St Augustine to Barefoot

May 5 through May 16, 2014

While Lisa is up north getting Jeff from school and visiting her mom, it is mother’s day and Lisa’s birthday as well.  I sent her a big hanging basket plant.  I rented a car and drove over to Diamondhead, MS to visit my mom and my 2 sisters, who now live there.  It was a nice visit.  I left early on the morning of the 13^th and drove to Jacksonville (about 7 hours) to meet Lisa’s plane, which was right on time (Southwest).  We drove back to the boat and were back aboard at 6pm.  We spent the next day doing tourist stuff (a trolley tour) and had dinner at The Oasis out on St. Augustine Beach (suggested by our neighbor at home, Dave Gallant).  Very nice. 

On Thursday, we provisioned for the trip and Lisa went for a trim of her hair. We turned in the rental car and then after she got back to the boat we jointly decided that her hair could be shorter. We had dinner with John and Nora at the Columbia (Spanish) Restaurant on St. George Street and then went across the street for Gelato.  Both were excellent.

Friday, friends we met on the dock, John and Nora on Saber Tooth (Toronto) drove us back to the Hair Loft and Lisa and I both got short hair cuts.  I have always liked he hair short – and now it is!  Check out the pictures.  We had dinner at the American Legion on the waterfront with John and Nora and then on the St. George Street for ice cream.  We also stopped at the plaza to listen to a blues band and watch a bit of professional belly dancing.  Nice end to the stay here.

Click here to see more pictures of St. Augustine

Saturday, May 17, 2014.  We depart Rivers Edge Marina at 6:45am.  John and Nora are there to help us off the dock.  Very nice folks.  They are leaving their boat in St. Augustine for 6 months and going home to Toronto.  Hopefully, we will see them again.  It is sunny and cool 60 degrees, wind N 5-10.  We clear the Bridge of Lyons at 7:30am and then into the ICW.  It is supposed to be very rough outside today.  Wind is already NE 10-15.

As we enter the ICW our chart plotter display is getting fuzzy.  Not good.  Within an hour all we have is vertical lines on the display!  I take the unit out of the pod (where it is mounted at the helm) and check all the connectors and the voltages and everything checks out ok – even more not good.

We are now navigating with paper charts (like the good old days) and the iPad (which is a great plotter) but not tied into any of the other instruments or radar.

At Green #1 south of Fernandina Beach we run aground in the middle of the channel at mid tide.  We manage to get off, but this section of the ICW is getting to be passable only at high tide.  There are a few of these heading north through Georgia.

We drop anchor at Cumberland Island, GA, at 6pm.  71SM, 57NM today.  1 opening bridge.  MM 711.

30° 45.94’ N  081° 28.35’W

Sunday, May 18, 2014.  We spent the day exploring Cumberland Island, seeing the wild horses and going to the beach (beautiful).  Lisa was able to walk right up to a couple of folds, one was brand new – see pictures.  At one point the island was home to Thomas Carnagie (brother of Andrew Carnegie.  There was a huge plantation that employed 300 people.  The house was left unattended after the Great Depression and finally burned down in 1959. We had a very nice day.  More information go to www.nps.gov/cuis and http://cumberlandisland.com

Click here for pictures of Cumberland Island

Monday, May 19, 2014. We weighed anchor at Cumberland Island at 8:15am.  It is sunny, 75 degrees and the wind in N at 5-10.The tide is with us as we move up Cumberland Sound past the submarine base.  We had heard from Dean and Susan and they are headed outside today, but the wind forecast (NE 15-20) is not going to make it pleasant out there.  We are making 7+ knots over the ground as we head north.

By noontime, we are getting scattered rain, then sun and the wind is NE 15-20. The horseflies have hatched out in the marshes, and the cockpit is full of them!

We make Buttermilk Sound at 3:30pm with no issues, and the Little Mud River at 4pm (half-tide).  A couple of spots here showed 6 ½ feet on the depth meter.  There is an eight foot tide here – half of that (mid-tide) is 4 feet, which means there would be only 2 ½ feet of water at low tide!

We stop at New Teakettle Creek and the anchor is down at 5:45pm.  This is the place on the trip south in 2012, we met up with Jim and Judy Foster (Tug-a-Long) and they cooked us dinner.  There are two other boats here tonight, but no one we recognize.  We did see several boats headed north during the course of the day.  One was “remedy” who we last saw in Marathon.

No bridges today.

