Beautiful Beaufort!

Crossing the Savannah, note sailboat

We left Thunderbolt, GA and wound our way north through a stretch of the AIWW that had a channel that meandered all over the place. As we approached the Savannah River we monitored the traffic in the shipping lane and heard on of the big ships call to a sailboat 4 times with no answer. One could tell that the captain of the large ship wanted to know what the sailboat's intentions were, and it was really stupid of them not to respond. A large container ship is not something to mess with! We got to the Savannah River and aimed the boat for the AIWW cut on the other side. No large ships were encountered, and when we got to the other side, we saw the sailboat that we were pretty sure was being hailed. It was flying a British flag, but that's no excuse for not responding to a call.

Lighthouse on AIWW

We had an uneventful ride for the rest of the way to Beaufort with the exception of some rather large sea swells in the Port Royal Sound, but we are gaining confidence in our ability to handle most conditions. At the Beaufort River we got off the AIWW and went to the harbor host home of Chuck and Claria Grogen. We ran with Chuck and Claria across the Okeechobee and they invited us to tie up at their dock when we got to Beaufort. They invited us for happy hour and dinner that night and we had a delightful time.

Nancy-Rhett House

Pirate Hanging Tree

The Rhett House

Jane & Buck

The next day our hosts took us to downtown Beaufort where we took a horse-drawn carriage ride through the Beaufort historic district. Because Beaufort was occupied by Union forces during the Civil War, the city was spared the destruction that occurred other places and the old homes were magnificent. We saw several old churches and saw the Succession House where the Confederate succession papers were drawn up. The carriage ride was informative and entertaining. Beaufort has a long history involving different occupying forces, pirates, and the Civil War. We had lunch and were taken to a hardware and grocery store to re-provision the boat. That night Chuck and Claria invited us to a birthday party they were hosting for a friend and we got to meet some wonderful people and had a great time.

The Chapel of Ease- tabby construction

Claria & Jane at a working plantation

Gullah Chapel

Jane's she-crab soup!

Historic lighthouse

On the beach with the Grogens

The next day we were taken to some of the islands east of Beaufort. These islands are largely occupied by descendants of the Gullah who were largely from the Angola region of Africa and were brought to this country as slaves. After emancipation the Gullah were given 40 acres and a mule and today reside primarily in the lowlands of South Carolina and Georgia. They are a tight-knit community that have preserved their language, culture, and heritage. We went to a beautiful state park on Hunting Island where we saw a lighthouse and walked the beach. We stopped at the Gay Fish Company on the way back to the house to purchase some shrimp for supper. The company's shrimp boats were used in the filming of Forrest Gump. We had a great supper and conversation that evening.

High tide on Distant Island

Low tide on Distant Island

A long dock over mud at low tide

High and dry at low tide

The next morning we decided to move on. We had thought that we would like to anchor out about halfway between Beaufort and our next stop, Charleston, but when we heard that a major storm front was moving into the area, we decided to go the 70+ miles to Charleston in one day. It was a long trip and and the conditions gradually deteriorated throughout the day. By the time we got to Charleston we had 15-20 kt. winds. The wind and tidal current made it difficult to dock the boat at the Charleston City Marina. Although we radioed and were told a dock hand would be waiting, none were there when we got to our spot and we bumped rather hard into the pier. A neighboring boat helped us get tied up, after which the dock hand arrived. The marina staff seemed more concerned that we might not be close enough to the boat ahead of us for other boats to come in than helping us get set up. After this was all over, the dock hand lingered around, obviously waiting for a tip for doing nothing! That night and all the next day we rode out gale-force winds and really rough conditions. Someone said that the winds in the marina reached 42 kts., but many of the sailors thought it was higher than that. We stayed on the boat, did some chores, and invited Gary & Lori from Tessa which is home ported in Put-In-Bay, OH down for happy hour. We had a great time visiting with them.

A nasty blow in Charleston!

Teakettle Creek to Thunderbolt

Wild horses on Cumberland Island

USN King's Bay sub base

We left Fernandina Beach and headed north towards Georgia. Fernandina Beach is Florida's most northern city, so after we crossed the St. Mary's River, we were in Georgia and Cumberland Island. The landscape and scenery changed almost immediately. Gone were the palm trees and developed areas only to be replaced by coniferous and deciduous woods and lots of flat marshland. Shortly after entering Georgia we came to the U.S. Navy's Kings Bay nuclear submarine base. We had heard that some loopers were in the channel when they were bringing a submarine to or from the base, the all was quiet when we went by. We had the boat on autopilot and was programmed to turn away from the base, but apparently we didn't turn soon enough because we were radioed that we needed to turn at the G79 marker. Right after the transmission the autopilot turned the boat, but there was a patrol boat in the channel to make sure we didn't get any closer.

