, that counts for a lot. 

Our berth at Lake Park in the background.  

Noodle Salad in the davits marks the sick room slip. 

So we are out of here in the next day or so. Higher paying traffic is due in from the  Miami Boat Show and we'll resume anchorage life.  Still flipping between going farther south or waiting nearby for a crossing to the Abacos. 

Enjoy,

Be right back

We are off the boat for a couple of weeks for gigs and stuff. More later. 

Next stop?

Weather or Knot

Yes, leaving the mid-Atlantic in mid-December is going to be a race against winter. We sprinted through Georgia in dreary grey chill. The empty salt marshes were quiet and soggy, stretching on for many miles. The tidal flows that accumulate 7 & 8 foot tides can make for long days at sluggish speeds or the occasional shortlived boost. We had the former on average for the three days it took to bust through. So at last we reach the State of Florida and anchor near Fernandina Beach for the night and awake to 37 degrees F. And a day that wouldn't bust more than a tease of sunshine. Ah well, advertising is so often illusory.
Had a fair current down to the St. John River and crossed it on a strong outgoing tide. As we headed up the next leg of the ICW we found heavy flow against us again. At the Atlantic Beach Bridge, the first to be encountered on that leg we hit the maximum ebb flow. A quick look at the Active Captain database would have noted this challenge but that was one day that it didn't happen. We had used it for the shoal areas of NC, SC, & GA but snoozed on this leg. As we approached the bridge and felt the speed drop I pushed up the throttle more and more. A big motor yacht was close enough behind us that backing out would have been a big problem. We slowed to about one knot and crept through the passage with swirling eddys all around. There was still some rpm to spare but I would advise a schedule adjustment to anyone that can't hold about six and a half knots through the water.

We took a slip in Jacksonville Beach for two days to visit my Dojo headquarters. (SoBudoKai and Chintokan.com  for info) Visiting my second family and working out for the first time since the shoulder surgery was rewarding and challenging at the same time. Still temperatures in the 30's at night though. And a deadline for a short break is approaching so we must press on. 

After two more days of motoring and anchoring out, including a kedge-off session below St. Augustine, we stopped at Titusville Municipal Marina to meet up with friends Mitch & Julie for seafood at Dixie Crossroads and a great evening catching up with them, aside from dropping the iPhone overboard while tying up in the slip. 10 feet of salt water claimed another electronic victim. Perhaps insurance would have been a good idea after all. Another 50 mile run today finally found us in the 75+ and sunny conditions that we promised ourselves each day along the way. This evening's anchorage is about ICW mile 925 and even though rain is forecast for tomorrow it felt like vacation today.

Oops, forgot to leave.

We anchored in the creek near Lady's Island Marina for a couple nights as they were full up. I arranged for some mail to catch us with us here a couple days out  Dinghied in and met some friendly folks who loaned us wheels for a grocery run! Cruisers that have settled in somewhere still enjoy helping out and paying back karmic kindness that came their way previously. Spent New Year's Eve with more of the same in the marina lounge even though we hadn't yet booked a slip! This is a sticky place. It seems there are quite a few folks who found this place and this town to be good enough for a long to very long term stop along their way. We had some rain as a stalled front finally moved through. It has been held off for weeks by a high pressure system in the Atlantic. The nasty flooding in the Appalachians and Tennessee Valley last month were all a result of this system, and so was the mild weather that we have been benefitting from since we started out. So we lounged and tinkered at anchor for a day or two, then took a slip for laundry & showers. Here we met some friends of friends that had tried to catch us on their way down the Chesapeake in October. The instruments came out and the lounge got lit up til way past cruiser's bedtime.  So another day or two clicked by because it was cold and windy behind that front, and the solar panels needed some attention,  and I had insulation for the fridge box waiting to be installed, and we were offered a ride into Hilton Head for an afternoon and before you know it, a week has been frittered away. With good seafood. 
Dang! We are Definitely leaving in the morning!!!

