Lunch in the pool, once part of the Acazar Hotel’s spa. Sue talks to the waiter by the stairs.

We are spending three nights at the St Augustine Municipal marina. We stayed here just one night on a mooring ball when we came north a few months back. We rode the water taxi in to eat at O.C. White’s and that was it. We’ve had more time as well as better (cooler) weather this time.

I talked about Charleston being small, but the old part of St Augustine is on a peninsula (or island depending on how you look at it) that is even smaller, about a mile north to south and a quarter mile the other way. Since we’re not looking for Walmarts this time, nearly everything that interests us is within four blocks of the marina.

The most interesting building was the old Ponce de Leon hotel, which is now Flagler college. We took a tour and saw he hotel’s old grand dining room where once only the super rich ate. The students eat there now with Tiffany windows all around. A close second was the Lightner museum, which is housed in the old Alcazar hotel. It has quite a mix of exhibits from old typewriters, toasters and static electricity machines to silver and glassware that really interested Sue. We went back the next day for a performance of their old music boxes, some of which are as large as a piano. They also had a number of old Edison graphophones which replaced the music box.

Sue liked the glassware exhibit the most. I liked the old machines.

We ate lunch twice in (not by) what was once the world’s largest indoor swimming pool in what was the Alcazar hotel health center. There is a long wide entry where the floor slopes from the shallow to the deeper part, then a large flat area where the tables are.

With those hotels and the very first Ripley’s believe it or not museum, which is in (you guessed it) yet another building which was an elegant old hotel, this has been a town for tourists for a long time. We saw only the outside of Ripleys, but did go inside the old Presbyterian church. Tonight we ate again at O.C. White’s. It’s in a building built in 1790.

If we needed a place to stay it would be disappointing that all the old elegant hotels are converted to colleges and museums. Good thing we have a boat.

St Augustine Municipal Marina is just south of this drawbridge.

We left Brunswick with just enough light to see, about 6:15 AM. Getting up so early was thanks to going off daylight savings time. Otherwise it would have been 7:15, which seems better. We had high tide all the way along Jekyll island, which I would rather not do even at half tide, and fair weather for crossing the mouths of two wide sounds that are right on the Atlantic.

It was just 42 miles to Fernandina Harbor marina on Amelia Island. We arrived at 10:30 AM. I cut the trip short because low tide was coming and there were a few shoaling areas just beyond that we would take the next morning with a high tide.

Within a few miles of the marina we fell in behind Aloha Friday with Bruce and Mandy, who we met at anchorage over a week ago. We had dinner with them that night at Ciao Italian restaurant, which Sue remembered from when we were heading north with captain Bill. They are traveling at a slow pace, which is why we could catch up to them even after our Florida trip. They do around 20 miles in a day and anchor out most of the time.

We left early the next morning for St Augustine Municipal marina and arrived at 12:30. We can just squeak under the drawbridge on the north side of the marina, but as we came within sight of the bridge the hourly opening was starting. There were so many boats waiting that when we got there we just merged into the parade. The two sailboats ahead of us took such a long time gracefully gliding on through the bridge that I thought it would close before they got there. I felt bad for the drivers of the cars having to wait.

Once we arrived and got hooked up, Jim from First Mate Yacht services came by with a replacement water pressure pump. For the last few weeks the pump’s breaker has sometimes tripped when the washing machine is running or maybe in the middle of a shower. Yesterday it started tripping every time we used substantial water for anything, so I phoned ahead and arranged to have it replaced. This is the first “emergency” breakdown we’ve had. Hopefully future ones won’t be any worse.

We met Steve, who with his wife is working as captain and mate on a hundred foot yacht moored nearby. When not on a captaining assignment they are on their own DeFever boat. We’ll see them along with our other friends again at the DeFever get together this March.

We’re in the Municipal marina right off the main street of the old part of town. Just cross the street from the marina and we’re there. St Augustine is the most interesting town we’ll go by from here to our Lantana destination, so we’ll stay a few days.

Southern Trees. St. Simon island outside of Brunswick

After all this time we’re leaving the South. Florida, where we are going, is not really the south. At least we don’t think it is. We’ve not heard a southern drawl there anywhere. Maybe if we go deep enough into rural Florida? Is there a rural Florida? I thought it was either cities, citrus orchards, everglades, beaches, Disneyworld, cruise ports, marinas…

We learned about the South in school, but like every other place, there’s no substitute for being here. Life has seemed slower, even in the major cities like Savannah and Charleston. Get away from them to Brunswick or some of the smaller towns we’ve seen and things really do slow down.

Back of Main St. Buildings, Washington; Fishing, Belhaven

The economy here seems slow also, which may contribute to our view of a laid back society. Our recent visits to our old homes in central Texas and north Idaho and our current stay in Florida show a much better economic recovery than we’ve seen here.

