Monday April 25: No Fear in Cape Fear Today!

The Cape Fear River was quite tame today and definitely did not live up to it's scary name!

We just barely made it to Southport to catch the end of the incoming tide but were able to ride the tide north for most of the length of the river.

Sadly there was no time for Steve to catch one of his favorite lunch spots at the Provision Company. Not sure they were really even open yet as it was just after 11 am.




It's been nice travel days for the most part since we left McClellenville on Friday. A total of 140 miles over the past few days and we are now in Wrightsville Beach, North Carolina, having crossed the South Carolina border this morning.

After contacting Sailor Dave, we were headed Saturday for Georgetown - a reasonable hour + drive for them from Myrtle Beach.

It was Vivian's birthday so they agreed to join us for dinner to celebrate and BONUS at the last minute decided to stay overnight on the boat!


Best part though? Vivian's birthday present was two of the cutest kittens EVER! And I am such a sucker for kittens .... I think going back to when I was a kid.

We had lots of barn cats but I was never allowed to have a 'house' cat. Of course I could have a cat in the house but it still had to live in the barn.

Scarred for life :-)

Sailor Dave and Vivian

Steve cooked a great salmon with dill sauce dinner along with kale salad and spaghetti squash. He even made a birthday cake complete with candles.

It had been a while since we'd seen these two so it was great catching up.

The kittens (Rosie - black and white and Guy - orange) were also very good at keeping us entertained ;-)



After a nice breakfast out and a visit to the Rice Museum, Dave and Vivian and kittens headed back to Myrtle Beach. We decided to stay another day in Georgetown.

I had a great Chinese restaurant picked out but sadly it had gone out of business. So we went to McDonalds since it was right there and it was way past lunch time. What else were we to do, right?




Georgetown has quite the history. We learned some of it at the rice museum. The rice plantations used the fresh water of the Great Pee Dee and Waccamaw Rivers to cultivate and raise rice. Sold it all over the world. Of course after the Civil War, it was no longer productive to grow rice and the newly mechanized machines used in rice production could not be used.

The soil was so soft that it could not support the weight of the machines. There are still a couple of plantations that grow rice though. We were able to purchase a couple of pounds of the aromatic rice (smells like popcorn!). Good stuff.

The main street is very much like it was back in the late 1800's. The city has made very successful efforts to revitalize the downtown.

Travel yesterday was on the Waccamaw River for a long day. The plan was to stop for the day at Osprey Marina but it was so early that we continued on.

The current was with us so why not!

The sides of the river are lined with cypress trees - many of which are home to the osprey which apparently love this area! If you look really hard there is an osprey in it's nest at the very top of the tree that is draped in Spanish moss.

This osprey was guarding the entrance to Osprey Marina. Wonder if it's really stuffed .....

It was great finally seeing the lighthouse that indicated we were almost at our marina for the night.

New rule: never travel around the Myrtle Beach area on a nice Sunday afternoon!

Beautiful sunrise .... we left at 6:30 this morning. Again our lives these days are controlled by the tides and currents.

It was another nice day to travel - especially AFTER the waterway turned north instead of due east!

Although we've seen many dolphins in the days past, none were interested enough to ride the bow wave or tag along in our wake - until today!

Mostly they seemed to be just interested in finding something to eat.

I don't blame them but it's still always fun when they hang around with us.

Land of the sunken shrimp boats. We've been watching this one on the left for several years now.

The one right is a new one though. Don't recall seeing it before.



One last fun picture: a school outing North Carolina style!!

Thursday April 21: McClellenville SC

After a great breakfast yesterday morning at the Seacow Eatery, we left Edisto Island and continued our travels north.

Although the current was with us on the way out of Store Creek, we fought the current the rest of the day on the South Edisto and finally called it a day at the anchorage at Church Creek - off of the Wadmalaw River.

Lots of no-see-ums as it was quite calm by then. Sunset was very nice even though we could not enjoy it from the flybridge.


Another early morning leave planned as we were looking to ride the currents today - particularly the swift flowing cut connecting the Stono River with the waters of the Port of Charleston where the currents can flow up to 3 mph against us.

Planned to leave early but the fog had other notions! So we waited.

A sailboat further in the anchorage left and we left shortly after.

It still wasn't totally clear but certainly enough that we were good to go.

In the end it turned out to be a really nice day with little wind.

And the currents were definitely going our way! Traveling at 10.1 mph and about to enter the Charleston Harbor with currents between 1 and 2 mph more!

Charleston is a very busy place with huge marinas and huge boats.

We've stopped here most time on the way by but today just drove on by. We were headed to McClellenville - about 40 miles beyond Charleston.