On Down the Line a Bit

It's New Year's Eve in Beaufort, South Carolina. As it is elsewhere. But with the anchor down in Factory Creek and the nice folks at Lady's Island Marina letting us tie up the dinghy to provision, and a restaurant next door, there's not a lot else we need to do but catch up on the reporting.
A week and a day ago we left Wrightsville with spotty rain forecast and made it to the Cape Fear River before it hit us. The radar and chartplotter were a helpful combination as we picked out the line of markers leading down the river and as the tidal flow built we logged 9-1/2+ knots driving into the incoming breeze. That's a 3.5 kt boost. Or bust if one is going the other way. Better check that next time, we just got lucky. Back into the ICW at Southport and against the current once more.

There is a long stretch between there and Myrtle beach with little opportunity to anchor. Apparently many folks stop at Southport and make a long leg through there. With only half the day gone by I planned on using a marina once again in that stretch just to keep our 50 mile per day pace within reach. I placed several calls to the facility during the afternoon and tried the radio as we passed in front as sundown approached. A TowboatUS captain replied to my call to say that the place was closed for a month. And with that news we pulled up to the outside of their dock and tied up. Oh well, they couldn't even change their answering machine message, and regular folks were obviously still using their boats daily. I guess it was just the office staff that couldn't be bothered with doing any business this month. No guilt on our part. Didn't plug in or use a drop of water, gone by 0730.

So now we were motoring along on Christmas Eve, hoping to make Georgetown, SC for Christmas morning, but it's a long haul. Ran the few miles that have rocky banks on a narrow stretch, passed Myrtle Beach and a couple of swing bridges and we were back in a river system that became the Waccamaw. Another tide boost finally caught us up and it seemed like we could make G'town a little after 5pm and sunset. That tide boost was the ebb of a very high tide that had flushed out a lot of debris and mats of floating plants. We saw at least two dead-head log snags with their gnarly ends pointed upstream at us and the other end down in the mud. The darker it got the less important waking up in the harbor seemed to be and as a marina dock came around a bend, out came the phone. Of course, at 4:40 on Christmas Eve what right minded individual is sitting at a desk in an off-season marina office? Alas, we became pier pirates once again, and skulked off into the fog in the morning. Actually we waited until 10 o'clock because of the fog and when it broke up some we departed.

It was only another 8 miles to Georgetown but their harbor channel was still socked in thickly. We circled out and did a slow loop up the river and back to try again as it cleared in about an hour.
We dropped anchor in the harbor and had a surreal walk around town with nothing open and no more than half a dozen humans to be seen in several hours. But it was warm and sunny! Come to think of it, I haven't had long pants on since. We took a berth in a marina the next day for laundry, showers and a walk to the Piggly-Wiggly Market. where we called a cab to haul the load back. Our driver seemed a bit indifferent at first and I thought there might be a little socio-economic rub with the boat tourist vs. workaday folks but when I asked about the closed steel mill he turned out to be the Sage of Georgetown. Opining on economics and universal truths of the cosmos as we know it. $5 for the ride. Free lecture and entertainment. Actually, we agreed on most everything, so that's even better.

The next few days were Low Country scenic. Salt marshes with  surprising numbers Porpoises working the inside channels. We recognize a few boats here and there that leapfrog with us. The new anchor is working like a charm in these reversing current channels. I had rigged a retrieval line with a crab float on a stick to adjust the line length and learned that I need to leave 6-8 feet more than the depth of the water because the anchor will dive so deep in the muddy spots that it sucks the float down too. It just keeps going until it finds firm ground. One time I believe I dropped it into soft mud upside down and didn't pull hard enough to right it. It is important to be moving just a bit as it goes down. Doesn't matter much what direction, just as long as it gets laid out a bit. I haven't seen many other Vulcan pattern Rocnas out here yet, but I'm gaining confidence in it.

