Withdrawal
After six weeks of scrutinizing the weather forecast, checking tides and currents, calculating travel distances based on speed, contacting marinas for reservations, watching fuel consumption and attending to boat maintenance, I am going through a bit of withdrawal not having to think ahead about those details. Not to mention the constant checking of facebook posts regarding inlet conditions, shoaling problems and the latest reports on the ICW conditions. Even though we kept a moderate pace versus a speed run, there is a certain amount of anxiety associated with the trek. My mind will have to adapt and go back to the regular day-to-day concerns. It may take a couple of days to get back to normal.

The Boat
Along this trip, we saw every manner of boat, large, small, sail, power, fast, slow, new, old, well-maintained, not-so-well-maintained, etc. It showed us that a trip on the ICW does not absolutely require a certain type of boat and there are definitely many types of boaters out on the water. Encore did her job and handled the trip very well. I am a bit amazed that she is showing so little wear and tear after so many miles and weeks of continuous use. The anchor windlass broke our first night out, we had to trade out the starboard props at one point and we had the port engine fuel leak in Fort Lauderdale, but other than those issues there were no huge problems. These were all repaired and caused no great delays, just some changes in itinerary.

Other than the spare set of props, the many spare pumps, sensors, solenoids, repair and safety items went unused. We didn't even need the first aid kit except for very minor things. I'm glad we had these items and not need them rather than the other way around. I didn't have the spare part that was needed for the windlass. I ordered that at the end of October and finally received the part at the end of December. Apparently there were numerous parts issues due to the pandemic.

All of the other boat systems, electronics and appliances are continuing to work well.

People and Places
The pandemic changed everyone's way of doing things while cruising, but the negative impacts were not severe. We thoroughly enjoyed meeting so many wonderful people along the way. Not only other boaters, but marina staff as well. Most everyone kept their distance and respected social distancing guidelines.

Dockhands and marina management were always accommodating and focused on making your stay enjoyable. There were a few places that we stopped multiple times and we got to know the dockhands and staff. At the Fort Pierce City Marina, Kenny knew that we liked a floating dock. When we stopped to get fuel before going to the slip, he would call the office and locate a floating dock for us...........without us asking. At Cocoa Village Marina, Ken the manager saw us coming from a distance, recognized the boat and hailed us on the radio before we could hail him. Ro at Palm Coast knew we like the floating dock next to the office and put us there when we returned. All the folks at Palm Cove in Jacksonville took care of us for our extended stay there. It was a busy marina with many regulars, but they never made us feel like we were a bother. We really like the fact that many if not most marinas offered free pump out service. I wish more of the marinas in the Chesapeake Bay would offer this.

I was concerned about getting the boat serviced in Florida, especially the unique servicing required on the IPS pods. This turned out to be a non-issue as the local authorized service provider was outstanding. Nelson Fordham of Fordham Marine Services in Jacksonville was immediately responsive and stopped by the boat to take a look at the pre-existing problem with the starboard pod. He diagnosed this issue that had not been resolved by other techs over a two year period and took care of it when he completed the oil change service. He also set up a time with the Isle of Palms service guys attached to Palm Cove Marina to haul the boat for the pod service. He completed that in late January after our two-week cruise and also replaced the damaged props with the spares. He sent the damaged props out to be repaired and returned them back to us when completed. I was very relieved that there was such a competent service technician in the Jacksonville area. If we go south again, I will plan a stop in Jacksonville and arrange for Nelson to handle the service while we are there.

Long distance cruisers are a great group of people. We enjoyed getting to know so many of them and trading various "war stories" and experiences. It was also good to share weather updates, travel plans and local knowledge. On our trip south, we joined a caravan out of Jekyll Island to take an alternate route since Saint Andrew Sound had a tricky route and the water conditions were going to be a little rough. We were very grateful to be allowed to join them and appreciated the path they had planned out. They showed up at Palm Cove a few days later and we were able to thank them in person. Meeting up with familiar boats was a constant theme along the trip. There were a few occasions where we were with the same boat(s) in different towns for multiple nights in a row. Many of the boaters, including us, have boat cards. It is a great way to keep track of the cruising boaters that you meet along the way. I keep them in alphabetical order by boat name in case we come across them in the future. Everyone was very eager to help you cast off the dock in the morning if necessary and boaters tend to wave at each other as they pass on the water. I think it is a sort of kindred spirit relationship where boaters acknowledge the chills and thrills of the activity with each other. One particular hardy group of cruisers are the "loopers." These are the boaters that are on a long-term trek to travel "The Great Loop." The trip will take them up the ICW to the Hudson River, through the Erie Canal, into the Great Lakes, down the Mississippi River to the Gulf of Mexico and back around Florida. Many live aboard their boat and don't have a "dirt home." I admire their spirit and attitude about the trip. Some were on their second or third time around. They were definitely the "old salts" that had a wealth of information about the waterway. We learned a lot about the waterway from these regular ICW cruisers

