Blue moon

Every once in a while (19 years) there's a blue moon on
New Year's Eve and tonight there is a blue moon. The next one will happen
in 2028.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/chi-talk-new-years-eve-full-moondec31,0,6194104.column

Happy 2010 to all

Which way to go??

When we get started again after the holidays we had originally planned on crossing the Lake Okeechobee Waterway. You can access the waterway just west of at Stuart Fla. It cuts across the central part of the state and allows you to get to the west coast of Fla without going all the way down the east coast Florida through the Fla Keys and then head north. A bit of a short cut.

The lake is at the " iffy level" and we may not be able to go this way or at best it maybe a bit of a nail bitter with skinny water. Not our favorite thing. The current depth of route 1 is 7.6'. The lake and water levels are controlled by the US Arny Corps of Engineers.

  http://www.saj.usace.army.mil/h2o/reports/r-oke.html 

This is the beginning of the dry season so we may not see any significant rainfall in the watershed which is typically the northern part of the state. We may in fact continue to see modest declines.
If we are not able cross Lake Okeechobee, we will need to travel further south to Ft Lauderdale and Miami and then to Marathon Key, cutting north and up the west coast of Fla. This will add some time to the trip. Ultimately we are planning on going to Long Boat Key near Sarasota Fla.

We do not need to make this decision just yet but it is not looking good. This will affect our arrival plans and will require some adjustments. On the bright side of things we love the keys and if we go that way will certainly enjoy the warmer temperatures and tropical feel.

Christmas Can Can

This is great ...enjoy
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7E-47VmFopE

Back Home, the ICW and more....

We returned to Kilmarnock on Monday Dec.14 from Brunswick Ga where we left Seabright at Brunswick Landing Marina http://www.brunswicklandingmarina.com/. We are on a T-head and, as is my practice, I rig the lines and fenders in the event of a storm. This means some doubling up and extra lines and I put out additional fenders. Better to over prepare than get caught short. We will return in early January to begin the next phase of our trip south.

With more time on my hands than usual I thought it would be productive to go back to some of the pictures from the trip south and see if there are any that might add color and interesting content.  Also I want to add some more information about Seabright's systems but that will be in a different section and aimed at those would have a more technical orientation.

What better way to begin than to catch me in one of my more natural habitats?  This is outside the Charleston Aquarium which we toured and had a great time. We had planned to take a water taxi across the harbor to tour the naval ships on display but the water taxis were closed for the season and it was a more logistically and costly challenge to get there so we opted for Lunch at the Fleet Landing Restaurant http://www.fleetlanding.net/. Good food and and interesting setting are always a good antidote to logistical headaches.  I had shrimp and grits again, yum.

When boaters go south most use the ICW in some form or fashion. As we have mentioned in previous posts there are many challenges associated with traveling south on the ICW. Shoaling or skinny water, bridges and no wake zones are a few of the common irritations.
However when the weather is bad there is no real alternative. Many folks will jump outside and travel offshore. There are some clear advantages if the weather and sea conditions are good: generally good water depths no bridges or no wake zones. Some will "jump outside" in the morning and back through an inlet in the evening, while some will travel overnight for a day or many days. If you need to make time this is the way to go. Last summer we traveled north from Fernandina Beach http://www.fbfl.us/index.aspx?nid=166 to Georgetown SC  http://georgetownlandingmarina.com/about 226 nm trip that took a bit over 24 hrs but we avoided the worst of the shoaling problems in Ga. Often traveling outside may take longer because the distance  including the travel from the inlet going out and the inlet going in. So in total there may not be any great savings, just the aggravation of the inconveniences of the ICW. As a result it is not uncommon to hear many complaints about the ICW and often referred to in many less flattering ways such as the ditch. Many people will run outside and look to skip as much of the ICW, focused on getting to wherever the destination is.

So for all of its many issues and problems I really like the ICW. Having dissed the ICW and extolled the virtues of running outside, let me explain. Traveling down the ICW is one of the most fascinating trips that can take you off the beaten path and give you a feel for what this country was like before the great land developments of the past 50 years. Sure, you see big cities and occasional high end development but you see the waterway as it has existed for  hundreds of years. Here is a sampling;

 

 

 

Sometimes there is such a remote felling that you feel civilization is far removed and this is more of a wilderness than a city just around the bend. Sometimes we would go hours without seeing a soul or any hint of human activity.

There were often many opportunities for bird watching in both flocks or a single egret feeding along the shore line.