We made Charleston at midday and looking at the open water anchorages with a fair bit of traffic, we took a tie up at the 'Megadock', Charleston City Marina's big floating pier. It was convenient and nicely serviced, but made for a long squeaky night as the southwesterly breeze pushed a little harbor chop up against us. Had a long walk around the old town with some grand style houses and plenty to do if you want to take the time. There are a lot of Mid-Atlantic boats wintering there; far enough to be mild and not too damn far to drive the boat each year, and a Southwest Air connection back to BWI multiple times a day.

Another two days to Beaufort (Bew, not Bow) with a pretty and quiet night on the hook in between. The dawn to dusk lifestyle takes over pretty quickly while cruising. Especially when trying to keep the mile count up and make a destination. We've mostly pushed to outrun weather, but after 8-9 hours at the helm, a meal and a cold beverage induce sleep promptly. What I'm saying is I'm not sure how in the heck we'll ever make it til midnight on this 12/31.

Enjoy

Mostly North Carolina

Another full week has gone by since the first post of this trip. So much for being verbose and inundating the internet with intricate detail.
We crossed the Albemarle sound and passed the two boats we had been tied up with at the top of the Dismal Swamp Canal. Conditions were clear and light and we ran up the main and got a free knot to add to our speed but lowered sail to pass the bridge at the northern mouth of the river. It's about 12 miles to the skinny end where the Alligator Pungo Canal starts and we dropped the anchor for the night nearby. This was the remotest feeling spot yet with low scrub forest wetlands all around and total silence. Until just after dusk when the mosquitoes swarmed and shortly after we ducked in the cabin and began stalking those that got in the fighter jets began low altitude training runs overhead. Thankfully, they wrapped it up by 7:00pm and the rest of the night was very quiet once again.

The canal transit the next day gave us a more complete AICW experience. It has more traffic and less maintenance than the park's canal so we discovered some sunken debris as we made room for a northbound tug & barge. We may have been clear until I moved over just a bit more to allow a powerboater to pass us at the same time. The bow rose up and we stopped short while I was on the radio to to the powerboater, so he heard my reaction and my request to turn around and pull us off. Which he did, competently and graciously, while the tug slowed to a stop to wait out our little circus. Everyone parted company after the proper radio acknowledgements and we headed south once more. At the southern entrance to the canal is a road bridge that is plenty tall at 65 feet, but beneath it was another navigational issue. A sailboat with the main up and a dead diesel was becalmed in mid channel. More radio negotiations and his slight drift made room to pass. Two guys in a mid-sized cruising sailboat, blown waterpump, dinghy with no gas for the motor, looking for a marina that wasn't there, having passed numerous others out on the Pungo River, being blown downwind into the canal, with rain & squalls forecast within a couple of hours. They refused assistance from us and two more boats that hailed them on the radio after us. Good luck, Gents.
We took the public dock above Belhaven for the night as the breeze filled in. Most of the rain passed to the northwest of us while we chatted with Santa Claus in a tavern about a 20 minute walk into town. The locals spot a boater and engage with the enthusiasm of people in need of a fresh conversation partner. It's a really, really small town. On the walk back to the dock we spotted a storefront being set up with a major model railroad. We ducked in and met the two guys of appropriate age that were finishing it off, tinkering with the accessory pieces activated by doorbell buttons at the edge of the table. Big Standard Gauge trains for the most part. A very nice rig.

Belhaven to Oriental, NC was a 43 mile day. We left in 60 degrees  with a drizzle and a forecast of clearing for the day, expecting cold air mass breezes and a drop in temps later on. Down the Pungo we found some quartering wind so for the first time we shut down the engine and sailed for two whole hours! A half hour deep reaching and we had to turn up the Neuse River into the building breeze. Once it got to pinching and punching into a sloppy sea we furled and picked up our straight line under power again. With mid 30's temperatures and 10-15 knots forecast for the next 24 hours we checked into Oriental Marina with the rational that it was laundry time anyway. Now that was one item not on the shopping list; detergent.
With none available at the marina we took a walk around town and after a detour through the Marine Consignment shop, the Inland Waterway Provision Company came through with a jug of the right stuff, and an excellent anchorage guide as well. We stayed through the next day for the farmers market and were offered a ride to the grocery store as well! Fantastic folks, thanks Pat.

