Aboard Lady

New Bern, North Carolina

Beaufort Town Dock and New Bern Grand Marina

Tuesday July 16th to Saturday June 20th, 2009     35 06.168N 077 02.353W

After such a delightful anchorage at Cape Lookout, we needed to get some canvas repaired, shop for groceries, get fuel and do laundry, so we stopped for a couple of days in Beaufort, where they have a wonderful Maytag laundry (12 washers and dryers) across the street from the town docks, and a great canvas repair business, Canvastic, just across the street from the docks  Some cruisers stop in Beaufort just because of the laundromat.  Others stop at the Town Dock because they have free courtesy cars available, which makes it easy to get groceries, visit the hardware store, etc.  It's a lovely town - this was our third time through.  Don't you love this cat and dog who we saw tied to a tree - guess the owners were having lunch at one of the boardwalk cafes? At the dock, we made friends with Joe and Dana on Dig In, a lovely Carver cruiser. Their hailing port was Galveston, so we had fun comparing notes on Texas cruising.

We left Beaufort Thursday morning, heading north up the ICW, and Dig In passed us - they were headed to Oriental, we were headed for New Bern, but we were able to take pictures of each other.

Remember Ann and Mike McDougall from Night Flight? We met them in Saint Augustine when Dick and Meredith Schwarz (Distant Drum) had us all over to their condo for dinner one night.  Ann and Mike live in New Bern, so we called them a couple of hours before we pulled in to the marina to see if they were there, and they were, and had no plans for the evening, so they came down to the marina and we all went to Captain Rattys, a local colorful dining establishment close to the harbor.  A fun evening.

The marina had no particular check-out time - if we were still there when the dock-master went home, then we owed for another night.  This was great, as it gave us a good half day to explore the town.  The trolley ride did not begin until 11:00 am, so first we purchased tickets to see the Tryon Palace, a wonderful reconstruction of the home and legislative meeting place originally built in 1769 by William Tryon, Royal Governor, and subsequently destroyed.  The guides are all in costume.  We talked with the blacksmith, and had a wonderful tour of the home, admiring all the period furniture, paintings, china, etc.  Two people in period costume were working in the kitchens preparing food typical of the eighteen century, grown there in the magnificent gardens.

We left in time to get the trolley tour, which took us all round the historic area, discussing the old homes, may of them restored and on the National Register of Historic places.

A stop at Mitchells Hardware store was also a "must see".

New Bern is named after Bern, Switzerland, and like Bern, there are bears all over the place.  This one was the largest we saw.

We did not leave until the middle of the afternoon.  We decided to save Oriental for another visit, partly because it looked like that there was not much room to anchor there, and we did not fell like another night in a marina.  We pushed on a little further, and put the anchor down in the South River, off the Neuse River, where we had also stopped last April when we were moving north.

Cape Lookout

Sunday June 14th to Tuesday June 16th, 2009                34 37.693N 076 32.811W

We had some rain and thunder after we got the anchor down inside the bight at Cape Lookout, and had an early night after our long overnight voyage from Georgetown.

Monday morning, we launched the dinghy and headed for the light- house, and wonderful structure painted with large black and white diamonds.  It was interesting to tour the old keepers' cottages and learns about the history of the area from the rangers at this lovely National Park.  We could not go up the light house.  It was interesting to see on the park rules that shelling was limited to one two-gallon bucket of shells per person per day.  When we walked over to the ocean beach, there were a few folks fishing from the beach, and one lady shelling with a five-gallon bucket.  After lunch we explored more of the bight-area of the shore.  The beach was full of shells!   The area behind the bird-nesting sign was all shells!

As you can imagine, I was able to add a few more treasures to my collection.

There were less than a dozen boats in the anchorage, and there would have been room for a hundred or more.  We loved this place.  It was North Carolina's version of the Bahamas - deep, clean water, good holding, sand beaches, not too many people.  At dusk, we even saw some of the wild horses grazing on the beach of the Shackleford Banks to our north.

 

Georgetown...again...and again!