Finally - The ICW Itself
The ICW is a bit of conundrum. There are absolutely naturally beautiful and tranquil spots along the waterway, but there are also some scary spots. There are areas, especially the sounds, that may be wonderful on one day and completely treacherous on the next. This is the main reason to constantly watch the weather and the tides. There are places you can make great time if you have a fast both (like ours), and then there are many congested sections where you cannot go any faster than no-wake speed. This could be due to traffic, houses and docks on the shores, marinas, small fishing boats, working dredges, shallow depths and shoaling. These areas were frustrating and usually not enjoyable. There were some beautiful homes along the way, but how many multi-million dollar homes do you really need to see? There were times that the local boaters were a bit obnoxious and did not conform to good boating (safe) etiquette. Despite the lack of scenery, our ocean passages were generally more enjoyable and time efficient. We didn't have to worry about depths or traffic. We set the speed and auto pilot, and away we went. Our Saturday trip outside from Lake Worth Inlet to Fort Pierce was pretty rough with waves coming over the top of the boat. It was not predicted in all of the sources I checked. It was a tough passage, but on the positive side, we avoided the ICW through Jupiter that had been utter chaos with local boaters and spring breakers when we went through just a few days before. We still haven't decided if was worse to put up with the foul ocean conditions or the ICW chaos.

We had hoped to anchor out more often on the trip, but didn't have confidence in our ground tackle (anchor, chain and rode) to handle the strong currents and big tide swings. Our marina stays were pretty much worry-free and we had access to all the services and amenities. We caught a mooring ball twice, once in Titusville and the other in Carolina Beach. Both of those experiences worked out just fine and we felt very secure.

There are many nice towns and marinas along the ICW. Some large, like Charleston and Fort Lauderdale, and other small like Marineland and Belhaven. Each had it's own personality, charm and attractions. There are a few that are our favorites, and we would definitely stop in on a return trip.

We are doing a lot of evaluating regarding the future. This includes both the type of boat that would work best and what our cruising goals are. We definitely want to get to the Bahamas and the Keys at some point in the future, but we don't really want to do slow trips down the ICW to get to the departure locations in Florida. The scenery was very nice, but we are not the type of people that do the same things repetitively. Once is enough in most cases. We like doing the ocean runs in nice conditions. A fast boat makes that very convenient, but we also need fuel, water and black water capacities, as well as good ground tackle for longer periods away from marinas. We have seen why regular ICW travelers gravitate toward trawlers. Many are very seaworthy, have redundant and safe systems, and are good for distance, but much slower than our boat. We like having the option to go faster. All boats are a compromise of some sort, including cost, and finding the perfect boat for us will be the challenge. Martha would like to make trips north including the Hudson River and perhaps Long Island, Cape Cod and Newport. We have no familiarity with those areas and need to investigate what boat might be best for those conditions.

This trip was a great learning experience and gives us baseline data for our future boat plans. We'll have to see what opportunities come along. For now, we are excited to start "boating season" on the Chesapeake Bay...................... as if the last six weeks on the boat wasn't enough.

After a nice night at Spring Cove Marina, we untied the lines and cruised out into a gorgeous day. I tried to make a wide berth and avoid the crab trap floats, but still ended up in the middle of them and had to weave around to avoid hitting them. Once out in the Bay, it was smooth sailing. We travelled at 22 plus knots for about 3 hours. There was little traffic on the Bay, a few other boaters and some commercial vessels. It was a welcome sight to see the anchored ships, the Chesapeake Bay Bridge and then Rock Hall shortly after that. I was surprised that there were very few crab trap floats in front of Rock Hall. We usually have to dodge them on our approach. We had many adventures on this trip, but today was actually the least adventurous of them all as we were on familiar waters and the weather was almost perfect.

We hailed Osprey Point on the radio and asked for some assistance getting into the slip. There were no dockhands working today, so the innkeeper came down to help us out. We got into our new slip, that provides us with a beautiful view of Swan Creek from the back of the boat. I think we are going to like this slip. We have already gotten to know some of our slip neighbors.

