January 11-22, 2013
Osprey Marina, Myrtle Beach, SC to Fernandina Beach, FL
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| Jan 12, 2013 | Osprey Marina, Myrtle Beach, SC | |
| Thursday, Jan 10th, Carey loaded the rental car for our trip to the boat, located at Osprey Marina, Myrtle Beach, SC. You could not put a peanut in the car once she was done. We were on the road by 6:30 am Friday and arrived at the boat about 2:30pm. Once unloaded, I returned the rental car and made it back by cocktail hour. We had a pleasant dinner aboard enjoying Carey's great sausage spaghetti. Today we are up and cleaning the boat and storing all that we brought with us. We'll cast off Monday morning, heading south. You see the cut we'll travel thru to get from the Marina to the ICW in the picture below. Gary and Nancy Vineyard are in the area, boat shopping, and will spend Sunday night with us.
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| Jan 14, 2013 | George Town, South Carolina | |
| We're up Sunday morning the 13th finishing the "get the boat ready" chores. Gary and Nancy arrived mid afternoon and we watched some great NFL post season football and found a great Mexican restaurant for dinner. Gary and Nancy stayed the night and after a large breakfast Monday morning we all headed out. Gary and Nancy were off to look at condos in the area and we headed south on the boat. We left just behind a beautiful sailboat, seen below, from New Orleans that was on its way to Georgetown, Exumas, Bahamas. As Carey and I headed south we motored past a couple of shrimp boats and enjoyed beautiful scenery. We traveled 31 statue miles in 3.5 hours and arrived in Georgetown SC at 2:30 pm. The last of the pictures show the Georgetown, SC Harbor, Apolonia sitting at its slip in Harbor Walk Marina, the front door of the River Room where we had dinner, and finally the new picture Carey bought for the salon on the boat. We're having a nice time settling in for our trip. | ||
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| Jan 15, 2013 | Price Creek Anchorage, SC | |
| Up at 8 am ,we walked to Thomas Cafe for our favorite breakfast. You can see the lunch specials in the pictures below. It is our most favorite cafe on the east coast. After breakfast, I put the dinghy in the water. While it needs a good cleaning after sitting 3 months at Osprey Marina , it ran great so we decided to move south and were underway by 1030 am. You'll see in the pictures below the main street of Georgetown, our favorite city. After underway, we moved through the low country of South Carolina..not a soul around.....but birds galore! A boat graveyard is contrasted by the man and his dog walking out on a pier to wave hello to us as we passed. Then you see a beautiful home nestled in the woods along the waterway. We pulled into our anchorage at Price Creek at 4 pm. The picture shows wheat type grass just 50 feet from the stern of the boat. We poured some wine and enjoyed a beautiful sunset. Then we went below and Carey served up a pot roast that had been cooking in the crock pot all day...just the way Vicky Enos told her to do it. So great! | ||
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| Jan 16, 2013 | Steamboat Creek Anchorage, SC | |
| We got underway from Price Creek anchorage and had a windy but ok travel day. The weather forecast for Thursday and especially Thursday evening is not pretty (gale force winds) so we planned to get the boat in a good anchorage tonight and have a short push to a solid slip marina by noon on Thursday if we needed it. We decided to make Steamboat Creek anchorage that gives good protection from southerly winds and is only 40 miles from Beaufort, SC. Along the way to Steamboat Creek we viewed pretty homes at Isle of Palms and then passed Ft Sumter in Charleston harbor. Carey also got another look at her favorite boat "Grits." Grits is that big cabin cruiser you see below at Charleston's City Marina. We see it every trip somewhere along the waterway and Carey says she'll buy it when she wins the lottery. We then proceeded south through Elliott's Cut, a pathway cut through rock to get us from Charleston Harbor to the Stono River. And then about 2:30 pm, after a 50 mile day, we put the anchor down in Steamboat Creek. The winds have died down now and you can see the very quiet waters in the creek in the last picture. We'll see what the early am brings as we enjoy a quiet evening. | ||
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| Jan 17, 2013 | Down Town Marina, Beaufort, SC | |
| The day started calm. We were up and underway at 8:30 am to make it through the toughest shoal areas in South Carolina. We had planned it for travel on a rising tide and it worked. We continued to monitor the weather and the forecast was for gale force winds in the afternoon. We pushed up the throttles in the non shoal areas and planned for a early afternoon arrival at Downtown Marina in Beaufort SC where we could tie to something very solid for the big blow. We tied up after a 40 mile trip at 12:30 pm. The winds started their big blow at 2 pm. The rain started at 3 pm. By late evening the winds were back to 25 knots and the temperatures had dropped 20 degrees to 40. We are hoping for less than 15 knots of wind tomorrow morning, as we are planning to move on to Georgia. Along the way today we passed a Shrimp Boat with his gear out in full view, a pretty sight. The other picture is of the main dock at the Downtown Docks in Beaufort. It doesn't show the ferocity of the wind ... over 35 knots when this picture was taken. | ||
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| Jan 18, 2013 | Down Town Marina, Beaufort, SC | |