Georgetown, SC - Hazzards Marina    docked for repairs

Wednesday June 10th, 2009 to Saturday June 13th, 2009

We departed Georgetown the first time late on Wednesday morning.  We would have liked to stay  later in the day, but the Harbor Walk Marina was quite adamant that checkout time was noon.  We were in no particular hurry, as we planned an overnight sail to Southport/Bald Head Island area.  It's 14 miles to the entrance of Winyar Bay, so we got close to the entrance, and tried to anchor.  It seemed as though there are such strong currents in the area that the bottom is pretty well scoured, so the anchor would not hold.  Oh well, we'll leave the harbor, and once the sails are set, we'll take it easy and not rush.  It was interesting to see the color contrast in the water where the out-going ebb met the Atlantic.

At mid-afternoon, the sails were set and the captain was enjoying a well-deserved nap.  We were not going fast, but fast enough, over 3 knots, and like I said, we were in no hurry to get to the Cape Fear Inlet before dawn the next day.  The wind faded as the afternoon progressed, and shortly after 1600 the boat speed was down to less than 2 knots so I started the engine as the skipper woke up.  A minute or so later, we looked at each other - "Do you smell something burning?" we asked.

Engine and main electrical switch to off and the skipper investigated, finding smoke coming from the starter.  No flames, but the starter and its solenoid were hot. The engine would not restart.

We were six miles north of the Winyar Bay sea buoy.  The Waterway Guide indicated that we could get mechanical help in Georgetown, but nothing was listed for Southport or Bald Head.  We turned around and headed back under sail to the Winyar Bay entrance. 

We have been members of Boat US for quite a while, and when we renewed our membership this year, we signed up for their Tow Boat US service.  Unfortunately, "Tow Boat US Georgetown" did not answer our radio calls.  Charlie called Sea Tow, and made arrangements for them to meet us at the sea buoy - even though the breeze had come up enough again for us to get there, we did not want to be going up the narrow 14 mile channel in a dying breeze and fading light.  They towed us back to Hazzard marine, and gave us a referral on a great mechanic.

Sarkis and Paul of SeaTec Systems showed up early Thursday morning and quickly determined that the starter and solenoid was indeed the problem, ordered another next-day delivery from Chicago, and removed the old one.  Sarkis informed us that the first delivery from UPS was usually around 10:00 am, and he and Paul would be right over to install it.

Friday we were ready for them.  They did not come.  Phone calls revealed that the starter had not arrived.  Sarkis worked the phone, pestering UPS, eventually finding out that our starter had been mis-routed to Andersonville - the other side of the state!  Sarkis kept nagging them, and eventually the manager delivered it to him at 7:00 that evening, and he and Paul came over and installed it, not leaving the boat until after the engine was going at 2200 hours. 

So, Saturday we were ready to be off again.  We departed Hazzard at 0955 and navigated our way to the ship channel, bound for sea.  At 1025 suddenly the tachometer and voltmeter instruments on the engine showed zero!  The engine was still working, but something was not right.  Charlie called Sarkis, probably woke him up on his weekend off, and we turned back for Hazzard.  Sarkis and Charlie worked on the problem, and found that the start switch was failing intermittently, replaced it, and by 1310 we were on our way again.

This time we did not turn back!  We changed our destination, and sailed and motor-sailed the rest of the day, all night and half the next day until we reached Cape Lookout, North Carolina and dropped the anchor in a delightful bight with good holding, sand beaches, a few other well-spaced yachts.

Sarkis has called back a couple of times since then to make sure that everything is still working OK.  WHen was the last time you mechanic did a follow-up call?  We recommend SeaTec if you ever need service in Gerogetown SC!

South Carolina - Beaufort to Georgetown

Tuesday June 2nd, 2009 to Wednesday June 10th, 2009             Beaufort to Georgetown

You can tell that we are really lollygagging along as compared to last year's trip, when we wanted to get to Maine.  This summer we are only planning on going as far north as the Chesapeake. 

Tuesday afternoon, we left Hilton Head with the rising tide, and motored up the ICW.  It seemed going in and out of the different rivers that sometimes the current was with us, other times we were fighting it.  We had the current with us going up Port Royal Sound, past Parris Island, and were able to unfurl sails and coast up the Beaufort river.  We anchored off the town and had a comfortable night.