Sunday the 20th was another Bluebird Day and we made the short hop down through Beaufort to a little keyhole basin called Spooner Creek, where we anchored in the middle of a gleaming waterfront neighborhood with nobody home. Expensive seasonal places for the most part. Just 26NM and some sunny naptime in the cockpit before sundown. Monday is Solstice Day and we crammed 53 nautical miles into the shortest day of the year, with some more ICW entertainment along the way. There's a shoal area a few miles north of Onslow Beach bridge that is documented and specially marked but it still snares a lot of captains and their keels. The radio chatter told us that a sailboat was aground and shortly after, a powerboat got stuck trying to go around them. Once we had them in sight there was another poweboat pacing back and forth above the mess and TowboatUS had been called, so we anchored to wait it out. The towboatUS captain sorted them out and sent them on their way, guided the last powerboater through and offered to do the same for us. We followed him closely but still had to power through some mud for a nerve wrackingly long few seconds. A few hours later, just above the Surf City bridge we heard the same power boater warn the same sailboat that he was stuck again on the red side of the channel. He called Seatow this time. It was a fairly large sportfisher, trailing black smoke exhaust each of the three times he passed us, named, appropriately, "Bottom Line". We had an anchorage from the guidebooks in mind but the sailboat ahead of us was heading in there and it looked tight so we took a night at the Harbor Village marina 3 miles further along, just at sundown. 453 total NM at the end of the day and the Solar Year.

A long line of colorful rain images greeted us this morning on the weather radar apps, so with the hope of stopping in a decent anchorage instead of a pricey marina we left about 7:30. Another transient boat pulled out ahead of us at 7:00 and their strategy was superior as we could see them catching the bridge openings a few miles ahead of us, and we had to circle and wait until the next. Until NC, the bridges had been opening on request. Now they are on the hour or half hour during the day. Once again, the plan had to change as we turned off the ICW to look for the chosen anchorage in Wrightsville Beach. Stuck in the center of the channel was another big sportfisher. We circled out and since the rain was due within the hour, opted for a tie up at the Dockside Marina, close at hand. An afternoon of rain, heavy at times and a nice restaurant meal later, the saga continues.

Here's some video of the Dismal Swamp Canal and South.
Juniata Lily's Youtube Channel

Enjoy

Who's got time to blog?

Ok, getting out a laptop is going to be too much trouble, so here's an iPhone post. Six days out and 248 miles in. We crossed into North Carolina this morning in the middle of the woods. Through which runs the 200 year old Dismal Swamp Canal. One of George Washington's business deals involving development of swamp land that didn't quite work out as planned. I think they still made a bundle on the lumber and the swamp is a park now. But this is out of order. 

Chronologically, we left The North East River on Thursday about noon and made it to Worton Creek for the first night. The boat was a disaster scene of throw & go packing, but over the next few days Laura has stashed and stowed all but a box or two of parts and epoxy stuff that I will have to deal with. 

The nearly miraculous weather for mid December has allowed us to motor down the bay in flat water wth only a breath of air on the nose, posting three 50 plus mile days. We stopped at the Little Choptank, the Great Wicomico, where we were met by our friends Git & Holly who had just moved to that area, and brought us home to a wonderful dinner. Back onboard we rose early to leave the marina and promptly stuck Juniata in the mud on the way out of their little channel. It really only took 20 minutes to drop the dinghy, carry out a spare anchor and kedge her off with the genoa winch and get back underway. On down the Bay to anchor out in the Back River, right next to Norfolk. These days were steady chugging, pulling into each just at sunset and off again first thing in the morning. Yes we missed all the Chesapeake classics, but getting caught in big air and big water at the same time was not going to be good fun in cool weather. So all those places will still be new when we want to cruise closer to home. 

