Matanzas Inlet

We wanted to stay in St. Augustine longer but there weren't any mooring balls available. In case you're wondering what a mooring ball is, it's similar to being at anchor except you tie up to a floating ball that is anchored deep into the ground/mud/sand, etc. It's a lot more secure (you don't have to worry about dragging your anchor) and you don't need to worry about swinging into other boats (or have them swing into you) because of a long anchor rode. We were in a slip for two days but at close to $100/night, it was a little 'rich' for us. We wanted to move to the mooring field at $25/night but there were 13 boats ahead of us. Sooo.... we moved on Friday morning and headed south. A storm front is coming Sunday so we want to be in a slip Sat-Mon. We left St. Augustine as close to slack tide as we could (1100) and headed to Matanzas Inlet. We had two friends help us with our lines when we left. A fender somehow got caught and literally broke the line. Our friend, Gail, yelled up to me, "Is this yours?" as it was floating in the water. I said, "Yes!" and she somehow heaved it onto the back of our boat! Matanzas Inlet was only about 15 miles south but there weren't any other anchorages between there and Daytona. Well... one or two but they didn't sound very appealing. 

Going down the ICW.

 We dropped the anchor next to Fort Matanzas. We're in a small stretch of 'no wake' in the perfect depth of water (for us) -- 7-11 feet. The current definitely rips through here! Our 35 lb Manson Supreme anchor and all chain rode has been holding tight all day! We took our dinghy to the fort but weren't allowed to tie up. Our electric outboard was struggling against the wind and current. We did MUCH better going the other way toward the visitor center and park. We weren't allowed to tie up at that dock either so we just beached our dinghy and tied up to a tree branch.

Back in the day... the Spanish controlled/owned most 'la Florida'. The French had built Fort Caroline and tried to attack the Spanish to the south. A storm drove them into the coast and as they were making there way back north, got stuck at the inlet we're anchored in. It was too deep and the current too swift to cross and the Spanish captured them. They slaughtered 250 French non-Catholics and the area was named, "Matanzas" which means 'slaughter' in Spanish. The fort was later built to protect enemy ships from entering the inlet which is a back door to St. Augustine.

Sharon on our 'hike'.

Anchored in the inlet.

Sunset over Fort Matanzas.

This photo is borrowed from the Internet. The sun was in the
wrong direction to get a good pic.

St. Augustine

Wednesday, 27 Nov, started with our often times "2 hour coffee" (coffee, checking email/Facebook, surfing the net, watching the news (for weather), planning our next leg, etc). We were going to St. Augustine that was only three hours south of us. Sharon spent a good portion of the morning purging the boat of cardboard. Apparently bugs love cardboard and Sharon (and me) doesn't like bugs. We don't have any bugs but are getting closer to a warmer climate (Yes!).

We were headed for St. Augustine Municipal Marina which is known to have some really rough and funky current. A new moon didn't help either. I wanted to get there as close to slack tide as possible. For those who don't know what 'slack tide' is, it's the relatively still water at the turn of the low and high tide. We left Jacksonville around 1130 and for once, had the current in our favor! BUT, for once, I didn't want the current in our favor and wanted to arrive around 1500 (3pm). We even spent some of the time at idle speed and were still doing around eight knots! That's some serious current.

We passed beautiful home after beautiful home. We had a few douche bags pass us at full speed, oblivious of their wake but overall, it was a nice ride. We arrived at the Bridge of Lions in St. Augustine around 1445. This bridge has a 23 foot closed clearance and we had to idle until for the 1500 opening. Our marina was immediately after the bridge. We radioed ahead and were told we had to wait about 10 minutes for other boats to dock. There were three ahead of us. That was fine with me because slack tide was at 4 and the longer we waited, the better!

The marina staff are used to the current challenge and put us in a slip so we were docking into the current (which is what you want). Once docked, we checked out St. Augustine for a couple of hours then went to Anne O'Malley's for a cruisers Thanksgiving Eve happy hour. We ran into a couple of boaters we had met previously and met some new people. 

Castillo de San Marcos

Bridge of Lions. Drawbridge we had to clear.

We then went to Prohibition Kitchen (very popular), walked past the line and found two bar stools! Drink, food and service was excellent!