Tomorrow will be a clean-up day and travel back to the home we haven't seen for six weeks. Despite living on the boat for the last month and a half, we need to do a number of things to get the boat ready for boating season. 

Our ICW journey has ended, however in the next few days I will post a blog reflecting on the trip, some of the ups and some of the downs. We enjoyed the adventure, meeting a lot of new people, visiting many new places, great meals and planning the trip. Almost every day was a learning experience, which I hope will make us better boaters.

We had some pretty wild weather in Hampton overnight. Heavy rain and high winds kept the boat rocking and rolling for hours. At least all of the pollen got washed off. We met our slip neighbors before departing. Turns out they are from Point Pleasant, NJ and once owned a home in Rock Hall. The boating community reduces the "small world" to a "smaller world." We departed about 9:00am and as soon as we cleared the harbor entrance, we could see that there was going to be fog in our future. We chose to continue at a slow speed. Our slip neighbors has stopped for fuel first and ended up following us out. We got out of the main shipping channel and it was still thick, but we kept on slowly. Out neighbors turned back at one point to wait it out for a while. We started hearing radio conversation from various warships and submarines, and decided it was good that we were out of the main shipping channel. Our route to Solomons was 90 miles. We would have clearing for a while, and then hit another fog bank. The main challenge was to avoid all of the crab trap markers. There were many and we had to keep a sharp eye out for them. We also spotted a number of watermen out tending their traps. Both of us were thankful when we arrived safely around 3:20pm. It was a long day, but at least we avoided any disasters.

We had a good dinner and pleasant night at Coinjock.  Martha had a seafood platter and I had the famous prime rib. There was plenty left over for another meal. Both times that we have stayed here, barges and tugs passed during the night. This is one of the few areas along the entire ICW that you see so much commercial traffic. It is strange, but very cool, to see these large vessels pass within a few yards of your boat.

We got an early start this morning and headed for the Currituck Sound. When we went through the Sound in October, it was pretty rough and there were many boats making the crossing. Today, the traffic was light and the winds were coming from the south, making it a much better ride. There are many wide open and swampy areas, but a number of homes as well. We passed the tug Island Trader with a barge full of scrap iron. We passed her at nearly the same point on the Sound in October. A little further north and we started seeing more barges along the waterfront.

We had to pass through a series of three bridges and one lock before getting into the Norfolk area. They are all timed for boats going about 5.5 or 6 knots, opening on the hour or half hour. We had to wait about 5 minutes for the first bridge, the second bridge is under repair, so not wait there. The last bridge, the Great Bridge Bridge opened on time and led us right into the Great Bridge Lock. We were one of two boats going through the lock. Martha enjoyed making friends with the goose that was standing along the lock wall. The goose seemed to be very interested in the activity.

Once through the lock, we entered the very commercial part of the Norfolk area. It went on for miles and we saw every manner of water vessel, from commercial to military. We were delayed for over 30 minutes when the Norfolk Southern Railroad Bridge No. 7 closed just as we approached. One train passed, but the bridge didn’t open We used the radio and phone to try and find out what was going on, but no one answered. A second train passed a little later and the bridge opened shortly after. We made our way slowly through the Norfolk harbor and across to Hampton, our stop for tonight.

The marina is located across the water from Hampton University. They have a bell tower with clock that chimes every hour. We prepared for the predicted bad weather and settled in to ride it out. The rain came down pretty heavy and winds buffeted us around for a few hours. Fortunately, we had already planned to enjoy our leftovers from last night for dinner tonight.

Tomorrow we head for Solomons, MD and the last night of our long journey. The weather is supposed to be ok tomorrow, so hopefully we will have good conditions to cruise up the Bay.

We enjoyed our night in Belhaven at the River Forest Marina and got to know some fellow boaters that are on a trek to complete "The Great Loop." We regaled each other with stories about some of our experiences and shared boat cards. It was a pretty sunrise, but some fog came in from the east and delayed the early departure of one of the boats.

Cruising conditions were not quite as perfect today as they were yesterday. We had a very good run through the Pungo River and the Alligator River - Pungo River Canal. There were a few boats in the canal in front of us, so we went slow for a while. The canal is not necessarily a good place to pass. It can get shallow near the shoreline and many tree stumps are clearly visible.

Tomorrow we head for Hampton, VA and return to the area of the Chesapeake Bay. 

A day like today is what makes someone love boating. We knew the weather would be great with low humidity, temps in the low eighties, sunny and light breeze, but add the smooth as glass water, little traffic and a very friendly marina stop............... all equals cruising bliss!