The next phase was much more like the expected pace. We went through Hampton Roads and Norfolk, VA on Monday morning with the imposing Naval presence and heavy industry to turn into the Deep Creek channel and turn back the clock. From urban waterfront and intense pilotage to pastoral backwater in a minute. Our first lock experience was uplifting, of course, and informative. The Lockmaster/Bridgetender played the museum docent as well. We stopped just past the lock & bridge to get propane and some groceries and stayed the night with two other sailboats: a single hander from Maine and a couple from Virginia. Light rain and impending darkness parked us there but I would recommend pushing on to the the next bulkhead 5 miles further because the traffic at the bridge and a stoplight went on all night long. 

So this morning the other boats took off early and we cooked breakfast and cast off later than usual for a placid ride through the ditch. Another lock dropped us back down to the Albemarle basin and the ride down the Pasquotank River through the Cypress forest was gorgeous on a blue sky day in the mid 60's.

We stopped for fuel at Lamb's Marine just north of Elizabeth City, noting that it is the only fuel dealer for many miles. Overnight rate was great and the showers and seafood restaurant sealed the deal for staying in. So tomorrow the plan is to skip another town and cross the Abemarle sound to get ahead of some rain and wind and have a sheltered anchorage, or another protected canal to move through on Thursday. By then I feel we can stop and go a little more comfortably. Old Man Winter doesn't punch so hard down here. 

Enjoy.

P.S. Here's a video of the 1st Leg.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zIPHS8K_cJA

But First...

Oh, yes... let's go ahead and have shoulder surgery first. It should only put us back 4-6 weeks.... There is so much less traffic on the ICW in December anyway. I'm out of the sling Thanksgiving week. So what if doing anything hurts for the foreseeable future? It's all Therapy...
The Dickinson Newport heater works like a champ so check back after December 8th or so.

Southbound

Someday, someday soon, and maybe next year can become a cruising mantra that never ends. There's always another project to start or finish. There's always another local destination to see. But there's also never a better time to take a journey than whenever you can cut loose.

So "When and If" has become "Why the Hell Not", and despite the logistics of suspending normal workaday rat race activities, we are going South this Fall.

The practicality of this decision has made the Summer of 2015 the Season of Upgrades. Instead of spending weekends jaunting about the Chesapeake Bay, we've been hunkered down on the mooring, drilling and sawing and crawling and banging. Back and forth to town for hardware. A box or two from one chandlery or another in the dinghy each week. The smell of hot plastic every time I pull a card out of the wallet!
Systems improved include increasing the solar array to 220 watts. Remove and replace the 12 volt refrigeration gear and adding a water pump option. A new anchor windlass with appropriately massive cabling and a chain rode and new anchor. The diesel heater will include a new day-tank for gravity flow that can do double duty as a fuel polisher. Of course the bilge pumps are rebuilt or replaced. And a few rewiring distractions tagging along with each new install. The mainsail was serviced and stitched as needed. The headsail was gone over last year. We also found a lightly used assym spinnaker that makes light air sailing much more pleasant.

So we can see that the trip planning is somewhat more than an impulsive leap. There's also the guidebooks and travel accounts of many other folks to be sifted through for useful information. But we have been doing that for years anyway!

Now some may say that once you are on the Chesapeake there's no need to go anywhere else. The most amazing estuary in the world will take a lifetime to explore. This is all true. There's just one thing that needs to be compensated for. Winter. So at least this once we will do our best to dodge it.

Enjoy

Sayonara 2014

Grand explorations and epic journeys may come our way someday, but good seasons can still be composed of sailing weekends around the Upper Bay and pleasant project days at the mooring.
One highlight was a 4th of July sleigh ride on the tailwinds of Hurricane Arthur, which passed 80 miles south of us the day before. The northerly 20 knots blew a lot of water our of the North East basin and several deeper draft boats were unable to cross the bar below Hances Point.
We took a mooring in Georgetown, MD and the wind abated just in time for fireworks to proceed. 

The Sassafras River hosted us several other weekends for nice overnights, although the daytime traffic is pretty overbearing.
Our big cruise this year was a week plus off, starting with a midnight departure and a 3am transit of the C&D canal on our way to Cape May. A few nights at anchor in the harbor, a few nights in a posh marina, and lots of walking around town. A sail off the coast and a lazy beach day added true vacation ambience.