We’ve all studied the Civil War in school, but until we spent time in the South we had no idea of how its effect on life lives on here. Growing up in California and the Pacific Northwest it was winning WW II that defined the US as being on top of the world during my childhood. My grandfather told me about WW I. I had friends in the Korean and Vietnam wars.

When we came to the South we’d visit somewhere and learn that a battle was fought where more men died than in the Gulf, Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts put together. We’d learn that the house we toured was one of the few houses spared when General Sherman burned the town, or how many women and children died in a town we stopped in because of the Union blockade. Mention “the war” here and everyone assumes which one you are talking about. Those other wars happened someplace else. The Civil War was right here.

People seem friendlier here, black or white. We’ve had no experience with impatient people (except for me a couple of times) and see a lot more waving and greeting. I think we have adapted and have been doing the same.

The only time I was yelled at was when we were here in Brunswick the first time, by a black guy in a passing car. He asked us to stop and showed us a front tire that was too low, and then helped us get some air into it.

Our ICW trip will be quicker next year in order to hit the Erie Canal near its opening, but the year after that we plan another trip up and back on the Atlantic ICW. We’ll have months in the Spring and Fall to spend in the South.

The 3/4 mile outer dock had superyachts lined up all the way on both sides. Some longer than 200 feet.

We’re back in Brunswick from the world’s biggest boat show in Fort Lauderdale. It would take a year to look at all the boats there, and this does not count the trailerable boats over at the coliseum. I didn’t go there. Fortunately we were not shopping for boats, but for boat accessories and additions. There was more of that than we could take in as well, but we did find most of what we were looking for as well as a few things we were not looking for. As we expected, we ended up spending more than we expected.

Each of these outboards is a bit north of 500 hp. Wonder how fast it goes?

Our boat will be a bit more comfortable, and a little safer and easier to drive and dock as a result of some purchases. Sue even found a new polish for our ship’s bell.

We did some looking before the show and we have located the right marina. The price is reasonable because of several limitations such as no laundry facilities, no pump out facility, no WiFi, no nearby access channel from the ICW to the Atlantic and being hemmed in by drawbridges that open only hourly. None of these matter to us because we have the missing facilities on board, will venture out on the open Atlantic rarely if at all and can just squeak under those drawbridges without an opening.

The nearby shopping is good, there are close by beaches for grandchildren and we are close enough to the Fort Lauderdale/ Miami area to go there anytime but otherwise still be out of its traffic and congestion. I’ll say more about this when we get there.

The high tomorrow here in Brunswick will be 55. Down there it will be 70, which makes it clear to me why we have to get going. We lost our ability to tolerate cold weather years ago. The day after tomorrow will be a bit warmer here, and the high tide will run 40 minutes later, giving me time to get past a few hazard areas a few miles to the south. We sail then.

They kept following us through Georgia. Can’t figure out we’re not a fishing boat.

Just kidding. Two days in Florida and Sue loves the climate, but is having a tough time living in the four walls of a hotel room and being away from the water. She wants to see sunrises and sunsets and watch the porpoises hunting from her kitchen window.

Our insurance does not allow the boat into Florida until November 1, the end of hurricane season, so we left it in Brunswick GA while we drove our rental car to southern Florida for the biggest boat show in the world at Ft Lauderdale. We came down early to look for a marina to stay in during the winter. We’re looking a bit north of Ft Lauderdale and hope to find the right combination of price and niceness. After show we will take the 5 ½ hour drive back to Brunswick and start down the coast in the boat. I’ll have to take four days off in the middle of that trip for a quick trip, out of Orlando, to my company in North Idaho.

About when we arrive at our winter home Adam, Harini and the boys will come. Adam, Harini and Derrick will go on a one week Caribbean cruise while the two older boys stay with us on the boat. We’re told they talk non stop about their last boat vacation with us, so hopefully this will turn out well also. We have a few other trips away from the boat to take during the winter, but we still should be with the boat more than away from it.

We’re seeing first hand why all these retired people go to Florida. We’ve driven by fantastic homes and condos on the water. They’re great to look at but I’m glad we don’t have to buy one of those. We’ll let you know where we end up. We’re looking for somewhere on the Florida ICW a bit to the north of Ft Lauderdale. Friends and family are invited to visit if you are in the area.

We’ll start on the great loop around mid March 2015.

Georgia is flat. Brunswick bridge from 15-20 miles away. Curvature of the earth cuts off the bottom.

I write these posts nearer their time. When I later go through pictures and put the posts onto the computer I sometimes add stuff for an interesting picture. I just corrected a mistake where I added the bridge picture above to the previous post for Savannah when it belonged to this one. The cable stayed bridges in Savannah and Brunswick look the same to me. It was Georgia we looked through to see the bridge, not South Carolina as it would have been if we had been approaching the Savannah bridge, which is harder to see from the ICW.