Tides and current in our favor!

The homes along the waterfront are really amazing - as are the homes scattered throughout the city.

And of course there is always Fort Sumter - place where the first shots of the Civil War were fired.

For more info: Fort Sumter


It was a long day and with the late fog delayed start, we didn't reach McClellenville until almost 5 pm. Later than we normally like to travel.

Funny thing when we pulled in? Here was Mary Lee - Sailor Dave's boat!! We first met Dave when we were in Baltimore for two months as Steve was recovering from his broken shoulder.

We've been fortunate to be able to see him occasionally as we traveled north/south along the coast throughout the years.

An email, then phone conversation. He and Vivian are living in Myrtle Beach - a short hour drive from Georgetown. They were available Friday night and could drive down to meet us for dinner on the boat!

It will be great catching up - can't wait to see them.

How fortunate we have been to be able to have friends that will make time in their schedule as we travel along ....

Wednesday April 20: South of Charleston

"The Plan" went quite well!

We left Isle of Hope Sunday morning with favorable currents and sunny weather - albeit a bit cooler than we'd like. But the winds have finally died down.

Destination was Beaufort SC so a very manageable 55 miles.

Port Royal Sound - which can be quite nasty as it is a very large body of water - was well behaved :-)

The longer travel days find each of us sometimes napping a bit in the afternoon. More often it's me but occasionally Steve will take a quick nap as well. Works well as we travel along :-)




Lots of areas that are pretty open with an 8 or 9 foot tide, so the shoreline changes as we travel. It was a challenge just finding our way through the maze of waterways north of Savannah.

So many rivers and cutoffs and cut throughs. Let's hear it for the GPS and chart plotter!

It was a very quick stay at Beaufort - Lady's Marina. Nice place and we'll definitely go back there.

Very easy bike ride to just about anything - including a Great Clips! I was really in need of a hair cut!!

The current was going our way early Monday morning so we were up and out by 7 am.





The best part about getting up and just heading out is definitely breakfast on the flybridge!!

Once we are underway, Steve will make some type of sandwich (easier to eat) - usually eggs and seafood or in this case eggs and peameal bacon!! He was cleaning out the freezer and found the last of the peameal that he made in Banana Bay. Nice way to start the morning :-)

It wasn't long after leaving that we crossed over to the South Edisto River, leaving the ICW as we were bound for Jim and Linda's home on Store Creek. It's a very small creek. With lots of shoaling that isn't marked on the chart.

So Jim made this very easy; call when you go through Fenwick cut and I'll meet you.

Sounds like a great plan! How often do you have your own pilot boat through the shallow areas?!!

He met us at the entrance to Pierre Creek on the North Edisto River and we followed in his wake all the way up Store Creek.

As you can see it was just above low time and the mud banks were very visible!

Linda met us at their dock and helped us to get tied up and plugged in.

Their boat, Symmetry, is currently stored in New York awaiting their return.

We first met Jim and Linda in Michigan as we were traveling on the Loop and spent several weeks traveling both on Lake Michigan and the inland rivers.

Wonderful couple - we hope to see them up north this summer.

They live in a beautiful area of South Carolina in a home that overlooks the marshes in this area.

Ever changing as the tide comes and goes twice a day.

This is the first place we ever saw a wood stork. Really huge - and very unique birds.

Steve, Linda and Jim

Lunch at the beach one day. It was a nice day.




It wasn't all play as Steve and Jim knocked off a couple of projects on the list.

Here they were replacing a link on the anchor chain. Also completed: fix a leak in the deck and finish fixing the water pump that we've been having trouble with.

Couldn't have been a better visit - we'll be back :-)

Friday April 15: Isle of Hope Marina

We left yesterday from our Walburg Island anchorage. It was an ok place to be for a windy night (which didn't die down as forcast!) but next time we'll choose a smaller creek. Won't be quite so much current.

Even hitting St. Catherines Inlet at slack tide was quite a journey! Fortunately it was only about 20 minutes across and then a turn west so we were with the incoming tide and sideways to the 20 mph winds. Uncomfortable for a period of time but certainly doable and we had reservations for the Isle of Hope (very appropriate name!) marina for a couple of days.

We finally started seeing the white pelicans again - apparently they don't like to fly any farther south than they have to - they seem to like it at the north end of Florida. So beautiful in flight with the black at the ends of their wingtips.

Usually they are on shore sharing a small slice of sand.

There were plenty of spectators on shore along Hell Gate - a notoriously shallow area of the ICW here in Georgia. Fun to see but my focus was really on just staying in the narrow channel that took us from the Ogeechee River to the Little Ogeechee River! Neither of these are really 'little' rivers and the wind was still quite strong. But again only for about 40 minutes to cross both of these large water areas.