We also enjoyed the many small towns that dotted the waterway. Some had fishing/shrimping fleets that worked the waters and inlets.

It seemed a common practice to have the name with "Lady" in it or a girlfriend or wife's name.

Another interesting aspect are the colorful homes that are dotted along the way!

 

We believed this was someone's home, certainly wins the prize for originality.  Click on this picture to see what we saw.

We encountered many different types of boats along the way.

As well as a bit of mast maintenance.

 Along the way we have enjoyed the company of good friends.





And as always  we enjoyed our time headed south. There is never a dull moment.

 

Georgia Girl

We finally crossed into Georgia! We were a bit uncertain of the exact spot but somewhere around the Savannah River. We have been fortunate up until this point because we have had the tides working to our advantage. We have been able to leave on a low to rising tide and ride south on a good current. This made some of the areas that are known shoaling problems less of an issue because we went through them at close to high tide. It may not sound important but when the tides average 5-6' it make all the difference. Our luck held out until the very end....but more on this later.

Bridges, bridges, bridges our bane. I am sure that the cars that need to wait  feel frustrated too, but I would bet not as much as we are. Our height is a bit under 29' with our antennas down and about 42' with them up. Most bridges will not open if you can clear with your antennas down so you will need to put them down as you wait and spin around in the current near other boaters. There are three types of clearances we encounter, first are those who have a very high clearance, big highways and the like have clearances of 65' or greater. We like these. Then there are those that have very low clearances of a few feet up to the low 20's, these are not our favorite but usually there is no question of whether you need an opening. Then there are those who height is a definite "maybe". At high tide we cannot get through and at low tide we can and need to drop our antennas. 

This is the Wilmington River Bridge (Causton Bluff bascule bridge), the bridge tender challenged us about our height and then reluctantly opened it. We were on the edge of maybe getting under it or then again maybe not. If the tide had been really high or really low the decision would have been obvious, but this was a mid tide so it was less clear. Our position has been to be conservative and, when in doubt,  don't take chances. We felt a bit guilty  though because of the tone from the bridge tender.

We passed Thunderbolt Ga on our way to Isle of Hope which is outside of Savannah Ga. Here is a really big yard that caters to the large mega yacht crowd. This bad boy was departing as we went by. They run to the ocean, which is about 5 miles away and was most likely headed to warmer waters  down south. Who can blame them?




This brings us back to the tide issue. We have been fortunate to have favorable tides until we arrived in Isle of Hope. Our next day trip would take us through the notorious shallow Mud River which must be traveled on a high tide. No matter how we looked at it the tide did not work in our favor. We would need to be there at 4pm and it would leave us short of our destination for the day. So it was awkward to find a good solution. We decided to run outside from Ossabaw Sound to St. Simon s Inlet.  A trip of 80 nautical miles (1 nm = 1.15 statue miles).
The weather the day before called for 2-3', seas building to 3-4 in the afternoon.with an approaching cold front. This meant we needed to leave in the dark and travel to a bridge for a 7am opening. This particular bridge had a rush hour restriction and would only open on the hour 6:30-9am. We do not like traveling the ICW in the dark in general, but it would be the only way to make it work. In the morning the weather forecast seemed worse, with seas of 3-4 building to 4-6 and wind in the 20kts range form the N/NW.

We traveled to the Skidaway Narrows Bridge departing 6:20 am (sunrise 7:10am) and used our spot light and charts to follow the twisting and winding ICW. We arrived at the bridge 20 min before opening and having concluding our negotiations about our height, (we were in the gray zone because of the tide) we waited for the opening. This is the early morning sunrise off our port side as we waited.


We traveled on through the bridge at 7am and next passed through Hells Gate another notorious problem area that was recently dredged. This is the point where the ICW turns to the west and the ocean is to the east. We were still up in the air about which course to take due to the worsening weather forecast. It was very calm this time of day; the water was flat so we decided to go for it and travel outside. We had prepared for this so the things that might not be stable with a rolling sea were secured.

One of the reasons we opted to go outside was the wind direction which would be on our stern and we would get a push. We really enjoy the ICW. It is interesting, entertaining and always a surprise. Running outside is ...well kinda boring. You are on autopilot and traveling from way point to way point. The view is pretty much the same. We were buttoned up inside the pilot house warm and cozy. The seas where 3-4' with an occasional 5', all on our stern. We made great time with an average speed of 9.5 kts. This  route was not shorter, rather it might have been a wee bit longer. However, we went faster not worrying about shoaling, no wake zones or bridges. So, while traveling outside, we did boat chores some cleaning and laundry. We saw only one other boat  the entire day trip, otherwise it was just us. We average traveling 6-10 miles offshore. Our last time in this area was an overnight trip from Fernandina Beach Fla to Georgetown SC last summer ( 226nm) coming north, so this was an easy day trip.