| The night of the 17th Carey and I found a great restaurant in Beaufort called Emily's. We had a superb meal and talked to some locals from the area. After that, home to bed. Up at 8:00 am ready to move south, NOAA said the gale warning was still in effect. It was ok in Beaufort (10-15 knots of wind) but we decided not to chance it as we were going to have to pass thru an Ocean connected sound headed south. We relaxed, read at bit, and had a great lunch in the waterfront restaurant Luther's. Carey fixed a great Salmon and spinach dinner aboard this evening and we're planning on an early departure tomorrow. Below are two pictures of the Beaufort waterfront park. It is a very nice community. | ||
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| Jan 19, 2013 | Vernon River, Georgia | |
| Underway at 8:30 am for Vernon River. Our plan is to make 60 miles to Vernon River, then up Sunday morning to make 30 miles to a Yahoo River anchorage by noon. We'll anchor and settle down to watch the AFC and NFC football championship games. Go Ravens. On Monday we'll head to Jekyll Island, a 60 ish mile trip then on Tuesday travel 30 miles to Fernandina Beach, FL to visit with Bryan and Melanie Grimley, friends from Colonial Beach who now own a restaurant in Fernandina Beach. We'll see how it works out. We worked hard to make use of the current to add a mile or two per hour as we were hard over to travel at less than 1500 RPMs to save fuel. This is about the speed Barny (my brother in law) and I used on the Great Loop. So far we've had good luck moving at 10 mph with 1400/1600 rpm and using the current to add speed. We're making 60 miles per day with 6 to 7 hours underway. The area traveled today is beautiful. We see old oak trees covered with moss and as we crossed the Savannah River we saw a cargo ships moving up to Savannah. The homes on the waterway are spectacular, all in suburbs of Savannah. The Savannah Yacht Club is also along this waterway. The picture you see with the red marker at the entrance is of Moon River, a popular anchorage. We anchored in the Vernon River by 3:15 pm and had a great evening. | ||
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| Jan 20, 2013 | `Yahoo River, Georgia | |
| Up at 8 am but we waited for a rising tide at Hell's Gate then proceeded at 10 am to Wahoo River anchorage, just 33 miles away. We planned the short trip so we could settle in and watch the two football championship games. We met a couple, Steve and Joanna Young, at Beaufort, SC and had traveled with them to Vernon River. We invited them to join us to watch the games while at anchor at Yahoo River as they did not have TV service on their boat. At one of the pictures below you see them rafted with us Sunday afternoon. We watched the games and had a great meal fixed by Carey and Joanna. I am happy the Ravens won as our daughter Lauren is a fan and we'll also excited to see the two coaching brothers take on each other in the Super Bowl. The other picture is blurred but of a shell oil sign on the waterway heading south. | ||
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| Jan 21, 2013 | `Jekyll Island Harbor Marina | |
| Up this morning Steve and Joanna untied from the raft and headed south. They were headed to St Mary's City to visit with friends. We had another cup of coffee and finally got underway about 9 am. We traveled 58 miles to Jekyll Island. We wanted to anchor just south of the marina, but several sailboats were in the only available places so we pulled into the marina for the night. They have a restaurant called Sea Jays. Nice place where I had shrimp and grits and Carey had a parmesan encrusted Cod. Both meals were delicious. As we traveled through the waterway we saw an old merchant ship from the Bahamas. The ship was surely headed the same place we are going. We'll probably be buying some of the stores aboard her when we get there. We also noted the old Jekyll Island hotel as we neared the end of the day, a hotel of note for people in the area. | ||
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| Jan 22, 2013 | Fernandina Beach, FL | |
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We were up at 8 am and headed out by 9 am from Jekyll Island for a 33 mile
trip to Fernandina Beach. For two days now I thought I had a fuel leak
from the port engine. I could not find the source of the leak, but
knew I must find the leak prior to crossing to the Bahamas. That old
red die fuel was collecting in the drip pan under the port engine. I
was nervous, as a fuel injector pump overhaul is very expensive. On
the way to Fernandina I called a mechanic who agreed to meet us when we
arrived in Fernandina Beach Marina to check out the problem.
But before we arrived at the marina, we stopped at Port Consolidated, a fuel pier in Fernandina Beach. The price of fuel was $3.53. Since we were headed to the Bahamas we signed a statement we were not staying in Florida and did not have to pay the 7% state tax. The is $1.00 cheaper than the fuel price at the marina in the town. Happily I left the fuel pier and tied up at the marina. The mechanic came aboard and I said I also wanted him to test the fresh water system on the engine as I had been losing a bit of water from the fresh water system. Well it turned out ok. The "fuel" I saw in the drip pan was actually the banfrost red antifreeze leaking from a small 3/8' hose that piped fresh water to the thermostat. It looked exactly like the red died fuel. So bottom line: no fuel leak and the fix for the water leak was a $1.29 hose clamp. I'm a happy camper. After the mechanic left Carey and I cleaned up the boat, relaxed and cleaned up for a visit to our friends Brian and Melanie Grimley's restaurant, Lu Lu's, in the town. We walked the 7 blocks to the restaurant. Below you see a picture of their home and restaurant that are next to each other on 7th street in Fernandina Beach; the restaurant is on the right with the lighted roof. We enjoyed our meal and the visit. We're off tomorrow for St Augustine and south, pushing to get to the Bahamas by early February. . |
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