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Friday, December 11, 2015

Best Kept Secrets of the ICW Day #33

posted by Ardys
Bridge in Daytona Beach

Okay, these aren’t really secrets, per se, but before starting down the ICW (Intracoastal Waterway) I didn’t hear about them.  Only one person in Annapolis told us that the ICW was a very special place and that it would be well worth staying inside to go south.  “Inside” refers to the ICW, inside the barrier islands which separate the mainland from the ocean.  “Outside” of course, means out on the ocean.  Outside can be faster if the weather is good for crossings. The weather rarely was right for us when we were at a convenient inlet to exit the ICW, and so we continued on.  Maybe on a future trip south, we’ll bring additional crew with us and go on the outside ALL the way to the Caribbean.  On this journey south, however, we’ve only gone outside twice, on overnight ocean passages of 70 to 80 miles each.
Surprising find--free dock available
We are nearing the end of our journey for 2015. Tomorrow we will arrive in Titusville, across from Cape Canaveral, on Day #34 of the ICW.  We will leave our boat there for a month while we visit family and friends over the holidays. Covering only 30 to 50 miles/day usually and resting for a day or two here and there, has made this a long trip. I wouldn’t have wanted to do it any faster, at least not on the ICW.  I want to tell people why I will NEVER again refer to the ICW as the “Ditch.” 
Sunset north of Cumberland Island 

Fabulous sunrises and sunsets at quiet anchorages.  Not every single day (we did have rain a few times) but there are few sights as utterly dramatic and yet unique as the rise and fall of the sun. Quiet descends upon the anchorage and we hear the sounds of the water and whatever critters are out and about calling to each other, or feeding, or whatever they do in the dark.  With a moon shining on the water, we can see surprisingly well, even after full night.  

Fernandina Beach dressed for Christmas
 Charming towns that I would never have known existed, if I were not traveling down the ICW.  Fernandina Beach in Florida is a bit like stepping back in time.  Like many of these small towns on the water, it tends to be populated by the artistic sort of folks who bring their eye for beauty to the place, and maintain the historic houses, storefronts and museums for us travelers to ogle.  There are so many of these little towns on my list to visit next time going north or south.  And I’m shamelessly plugging a little family owned restaurant, Pablo’s.  I was served the best margarita I ever had in that restaurant; and the food was beautifully presented and delicious too, and very reasonably priced!
Best margarita EVER at Pablo's

Marinas that provide a great value for the money.  There are marinas that are absolutely beautiful with long, wide docks, resort-like qualities such as pools, fitness centers, much like you’d find at a 4 star hotel.  As you might imagine, the “resort marina” is the most expensive way to go down the ICW.  All marinas charge by the foot (boat length) so with our 43’ boat, this adds expense quickly.  We stay at a marina occasionally, when we need to get groceries, do laundry and get a pump-out.  On the opposite end of the marina spectrum are marinas which have old docks and few, if any amenities.  Perhaps you’d compare that sort of marina to a budget motel.  Most marinas fall somewhere in between the resort and the budget marina and generally, you get what you pay for.  We found our favorite marina ever yesterday at Marineland Marina north of St. Augustine.   Relatively inexpensive, very attractive, wonderfully helpful dock staff, dog friendly, and located a very short walk from the ocean.  We will definitely return there.
Jax enjoyed the beach

The ICW has made me into a birder!  We brought a bird book with us onto the boat and a pair of birding* binoculars but I thought we would only occasionally use them.  Hah! I can now identify at least 20 new birds, even in flight.  I can distinguish between dabbling and diving ducks although I haven’t had as much luck with nailing specific species.  I was already familiar with the cormorants, eagles and loons because we have those in Minnesota.  I started studying the huge pelicans and then thought that I may as well learn how to identify several egrets and herons too.  One thing led to another and now I’m hooked. The ICW is a virtual parade of birds all day long!
Beach at Marineland 

In fact, going south on the inside is a lot like a parade:  waterfront historic towns and cities, luxurious homes and folksy little houses in the wilderness, plants and trees, beautiful bridges and other unique structures, not to mention all the other boats. I can’t wait to tell the man who told us the ICW would be special, how right he was.  
Great Egret - note: yellow beak, black legs


*We carry two pair of 7 X 50 marine binoculars with internal compasses. A stronger magnification would be too unstable for a moving vessel.  Birding binoculars can be much more powerful. 