We arrived at Brunswick Landing Marina in Brunswick Ga at 3:30pm. The only really snotty seas were when we turned west to enter the shipping channel in to St. Simons Inlet; we were taking 4-5 footers on our stbd beam and had to work a bit to stay in the channel as the waves wanted to push us out. Once past the last sea channel markers at 2:20pm the seas calmed down to a flat surface and we went up the channel passing two larger commercial cargo ships and into the marina.

We are now as far south as we can get before entering Fla waters. Here we will wait until after the Christmas and New Years holidays. We cannot reenter Fla for 180 days since we left or we would have to pay Fla sales tax (yikes), so in southern Ga we wait.

You can check out our route for the next few days on the SPOT link  at the side or by clicking here

http://share.findmespot.com/shared/faces/viewspots.jsp?glId=0YbgAe68AMPZoLxpBHQYaVI86IlerZvb3

So far we have travels on our trip south 662 nautical miles or 761.3 statue miles of which 680 sm are the twisting and turning ICW. Since June we have logged almost 3000 miles. Including our north trip from Ft Lauderdale to Block Island & Kuttyhunk Ma., and back to the Chesapeake Bay before beginning this southern leg in November 2009.





 

Charleston and on to Beaufort SC

We continued our wonderful culinary adventure with several new places and a return to 39 Rue de Jean for mussels. Yum

That evening we were entertained by the Christmas boat parade, which went by our marina so we had front row seats to the colorful and very entertaining event!

Quite imaginative








We played tourist with a trip to an old and wonderful home in Charleston called Middleton Place.

The home was built by a signer of the Declaration of Independence and was destroyed by Union Troops just before the end of the civil war. The owner, a 4th generation descendant had been a signer  of the South Carolina's Ordinance of Session. Once wealthy, now poor after the Civil War, they rebuilt the side guest house which exists today. The gardens, patterned after Versailles in France are restored and breathtaking.

We took a tour of the grounds by buggy which include the 110 acres of the estate and parts of the estate still owned by the family
(over 1000 acres). Quite interesting and was a great learning experience.

We toured the house  (sorry no pictures) and then a garden tour.

The gardens were delightful. They had some species of plants that are the first to have been imported to the US. They have over 30,000 azaleas.

On Monday we left Charleston for Beaufort SC. Our trip was pleasant and uneventful. It started out chilly but by midday we had de-layered and warmed up a bit. We will depart tomorrow morning for Isle of Hope Ga.










                                  

John & Jeannie's most excellent epicurean adventure

We have had a very productive, and tasty past few days in Charleston. Having decided to spend an extra week after returning, our goal is simple: enjoy the Charleston culinary scene and be a unabashed tourist.

Charleston, according to friends, is known for the diversity and quality of its restaurants and so far we enthusiastically agree. We typically like to go out for lunch, it is easier on our pocket book, we don't fill up as much and we eat a small & light dinner on the boat. Also, we can get around during the daylight better in an unfamiliar city.

We started our epicurean experience at Rue de Jean 39rue de jean. Oh my gosh! The mussels were great (Ray & Susan you were right) . They are offered in five different sauces and I chose a pistou sauce. Have you ever had a meal that if you could you would lick the bowl if it were not too embarrassing? Well this was one of those times. It was so good that I had them give me a to go cup with some extra pistou sauce. Last night I polished off the last of it. Yum.

Our next stop was 82 Queen 82 Queen ; we ate outside under patio heaters in a beautiful garden courtyard and had a wonderful meal (thank you Joanie & Dieter for the recommendation)  . We have started ordering several appetizers as our main course for the variety of different options  without  having such a large and filling main entree. Of the several that we ordered, I had a really excellent oyster stew.  Jeannie loved her shrimp and grits and the she crab soup as well.

Finally, we had lunch at Hymans Seafood, which was for the most part pretty standard fare and not a real standout, however of the appetizers, the shrimp and grits were a standout; I am a convert.