The sail home turned out to be a nice tame reach in a light easterly all the way from the ferry terminal at Cape May Canal to the Reedy Point entrance to the C&D canal. The Delaware Bay has given sailors plenty to gripe about over the years, but this day was really pleasant.

Fall closed in far too quickly and we bagged a Monday to take advantage of the weather and move Juniata to the winter yard. Out come the lists and catalogs. On go the tarps. Hunker down and wait for Spring.

Spring 2014 at long last.

For a Mid Atlantic winter, there sure was a long wait for Spring this year. Not only are we tired of the weather, we are tired of complaining about the weather. Records were set in both of these departments.

So on to the projects. I'm going to speculate that the second season one owns a boat has the most work scheduled. We've had a full Summer to accumulate tasks and dream up improvements. Add to that a long off season too cold or miserable to squeeze in a little progress and the list is long.

So far we've replaced the four major seacocks with Marlon units on new backing plates. The cockpit drain hoses are all new now as well. Laura has the coaming caps, companionway, and toe rails scraped, sanded and first coated with Epithane. I've ripped of the rub rails for replacement of the wood molding & made a stainless steel mount for the raw water strainer. ( It was just threaded on the top of the old bronze seacock before; not very strong and certainly not suitable for the new plastic valves.)
Then there's the head compartment. I gutted that a few weeks back when it was too cold to do anything else. As soon as it was mild enough to pump epoxy I extended the fiberglass floor pan aft to the bulkhead. The old vanity cabinet took up this space. Now the C-head will fit there very nicely on the fore & aft axis and a new vanity will be built against the hull. I'll install a shower & sink sump with a vented loop. Some folks have no problem running their wash water through the bilge but this boat has its tankage built in under the cabin sole and drainage to the rear bilge sump is not especially fast. I would prefer not to let it get clogged with drain funk. I will, however, let the galley sink drain to the bilge. It used to be plumbed to the port side cockpit drain. This was not a good idea in that anything going down the drain that would float would remain on the waterline inside the hose. And that's where the hose was shot. Wire corroded, neoprene bulging; a boat sinker, and a smelly job.
So with the waterline sound and a quick wax job and the yard bill for an extra month pending, we called for launch on 5\12. Had an easy trip over to the mooring at HPYC the following weekend.
The next two weekends were spent crawling in and out of the cockpit lockers running new lines to the bilge pump and the pressure water pump, installing a new VHF radio, and varnishing. That will go on for nearly ever but finally things are settled enough to be optional and we can enjoy a sail and a weekend off, relatively speaking. Here's to Summer, at long last!

Building a stripper dinghy

There's really no question in my mind between inflatable and hard dinghies. One is a boat and one isn't.
That's not to say an inflatable can't be utilized as a tender and be a convenient accessory. It's just a more temporary displacement device. Climbing aboard a rubber bubble in a chop never quite works for me. Rowing against a breeze will challenge either type, but I'll get there sooner in a solid craft with a hull shape that works in the flow of water.

The second major consideration in dink choice is power. Blowing the budget on the Mother ship precludes shelling out for an outboard motor for several seasons at least. That and the avoidance of gasoline fuel storage and transport issues is a big plus for me. I also actually like to row, for a while yet, anyway.

All that rationalization and a pile of surplus basswood, along with a mahogany plank end just perfect for a one piece transom lead me to build a dinghy over the winter of 2013. Juniata was 200 miles away under her dirty shrink wrap and snow. I had room in the shop. What the heck?

Starting with the transom shape, I drew a midship station and several forward sections and set them up with thin splines to visualize the shape.

The hull was to be formed with basswood strips. From a run of a picture frame molding I had 1"x3" off cuts. These were dressed, ripped and thickness sanded to 3/8"x 7/8"x 11' long. The total ended up being 45 pieces per side. Over 1000 feet when you include a few breaks and defective pieces.