A buried charted wreck on Jekyll's Island

Waiting for throws as our float goes by!

Casting for bait

Sunset on New Teakettle Creek

Will perch anywhere!

We proceeded into Jekyll's Creek which is currently renowned for its skinny water. Although we were close to high tide, it was tough to follow the channel and at one point had less than 2 feet of water below the props. After Jekyll's Island we passed St. Simon's Island and then got into the McCay River which eventually took us through the Little Mud River, another shallow passage, to our anchorage that night in New Teakettle Creek. We went through way too many ranges and skinny stretches to get to this anchorage, and feel that unless some serious dredging is done to maintain the waterway, it will only be a few more years that some portions will not be passable. We got the boat anchored for the 7 foot tidal range and swift currents. Jane took a nap, but Capt. Larry noticed that alewives were jumping out of the water and there were silver flashes of large fish below the surface feeding on the schools. He got out his cast net and began casting for some of the bait fish. Jane got up and we tried to catch some of the larger fish, but had no luck. Why would the fish bite on our half dead bait when there were some many fish in the schools to be had. We had supper on the boat, turned on the generator and watched a movie (thanks Todd!) before retiring for a restful sleep. Anchoring out is so much more enjoyable than going into a marina!

We decided to head for Thunderbolt, GA the next morning. Thunderbolt is right next to Savannah and this would put us essentially out of Georgia and into South Carolina. At this point we have traveled around 1400 miles which is about one-fourth (depending on the side trips) of the loop. We left early so we could get into a marina relatively early. It was also Sunday and we didn't know how much weekend boat traffic we would encounter. After leaving the anchorage and passing a couple of sailboats, we put Bavarian Cream on autopilot. With the tidal current we were doing almost 9 knots when we came to a well marked shoaled area. When the autopilot is on we generally relax and let it do the work, but this almost turned out to be a mistake. As we were motoring through this shoaled area, Capt. Larry noticed that the boat was coming really close to some red markers. In fact, it dawned on him almost too late that these red markers were coming along to starboard when they should be to port. A glance at the depth sounder showed 2' of water which quickly went down to 0.7' as Capt. Larry threw the boat to starboard to get back in the channel. We made it OK without going aground, but probably only because we were traveling faster than usual. Another close call! Thunderbolt as a destination turned out to be a good choice because as we were up on plane across some larger bodies of water, Capt. Larry started complaining that it seemed the boat was driving uphill. At one point he stood up to go to the head and almost fell down. That was when he discovered that the starboard trim tab was not working and the boat on plane was listing like a drunken sailor. Jane took the helm and Capt. Larry went below to find a leaking compression fitting in the line. We throttled back which put the boat in a better configuration and motored into Thunderbolt.

At Tubby's Tank House

Loading wahoo pieces for weighing

Capt. Tubby at Tubby's

Too much Tubby's

The next day Capt. Larry went below to try and fix the trim tab leak. He really tightened the fitting, but it would not stop leaking. When he discovered that he didn't have the right fitting to do a repair, he called the marina for assistance. They sent out their "best hydraulics man" who quickly assessed the situation and said he could have it repaired that afternoon. Jane and Capt. Larry went to Tubby's Tank House, apparently a local institution, for lunch. Tubby's was sponsoring a fishing tournament and as we were leaving, two young fishermen were bringing in their catch of wahoo for weighing and certification. They had a 120 quart ice chest and one of the whaoo had to be cut into 3 pieces to fit into the chest. What a fine catch. We returned to the boat and "our hydraulics man" came aboard and fixed the trim tab leak. We grilled some chicken for dinner and watched another movie (thanks Todd!) before turning in.

Fernandina Beach and Amelia Island

The pirate ship attacks the castle!

We left St. Augustine knowing we would be back and headed north to Fernandina Beach. During this leg we passed through Jacksonville Beach and adjacent suburbs and subdivisions. While this section contained some very nice homes, we found it to be rather unattractive as all of the homes were sandwiched into postage-stamp sized lots. Most of this development was along a man made ditch that was not very wide. We encountered signs in the waterway warning that this was a congested area for the next several miles, and while we did not encounter very many boats on this weekday, one can only imagine the traffic and congestion on the weekends and holidays.