Wednesday morning we dinghied ashore and re-visited the old streets we had first seen last year.  Charlie had loved the grits and bacon I had found there last year, we were pleased to purchase some more. 

We decided to move on that afternoon, and made the 1400 opening of Lady's Island Bridge.  I hope that one day Lady's crew will be able to visit Lady's Island.  We have a chart and post-card of it aboard.

We continued motoring up the ICW and dropped anchor at 1645 on the Edisto River for a quiet evening.  There a LOTS of horse-flies.  They are huge, but really slow, so we can swat them pretty easily.  They mostly like to be upside-down on the bimini top.  Occasionally one landed on me and bit.  There were also some mosquitoes.  We made good use of the fly-swatter, bug repellent and bug killer.

Next morning we decided that we need to remember to put the screens in the hatches next time we anchor on the river.  Thursday we were ready to head on in to Charleston.  We were getting fairly close to that lovely city, when a thunderstorm and heavy rain were on top of us.  There was one bolt that we didn't even get to one-one thousand after the flash before the bang.  There was so little visibility, I had to call a "Securitay" on the radio to advise any river traffic that we had stopped.  We had talked to some other boats on the radio, and after the storm was over, one of them told us that one boat was hit and was being helped in to Charleston.  We lost our instruments, perhaps some water got in there, but after everything was over, we turned everything off and back on a few times, and eventually everything was working OK.

Charleston City Marina put us on the inside of their "mega-dock", along with the really big boats.  We stayed there until Sunday, taking the marina's shuttle to downtown, where we toured the area on foot, visited the market, ate well and did shopping.  We met our friend Capt. Jeff Gentzen for lunch.  It's always a treat to see old friends.

Monday June 8th we were off again.  We had debated going offshore to Georgetown, but knew it would be an overnight trip, so we decided to take the ICW and anchor somewhere on the way. 

There were three yachts waiting for the 1000 opening of the Ben Sawyer bridge and the bridge-tender decided to open ten minutes early!  A rare occurrence.  I guess there wasn't a whole lot of traffic for Sullivans Island that morning.

We passed Isle of Palms to starboard and Goat Island to port.  It appeared as though people could only get to Goat Island by boat, as we saw no vehicles by the houses on that island. 

Most of the scenery was marsh grass.

We saw some derelict boats by Andersonville.

The horse flies kept coming.  Charlie and I would have to wield the fly-swatter every now and again just to show them who's the boss.

At times the deep water channel was not very wide.  We had to pay attention to our navigation.  We knew the tide was dropping, so we kept a good eye on the depth meter.  Approaching McClennanville, we saw less than a foot beneath the keel, turned to the other side of the channel, and before we knew it, we were aground, and could not move Lady.  Not to worry, it was only an hour from low water, so we just waited for the tide to turn so that we could float off.  We advised the sail boat behind us, Pendragon, who had gone through the bridges earlier with us, as we knew that their draught was more that ours.  They did not even get past us and they too were stuck.  We were lazily reading, when three blasts from a loud horn got our attention.  We had not seen any commercial traffic on the ICW since Great Bridge last fall.  This got our attention.  We advised Island Lookout that we were aground, as was the other boat behind us.

He passed to port, and informed us that the ICW was shallow for the next two miles.  We could see all the mud being churned up by his props as he went by.

By 1645 we were off the mud, and going again.  We carried on for another couple of hours, and anchored in the South Santee river.  Andrew and Carolyn from Pendragon came and anchored nearby and joined us for pizza.  Another buggy night, but this time we had the screens in.

We did not have far to go on Tuesday to get to Georgetown.  It was interesting to see this ferry that crosses the ICW from the mainland to Cat Island. We think it is pulled back and forth by a chain.

Georgetown's industry is now fishing and tourism, although there is a paper mill close by.  The steel plant has closed, and probably will not re-open.  There is not much room in the harbor by the town, and there were a lot of abandoned-looking boats there.  We were concerned that we would be aground (again) as the water went out, so we took a dock at the Harbor Walk Marina - new docks with a three-week old club house.  We walked in to town for lunch, took a Swamp Fox tour of the historic district, visited the Rice Museum and learned all about rice growing that made the area's plantation owners wealthy before the Civil War and purchased a few provisions. We went our to dinner at the River Room, and strolled the Harbor Walk back to Lady.