We are back at Brunswick Landing Marina near the southern end of Georgia. We had a good trip down. High tide occurred early in the morning, just after we left the dock in Savannah, so passage through the Hells Gate area was easy.

Sunrise as we left our Walberg Creek anchorage.

I mentioned before that Georgia is pretty remote between Savannah and Brunswick, so we again anchored in Walberg creek. Walberg is miles long and could probably hold 40 boats at anchor. Like last time there was only one other boat, a trawler like ours. An hour or so after we stopped Bruce from Aloha Friday kayaked over and came on board for a visit. Bruce and Mandy have a DeFever also, and are also members of the DeFever club as we are. We’ll see them again at the DeFever get together this March in Florida.

Aloha Friday at 3x zoom. Bruce stayed awhile, so he paddled against the current both ways.

Bruce and Mandy are not the first Aussies we have met that have come to America, bought a boat and are on a multi year trip. Like us they plan to do the loop next year. Their previous Australian boating backyard included Indonesia and Malaysia.

We left early, an hour before high tide, so we could cut a number of miles of our trip by leaving Walberg creek by its shallow south entrance. We got through Mud River, another ICW hazard, on well over half tide and reached Brunswick as low tide came on. Watching the sounder the last two days confirmed what I have heard from several people: Don’t travel the Georgia ICW on low tide. The tides vary more than 8 feet in Georgia and there were several areas where we would never have made it through at low tide.

Sunset from our boat in Brunswick. That banding is not a computer artifact.

Weather was hot last time in Brunswick, but is really nice now. I guess Spring and Fall are the times to be here. We’ll pass through here next year in the spring, probably early May, as we start on the loop. The weather should be perfect.

Savannah City Hall

We are back at Hinckley Marina in Savannah again. From Charleston to Beaufort SC we again took the alternate route mentioned previously to bypass the Ashepoo cutoff. We took this coming up just after high tide, but coming back we took it just after low tide. There was a very sharp (320 degree) turn that I swung very wide to avoid shoaling that the chart indicated was on the inside of the turn. As I did that a shrimp boat coming the other way radioed me that the charts in that area were way off and I should really swing that corner out further, maybe even a mile or two further. This warning came seconds after we had run aground, of course.

The tide was just starting to come in, so the rate of rise at that point was very slow. That would eventually help us but the associated incoming current would tend to drive us further into the shoal area. We were just coming out into the several mile wide mouth of an inlet to the Atlantic, so now and again a wave could bounce us a little. It seemed better to try bouncing away from the shoal rather than getting washed in when the current started. Working for a few minutes, that seemed like a half hour, we got the boat turned and powered off in short little steps. Fortunately the keel of Star Gazer is lower than the props, the bottom was soft mud which would not hurt the props (taken in moderation) so I think we got off with no damage to the running gear. At least it seems to work the same. The lesson? When you’re off the ICW the charts are even more out of date than normal, so if you see a shoaling area, assume it could be far worse. I do know about this area now, and will have no problem passing through it in the future, even at low tide. How could I forget?

Beaufort to Savanna was just 40 miles, so we arrived back at the Hinckley docks before noon. We spent an extra day in Savannah. We toured the big synagogue, the only gothic cruciform layout synagogue in the US. They built it that way. They did not buy an old church. It’s interesting that they were the second religious congregation of any type, after the Anglican church, to form in Savannah. We walked the River street old town area on the water and ate dinner there. There is a place to dock overnight on river street which we may try next time.

Savannah and Charleston are what we found to be the most enjoyable towns along our ICW trip. Of the two I think we might like Savannah the most, although it is close. Savannah’s many town squares and River street make it a really pleasant place to be in.

Back with our buddies at Charleston City marina

Charleston is a fun city. It is very small. Being from the west, I’m used to San Francisco being the great city where you can still walk around most of its boundary in a day. My oldest son and I did that many years ago. Charleston is also a great city, but is on a peninsula that is less than 2 miles wide by a couple of miles long, so it is very small. A tour guide said it had a bit more than 100,000 people in the city limits.

So even if you are our age Charleston is the perfect city for walking. This is our third time here now and we are beginning to have our familiar haunts. We both love the Magnolia restaurant, which is quite famous, has reasonable prices and really great food. We had dinner there with Paul and Sharon a month ago and ate there twice this time. We toured another plantation, visited a Catholic cathedral just before evening mass and walked through part of down town. We’ll always stop here at least a few days every time we pass through.