Shipyard on the St. John's River

As we got close to Fernandina Beach we knew that we would have to cross the St. John's River which is a major shipping lane. We were monitoring the radio and just as we started to cross the river we received a securite' call that one of the big ships was approaching the ICW. The distance across the river to Sister's Creek seemed so far, and even though we didn't see any large ships, Capt. Larry put Bavarian Cream up on plane and we scooted across. As we approached Fernandina Beach the channel narrowed and it was low tide. We came up on a sailboat and was looking for her name to hail her for a pass when she started to move to port. Assuming she wanted us to pass on the starboard side, we slowed and started around.

No kidding! An ICW warning for the little boats

As we got even with her we realized that she had suddenly stopped, and the skipper had reversed the engines and was stirring up mud. She had gone aground. We felt badly about the situation but also knew it was low tide and she should be able to free herself with a rising tide. That's part of traveling on the ICW. We got secured at the marina, cleaned up, and had dinner on the boat. We watched a magnificent sunset and turned in for the night.

Sunset on the AIWW

FB railway station

Arrrgh! Give me your booty!

The next morning we got Cream Puff down to patch her up in the cockpit of the boat. Since we had to wait for the patch to cure, we got the bikes down and took a ride. Fernandina Beach and Amelia Island is very quaint and even more charming than St. Augustine. There were several shops calling Jane's name, so we parked the bikes and Jane shopped while Capt. Larry went to Florida's oldest continuously operating saloon- the Palace Saloon.

Carousel porch columns

This was like a step back in time with a wooden bar and brass foot rails, wooden carvings and reliefs, and painted murals promoting defunct brands of beer.

Beer and history at the Palace

We returned to the boat and got the dinghy back on the davits and went to a mexican restaurant for dinner (we were tired of seafood!).

Sightseeing St. Augustine- The Oldest and the Best

We arrived at St. Augustine and got the boat secured in St. Augustine Municipal Marina. Getting the boat into a slip proved to be difficult as we had a 15 knot tailwind blow up just as we arrived. We started to enter the slip and the wind gusted blowing us sideways. The marina harbormaster radioed and told us to go into a slip on the upwind side of the pier. This worked out well as we were now in much calmer waters and protected from any southerly wind (Jane slept better as a result of Captain Larry's poor boat handling!). Anyway, it was predicted to storm then next day so we decided to try and do some sightseeing that afternoon, in case we couldn't make it out the next day.

St. Aug's only skyscraper

Jane & St. Aug's fine architecture

St.Augustine is an absolutely beautiful and charming city, and is very tourist oriented. It has some outstanding architecture and quaint neighborhoods and districts. We started out with a trip to an English-style pub with over 50 beers on tap and had a wonderful lunch. The we staggered over to the trolleys or trams that will take visitors to the various historic sites over an one and one-half hour time span. We got to see all the historic sites as well as some of the new commercial points of interest. We returned to the boat, cleaned up, and had dinner on the boat and an early bedtime. We were bushed!

The Flagler Hotel

Old Spanish fort

Capt. Larry and Ye Olde Pharmacy

The next morning it stormed big time. Around 11:00 a.m. it started to clear and a couple of neighboring boats headed out. One hour later it kicked up again and we were only too happy to have remained in port. Early in the afternoon the weather cleared and we took another trolley ride to the same spots we saw the day before (the tickets are good for 3 days). One of the stops Jane wanted to visit was the Sebastian Winery and we caught that late in the day. We had met some other loopers from San Diego and had invited them to Bavarian Cream for happy hour, but by the time Jane got done sampling her wines and we got back to the boat, we had missed them.

Glad the port was the last round!

Jane & Cathy

Love you, Bunga!

Capt. Larry had called his sister, Cathy, who he thought lived in Jacksonville, to see if we would be able to get together. Turns out she lives closer to St. Johns and was only about 40 minutes away from the marina! She said that she would come the next evening, so we extended our stay in St. Augustine another day. The next day Jane went shopping while Capt. Larry did some boat chores. We took a bicycle ride to West Marine to get a dinghy repair kit to fix Cream Puff up. She was looking pretty sad with two bladders flat. Cathy arrived and we had a couple of drinks on the boat then went to a great restaurant for dinner. We were able to catch up the four years since we've seen each other. It was great. Cathy left and we retired for the night.