We planned to leave late on Wednesday morning, to get the most of the out-going tide down Winyar Bay to the sea.  I went to town after breakfast to purchase bread  from the Kudzu Bakery, and shrimp and fish from the fish market.  I learned that Wilbur has been hanging around there for about twenty years.  He and another Great White Egret will even come in to the market and steal shrimp, and the workers there make sure that they do not go hungry.

Calibogue Sound

Saturday May 30th, 2009 to Tuesday June 2nd, 2009               Bull Creek and Harbour Town

Charlie pulled up the anchor at Saint Catherines Island before 0800 on Saturday, a lovely morning after the storms of the night before.  We still did not see any wild endangered animals as we left  the island to starboard, I really wanted to see that zebra.  (Did you see on one of the web links that the New York Zoo uses the island?) We navigated out of Saint Catherine's Inlet to the sea - a narrow entrance about three miles off-shore - much easier to handle going out rather than coming in from sea.  There are strong currents running in and out moving the water up and down six to seven feet twice a day from behind these lovely islands. 

Out at sea we set sail, and headed north for Tybee Roads, the entrance to not only the Savannah River, but also Calibogue Sound, our destination.  The wind died as the morning went on, so we turned on the engine and furled the sails.

As we entered the sound, the local fishing fleet was busy.  See all those pelicans waiting for a hand-out?

We found a lovely anchorage on a windy marshy creek, Bull Creek, used by just a few locals for ski-ing, wake boarding, and a short-cut between the May River and the sea.  It was a summer Saturday afternoon, after all, so we couldn't really expect to have the place totally to ourselves.  We relaxed in the sun, and had a lovely dinner.

As the sun descended we were surprised by a cruise ship!  Apparently Vagabonddoes dolphin and sunset cruises from Harbour Town, Hilton Head, and our creek was a turn-around point of the trip.

We had to wait for the water to rise on Sunday morning (there was a low point in Bull Creek we had gone over coming in), so it was noon before we got Lady moving, but we did not have far to go.  We watched a Great Egret and and Great Blue Heron getting breakfast, and listed to lots of other birds warbling away over the marshes

We motored over to Harbour Town Yacht Basin, part of Hilton Head's Sea Pines Resort, where we took a slip for two nights.  The lighthouse there seems to be pretty famous because of a golf tournament they have each April.  The first afternoon we sweltered, turned on Lady's air conditioning, washed her and did laundry, and then after a long swim in the pool, went out for a fabulous meal at CQ's Restaurant.  As we were strolling back to Lady, we heard music, and saw a large crowd gathered under a huge oak tree.  Gregg Russell was performing a show for kids (and their parents and grandparents).  It was a wonderful show, with lots of funny kids' songs, and individual children were invited up on stage to sing their own songs.

Monday we set out to explore the area.  On our way to rent a couple of bikes, we saw this sign.  Charlie observed that it was a good way of saying "No swimming in pond."

There were plenty of bikes available.  The bike and walking trails (they call them "leisure trails") go all over the area, parallel to the roads.  The huge trees, mostly tall pines and live oaks keep you pretty shaded.  We saw lots of families out riding early in the day.  We also saw this alligator enjoying the morning.

We enjoyed the scenery, stopped at The Salty Dog for lunch, and noticed another 'gator as we headed for the Stoney-Baynard Ruins.  The ruins are the remains of a 1790's mansion house, built using the "tabby" construction method that uses oyster shells.

After all that cycling we were ready to spend a LOT more time in the pool, where lots of families were also enjoying the water on a hot afternoon.

After dinner, we again enjoyed Gregg Russell's concert under the oak tree.  This resort really does cater to young families (even though they do have two or three golf courses).  Many of the visitors are from Ohio, and have been coming here on vacation for a couple of generations.  We saw loads of babies, toddlers, pre-schoolers, even teens having a ball.

Tuesday morning we got out for an early ride, past the stables, and managed to return our bikes 23 1/2 hours after renting them.  We walked back to the Harbour Town area, purchased some emergency limes(what good are vodka/tonics without limes?), and checked out at the marina office.  We told them that we needed to wait a couple of hours for the tide to rise before we left, but no problem, our slip was not booked.