Monday, December 7, 2015

Jax Figures IT Out - ICW Day #28

posted by Ardys

Before we left
Shore at Beaufort, S.C. The grasses at half tide.
Annapolis, most of our fellow southbound travelers told us that they were going to go down the ICW until Charleston or thereabouts, but certainly would not be continuing on the ICW into Georgia or Florida.  We heard, “Too shallow, too many bridges to get under, too hard.”  When you 
Darker green indicates where high tide was.
hear something enough times, you start to accept it as fact.  The other thing we heard a few times was, “I don’t think you (NORTHERN STAR) can do the ICW, referencing the height of our mast (63 1/2’) and our draft (6 1/2 ‘).  The usual fixed bridge height is 65’.  At high tide, there may be less room than that to get under.  Some parts of the ICW are notorious for shoaling and cannot be traversed at low tide.  Yup, we were pretty sure we were going to have to go offshore from Charleston and on.

Cruising Guide for the ICW
Then, we happened upon some fellow southbound travelers with a 6’ draft sailboat, Radio Waves.   They were planning to continue on the ICW and this made us reconsider our options.  Waiting for the right weather window for ocean passages is rather unpredictable.  And we are counting the number of days available to get from here to a safe place in Florida to leave our boat for a month while we visit family and friends in Tennessee and Minnesota around the holidays.  So we have ventured forward on the ICW following our new friends on Radio Waves.  We study the charts every night, noting the mile markers where there are bridges and where shoaling is a problem.  We have made good use of the Cruising Guide for the Intracoastal Waterway by Captains Mark and Diana Doyle.  

Garmin, Navionics and Active Captain, all on iPad
Those five manuals provide us with minute detail about the ICW mile by mile, describing anchorages, marinas and “trouble spots.”  We also are relying heavily upon the information we pull from our app, Active Captain, which is integrated with our Garmin charts.  Carl can see all comments from other boaters on his iPad and I can see all the same information on my iPhone 6+.  VERY handy.  We also have Navionics charts on the iPad and both Garmin and Navonics have the latest tide and current projections for various locations. When he’s driving the boat, I review the trouble spots and direct him on whether to hug the Green or the Red Marks, and so forth.  When I’m driving, he does the same for me. 
Birds' eye view of South Carolina ICW.  Lots of twists and turns.

Our review of the information available to us helps us decide what time we should get going in the morning so as to take advantage of tides.  Again I’ll say it—I continue to be astonished by the tides which are different every day, and different from one place to another.  I suppose that if you’ve grown up near tidal waters, your response to that might be, “Well, yeah—Duh!”.  For example, today, at Statute Mile (STM) 666, we pulled up anchor in Wally’s Leg (it’s a creek—I don’t name these anchorages, you know) rather late today (noon) because low tide was going to be at 12:12 PM where we were headed.  High tide would be at 5:17 PM.  We needed at least half tide to get through an area of shoaling in Jekyll Creek, at STM 680.  So, here’s the Math equation: If a sailboat leaves Wally’s Leg at 12:00 and needs at least half tide to get through an area of shoaling at 3:00 PM, how fast should the sailboat be motoring?  Answer:  No more than 4-5 knots/hr (or about 5 mph) Perfect.  We did just that.  We did run aground briefly but Carl was able to gun the engine and get us off again.  No big deal.  
American White Pelicans mixed with smaller Brown Pelicans
photo courtesy of Peterson Field Guide to Birds 
We have found some beautiful anchorages along the way.  The variety of birds is increasing and I am studying my Peterson Field Guide to Birds more and more.  We have seen large groups of huge American White Pelicans on sandy shores, a few Great White Egrets, lots of Terns bomb-diving the water for food, flocks of Brown Pelicans (much smaller than White), Great Blue Herons, Little Blue Herons, Cattle Egrets (which always look to me as if they are skulking—they would be the Mafia of the bird world) and today I 
Dolphins in the Brickhill River, in our anchorage

saw what I believe was a Tricolored Heron.  I described it as I was looking at it through binoculars and later went to find it in my book.  There was the bird I had just described.  Carl thinks I should not call that a confirmed sighting because Tricolored Herons are uncommon, but then what do I call the bird I saw?  Even a novice birder can see an uncommon bird once in a while, right?
Jax is curious about dolphins
Tonights anchorage is wonderfully quiet.  There is little wind and so we can hear all kinds of squawking bird calls all around us.  Kind of like a jungle.  The dolphins have been swimming in small groups of 2 or 3 on all sides around us.  Sometimes I couldn’t see them, but I could hear them expel steam from their blowholes.  Jax is enthralled.
Almost forgot—you’re wondering what Jax has figured out?  Yesterday morning, he did his business on the bow of our boat—49 hours after his last BM.  My husband was right—he did NOT explode.  And now, Jax uses his self-assigned “head” whenever he needs to empty his bowels.  Whew—what a relief for the humans onboard.  And for Jax, no doubt.