We left Beaufort a little before 8:00am. We passed a working boat trying to move a beached, and I expect, abandoned sailboat. They were working on it all day yesterday, but it was difficult to say how much progress was made. We entered Adams Creek and followed it up all the way to the Neuse River. It was very quiet and we took it slow around the homes and boatyards. We watched dolphin play, but still couldn't get any pictures. They disappear below the surface when we get close to them.

We headed up the Pungo River towards Belhaven. The channel leading to the town is at a sharp turn in the river and crosses through a man-made wooden breakwater. River Forest Marina is immediately on the starboard side with a short channel. We were met by Henry the dockmaster who helped us tie up, fuel up and pump out. It is a small, but very nice marina. They have courtesy golf carts and we took one into town for a little while. We did have one disappointment today. The restaurant we were looking forward to was not open. So, we had another meal on the boat. I guess I will have to get the prime rib at Coinjock tomorrow night.

Poor wifi is one issue that we contend with at some marinas. Unfortunately, that slows the blog process. This blog will cover three days of travel to catch us up.

After saying good-bye to a number of new cruising friends, we departed Georgetown and headed for Myrtle Beach. I knew this was going to be a day mixed with great cruising and ............ not-so-great cruising. North of Georgetown is the Waccamaw River and one of our favorite spots along the ICW. It is natural and undeveloped for quite a distance, as well as being deep and wide. There was little traffic along the way. It had been a very cold morning with record low temperatures for the area. I suspect that kept the locals inside. We had frost on the boat and on the docks as we untied the lines.

The second part of the trip was through the Myrtle Beach area. There was still little traffic, but the going is slow due to the number of homes and docks along the way. As I have said before, our boat makes a pretty big wake and I am very conscientious about damaging anyone's property by going too fast. The Myrtle Beach area has a mix of modern mansions to modest homes that have been around for years. There are also many condominiums in the area. It's a little too crowded here for me.

We had to transit to swing bridges and the notorious "Rock Pile." This area of the ICW is narrow and has created problems for boaters as it has shallow rocks on the edges. We made it through ok, but a boating couple that we met in Georgetown lost a prop in the "Rock Pile" and spent 5 weeks getting it repaired. Needless to say, we were extra careful.

We docked at the Myrtle Beach Yacht Club in a very protected harbor with a number of marinas. A lighthouse at the entrance was our landmark. The folks there were very nice and we enjoyed walking around the harbor for a little exercise. It was ok for a one-night stop.

We left the Myrtle Beach Yacht Club around 9:30am on Easter morning to head for Carolina Beach. We had a few challenges ahead of and were as prepared as possible. Two famous shoaling areas, Shallotte Inlet and Lockwood's Folly were on the route as was the Cape Fear River and Snow's Cut. We made it through the shoal areas ok following the routes of Bob423. He is a well-known ICW cruiser that provides a wealth of information including downloadable tracks of the routes he has taken. If it were not for Bob423, many ICW cruisers would be aground, especially the sailboaters who have much deeper drafts than us. Shallotte Inlet was in the process of being dredged and the equipment was still on the scene. Later on, we had to pass a tugboat at a narrow point in the ICW. It didn't seem as though there was enough room for both of us, but we got through without crashing into each other.

Traffic was a little heavy on the Cape Fear River. In addition to a flotilla of tugs and barges heading out for dredging, there were a number of boats traveling in multiple directions. A large sport fishing boat passed us at nearly full speed waking us to the point we thought we might capsize. These guys are pretty obnoxious and are well-known up and down the ICW for their disregard for other boaters. 

We passed another tug and barge a little further up the river. Martha and I enjoyed seeing the two crewmen sitting at the front of the barge. I guess they were the lookouts. We made out way through Snow's Cut taking it slow to avoid waking other boats. As we approached a small boat carrying a concerned woman and her husband, another large boat passed us fast and waked both us and the small boat. Fortunately for the small boat, we took the brunt of the waking. 

We made it into the Carolina Beach harbor and found the mooring balls. We struggled with the wind to get tied up, but eventually got two lines through the thimble on the ball and settled in for the night. It was a quiet and comfortable night. The sky was beautifully clear.

Our departure from Carolina Beach went well. Martha untied the lines from the mooring ball and we headed out of the harbor area. It was slow going up the ICW as the tide was out and we had to watch for a few shallow areas. There were few boaters on the water, but we went slow anyway.