Other than food we have done lots of chores, including some needed re-provisioning.
Yesterday we went to the market in downtown Charleston. This market has been  around in one form or another for hundreds of years and offered the usual sort of stuff you might expect as well as some of the more local fare that is unique and interesting. We bought such fine things as seasoned grits so we can do the shrimp and grits thing.  A month ago I would have told you I am not a grits fan, today however I am totally converted and and on the grits bandwagon. Double yum.

We went to a very unique store called The Spice and Tea Exchange Spice & Tea Exchange. They specialize in custom made spices, rubs & teas. They sell these in small bags and much larger quantities, we purchased small samplers for different meats, fish and teas. Quite interesting, we will see how they taste in the near future. So far Charleston is a charming city with a distinctive downtown. Of note, there are no real "high rises" you typically find in so many urban settings. This, combined with an older historic section and the College of Charleston, makes this city different and special.

Finally the weather, ugh! Another front is moving through with heavy rain & wind. There are warnings of coastal flooding in association with a normally high tide due to a full moon. We are expecting a tidal range of over nine feet, normal is 5 or so. Fortunately we are on a floating dock that rises and falls with the tides so it makes accommodating these tidal changes a non issue. I may put on a few extra lines in anticipation of  strong winds.

We are undecided what to do today. Our thought had been to go to the City Aquarium and Maritime Center. It is raining so hard that we may make this a boat chore/cleaning/reading/nap kinda  day.............

Thanksgiving

Jeannie & I drove home  early Tuesday morning for the Thanksgiving day holiday. We had a great time with Billy and Johnny, a wonderful dinner and a relaxing time.  Katie could not travel back from Ca., but we will see her at Christmas.
Still feeling the effects of having eaten way too much. But it was so good, it was hard to resist.

Today Saturday we drove back to Charleston and Seabright to begin phase II. We will stay here for most of the week and see the sights and explore the culinary treats and then resume our trip south.

Ben Sawyer Bridge

In my last post I talked about the Ben Sawyer Bridge and how it was slated to be close while the span is replaced. And in the process closing the ICW

Here is a fascinating link to a animated video showing how the span is being replaced

http://www.bensawyerbridge.com/news.shtml#video

To Charleston SC

As we traveled down the ICW bound for Charleston the weather was a bit warmer but was cloudy with scattered drizzle and light fog.

We had to lower our antennas in order to pass under the Ben Sawyer Bridge. This bridge has a clearance of 31' at high tide. We need a clearance of 30' with our antennas down. Bridges do not want to open for clearances that include your antennas, so, down they came. It is a bit challenging because our flybridge is enclosed so the antennas are hard to reach. Jeannie needs to keep the boat steady and in mid channel against whatever current, wind or traffic and I stand on a thin ledge and take them down, about a 5-10 min process. We did it without incident and went under the bridge. This was only the second bridge where this was necessary, the first was Barefoot Landing swing bridge in Myrtle Beach.  All of the other bridges were easy to go under with either tall clearances or were short enough that there was no question.

The Ben Sawyer Bridge has been a worry spot for several months. They plan to close the ICW for a bit over a week to replace the span with a new one. Quite an operation. However if you are traveling the ICW during this time you need to plan a run outside in the ocean to go around this area. There are really no alternatives, or you are stuck. This time of year the cold fronts come through often enough that going outside is often not feasible. The original dates for this closure would have impacted us as we headed south. There was enough uproar over the timing that they delayed it until mid December and then changed it again to the week after Thanksgiving. When we went past, all of the heavy equipment needed to remove and replace the old span  seemed to be there. Would be interesting to watch but we are absolutely thrilled to have it behind us!

We traveled through Isle of Palms which is very nice but the weather was so poor everything had that gray look to it.  We headed into Charleston Harbor in the late morning, we had made good time in what was a short run of 30 nm, compared to other days of 70nm.
When we turned the corner past the last markers into the harbor, we were hailed by a motor yacht who had become lost in the fog and had stopped at channel market( r38) going the wrong way. He was a delivery boat captain running a boat south for a brokerage company. He indicated that he did not have good electronics and his radar was not working correctly. Visibility was poor at less than 200 ft. He was .8nm NE of us, so we turned to starboard and located him. Easy to find and asked that he follow us as we turned around and went back to the correct course heading to the Charleston City Marina. He was a nice guy and we were happy to help.

We arrived at the Mega Dock, Charleston City Marina. This is easily the largest face dock we have ever seen. And it was packed with all types of boats, both mega yachts and small sailboats; a veritable potpourri of boating. Easy to dock and we were all set. Our big chore was to travel to the car rental and pick up a car for our trip home for Thanksgiving. Following that there are the usual boat chores of cleaning and stowing things, with the added twist that we would be away for a few days.