Wednesday, December 2, 2015

Beaufort/ It's BYOO-fert, NOT BO-fert

posted by Ardys
Narrow channel, in spite of appearances

The Low Country.  I used to think that “Low Country” was somewhat of a pejorative term.  No more.  What a miraculous marriage of water and earth and critters.  The salt water 
Great White Egret
moves upstream with the tide, flooding the wetlands till it appears as though we are riding on enormous lakes.  The salt water mixes with the fresh, making a brackish water which pleases many animals such as alligators, dolphins, pelicans, cormorants and 
egrets; all kinds of living things including biting No See-Ums and mosquitoes.  Twice each day, the current reverses and at low tide the mud flats reappear, which we on the sailboat, are trying to avoid, of course, so I don’t want to see those too close up.  
Mud flats
We have seen large areas without visible inhabitants, in fact the majority of this portion of the trip has been through and along various federal and state protected wetlands and wildlife areas. Often we have felt like the lone travelers in a wet and amazing landscape that does not exist on much of the east coast. Nonetheless, I have been amazed by the numbers of people that live right along the water in the Low Country.   Many properties 
Multiple docks several hundred feet from the houses they are paired with.
include a private dock that extends from near the front door and out several hundred feet over water at high tide, and at low tide, the long dock stands high over the mud flats.  It’s a long walk from a home in the Low Country out to its’ boat.  At the end of each dock, one will also find a small floating dock with an 
Large houses along the ICW in the Low Country

articulating ramp connecting the two.  The ramps angle of rise may go from only a few degrees at high tide, to a steep 45 degrees at low tide.  Imagine life without those little floating docks and ramps.  A boater would have to leap several feet down into their boat at low tide, clearly not a sensible thing to do.  The danger of the giant leap down, may be matched in foolishness by the climb back up the pilings covered with layers of barnacles, oysters and other mollusks. Sharp stuff!  
Oyster growth on piling

The tidal range in this area around Beaufort, South Carolina is 6 to 7 feet.  Tides are still a new phenomenon to this Midwesterner.  The novelty hasn’t worn off yet.  Maybe it won’t?
One of the old plantation houses on ICW
There’s another misperception that I confess to having harbored.  In the past, when I thought of the Carolinas, I usually envisioned a population that struggles financially.  Clearly, there is a lot more wealth in the Carolinas than I had imagined based upon the enormous houses we have seen along the water.  I suppose it’s possible that the wealthy folks all live along the ICW, but I suspect that can’t be true.  I am aware that the Carolinas are some of the poorer states in our country, but my image of at least a portion of the Low Country has changed
Probable late 19th century house
dramatically.  I told my husband that now I know who builds all those enormous houses that are featured in house plan books and glossy magazines.  They are here, and they have waterfront property along portions of the the Low Country.  
Rain coming
We were all day on the ICW again today, and after sweating over some portions that we expected to be a problem, we made it through without incident.  It was threatening to rain all day, and finally, an hour short of our destination for the night, Beaufort, South Carolina, the sky at last opened up.  Even with a heavy rain, it was not especially uncomfortable on NORTHERN STAR.  We are still astonished to find ourselves here on December 2nd, winter-time to be in a downpour wearing only light rain gear in 64 degree temperature.  This is so unlike my previous experiences with winter.  After settling ourselves in a very friendly little old 
Fillin' Station, Beaufort, South Carolina

marina called Lady’s Island Marina in Beaufort, South Carolina (and that is pronounced BYOO-fert, not BO-fert which is in North Carolina) we shed our rain gear and went to a little partially outdoor bar 
Outdoor grill and seating at the Fillin' Station

overlooking the marina where we enjoyed the Wednesday night special—a hamburger, hotdog, baked beans and potato salad for $4.00.  Yes, $4.00.  Not gourmet, obviously, but good.  Tomorrow night they’re serving a chicken fried pork chop dinner, but it’s $5.00.  We have taken an immediate shine to this place.  NORTHERN STAR likes it here too.  She is one of the larger boats in this little marina and feels more at home here than on the MegaDock with the multi-million dollar yachts in Charleston.  I could hang out in Beaufort for a long time.  Oh, wait, another mosquito bite.  Sigh.
Relaxing after dinner



Monday, November 30, 2015

Charleston - A Southern Beauty

posted by Ardys

Jax eager to go to shore

We changed our plan for the journey midstream—literally.  We left Cow House Creek planning to continue on the ICW, but by the time we approached our intended anchorage that afternoon, we had decided that we would take advantage of the fabulous weather and go offshore to Charleston.  In preparation, we continued down the Waccamaw River past the next *ICW Cut and dropped our hook for a few hours at the Georgetown Light, the last possible anchorage before the ocean.  We took Jax to the beach so he could run and attend to some urgent business matters before the long night on the ocean.  It was the first time in many days that he’d been allowed to run free and he obviously loved it!  So did we.  And then we had a few hours to rest.

