Friday November 30: Jacksonville Beach

We actually left at what I consider a decent hour: 8:30 am :-) Again it was the current that determined when to go. There was a bridge 28 miles down the waterway that has notorious current if you travel it at the wrong time of day. The current change was at noon so the idea was to leave 3 1/2 hours ahead of time so we would catch the bridge at slack tide while traveling 8 mph.

Worked pretty well although we arrived a bit early. It was again nice traveling with incoming tides though. Lots of water in the marshes AND the waterways.

It was a good wildlife day. There were many dolphin sightings and several times they chose to travel along our bow wave with us. It seems like as long as Steve is out on the bow and willing to watch them, the dolphins  will just ride with us until they tire of us going too slow for them.

The one in the picture at right is just off the bow of the boat. Sadly, I can't see them from the flybridge as they ride right under the curve of the bow of the boat.

We also saw a flock of white pelicans along the shoreline - just south of Fernandina Beach. Seems like we saw a bunch of them along that same shoreline last year! Maybe it's an annual thing.

Loons have also finally been spotted and we even heard one of them calling - it's such a distinctive call. Reminds me of the movie "On Golden Pond".

Of course the loons are in their winter colors of grey and white rather than the distinctive black and white summer colors (which is how we always knew them in Canada on the Trent).

More evidence of our military when we neared St. John's River near Jacksonville. This is what we assume to be a navy ship in drydock. Security boats are on guard around it as we passed. Maybe Steve shouldn't have been on the front of the boat taking pictures???

The coasties didn't come and stop us though so I guess it was ok.

We arrived at our predetermined marina for the night. Joe and Joy on High Spirits arrived first and we followed them in shortly (they left 1/2 hour before we did as they don't travel quite as fast as us).

First time since 2009 that these two boats have been docked next to each other!

First thing was a bike ride around Jacksonville Beach. We've never been here before but what a nice place.

As we were riding around, we found this yard with decorations. See if you can spot what is wrong is this picture.

Joy, Steve and I (sadly Joe's bike is back in NH) rode to the Atlantic (about 2 miles). There is a pier here so we walked out. Talked with a number of guys (literally - no lady fisherpeople that I saw) who were catching small things but having a great time. Everyone was so friendly. Met one guy whose son played in the minor leagues for Cleveland. Guess he never made it to the majors though.

And finally a beach where we could ride bikes! It's fun if the sand is firm (with the tide out of course). Still harder than riding on pavement though.

Gorgeous day - warm (shorts and t-shirt for the bike ride). I think we may really be getting far enough south :-)

One last fun picture with a sculpture on the boardwalk ...

Things wrong in the picture above: flamingos with Santa hats??  Igloos in Florida?? Along with penguins?? Palm trees with Christmas bulbs??

Really??

I guess I still am a Northerner at heart. Give me Christmas with real snow and freezing weather :-)

Thursday November 29: Fernandina Beach, FLORIDA!!

 Darien, GA,  is really an interesting place! As you can see, shrimp boats line the waterway south of the free town docks. This is our second trip up here (it's about an hour off of the main ICW waterway) but once again found it worth the trip.

Our plan was of course to travel back to the ICW at high tide instead of coming in at low tide. I put a note on the chart that says "don't enter unless at least half tide"! There will be no more running aground in this river for us :-)

And finally a day that we weren't up at the crack of dawn - even though it was drizzling and cold. But what it did mean was that we had time for breakfast at BJ's. Just our kind of place.

We did not riding around though as it really was just a dreary cold day. We need to get farther south :-)

If you are interested in the history of Darien, click here. It was surprising to learn it was settled by Scottish Highlanders.

The high tides were CRAZY high due to the full moon so travel was very relaxed. It seemed like the marshlands were all just full of water.

We ended a rather short travel day about 2:30 or so. When traveling at high tide, there are no worries about Little Mud River which was a very stressful passage last year at low tide. Never went aground but traveled at idle speed. This time it was so much nicer!

The only other problem spot yesterday was Jekyll Creek - which we were traveling AT LOW tide. The marina at which we were staying said it would be no problem and they were right - lowest I saw on the depth finder was 5.5 feet (we draw 3.8).

The Coast Guard seemed to think stopping us at the worst time though must add to the experience! Fortunately we produced the paper from May of this year when we were boarded in Jacksonville and we were good to go. More 12 year olds ...

When we left this morning from Jekyll Island, the moon was full on our right and the sun was coming up on our left.

The worst part of the trip was first thing as we crossed the Jekyll sound with the tide coming in and the wind blowing out. Never a good thing.