65SM, 51NM today.  MM646.  31° 27.56’N  081° 18.22’W

Tuesday, May 20, 2014.  We are awakened by birds at 5:30am.  Then at 6am an osprey is walking around on deck making all kinds of racket.  Anchor up at 7:40am. Anchor and chain come up clean – nice. Low tide.  We make Creighton Narrows at 8:30am (dead low tide), but never saw less than 9 feet of water.  The day is beautiful, sunny and not humid.  More horse flies, but for some reason, they tend to disappear at night (a good thing!).

We arrive at the Isle of Hope Marina, just outside Savannah, at 4:30pm.  We refuel and do a pump-out of the holding tanks.

No bridges today.  57SM, 45.6NM,  MM 590.  31° 58.76’N  081° 03.32’W

Wednesday, May 21, 2014. We took another day off today and visited Savannah.  The marina gave us a ride to Walmart, where we caught a city bus to the waterfront.  Riding these buses is always an interesting experience, because you meet the local people.  There were several folks on the bus who gave us opinions about what to see and where.  One of the spots was City Market (sort of like Quincy Market in Boston).  We had lunch there at a “world famous” seafood house named Belford’s.  Lisa and I split an order of shrimp and grits with collard greens – lovely.  We took a trolley tour of Savannah, which was very informative and let us see the lovely neighborhoods in the old section of town (lots of squares and parks).  Then down to the riverfront where the old warehouses now house restaurants and shops.  We found an ice cream shop that also makes caramel corn. Yum! Ate so much neither of us really wanted dinner. It is very hot today and we are back at the boat by 5pm.  We ordered pizza (Hawaiian barbeque chicken) from Papa John’s (who deliver to the marina), and watch an episode of Homeland (second season premiere). Nice day!

Thursday, May 22, 2014.  We spent the morning faxing stuff back and forth to our realtor in Vermont.  We are trying to sell the ski condo we have had at Burke Mountain to help defray the cost of these boating adventures. We met Fred the reluctant (to obey any commands) basset hound and Sam (the 5 month old) golden retriever this morning. We borrowed the loaner car and made a quick grocery run and were off the dock @ 1:15pm.  It is a sunny and hot day, wind west @ 10.

We passed through Causton Bluff Bridge at 2:30pm and then made it through Field Cut at 3:30pm (30 minutes before high tide) with plenty of water.  This is a notoriously bad area just north of the Savannah River – and we are out of Georgia!  At 5:15 we anchored in Bryan Creek off Calibogue Sound across from Hilton Head Island, SC.

27SM, 21.5 NM today.  MM563.  One bridge today on request.

32° 10.54’N  080° 49.24’W

Friday, May 23, 2014. Anchor up at 8:30 – nice holding and the anchor came up clean.  This creek is a bit narrow and we worried that we might swing into the shore, but we did not.  Sunny, wind NW 5-10. Today we passed by Hilton Head Island, Port Royal Sound, Paris Island, and Beaufort.  At Lady’s Island Bridge in Beaufort for the 12:30pm opening, we began traveling with another boat, Close Encounters.  It is a very hot day 90+, wind west 15+.  At 5:30pm, the anchor is down in the South Edisto River, along with Close Encounters (Tom and Valery Jones).

60SM, 48NM today.  MM 504  One scheduled bridge.  32° 37.14’N  080° 23.94’W

Saturday, May 24, 2014.  The beginning of the Memorial Day week-end and the weather is perfect – and everyone who has a boat of any size or shape is on the water.  We spend the day dodging crazys – as well as other adventures.  The anchor is up and we are underway at 7am.  It is sunny and 75 degrees, the wind is NW 10-15.  We make it through Watts Cut at 7:15 with plenty of water, although the tide is falling and there will be “skinny water” several places today.  The tide is against us, but not very strong. 

At 8:20am at the North Edisto River, the tide is very strong against us.  We are only making 3 ½ to 4 knots over the ground.  We pass through the Wappoo Creek Bridge just north of Charleston at 12:30.  It is dead low tide, but there is plenty of water here.  At 2pm, we are through Charleston Harbor and headed north on the ICW to the Ben Sawyer Bridge.  The 2 miles north of this bridge are some of the shallowest on the ICW, but we make it through the area without touching bottom (just barely in a couple of spots).  It is half tide now and there are still spots with only 6 feet of water. 

