1-7 November 2005

Stuart, FL to Beaufort, SC

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Date	Destination	Logs and Pictures
11/01	Melbourne, FL	Up at 5 am and underway at 6, ready to make some time. We planned for the worst case with tides but by luck got a push at every inlet and made it to Melbourne Harbor Marina by 2:30 PM, an 80 mile run. Ginger joined Barny for the last leg of the Great Loop trip to Beaufort SC where they will depart for the trip home to Arizona. Bill Bowman also joined us in Melbourne and will help take the boat all the way to Georgetown, SC where the boat will remain for the winter, until Carey and I take it to the Bahamas in March. As we all enjoyed a drink in the late afternoon we watched the local crew team get ready for a practice in their boat.

11/02	New Smyrna, FL	Up at 6 and underway at 7 am with rain threatening, we had a pleasant trip up to New Smyrna and a Hotel and Restaurant that had a spare dock for us to stay the night.

			Bill drives us up the waterway and with Barny helps navigate a tricky channel. We faired better than the boat at left and enjoyed a great sunset and dinner at the Riverview Hotel and Restaurant.
11/03	St Augustine FL	We overslept, waking at 6:15, but quickly recovered and were underway by 6:45. The weather was gorgeous, with clear skies and 80 degree temperatures. We passed close to homes that had to cost in the millions and also noticed smaller real people homes on the waterway that us normal people could live in. The navigation was straight forward and the 75 miles we traveled was easy with a push from the tides. We moored in St Augustine by 2:30 pm and walked the historic and tourist town, enjoying a cold drink and ice cream. Later that evening we enjoyed a great dinner at a local restaurant.

11/04	Fernandina Beach, FL	Another 6 am reveille and underway at 6:45. The skies were cloudy but it was a very pleasant day and we traveled a wide and reasonably deep channel up the east coast viewing some fantastic homes and dolphins playing in the water. Mid afternoon we anchored in Fernandina Beach and went ashore in the dinghy for a pleasant walk around town. A Colonial Beach friend, Mary Kay, lives in the area and she stopped by and gave us a ride to the local supermarket and we all had a drink at a local watering hole. The town of Fernandina is dressed for tourists and an ok stop on the waterway north or south.

11/05	Duplin River, Georgia	Up with the sun and a dinghy ride into Fernandina Beach for a walk around town. It's quiet. Must be a night town. Underway by 7:30 we made a quick trip of the 65 miles to Duplin River where we're anchored tonight. Finally I have one dolphin picture, at right, after seeing them play around the boat for weeks. This dolphin and its mate swam alongside the boat and our wake for over 30 minutes. I think they were waiting for food as local dolphin tour boats were in the area and must feed them to show off the dolphin antics to the tourists.
11/06	Isle of Hope, GA	Very quiet night along side several boats anchored in Duplin River. Underway on a rising tide, which we enjoy in this area of 8 feet tide changes. We always worry about traveling on a falling tide in this area where the tide falls at over 1 foot per hour. Go aground and you are there for a while. The trip through the Georgia ICW is mainly low lying swamp scattered with small communities of homes and a few groves of trees. The great part of today's trip was seeing a variety of boats on the waterway headed south. Below you see just a few of what we saw today; a classic steel sailboat, a beautiful Trumphy, and the ever present Georgia Shrimp boat.

11/07	Beaufort, SC	Barny cast us off this morning and headed into Savannah to pick up a rental car. Bill, Ginger and I steamed the boat up the waterway, across the Savannah River and into South Carolina. We arrived in Beaufort, SC at 1:30 pm, closing the loop. We are moored at Lady's Island Marina where we started the trip just over 200 days ago.

We completed the loop 7 November having moored at Lady's Island Marina, Beaufort, SC, the place we started the trip. We traveled 6,000 miles that included passing through 108 locks in 660 underway hours, for an average speed of 8.5 miles per hour. The trip took 204 days, 151 underway and 63 inport. Of the total nights on the trip we spent 69 anchored, 26 at free docks, and 109 in marinas. We averaged 27.5 miles per day and 37.1 per underway day.
[ Home ] [ Up ] [ Great Loop Planning ] [ April 2005 ] [ 1-15 May 2005 ] [ 16-31 May 2005 ] [ 1-15 June 2005 ] [ 16-30 June 2005 ] [ 1-15 July 2005 ] [ 16-31 July 2005 ] [ 1-15 August 2005 ] [ 16-31 August 2005 ] [ 1-15 September 2005 ] [ 16-30 September 2005 ] [ 1-15 October 2005 ] [ 15-31 October 2005 ] [ 1-7 November 2005 ]