The adhesive is West System Epoxy with microfiber filler. The strips were buttered up and pinned to the forms with 6d finish nails. The practical limit of stable assembly worked out to about 6 pieces per batch. Clamping at the stem was the biggest problem. After a few rows of fumbling with clamps and goo, an alernative had to be developed. The stem form block emerged from the scrap pile shortly and worked like a charm as the angle of the strips against the stem rabbet held them against the previous row as soon as they were pinned to a form. Clear packing tape protected the form block and the station forms from the adhesive.

First strips

Circus of clamps

The stem block solution 

Dealing with the twist required of the strips as they turn the forward sections was the next issue to develop.

If there were no limits on clamping and I wanted to steam the strips I could have continued to apply the same section pieces. However, in the interest of stability and the easy route, I opted for a cutting a taper on the forward ends. These were pulled through the table saw in an entirely 19th century freehand fashion not to be recommended and smoothed with a hand plane to 'epoxy tolerance'. That is to say a medium gap that leaves plenty of room for thickened epoxy, which ensures a good bond and adds some rigidity to the final product.

The resistance to twist results in a stairstepping of the strips. The worst of these received another mini strip to fill the corner before the adhesive set. After the taper program was adapted the rows worked in much more smoothly. So much so that I recut the starboard side bow area to regain the more gentle bending loads. Needless to say, an opaque painted finish was planned from the beginning, as epoxy needs protection from UV radiation. 

Port side, tapered strips

Twisting issues on the starboard side

Recut starboard bows and proceeding with tapers

Closing in.

The keel strip was 1/2"x 1-1/2" mahogany, bonded to the tramsom and the stem before any strips went on. Turning the garboard I used thicker, narrower strips to be carved in later. After the hull was flipped over I layed in a wider beveled kelson board for strength and to fair the interior.

And now the sanding begins. Nails were pulled and high spots knocked down with a hand plane, the basswood's mild nature made sanding fair a relatively easy task on the exterior. On the outside the glue got scraped close as a matter of course before it hardened. The interior was inaccessable and subsequently a mess of hard epoxy dribbles. Using 4-1/2" angle grinder with 40# cut it well enough, but the compound curves made a tricky job of it. After the grind, interior surfaces required several curved blocks and lots of grunt work to knock back to fair. Some strip built boats use a cove & round edge profile to register the strips and leave a more fair surface. If and when I do this again, I will jig up for edge matching and the taper.

Sanding begun

Medium density filler applied

For the first fairing coat I used west's 407 low density filler. I wanted the strength for filling any open joints and remaining step corners. After glass, I applied a final fairing coat using the microlight 410 filler and a plastic longboard sanding tool.

Two layers of 6 oz. fiberglass cloth are on the outside, one layer on the inside. All wetted with West's 105/205 resin.

The skeg went on between glass layers and received two more layers of its own.

Weighing in at 68 lbs. before seats, rails & paint.

Right side up for the first time.

I had to patch a little bit of barrier coat on Juniata, so the balance of the quart Interlux kit went to a first coat on the dinghy. This sanded out very nicely and I applied two coats of Petit Easypoxy for the final roll & tip finish. 

In the tradition of advanced mathematics and empirical design I pitched the new boat in the back of the truck and dropped her in a friend's pool to plot the waterline and seat locations perched on a milk crate. 

Blue, but not the Caribbean, yet...

She rode nice and high. So much so that I cut a deeper sheer in before laminating on the mahogany rub rails.

For the painter I wanted a simple grommet around the stem. To avoid exposing the basswood core to water, I drilled for some 1/2" water hose and potted in short pieces at the bow.

Grommet for the painter

Quick and easy graphics from BoatUS website

After her first season, still looking good.

She has performed admirably during her first season. Two of us and a week's worth of provisions and Stuff can still handle a choppy row out to the mooring and remain dry. And in smooth water she is just dream to glide along in. Decent oars just a bit longer will be the icing on the cake.

Enjoy.