Prohibition Kitchen

Thanksgiving day was a huge potluck dinner at the marina put on by Cruisers Net. Sharon baked a pumpkin pie and made a cheese ball. There were so many deserts that her's was three deep. Plenty of pumpkin pie for us to take back to the boat!!! Several local businesses and Cruisers Net contributed turkey, ham, pork, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, etc. and many boaters brought a side dish. There was a TON of food! Although we miss family and friends, it was great eating dinner outside in shorts and T-shirts! (Sharon wore a dress). Earlier in the day we ran into Tom, Andy Polk's uncle (for those that know him) and a couple, Jo and Frank, we met at a Herrington Harbour breakfast. It's a small and great world!

We have so much to be thankful for! and don't know where we'll be tomorrow. I do know we want to be in a slip around Daytona Sun/Mon to wait out unfavorable (for us) conditions.

Jacksonville To Get Stuff Done

We left our Jekyll Island anchorage Monday morning 25 Nov 2019. From there we crossed St. Andrews Sound. St. Andrews Sound can be a 'white-knuckler' especially if wind is blowing against the current -- the route goes right passed the Atlantic Ocean breakers. From there past Cumberland Island, Kings Bay Sub Base, Fernandina Beach to Jacksonville. We were originally going to stay at the free dock at Jim King Park off Sisters Creek but decided to continue south to spend two nights at Palm Cove Marina. We had been traveling hard for a week, anchoring out every night and were ready for a break.

The reason for running so hard was two-fold. When we became Florida residents in July, we needed new estate planning documents. We found an attorney right off the ICW. The ONLY appointment she had available was 26 Nov! Or 10 or 11 Dec. -- we would have been long past Jacksonville and would have had to rent a car and drive up. We discovered this when we were in Georgetown, SC - 339 miles from Jacksonville and had 10 days to get there. The most dangerous thing in boating is having a schedule and we have been determined NOT to have a schedule so figured we would do the best we could. If we didn't make it by the 26th, we'd rent a car. 

The weather gods were in our favor and we actually made it with two days to spare! I said earlier our running hard was two-fold. The second reason was we had such a great weather window and we were tired of being cold!

Here's where it gets really good! We have friends that live in St. Augustine. Turns out they work about 10 miles from the marina we were staying in. They were able to meet us for dinner AND left us with one of their cars to use all day Tuesday! It just doesn't get any better! Thank you Bob and Christine! We spent the following day at Walmart, Trader Joe's (Sharon loves TJ's) and Winn Dixie, went to lunch at Tacolu's and went to our appointment to sign our estate planning docs. Afterwards, we picked Bob up at work and had to return to the attorney to pick up our hard copy and soft copy documents (they needed to be scanned). The three of us went to dinner and we said good-bye to Bob. Sharon and I spent the remainder of the evening doing three loads of laundry and visiting with locals that were live aboards at the marina. Why so late with the laundry? We went to the laundry room bright and early and were told they were replacing them with new washers and dryers. Soooo... we decided to wait especially since the dryers didn't 'dry'.

Dinner at Ragtimes withBob and Christine. Bob and I have
been friends since we met in bootcamp in 1982.

Our route from Jekyll Island to Palm Cove Marina

Georgia

Like a lot of days, we start with plan A, B, C and end up stopping somewhere unplanned (D). Why? It just depends on the weather and conditions, how far we feel like going and what sounds, "Cool".

This entry starts with a rant: Georgia legislators recently passed HB 201 prohibiting anchoring in GA waters without a permit (that's the condensed version). DNR hasn't figured out how to implement the bill and it doesn't really go into effect until 1/1/2020 so we anchored out all four nights. It has made GA an 'anti-boater' state to cruisers. We spent the least amount of time here AND spent as little $$$ as possible. A lot of other boaters feel this way -- some even go 'outside' and completely skip the state altogether. This is totally 180 from NC which offered a lot of FREE docks just to encourage cruisers to stop by and spend money. To start our 'protest', we stopped in Hilton Head at Hilton Head Harbor Marina to fuel up. This stop is right on the ICW, had the best price around and is right before GA.

HHH Marina has nice high-speed pumps. As I was pumping I heard a 'bang' of some sort. Kind of like something hit our boat. Then I heard it again and Sharon reacted big time! I turned off the fuel nozzle, pulled it away and diesel fuel spouted out! I guess our vent tube wasn't venting air faster than fuel was filling the tank. As far as I can tell, nothing 'exploded' and we're not leaking fuel but that was scary! That's never happened before.