Tuesday morning we left before 6am to beat the Charleston rush hour and get home at a reasonable time. Our driving trip was uneventful though more tiring than boating but we are now home and the boys are all converging for a big dinner on Thursday. Katie cannot come this year from Ca., too far to travel for a short holiday but will be here for Christmas.

We plan on returning Saturday or Sunday depending on when everyone heads back out. We will spend a week in Charleston doing boat chores and exploring the city, then head south again.

Here is the link to our current location. I like to view it  using the sat view,  much more interesting.

All photo's by Jeannie

Our current location

Myrtle Beach to Bull Creek

We left Myrtle Beach on a cloudy and cool morning. A fairly uneventful departure.

Rather quickly we transitioned to Carolina low country, and then there were birds everywhere!!

A flock of skimmers

                                A magnificent pair of mature eagles in a wonderful setting

                                 Including this lone eagle less than a mile down the waterway spotted by      Tommy & Renee aboard Tomahawk, our cruising partner on our leg to Charleston.

We anchored along with Copeing & Tomahawk in Bull Creek which is just off the ICW at mm381. It is on the east side of the waterway and very easy to enter with over 20-15 ft of water in through the first turn. We anchored in the middle with 13-14 ft of water all around us. A cold front was coming through, so we had plenty of rain and wind. There is slightly less than a 5 foot tidal range and with winds gusting to 25' we put out 120 feet of anchor chain and had a good hold. We swung in a semi circle all night but stayed where we should have. Great anchorage.

Myrtle Beach

You can say what you want about the ICW, but certainly there are some eclectic sights and scenes along the way.
This lonely looking lady caught our eye, the shoes are a nice touch.

Sometimes the yard art and messaging have a punitive tone, such as no wakes or else, or non punitive as in the artsy lonely lady pictured above. But in this yard I would bet lives an engineer, I am sure it is accurate. And helpful too.

Admittedly my eye somehow always finds the food. Heck they say they even deliver! What a deal, burgers and beer.

We went past a number of waterfront restaurants, we were looking at them taking pictures as they were looking at us taking pictures. Quite the show!

Jeannie getting some helm time. It was a bit chilly. One day we are in short sleeved shirts and the next in our cold weather gear.

Ahh Myrtle Beach, we are re-entering civilization??

This was the view from the port side as we were cursing by. A bit jarring when compared to what had been a remote and quite waterway.  Wings and Dunkin Donuts: it makes your heart flutter!

Looks like one too many engine room checks at the end of a long day.
We do have a bit of fun.

To Wrightsville Beach NC

We have been running for the past 2 days and have made great progress. The best way I can describe sections of this portion of the trip is: NO WAKE. We typically run at 8.5 kts. Not particularly fast, about 9.75 mph, so not a screaming speed. There were so many places where we needed to slow down due to no wake zones that it really reduced our average speed by quite a bit.

Another issue is bridges. This stretch was particularly vexing. There were 5 bridges stretched out from a few miles to over 20nm. Each opened on a particular schedule that did not always work in sequence. For example some open on request, a good thing, some open on the half hour and some open on the hour. The challenge was the hour opening bridges. It is really difficult to miss an opening of a bridge that only opens on the hour and  keep the boat in position against a current and other boat traffic.



Another issue most boaters are way too familiar with is navigational depths of the ICW. By statue the waterway is to be maintained to a depth of 12'. The reality is something else altogether. There are many places where you must look closely at the tides in order to avoid running aground. There are web sites and companies whose sole purpose is to either inform you where and what the problem areas are or to help you out in the event of a grounding..

This is part of a dredging operation that we passed after coming out of Snows Cut. and going into Cape Fear. The priority of these efforts goes first to commercial needs and low down on the priority list is the pleasure boater. But the waterway is improving especially when merchants complain that they are losing business because customers are avoiding their area due to waterway problems.

Here is another rather creative way of encouraging a slow go...

We arrived in Wrightsville  Beach as it was getting dark. The bridges were a challenge from a timing perspective and was maybe the most challenging so far. But after the last one we cruised into the marina.

The next morning as we prepared to leave we had this entertaining view. I am not sure I have ever seen anyone standing up on a surf board paddling. There were several groups who looked to be racing. The boards looked to be specially made for this type of sport.