Cruising the ICW

We departed Hilton Head with the first opening of the lock, just before 8am, under clear skies and light winds.  As the day progressed the wind built out of the west so that the travel was becoming less pleasant, particularly with the larger river crossings.  This had been forecast so I had watched for places to put up for the night along our route.  Unfortunately, the coast of Georgia, which is crossed into just south of Hilton Head is not very populated south of Savannah, so the choices are not numerous.  We by-passed Savannah early and put in at a place called Kilkenny Creek, about half way between Savannah and Brunswick, about 2pm. for a 35 mile run. Rustic and quaint would be a generous way to describe it, but it was tucked close into the trees sheltering from the strong west wind and we had a quiet night. We had trouble understanding the dockmaster's southern drawl but he sure was a good fishing guide!  He had just come in with a couple of guests a...

No, not in one day.  We arrived back at Myrtle Beach November 23rd, and son Tristan met us at the airport as he is working in Augusta again, and could spend a long weekend with us. The boat looked quite good considering it had been sitting for 2 months, but the past month had been wet and "self-washing".  The weather for most of the week was sunny and dry, but cool mornings (~5C) and warm afternoons.   Good thing Tristan was there for the weekend, as one of the boat re-commissioning jobs was to reinstall the bridge canvas, and having a second set of hands on the end of long arms was very helpful.  The canvas had come down at the end of September as the boat would be left exposed for the last two months of hurricane season.  Canvas comes down a lot easier than it goes back up as it fits very tightly. Also had the opportunity to clean and polish the outside of the clear vinyl before installation which is largely impossible to reach when the canvas is all up. ...

No, you wont see any pictures of Judy or I.  This title reflects how we have had to leave the boat as it will still be hurricane season for the next two months.  Prudent preparation to leave the boat means removing the bridge enclosure canvas.  It needed a good cleaning anyway, so a mornings work was well invested. We departed Cape Fear and came direct to Myrtle Beach.  This gave us a couple of days here  to explore the area a bit before Doug had to return home.  MB is a real vacation community, with apparently over 60 miles of beaches in the area, and supposedly 100+ golf courses.  Oh yeah, it is a very family oriented vacation place as lots of mini-golf, attractions, and family-friendly restaurants. The marina we have left the boat at is the Myrtle Beach Yacht Club, which fortunately has an excellent pool as it continued to be hot.  Our first day we just relaxed by the pool, explored the local area on foot, and attended to a few clea...

No, that doesn't describe any experience on the boat, it is just the name of the Cape we are near, at the mouth of the Cape Fear river.  Since departing Chesapeake a week ago, where brother Doug joined us, we have visited 6 ports of call on our way south. Windy day in Coinjock The first leg, to Coinjock, was brief, at only 4 hours, but an hour of it was a bit rough in Currituck sound with a 20 to 30 knot NW wind.  Fortunately, it was a following sea so we didn't have to deal with taking a lot of spray.  Coinjock was a two night stay, as the wind was too strong to cross Albemarle Sound the next day, and we knew that from the forecast, so made the best of the day with maintenance projects and some walks. Since the domestic fresh water pump had quit the evening we arrived, I took the opportunity to re-wire the bad connection.  Probably parted due to the rough seas that day.  Otherwise, not much to see in Coinjock.  But it does have a good restaurant, whi...

We departed Baltimore a week ago, with a stop in Annapolis to have our Australian friends Ian and Leslie Kilgour join us. Annapolis is a great stop. Together, we all toured the State capital building and then Ian and Greg visited the Naval Academy, including the museum, which has an amazing collection of ship construction models from the 1600's thru 1800's. Judy and Leslie shopped, and we met at the end of the afternoon for a gin tasting at a local spirits shop. Judy and Greg had stopped in this fabulous liquor store the previous afternoon to check out their gin selection in preparation for Ian and Leslie's arrival, and the owner suggested bringing them for a gin tasting, which we did! He had us try 4 different types and I was surprised at how different they all tasted. Ian bought one that was a golden colour! We went out for an early dinner that night on the waterfront and just as the sun was setting 2 big clipper sailing ships sailed into the harbour and docked in fro...

With the boat secure in Baltimore, and hurricane Dorian now tracking well east (good thing we got out of Norfolk), we felt comfortable leaving for our weekend away. First though, Friends from NY area, Dan and Lori McConvey came to Baltimore to see the boat, and we enjoyed dinner with them at an Italian place in the historic district. Friday morning we departed with them, headed for NY,  but Dan had suggested we stop in Gettysburg on the way, which we were all in for.  I recall explaining to people why we wanted to do this east coast trip, and I used Gettysburg as an example of places to visit just a short distance inland from the coast. The Gettysburg site is huge, with memorials to likely every brigade,and at least from every state, that fought in the battle. Over 3 days in July of 1863, a decisive battle was fought here that is considered to have turned the tide of the civil war. A visit starts at the visitor centre with a good introductory film, and then into a Cyclo...

From Fishing Bay in Deltaville VA, we were away early again under light winds and sunny skies.  We had a very pleasant run north, and it got so hot we stopped mid-day for a swim.  No beach, just drifted in the middle of the Bay for 20 minutes for a refreshing break.  By mid afternoon, we were at Salomon's Island Md, which is a very active boating community, with many marinas and some great anchorages.  You may recall my comments earlier in the blog that the anchorages were not great on the ICW, but the Chesapeake is much different.  Real inlets to create numerous, relatively deep water anchorages, and real topography to protect those anchorages from the wind.  We chose a marina here though as it had a pool, as it was >90F, and very inexpensive!  What a change. Our trip in the Chesapeake continued north under much lighter, and importantly, following winds and seas.  Our objective for the next few days...