We found an anchorage on Turner Creek near Isle of Hope. It was pretty far up the creek. Little Miss Google quickly discovered one of the anchorage spots was right behind a Publix! And between us and Publix was a marina. Sharon was getting nervous that we were running low on food and I was getting nervous I was running low on beer. This wasn't the most picturesque spot but from a utilitarian perspective, it was excellent! We anchored, dropped the dinghy and motored over to Lee Shore Marina to see if we could tie up to run into Publix. A guy came walking down the dock and I asked him if he worked there. He replied, "Ha! No one works here!" So he told us we could tie up, we spent a small fortune at Publix and went back to the boat. On the way to Publix, we passed a dive bar, Cheer to You, that we just couldn't resist! This place was a national treasure!!! As soon as we walked in, three people started talking to us wanting to know all about our travels. They even bought us a round! Welcome to Georgia.

Our 'shopping cart'!

As you can imagine, we were pretty packed in on the dinghy.

Pelican sighting

This bar was great! The crowd and bartender.

It even had some holes in the floor (not kidding).

Ka'Why Knot at anchor.

Publix -- it's right there!

We left Turner Creek Friday, 22 Nov around 0800. We literally wound our way through Georgia. We saw dolphins (we see them every day but can never get a picture!), low marshes, sandy shorelines and glassy water. Every day we seem to pass the same sailboats. Today was no different. We passed friends we met in Myrtle Beach on Whodoggie right before Hell Gate. Hell Gate is a known trouble spot on the ICW. We've been through dozens but maybe it's the name that gave me pause. There was a sailboat in front of us. There are two things I particularly like about sailboats -- following them through shallow water and being anchored next to them in a lightening storm. Well... the one in front ran aground right before Hell Gate and had to wait for the rising tide to get them off. We scooted past them and stayed in comms with Whodoggie who draws a foot more than us. We had plenty of water under us (both of us) and made it through no problem. 

We ended up anchoring on a creek at Wolf Island National Wildlife Refuge. It's wide open, there's a lighthouse in the distance and supposedly alligators. It was much deeper than I prefer (25+/- feet) with 1-2 knot current. Fortunately, there was no wind and the holding was fine. For those not familiar with anchoring, you want a 5:1 scope. That means five feet of rhode (in our case anchor chain) for every one foot of depth. If you're in 10 feet of water, you want 50 feet of rhode. We only have 100 feet so we were at 4:1 scope. No wind made that fine but the current had me nervous. Anyway... we were fine throughout the night. 

My FM gave me a break at the conn.

Lots of glassy water today!

Underway snack

I'm not sure what a charcuterie tray is but suspect this comes close!

Wide open and a nice sunset.

Where's Waldo -- there he is!

Next stop was Jekyll Island. In the late 1800s, Jekyll Island became an exclusive hunting club for the rich and famous with names like Rockefeller, Morgan, Vanderbilt, Pulitzer, and Baker. At one point, 1/6 of the world's wealth were members of this 'club'. Most stayed at the 'clubhouse' but some wanted more privacy and built 'cottages'. They were hardly cottages.

We decided to anchor here for two nights. We had been running hard since Monday and wanted a break. Plus the wind was higher than we were comfortable with -- especially crossing the St. Andrews Sound. We anchored right after the Jekyll Island bridge. We dropped our dinghy, loaded our scooters and toured the island. It was FINALLY in the mid 70s! And a 'toes in the sand' day!!! We tied our dinghy to a public dock (which was located in the middle of nowhere), scootered around the island and did a lot of exploring. We went to several beaches and historic district along with lots of trails. Our batteries were running low so we dropped the scooters off at the boat and dinghied to a marina. They let us tie up and we had drinks at Zachery's Riverside. 

The "Clubhouse". Exclusive for the rich.

Day two we went back to Jekyll Island Marina and tied up. They were nice enough to let us stay there for free for the day. We walked about a mile into the 'historic district' and bought tickets for the trolley tour. That included admission to the museum, the sea turtle hospital and Faith chapel. It was well worth it!

Inside the turtle hospital.

No, she isn't asleep. Somehow I always
manage to take a picture when here eyes are closed!

Bedroom of one of the 'cottages'.

Stain glass inside Faith Chapel. This was one of 10 stain glass
pieces actually signed by Tiffany. Appraised at $850,000!