Three foot waves bounced us about a bit - roughest water we have been in for quite a while. Once we made the turn back into the Cumberland River, things were fine.

As we crossed into Florida, there was a security warning that ships were leaving Kings Bay. That meant a sub was headed out to sea. Fortunately,  we were far enough behind it that we didn't have to wait for it. Lots of other warships around as well as small protective go-fast boats with guns. Glad they are ours.

Made it to Fernandina Beach in time to meet up with former East 55th St Marina dockmates: Joe and Joy and Mike and Cathy. Joe and Joy are living aboard High Spirits and are headed for the Bahamas. Mike and Cathy seem to live on cruise boats during the winter months but still have a home in Cleveland. They just happened to be in Jacksonville visiting family.

Nice time :-)

We are at a mooring ball right being Joe and Joy's boat. Even though they are blowboaters, we're going to travel with them for a while :-)

It was really good to see them again as it's since this past winter that we had been together in Marathon.

Joe was kind enough to come pick us up in their dinghy so we didn't need to drop ours. It was VERY windy so it was much appreciated.

Nice lunch with everyone and then we hung around until 4:30 or so to go to the show (saw Lincoln - what a powerful movie).  Tomorrow we'll stop at Jacksonville Beach for the day and then head on down to St. Augustine for a couple of days. Nice and sunny today but still not warm .....

Tuesday November 27: Darien, GA - Oops :-)

 It must be the thing for herons to do around Savannah - ride the current down on floating debris. This guy was certainly enjoying the ride!

The night at Savannah was quiet - with the occasional tug going by rocking us at the dock. Some folks really complained about the waves (there is no 'slow zone') but it wasn't as bad as we've had other places. Definitely keep me awake though.

Finally - a place to go to breakfast AND the time to do it. I settled for my grilled home fries with mushroom and onions but Steve went for the gold: French toast with peaches, pecans and whipped cream!

He totally scored :-)

Regardless, it was nice to have someone bringing me coffee in the morning!

We were off fairly early to take advantage of the current going OUT of the Savannah River - unlike yesterday when somehow the current didn't change when we thought it should.

A very easy 18 miles to our marina for the night at Isle of Hope, south of Savannah.

They have a loaner car so we took advantage of it to get some things at the hardware store, a prescription refilled at CVS and a stop at Publix to re-provision.

Plus time to take a bike ride around the area. Many many old live oaks with hanging Spanish moss. It was a pleasant day as long as you were in the sun - or riding a bike.

Interesting neighborhood with new homes mixed with very old homes.

We also had time to do a load of laundry which was nice. Time to keep moving on ....

Which is why we were up early this morning. Steve woke me up and 10 minutes later we were on our way. The currents were going our way - plus there were other boats leaving and I really don't like to follow someone all day long!

Coffee and an english muffin were totally enjoyed as we motored on down the waterway.

Steve spent most of the day working on the wiring. Seems half of our outlets are not working (this has been an issue for about a week or so). He stopped only to bring me food :-)

It was an incredibly calm day most of the time (except when the rain went through - which missed us). Mostly river travel with several large sound crossings.

Only one issue: I ran aground going up the Darien River. The tide was coming in but was at almost dead low. The river is off of the ICW with the channel marked but clearly there has been shoaling over the years.

Fortunately, I was able to back up and get to the deeper water. First run aground for quite a while - and it's still no fun - ever. Good thing, once again, that it's Georgia mud and not Georgia rock!

Tomorrow: Jekyll Island and then finally FLORIDA!!!!!

Sunday November 25: Savannah, GA

 It was a wonderful 2 1/2 days at Edisto Island in the company of Jim and Linda and some of their family. Two turkey's - one in the oven and one deep fried - along with deep fried shrimp and sweet potatoes sufficiently coated with sugar and cinnamon!

A few projects were completed with the help of Jim and his son Alan. Not too much work though as it was really a time to relax.

We said our goodbye's and headed out about 10 or so on Saturday morning. This gave us several hours before low tide in the creek. Jim said this would give the water time to show the banks but still give us plenty of "oops" room.

No issues making it back to the ICW and it was a very pleasant travel day of about 35 mile to Beaufort, SC. We've been there before and it's always a nice place to stay.

The travel is now through winding rivers and sounds with mostly marsh grass surrounding the waterways.

The weather is still cool - it'll be 38 tonight - but the days are now sunny and it's downright pleasant up on the flybridge :-)

Dolphins are around us quite often through this area. If Steve goes to the front of the boat, 2 or 3 dolpins at a time will play in the bow wave - looking up at him as they swim.