Shortly after noon we cast off our lines, left Harbour Town, and went back out to the Calibogue Sound were dolphins played around us as we headed for our next destination...Beaufort, South Carolina.

Georgia Anchorages

Wednesday May 27th to Saturday May 30th                  Three different Georgia Anchorages

We first visited Cumberland Island in March 2008, when we were in St. Mary's, Georgia.  The island was so lovely, that I wanted to re-visit it, but with warmer weather.

We left Camachee Cove , St Augustine early on Wednesday, and motored under the Usina Bridge, navigated the inlet, and were out to sea, heading just east of north.  By noon we were 26 miles from the St Mary's Inlet way-point as we watched a large coast guard cutter turn slow circles, had no idea what they were doing. 

  By 1700 as we were navigating up the St Mary's channel, I could see some of the wild horses on the shore, but they were too far away to get a picture.  We had the anchor down in the lee of Cumberland Island, near the Sea Camp dock by 1745.  There were seven other boats in the anchorage, so we had plenty of space.

Thursday morning we were up early, packed a backpack of drinks, lunch, etc. and headed ashore.  The sign indicates that for people our age, visits to the Cumberland National Seashore are FREE!

We walked through the maritime forest, admiring the tall pines and live oaks dripping with Spanish moss, enjoying the quiet.  The ferry from St Mary's had yet to arrive, so only campers who had been on the island a few days were around.  We took the path across the dunes, and arrived at the beach.  We had it to ourselves!

We headed north.  The incoming tide washed up shells.  There were the tracks of a couple of the permitted vehicles on the island.  We saw the remains of a horseshoe crab, washed up jellyfish, lots more shells, a small flock of mixed seagulls. 

A couple of miles later we spied some of the wild horses in the dunes, and further on, the remains of a sea buoy washed up on the shore. 

After a couple of miles or more, we took the trail back across the island that brought us to the main trail north of Greyfield Inn.

We were pleased with all the wildlife we saw in the forest.  Butterflies wandered through the trees, we could hear unidentified birds, and every so ofter there was a spooky rustling in the brush.  We saw a cute lizard, almost rainbow colored, clinging to a tree.  A pair of black vultures were busy scavenging something in the brush and we were thrilled to witness more than one armadillo busy looking for breakfast.

  After resting at the ranger station, we dinghied back to Lady, and decided that it was so early in the day, we could more further north and find another Cumberland anchorage. 

We exited the anchorage and joined the ICW, heading north.  At 1415, as we neared the Kings Bay submarine station, we were approached by a couple of coast-guard RIB's (with 50 caliber machine guns mounted and at the ready!)  They wanted us to be sure to clear the area by 1500 as a nuclear attack submarine was going to be leaving.  We passed the sub ten minutes later, and as advised by the guide book, we did NOT take pictures!

By 1625 we had turned in to the Brickhill River at the north end of Cumberland, and had a lovely place to spend the night to ourselves.

Friday morning we were up early for a 0645 departure (to catch the tide), navigating up the ICW, and out to sea at Saint Andrews Sound.  Looks like one of the sea buoys had come adrift!

At first we had enough wind to sail, but by lunch-time the wind had lightened, so we motor sailed during the afternoon.  I spied a cloud that was pink.  Charlie checked the Sirius weather and reported to me that it was thunderstorm GSP10, 80 miles away with a 50,000 foot echo top.

By 1500 we had reached the Sapelo Sound Inlet mark 2 and turned west.  An hour later we re-entered the ICW, south of Saint Catherines Island.  We navigated north around the island, and had the anchor down in Walberg Creek, adjacent to Saint Catherines Island.  I kept a lookout for a Grevy's zebra, but they must have been napping. 

There were a couple of other boats in the anchorage, but we all had plenty of space.  Storms blew through in the evening, and the lightning was our after-dinner entertainment.  Some of the cloud formations were quite spectacular.

Our Georgia anchorages had been magnificent.  We loved them.  Now, coastal Carolina beckons, so Saturday we set off the that lovely state.