We walked through the Clubhouse and whatever cottages we could get into. We walked back to the marina and stopped for "a drink" and to catch the end of whatever football game was on. That lasted a few hours since we ran into a couple we had met the day before at happy hour. Plus the bartenders were awesome!! Naturally, we had forgotten to turn on the anchor light when we left at 1030. Who thinks of that in the morning!?! Finding our boat was challenge but we did it (thanks to Sharon)!

Georgetown to Beaufort

Finally! The wind and rain stopped and we were able to leave Georgetown Monday, 18 Nov. Well... that was the plan until a 55 Azimut pulled in late the night before and blocked our exit. I walked over, talked to the captain to see what their plans were and explained our situation. They had just stopped for the night and wanted to fuel up. He was nice enough to move over to the fuel dock and we were able to get underway. It was a nice travel day even if it started raining shortly after we left. At least there wasn't any wind! We left with two sailboats and another trawler. Once in Winyah Bay, everyone jockeyed for position based on boat speed with us following the trawler (1/2 a knot faster than us) and two sailboats behind us. We turned down a channel which connects the Bay to Jeremy Creek. We were originally going to anchor out about 40 miles from Georgetown. It was such a nice day that we continued south where we had planned on crossing Charleston Harbor and anchoring on the other side. As we were going through Isle of Palms, I learned that three former co-workers were in Charleston on a business trip! We called Charleston Maritime Center to see if they had a slip available and as luck would have it, they did. As luck would NOT have it, we were arriving when the current would be racing at 2 knots. Sharon and I talked it through and talked to the dock master to make sure everyone was aware of our "plan". That proved to be a very beneficial and we had a flawless docking! Whew!

I didn't know I had an island!!!

One of three hundred+ long dredge barge tows!

We connected with Gary, Mike and Rob and went to Henry's for happy hour then 5 Church for dinner. Four of us got the New York Strip for $44 each!!! It was amazing but I was expecting a "Brontosaurus" size steak! As you can see from the picture, it was not.

Me, Rob, Gary and Mike and 5 Church.

New York strip was delicious but that for $44.... note Mike's scallops.
All four of them for $26(?). 

The next morning we pulled (hand pulled) our boat (with help from the dock master and our Canadian neighbor) over to pump out. Very much needed as we were close to full! This new holding tank is huge and it took several minutes to pump out. 

It was a great day to be underway so we traveled almost eight hours through low marshes and past small towns. We were in several rivers and creeks -- Wappoo Creek, Stono River, Dawho River, Edisto River, Ashepoo Coosa and finally to Brickyard Creek. We passed three tugs towing dredging barges that were hundreds of feet long! Naturally the longest one we passed had FOUR tugs maneuvering it through Watts Cut which is very narrow and prone to shoaling. We stayed as far to the side as we could and luckily, had no problems (in other words, didn't run aground).

It's fun passing boaters that we have met along the way and today we passed friends we met in Myrtle Beach. We anchored in Brickyard Creek and were the only boat there. It was a nice quiet anchorage and we were the only boat there -- PERFECT! Turns out we were next to Marine Corps Air Station Beaufort - Merritt Field with jets screaming all around. Again, PERFECT! We love the sound of freedom! Sharon made shrimp and grits for dinner and we watched a Bond movie.

Sharon getting ready to drop the hook.

Low marshes -- this was our view for miles.

At anchor

Beautiful sunset

The next morning (20 Nov) we took our time and got underway around 1000. The tide had lowered SEVEN feet from the night before. We originally had 13 feet under our keel and woke up to six. Not a problem but quite a drop. We weighed anchor and headed back to the ICW. I saw two sailboats heading south and wanted to get ahead of them. I was watching the depth and all of a sudden our boat heeled way over!!! I managed to run us aground even though the depth transducer said eight feet. Guess it was eight feet amid ship but not 16 feet forward. Luckily our boat is very forgiving to running aground. I let us sit for a few minutes and let the wind and current do it's thing. Put it in reverse and we were back underway. In less than an hour, we caught a mooring ball in Beaufort right downtown.

Beaufort did not disappoint! We 'checked in' to the marina which cost a whopping $20 for the night (mooring ball). We ate lunch at Hemmingway's -- very good! After that we hit the Visitor's Center and did a walking tour. Like so many towns we've visited, Beaufort is full of beautiful historical homes.

This church is over 300 years old. It was used
as a hospital during the Civil War and the
tombstones used as operating tables.

Sharon chilling in Waterfront Park.

We were intrigued by the branches on this tree!
Made me want to climb it.