Steve did take advantage of the loaner car at Beaufort to find a rice cooker. It makes it so much easier and it now lives where the very large pot we used for lobster used to be. Figure we'll be using the rice cooker a lot more than the lobster pot!

It was again a great day today with even less wind than yesterday. Some of the rivers and sounds we traveled today were quite large so it made for an easy travel day of 45 miles to Savannah, GA.

I'm not sure when we crossed into Georgia but must not have been too long before arriving here today.

The municipal dock is right downtown near the historic district. This is the first time we have come by boat so it was nice to be able to get a spot on the dock (they don't take reservations but you can watch the dock on a live river cam so we could keep checking to see if there was space available).

If you check this live river cam, there are two very large river boats on the lower right of the screen. We are the next boat on the dock - facing backwards to the camera. Of course we have now left :-)

We had time for a nice bike ride around the historic district. It was amazing how many parks were right downtown. Seemed like every other block had a square in the middle with some kind of statue or memorial.

This was the coolest one though for sure.

Tomorrow will be a very short day of 15 miles to a marina outside of Savannah. A trip to stores for a few needed items to complete repairs are in order.

South - here we come. Still too cold around here ....

Wednesday November 21: Edisto Island, SC - Thanksgiving

It was a pleasant 7 1/2 hour cruise from Charleston to Edisto Island where we were greeted by Jim and Linda at their home.

Once again we are fortunate to be with family or friends on Thanksgiving Day (last year was with Terri and Scott in Sarasota FL). We are so blessed to have such friends and family.

More on our stay in a day or two.

In the meantime, we left Yesterday's Dream docked behind Symmetry on Store Creek in South Carolina and packed our packpacks for a two day stay at the Murray's. What a wonderful place to be on Thanksgiving Day.

Monday November 19: Nice Day in Georgetown

What a nice day today - which for us means it didn't rain all day and we actually saw some blue sky for a short period of time.

Out for breakfast. Lesson again learned: never assume home fries are grilled - often they are deep fried. Will we never learn and remember the lesson?

This is the 3rd oldest city in South Carolina. Charleston is the oldest, then Beaufort and then Georgetown. The Historic District is a very short bike ride away from our marina and it was so nice to be able to be out and riding around again.

Many, many homes are large, well taken care of and upwards of 250+ years old. Some are not in such good shape though even though it seems there are efforts to preserve these old homes.

Many in the near downtown area were from the 1700's and 1800's. The first African-American representative to Congress was born here in Georgetown and represented South Carolina.

Rice was the product that made this area the number one distributor of rice in the WORLD until the late 1800's. So what should we do but go to the Rice Museum!

Big plus - they had a video! The couple we viewed the video with came a short distance from Florence, SC. Interesting couple. Both kept answering questions with "yes, ma'm" - even the wife ... am I looking that much older???

Anyway, the museum was very worthwhile and really detailed why this area was such a perfect place to grow rice - as long as everything could be done by hand.

There was also a wooden cargo ship dating back to the 1700's found up river about 15 miles from here - discovered in the 1970's.

The museum detailed the recovery - quite interesting. The roof from this building was removed so the restored ship could be lifted to the 3rd floor  - which was actually a hardware store back in the 1800's.

Steve wanted to support the museum so he purchased some Carolina Plantation rice plus a jar of Frog Jam and a jar of Kickin' Muscadine Pepper Jelly (I think this one is all his!).

He's making some of the rice for dinner tonight so we'll see how it is.

A trip to the store that shall not be named was on the agenda after breakfast. For a while I thought Steve as wrong about the location (it's not like this is something that has never happened :-)  ), but eventually we happened upon the store. Sadly when we walked out of the store, Steve was trying to figure out where we parked the car :-)

Since he was the only one with a backpack, there was some restraint on what was purchased. Plus we'll be in Charleston tomorrow - home of the first Harris Teeter he ever went to. The best grocery store - ever.

On the way back we stopped at the 100-year flood level sign which indicated the water was over my head in this spot.

A couple of locals scoffed at the sign and indicated it never was above waist high and the sign was merely there for whatever state department erected it as justification for the department's existence.

Whatever, I think the water would have been over my head :-)

Time to put the bikes back on the boat. Note the blue sky in the background.

It was a good stop and will be on the list of places we will return to on the trip north next year.

Tomorrow: the currents are in our favor early in the morning so with a 60 mile day (8 hours) to Charleston, we'll be leaving at 7 am. Guess that means no sleeping in ......