Beach in front of Georgetown Lighthouse

I woke up Carl at 10:30 PM and we shoved off.  The overnight to Charleston was uneventful and fairly warm.  We could have thrown up a sail, but the minimal wind wasn’t coming from the most useful direction so we motored.  We brought our lovely weather with us into the Charleston harbor, and what a beautiful harbor it is! Fort Sumter was on our port side, where the first shots of the Civil War were fired; the historic city of Charleston was straight ahead and the two wide rivers that flank the city on the peninsula.  At one time, 
Blocks and blocks of enormous, gracious old homes
Charleston was an incredibly wealthy city, back when cotton and rice were extremely plentiful and in great demand.  A tour guide told us that some of the (white) people were “so wealthy that they couldn’t spend their money fast enough, so they built huge houses.”  Some of those historic  beauties line the water and could be seen from our sailboat as we came in.
Tours by bus, horse and carriage, boat and on foot.

As always, when we come into a marina, there are some necessaries to attend to:  topping off the diesel and the water tanks, having the waste tank pumped out and off loading our garbage and recyclables. These are not the glamorous tasks of sailboat living, but figured I’d include them for accuracy sake at least this once. The other things to consider while at a marina are grocery shopping, laundry and last but not least—a nice, long, hot shower.  We have a perfectly fine shower on the boat but we’re always being judicious with our water usage, so marina showers feel like a luxury.
Sea wall is wide enough for two ladies wearing hoop skirts to walk side by side.


NORTHERN STAR sandwiched between two large yachts
Our sailboat was small compared to many that shared the Charleston City Marina MegaDock with us.  The entire marina is a series of huge floating docks!   Floating docks makes it easier to tie off and be certain that the lines will remain appropriate, no matter how much the tides rise and fall or the current rushes past.  At high tide, the marina is in an attractive wetland.  At low tide, it’s way out on the mud flats
Late afternoon mud flats leading to City Marina
—somewhat less appealing and more odiferous.  We shared a shuttle downtown with a young woman who is a paid crew on one of the large yachts near our boat.  She and the ships’ Captain (also paid crew) live on the boat full-time and take care of it.  We had noticed it, of course.  It’s a 
A classic wooden sailboat with paid crew of two.
classic wooden sailboat with long, graceful lines, and we privately lamented the work involved to keep it looking pristine, as it certainly did now.  She said “the boss comes to visit his boat a few times a year, whether in Maine, or Charleston or the Bahamas.  We looked around us on the dock and figured that there might be a few who were bemoaning our paltry little sailboat.  Maybe they were thinking, “how do people live on such a small boat?”  

The Citadel was on the bus tour.  First year students are required to walk in the gutters.
 We had a private bus tour since no one else was on our bus.  Our tour guide told us a little “joke” about Charleston, “The Civil War started here, and someday it will end here.”  As a Northerner, I’d never heard a Southerner’s perspective about that 
This soldier died 42 years after the Civil War and yet his rank was the most important fact for his gravestone.
horrific war until visiting my husband’s hometown in the Mississippi Delta several years ago.  That was the first time I heard what I call the “Civil War” referred to as “The War of Northern Aggression.”  The statues of the Southern generals are all oriented to the north, facing the Northern aggressors, even after death.  In spite of Charleston being ravaged by floods, hurricanes (the last in 1989) fires (an 1861 fire burned 1/3 of the city) and being shelled during the War of Northern Aggression, it remains 
Charleston is full of beautiful hand-carved ironwork.  
 remarkable for its’ architecture. I wish more cities would follow Charleston’s example of requiring new construction to “blend in” with the historic buildings that remain.  Charleston was entirely gracious, friendly and I would love to go back to visit again and probably will, when we travel north up the coast next spring.  Tourism is a major industry and they do it very well.
French Quarter of Charleston


*ICW Cut — Intracoastal Waterway manmade canals that have been cut and dredged in order to connect the naturally existing waterways.  Cuts make a continuous north/south inland route possible.

Sunday, November 29, 2015

Cow House Creek ICW Day #19

posted by Ardys
ICW at ~STM 350, Barefoot Landing Marina

We stayed an extra day at Barefoot Landing Marina for two reasons:  One — it was Thanksgiving and I required pumpkin pie; and two — we needed time to plan for the next day.  A healthy amount of anxiety was already in play about the next leg of our journey.  Perhaps a big Thanksgiving dinner would help with the planning?  Or not.