It was a long trip to Charleston. We came directly from Barefoot Landing marina in North Myrtle Beach at mile 354 to Charleston City marina at 470. We left at 6:50 AM and got in at 6:45 PM right at sunset. That was cutting it close. I don’t think we’ll do that again, but we wanted an extra day in Charleston and I had another marina an hour closer where we could have gone if we could not make it. Certainly the longest trip we have made. The ICW did not wind much this time. Google Maps said the road distance between the cities is the same as the ICW distance.

We’ll leave tomorrow (20^th) early to Beaufort SC at mile 540 for an overnight and then a quick trip to Savannah at mile 582.

Looking across the ICW from our boat at Barefoot Landing marina.

We are at Barefoot Landing Marina in North Myrtle Beach, SC. Our marina is a (very small) part of the Barefoot Landing Shopping center. This center has more gift shops, at least a hundred, than I have seen in one place. Walmart and a big outlet mall, as well as a large “normal” mall are close by so we rented a car to stock up on all sorts of things. Sue feels much better now and will not have to do this sort of thing again for awhile.

Looking northward on the ICW from our boat at Barefoot Landing marina

We had a nice trip here on perhaps the most scenic part of the ICW in South Carolina. It was an uneventful trip, including the last part where we passed through the dreaded rock pile

We’ve heard about this from number of people. I talked to a marina manager in Beaufort, SC who wrecked his own boat there. Most ICW channels are dredged from a sand or mud bottom. The problems with these are that currents shift the mud around, called shoaling, which can make a formerly deep channel into a shallow one, or move the deep part somewhere else, where the charts say it isn’t. If you run aground here your keel rests on the mud and you wait for a rising tide to lift you off. Of course it’s really not good to run aground at high tide, but usually then there is enough water then that that should not happen.

Entering the rock pile. Sign to right: “submerged rocks DANGER stay within channel”

The rock pile channel was blasted from rock. There isn’t any sand an mud to shift around, so you won’t run aground if you stay in the middle of the channel. The problem occurs when boats have to pass each other, especially if you meet a tow coming the other way. If you move out of the channel the rock edge will rip the bottom of your boat open. This doesn’t happen very often, but when it does…

The rock pile is only a couple of miles long. Before entering, many people, including me, make a “securite” call on the radio to check if any large vessels are coming the other way. If so you can just wait for them to pass through. Few large commercial vessels use this passage anymore, but it’s still good to check. If you do meet something like that the advice is to turn around (without moving outside the channel) and run ahead of it back out the way you came in.

Another place we’ll meet up with rock bottoms is in the Georgian Bay and the North Channel, both these shallow channels run above Lake Huron on the Great Loop. Standard practice there is to have a spotter on the bow, since the water is very clear. The rocks are more rounded and tend not to rip the hull open, but we still don’t want to run into them.

Seems scary to me, just like the rock pile did before we went through it. I’ve talked to loopers that have done it, however, and they seem to think it was difficult, but not so dangerous, and a lot of fun. We’ll be there in the summer of next year, so I hope they’re right.

You don’t stop for the Coast Guard. Just keep going and they match your speed and get on.

We made it through all 4 bridges. Turned out I could just squeak by under the 3^rd bridge, so no waiting there. The schedule was such that I just missed the last bridge, Wrightsville Beach, by 5 minutes and so had to go slowly up and down the river for a half mile north of the bridge until it opened at 5 PM.

Fortunately we were not bored. The coast guard called on the radio and requested to board us for a routine check. They ran their boat up beside ours and three guys got off onto the swim platform and came up. They checked this and that, and after some digging we found where we put our boat registration which they wanted to see. They even have a special engineer who checks the boat plumbing, tracing all the pipes and hoses, to see that things don’t go where they shouldn’t.

We came out fine. We had everything we should have on the boat and the plumbing was OK. They gave us a document with a number we can give to prevent subsequent boardings if we meet up with them in the future. They finished 5 minutes before the scheduled bridge opening which I was not going to miss, Coast Guard or no, so they stayed on board until we docked at the Bridge Tender marina just on the other side of the bridge. They got off, posed for a picture, and were picked up by their boat at the dock.

 Coast guard guys and some of movie crew’s trucks & trailers

Wilmington with a population of over 100,000 is by far the largest North Carolina city we have been in. Just across the river where we are docked is Wrightsville Beach, an ocean side suburb. We’ve decided not to stop every time along the way, and will not stop for extra days here. Besides, we have to clear our dock space here because tomorrow morning the male lead in the new Nicholas Sparks movie “The Choice” will sail in and get off his boat where we are docked. The production crews have parked all their trucks, generator trailers and other equipment just a few doors down from our marina.

So tomorrow early we are off to Barefoot Landing marina in Myrtle Beach SC, which Sue tells me is a big tourist and vacation area. I think we may stop for a few days there.