Sunday November 18 Georgetown SC: Rainy, Rainy Days

Plans always seem to be changing. When we left yesterday morning we intended to travel the 60 miles to Georgetown.

It wasn't raining yesterday - cloudy, cool but no rain. Plus we had the current! There is an opening (to the ocean) north of Myrtle Beach that carries current almost 30 miles south. We rode this current until it was obvious that the rest of the 60 trip was going to be a fight against the current.

Change plans: stop at Osprey Marina - a mere 30 miles down the waterway - plus we were stopping for fuel anyway. Great decision - we were in by 1 pm and there were great college football games being played. What more could we want? Heat for a warm cabin and good football :-)

So a few jobs were done just to make (me at least) feel as though it was a somewhat productive day and then I camped out in the front cabin. This is a really nice marina even though there isn't really much around.

Up early this morning to catch the current again. It was slightly raining when we left and by the time we were out of the marina, it was raining full force. And windy. What a day!

But under the flybridge enclosure no issues - unless you count the drips that started. Of all of space on that flybridge canvas, wouldn't you know the drip would be right over my head? How annoying for sure  ... must be time for more waterproofing :-)

The travel down the Waccamaw (isn't that name just fun to say? Waccamaw, Waccamaw - rolls right off of the tongue :-)  ) was uneventful. I was entertained part of the way listening in the conversation between the two sailboats traveling together (they had left Osprey Marina just about 5 minutes before we did).

This is a beautiful area of South Carolina - unfortunate that the weather was not better. One anchor spot held a half dozen sailboats and one trawler. Nice place to spend the night for sure.

I've been thinking that our fishfinder is not really showing the water temperature accurately: 25.9 degrees. There are definitely no icebergs floating around so there is certainly an issue.

At first I thought maybe the setting got set to Centigrade but a temp of 78 degrees didn't make sense either. (Besides which the little F was a clue!) Must be barnacles growing on the sensor.

Anyway, we are in Georgetown - arriving during a timely lull in the wind and rain. We'll stay put here tomorrow and head on to Charleston on Tuesday. It looks like the rain from offshore is finally about finished.

Friday November 16 Myrtle Beach SC: Finally Moving Again!

Finally - it was time to leave! We had arrived back at the boat on Tuesday afternoon and spent the next couple of days picking up a few things we needed for projects as well as taking in a movie.

We had a choice of the new James Bond movie or an animated 3D Wreck-it Ralph. Of course we went for the animated! It was a fun movie - all of the action took place inside video games where the characters of the arcade games came alive after the arcade closed. And of course a happy ending - the best part :-)

Steve wanted to contrast this picture of high tide with one of low tide but we forgot the low tide one. The pole he is standing near would have been another 5 feet over his head - and this isn't even the land of high tides on the east coast!

Turned the rental car in yesterday and took off today.

One of the projects Steve wanted to complete was to put a new light up near the stove. Very limited light comes from the 12-volt overhead lights so the solution was to install a 110 light over the stove.

Overall, as boat projects go, it went pretty well. I made a stop at Lowe's for some parts on the way to return the car so by the time I returned then light was almost completed.

Enterprise is how we get around most of the time as far as cars are concerned as they once again had picked us up 3 weeks ago and then yesterday returned me back to the marina.

Completed light.

The boat was of course a giant mess again. It never ceases to amaze me how much needs to be taken out in order to complete one seeming simple project!

We were originally going to wait for Joe and Joy on High Spirits (our dock neighbors at E. 55th St. in Cleveland) as they were only 3 days behind us. It would be great to travel with them for a while as we both head to the Florida Keys.

But it was not to be as weather and health issues got in the way. They will head south again (right now they are near Oriential, NC) on Wednesday. They have escaped us this time but we'll get them later :-)

Today was the first day since we have been back that we have seen the sun. It was a really nice day to travel - as long as the flybridge enclosure was up. Very windy and very cool - like in the 50's.

These are some of the homes along the shore at Southport as we passed by.

The trees down here still have leaves on and the colors are rapidly coming out.

Sharp contrast to the farm where the leaves have been long gone.

It was a 6 hour, 40 mile day to north of Myrtle Beach and we are just barely into South Carolina. Maybe it's warmer in this state!

After making a nice lunch of soup and cabbage rolls, Steve took advantage of the sun shining for a quick nap :-)

Tomorrow, we'll head to Georgetown - maybe stay a couple of days as it looks the weather may not be great.

Then on to Charleston Monday at the latest.