Once past the rivers we were back to the protected areas of marshes and smaller rivers.

Made it to Isle of Hope Marina (Steve makes the marina reservations and thought to call a day ahead as the weather was forecast to not be very nice for today and tomorrow).

This morning the dock guys were dressed for winter! Really? A tossel cap? But then I had on jeans and a fleece - and I was in the boat!




We really like this marina. Not terribly large but nice folks here. And as an added plus they have 2 loaner cars for the transient boaters to use. Just about any store you need is nearby!

Including Sam's Club - for yet another battery. In the long run it's just insurance.

For whatever reason the battery we purchased in Eau Gallie just a short week ago proved to not have enough cranking amps to turn the engine over the way we would like. Not sure what the real issue was but solved it by finding a battery at Sam's with 1050 cranking amps! Turns the engine over like a charm :-)

Another stop was Home Depot. The hot water in the faucet has been reduced to a dribble.

A repeat problem. Small crystals form in the hot water (not the cold) lines for ??? reason. Eventually it clogs the line.

End result - very low flow. Only in the kitchen sink which has really small lines right at the faucet. Fixed and done!

Such a beautiful area with the live oaks and the spanish moss hanging.

The rains predicted never came. One more store run tomorrow for a few more things.

Hopefully it will be nice enough to take a bike ride through the area near the marina.

Then it will be off north again. We're headed for Edisto Island for a stop to see friends Jim and Linda Murray. Met them in 2011 when we were bring the boat from Cleveland to Florida. Such truly 'salt of the earth' people .....

Wednesday April 13: Walburg Island Anchorage - GEORGIA!!

It was once again time to change the oil in the injector pump on this Lehman engine. It's one of the older styles designed so the injector pump has it's own oil supply instead of using the oil which circulates through the engine.

I like to think there was a very good reason for this because it's a pain to change every 50 hours as opposed to the whole engine oil change which happens every 200 hours.

There must be a better way ..... and we now have it!

Sitting next to the engine and unscrewing the drain plug on the injector while trying hold a baggie open to catch all of the old oil without spilling it into the bilge (always a bad thing!) was shaky at best.

So we put Steve's minnow net to good use - remove the net, put a ziplock baggie with the edge folded over. Now one handed easy to use oil catcher!!

Marvelous :-)

Travel in Georgia is at the same time easy and difficult. Difficult because of the 6 - 8 foot tidal swings. Easy because of the 6 - 8 foot tidal swings! Just depends where we are when the low tide hits :-)

You can see the sand bar next to the dock at the St. Johns River. When we first arrived the water totally covered this.We knew it was there only because we'd been here before (and the charts of course indicate it is shallow there).

Not a good thing to run into so we try to time the tides so there is always plenty of room where it is needed most.

We've traveled 120 miles the past two days - mostly out of necessity not because we wanted to go that far.

The plan was to stop at Cumberland Island (land of the wild horses) for a night with plans to roam the island for the day.

Weather said not today! So we continued north into Georgia farther as the weather grew worse. Wind and possible storms.


It just wasn't very nice. But the rain held off until we were 10 minutes from the marina on Saint Simons Island.

Steve was soaked by the time we docked - and then of course the sun came out!

We like this marina because they deposit the day's paper and a couple of muffins on your doorstep! What's not to like :-)

Today was also overcast, quite windy and cool. There is more wind due in this weekend. What to do. It's two days to Isle of Hope near Savannah for us and marinas are few and far between in the marshes of Georgia. Stay or go.

Ended up leaving Saint Simons Island and headed for Darian. A small town 8 miles off of the ICW and of course then 8 miles back to the ICW.


In the end we just kept going and figured the wind would not be an issue for us. Then we crossed Sapelo Sound! The last major sound for the day. Current was running west. Winds were blowing from the NW. Should be ok to run the 5 miles or so east on the sound until we're back on the smaller rivers running through the marshes.

After all, the sounds get nasty when the wind opposes the current so it should be ok. And it was sort of ok. No real issues just some waves kind of going everywhich way!. At one point Steve called to talk to me on the VHF radio as he didn't think it wise to attempt to come up to the flybridge!

Smart person ;-)

It wasn't too much longer until we were anchored for the night just south of the last large sound: St. Catherines. Then it'll be across Hell Gate (with plenty of water under the keel) and off to Isle of Hope Marina to wait out the next day or two or three of bad weather.

Fun things:

Two tug boats were moving dredging equipment somewhere. Fortunately they were very easy to pass.

Shrimp boat coming in the Altamaha Sound.