At 2:30pm, the engine begins loosing power.  It will drop to 1500-1800 RPM for a few seconds and then run at normal speed (2800-3000 RPM) for a minute or so, then repeat.  It seems to run sat low RPM OK.  It is crazy on the water with all the small power boats.  We tried to stop at Isle of Palms Marina to get fresh fuel and work on the problem and they said no.  We finally got to their fuel dock and were cut off by a big power boat.  Forget this.  We put 18 gallons of fresh fuel from the jerry cans in the tank and then limped to the anchorage in Whiteside Creek.  I talked to Tom (Close Encounters) and Dean (Autumn Borne) and the concensus is fuel starvation probably caused by clogged fuel filters or water in the fuel or both.

We invite Tom and Valery over for burgers and Tom knows the technique to change the fuel filters.  We have spares for the primary (Racor) and the one on the engine (Yanmar).  On the way from their boat to ours, the engine on their dingy quits – must be the day for it.  After cocktails, we attacked the filter change, with Tom showing me how to get the old one off and the new one back on, and Valery showing Lisa how to fill the filters with fuel.  Nice group effort.  The new filter on, the engine and genset running, we are set for the morning. 

2 bridges on schedule today. 53SM 43NM today.  MM451.

32° 52.52’ N  079° 42.90’W

Sunday, May 25, 2014.  High clouds and cooler today, about 70 degrees this morning with the wind N at 10.  Anchor up at 8am.  The engine seems to be running OK.  By noon time, the engine is acting up again, but not as regularly.

There is very skinny water from G47 to G35 at McClellanvile, and again by Minim Creek R18 to R4.  These areas need to be dredged and you wonder with all the money wasted by the government, why no-one gets this taken care of.  We are traveling with Close Encounters again today, and it is nice to have the company with the engine acting up.

We tie up at Georgetown Landing Marina at 4pm and add more fresh fuel.  Lots of current through here.  We are tied to a face dock, but can’t imagine what it would be like to try to maneuver into one of these slips!

We went to dinner with Tom and Valery at the Land and Sea, but it was closed.  It is the only restaurant (other than Wendy’s. Taco Bell. Etc), nearby, so we opted for cocktails on Close Encounters and to have burgers on Rhiannon once more and broke out the grill.

No as many crazy boaters out today, but we are in a much less densely populated area.

No opening bridges today.  50SM, 40NM today.  MM401.  33° 21.91’N  079° 15.97’W

Monday, May 26, 2014. Memorial Day.  We got up early this morning and changed both the Racor and the engine fuel filters.  Got everything primed and both the engine and genset running and then left the dock with Close Encounters at 11am.  We hoped to catch the tide as it changed and ride it all the way to Barefoot Landing in North Myrtle Beach, but somehow just missed the timing and only got the tidal push for the second half of the day.  It is another hot and sunny day and the wind is SE @ 10-15. 

An hour off the dock and the engine hiccupped once.  It ran fine after that for the rest of the day, so we are keeping our fingers crossed. 

At 2pm, the tide finally changed in our favor.  We made the only opening bridge for today (Socaste Bridge) at 4:45.  At 6:30pm, Close Encounters pulls into the Grand Dunes Marina and we say thank you for their help and stay safe.  We are tied up at Barefoot Marina at 7pm.  Jimmy is there to catch lines and it is nice to be back here. Dinner on board.

1 opening bridge on demand today.  52SM, 41.6NM today.  MM354. 

33° 48.14’N  078° 44.73’W

After talking with several people, it is amazing how many have had the same issue with their engines.  Some had water in the fuel, some contaminated fuel, some had algae, some had it all.  Presuming we don’t have the issue and more, then we plan to continue on the Oxford, MD.  I ordered 6 of the Racor filter elements and will keep changing filters as needed.  Another boater suggested an additive called Diesel Mechanic, that is supposed to kill algae, boost c-tane, disperse water, etc.  He is a fluids engineer and has had the issue and uses the stuff religiously. I am on my way to NAPA to buy some.  Can’t hurt.

Tuesday, May 27, 2014.  Today is a layover day.  We do laundry and Lisa cleans the brown moustache off the bow and the waterline. We picked up a rental car so we can visit Lisa’s relatives. Tonight, we will go to T-Bones across the way at Barefoot Landing for Happy Hour and their cheap menu. 

 

Wednesday, May 28, 2014.  Today, we went to Napa for a fuel additive "Diesel Mechanic", which is supposed to help with water in the fuel, etc.  We also went grocery shopping and then picked up Lindsay and took her to the outlet mall for birthday shopping.  Lindsay is Lisa's cousin and turns 14 today.  Afterward, there was a family dinner at The Boundary, a very nice restaurant in Calabash, where Lindsay's Mm, Jennifer, works as Asst. Manager. Dock Master at Barefoot Marina, is Lindsay's Dad.

 

Click here for pictures of Barefoot