We Go to Daytona Beach and the Matanzas Inlet

New Smyrna Beach lighthouse

White and brown pelicans

Daytona Beach

We left Titusville and headed toward St. Augustine. With the passing storm a cold front moved in and the weather was really pleasant, so we thought we would sit on the hook for the next couple of nights. The first day we made it to Daytona Beach. Traveling was not much fun because it was Saturday and the weekend boaters were out in force. That coupled with the shoaling of the channel in this stretch made it a very tedious day. At Titusville we were berthed next to the sailboat Calypso with Justin and  aboard. They are from England and purchased a boat here in the U.S. They planned to cruise various American waterways for the next 2-3 years then sell the boat and return to England. We passed Calypso just before New Smyrna Beach. Here we had our choice of two routes, the AIWW channel, or the preferred channel through Sheepshead Cut. Capt. Larry started through the cut with Calypso following. Just past the branch, he decided that he couldn't read the channel markers very well and started back towards the AIWW. Of course this put him outside of the channel and he watched the depthsounder drop down to 1 foot. Calypso was right behind with a greater draft and how she didn't go aground is still a mystery. We would have felt terrible if she had grounded. In the AIWW channel we never saw depths less than 9 feet, so we still don't know why the cut is marked as the preferred route. We made it to Daytona Beach and secured the boat in an anchorage area.

Fort Matanzas

In the sentry box

The next day we headed toward another anchorage in the Matanzas River. Here there is an old Spanish fort that was used to protect St. Augustine from attacks. Today the fort is a national monument maintained by the National Park Service. We dinghied over to the park to catch a ferry to fort for a guided tour. It was a really pleasant site in spite of the heavy Sunday boat traffic. When we returned to the boat we found two things. First the dinghy seemed a little soft and spongy. Two days later we would discover that we had a cut in two of the three bladders from an oyster bed we had to go over to land the dinghy. The other thing we found was that we were at low tide and, while we had anchored in 5.5' of water, the 4' tidal range had grounded the boat.

Cream Puff fully inflated!

So we did the only thing we could think of- drink beer and wait for the tide to come back in! Jane kept watching weeds disappear as the water rose and Capt. Larry would occasionally take in some anchor rode to keep us off the shoreline. Just as we sat down to have some dinner, we felt the boat swing and we raced to get her repositioned in deeper water. To be safe in the strong current, we set a second anchor and retired for the night.

She's not moving with the wind or current!

We Get Spaced Out!

Space Cadet Jane

Our first full day in Titusville was spent dealing with the nasty weather. We thought it might be time well spent at the Kennedy Space Center, but the weather was so lousy there wasn't much to do except stay on the boat and look at each other. The next day the weather cleared and we decided to spend an extra day in Titusville rather than move on. The space center was about 15 miles from the marina, so we  rented a car and to drive out to see it, then visit some retailers for some re-provisioning of the boat (mostly we needed beer!). It was just becoming too inconvenient to make beer and grocery runs on bicycles.

There go the astronauts!

Ready to launch 4/19/2011

Apollo Saturn V Main Stage

We arrived at the space center early and decided to take the bus tour to various parts of the center. The space center is located on Merritt Island which a major portion has been designated as a wildlife refuge. As we came to our first stop on the bus tour, the driver announced that we should be on the lookout for the astronauts who were scheduled to do a training exercise at the shuttle that morning. We no sooner got off the bus when people started running toward the road. We caught a picture of the astronauts as they passed by in the astromobile on their way to the launch pad. We got to see the vehicle assembly center, the orbiter preparation building, and the huge crawler that rolls everything out to the launch pad. Our second stop was at the Apollo program museum. The shuttle stuff is impressive, but it was the Apollo program that in our opinion was this country's finest moment in space.

Jane kisses a moon man

Rockets, rockets everywhere

Watching the films and realizing how far we came with a lunar landing in less than a decade makes the hair on the back of your neck stand up. This was the program we grew up with and we found it very moving. 

We ended the bus tour with a ride through a swamp. Everyone was looking for alligators, but we weren't impressed. What was impressive was an old bald eagle's nest that has been used continuously as a nesting site for 40+ years. A little is added onto it each year and it is estimated to weigh between 800-900 pounds. Unfortunately, we weren't able to get a picture, and we were lucky to catch a glimpse. After we returned to visitor's center we toured the grounds and saw rockets and spacecraft from the Mercury and Gemini programs, then we headed out to do our shopping.