Barefoot Landing carnival etc.
 Barefoot Landing Marina (BLM) is connected to a very popular outlet mall, much more like a theme park, really, than an outlet mall.  There were umpteen restaurants within walking distance; entertainment venues; children’s carnival; an Alligator Adventure park (I don’t really WANT an adventure with alligators); and beautiful ocean beaches just a few blocks away. BLM is a brilliant developer’s idea to help tourists spend as much of their vacation dollars as possible without having to work too hard at it.   What should I have expected?  It was North Myrtle Beach.  Gettin’ pretty close to where all those golf gurus gather to play before their “hushed” entourages on golf courses with gondolas. Gosh.

Bridges 1 and 2 for today at nautical twilight
The next morning, we were up at 0530 and off the dock by 0600 heading downstream, nearly a full hour before sunrise.  This time of day is known as nautical twilight by sailors—that hour when the sky is beginning to lighten but the stars are still out so they could be used for navigation. We were not going to be using the stars to navigate that day or any day, hopefully.  Because we had a full moon, we were experiencing what’s called Spring Tides which means that there is the greatest variation in tidal ranges of any time of the month.  We needed the low tide to get under the bridges ahead.  
Gondolas take golfers across ICW for next tee

The two Socastee Bridges, a swing bridge and a fixed bridge were the primary cause for our concern and the reason for our early departure.  They would be Bridges 8 and 9 for the day.  The swing bridge was not going to be a problem in and of itself, because the operator would open it on request, but the fixed bridge came immediately following the swing bridge.  If we couldn’t fit under the fixed bridge, we would effectively be trapped between the two bridges for a while.  Carl lost some sleep worrying about this possibility.  
Houses line the ICW for miles, many of them enormous.

Bridges 1, 2, 3 and 4 weren’t of particular concern to us, but I listened for the sound of pings when we went under them anyhow, and there were none.   A “ping” would indicate that our antennae was bumping against the iron support beams above us.  Anything louder than that would indicate something much worse, aka more expensive. We knew Bridges 5 and 6 were going to be close, but we weren’t worried about them.  We were a little surprised therefore when I herd 4 distinct pings going under the fifth and one ping under the 6th bridge.  The seventh was clear sailing.  After touching two bridges already, we were especially concerned about the Socastee Bridges. 
My boys, pondering different things no doubt

We reviewed the special preparations we had made the night before—just in case we would need to “reduce” the height of the mast to get under the Socastee fixed bridge.  Of course one cannot actually reduce the mast height, but if the mast could be made to lean to one side, that would, in essence reduce the height.  Carl developed a plan and we set up some of the required rigging in advance to the extent possible.  


The Socastee swing bridge and then the dreaded fixed bridge
The Plan:  If necessary, we would push the boom way out to the side so that it hung over the water and secure it in place with a preventer.*  The dinghy and its’ heavy outboard would be brought alongside the boat under the boom.  The halyard would then be run through the furthest attachment point on the end of the boom and then be connected to a line suspended between the attachments for the dinghy davits.  We would then winch the halyard up tight, thereby using the weight of the dinghy and motor to help pull the mast to one side a little.  We put ourselves through the paces of how this system would work before going to bed. 

Very high spring tides.  We waded across the roadway beyond to walk Jax. 

When we approached the Socastee Bridges, we reviewed the plan again.  We would have to request the bridge operator to reopen the swing bridge as soon as possible if we were stuck between them, but there was no assurance that would be possible.  With NORTHERN STAR’S engine just idling, we crept toward what we had now decided was an evil fixed bridge.  The bridge operator was kind enough to point out that the bridge was slightly higher on the left and sloped toward the right so we aimed for the far left side.  We slid under without touching at all!  And no extraordinary mast shortening tactics needed.  
Beautiful swamps.  No alligator sightings, yet

We were so elated about making it under the Socastee Bridge that we were a few miles past our intended anchorage for the evening before we noticed it.  So, we went on to a lovely anchorage called Cow House Creek and were glad we did.  It’s a beautiful, quiet anchorage in a wilderness area.  We kept an eye out for alligators and brought Jax to a dinghy dock on the other side of a small island off the ICW where Jax met a turtle.  They apparently didn’t have much in common because the turtle kept on moving, very... very... slowly. 
Jax's first encounter with a turtle.  

*A preventer is a line attached to the boom and tied off to one side.  Typically it's used to prevent an accidental jibe when sailing downwind.