We headed to sea once we reached Masonboro Inlet. This is a fairly deep and safe inlet with a Coast Guard station right there. We made it out and headed towards Beaufort, NC. The ride got a little bumpier than we had hoped for, but it was not nearly as bad as our outside passage a couple of weeks ago in Florida. We skirted the Camp LeJeune security area. There was mention of possible activity in the US Coast Guard Local Notice to Mariners, so I chose not to take a chance of going through the security zone.

The detour added a few miles to our journey, but we still made good time and arrive in Beaufort around 1:30pm. Once inside the inlet, it was no wake speed until we reached the marina. There was a quite a bit of activity. This is a major harbor area with all manner of fishing, commercial, research and recreational boats.

We tied up at Homer Smith's Docks and settled in for a two-day stay. After rinsing down the boat, we took a walk into town for dinner. The town center is only three blocks away and very convenient. There are a number of restaurants and shops.

After a rest day tomorrow and an opportunity to scout out the area, we will start a five-day trek towards the end of our journey home to Rock Hall.

We decided to stay an extra day in Georgetown due to some high winds from the north. We probably would have been alright, but the marina is a little tight and we are in no rush. The delay allowed us to explore Georgetown a little more and get to know some of our slip neighbors better. There are three boats from Annapolis here and one that was docked near us in Jacksonville. Many will be leaving in the morning. We will be heading to the Myrtle Beach Yacht Club and hoping that the traffic will be lighter than normal since it is Easter weekend. It is also unseasonably cool for this area and the prediction is for temps in the low thirties in the morning. The sun has been brilliant and warm, but the wind has added a chill.

Georgetown has many historic homes from the 1800's and early 1900's. Many are registered as are some of the huge live oak trees that line the streets. This is one of our favorite stops on the ICW and I'm sure we will return in the future.

I have decided to add reviews of the marinas we have stayed in to the website. I plan to include a review for each marina, but it will take a little time to get them all online.

Off to Myrtle Beach tomorrow..................and transiting the "Rock Pile."

After a sleepless night worrying about our departure from the St. Johns Yacht Harbor with the fast current, it turned out to be a non-event. There was no wind and the current was not as fast as the day before. We got off the dock easily with the assistance of the helpful dockhands and started our way up the ICW. It was quite foggy, so we proceeded slowly. We had to transit the concerning Elliot Cut and navigate under a couple of bridges. It was a little tricky since we could only see about 75 yards. The cut is a narrow channel with homes on both sides and a swift running current. We were following a sailing catamaran that moved ahead and disappeared in the fog. They showed up  a few minutes later right in front of us. they had turned around since they had to wait for one of the bridges that would not be opening until later. It was very eery and the fog messes with your sense of direction. We entered Charleston Harbor and had to stop for about 45 minutes to wait for the fog to lift. We kept a lookout for other boats and heard the alerts from ship captains on the radio. We decided it was best to wait rather than take a chance of running into large commercial vessels.

Once the fog lifted, we made our way through the harbor, past tugs, barges, ships ,  Coast Guard boats, and of course Fort Sumter. We also enjoyed some of the beautiful Charleston homes.

Once we passed the urban area around Charleston, we got out into the open areas and made good time to Georgetown. We stopped here on the way down in November and really enjoyed the town. We are staying two nights and will spend some time exploring tomorrow. The town is an interesting mix of commercial fishing, other industry and tourism. Of course Martha enjoys the flowers. We had a great meal at the restaurant Roots tonight with plenty of leftovers for another meal.

We have met many people during this journey. Many from the Chesapeake Bay, some that live on their boats full time and some that are doing the Great Loop. Frequently we end up seeing the same boats at multiple marinas. There are two boats here that were next to us in Beaufort, "Joint Venture" and "Magic." We have passed Magic on the water at least three times starting back at Hilton Head and now docked with them twice. That's a normal occurence when traveling the ICW. We may even see them again in the future.

A cold front with strong storms is expected tonight which will cause the temperature to drop significantly. They are calling for frost warnings tomorrow and the winds are supposed to become very strong. Not a good time to be on the water. We will stay at least one extra day to wait out the weather. Not sure where we are going next. It will be a surprise.

We got an early start this morning and left Beaufort a little before 8:00am. We enjoyed our time in this distinctly southern town and had a very pleasant evening on the boat after a brief walk after dark.

On our trip south in November, we skipped this part of the ICW and travelled from Charleston to Hilton Head in the ocean (on the outside as they say). There are a few tricky spots where you need to watch the depths, but we hit them all at high tide and had no problems. Most of the trip was in wide rivers with plenty of depth. It was very pretty and I'm glad we did not skip it this time. We passed a few boats that have become familiar to us now. 

I became concerned as we approached the Ashepoo-Coosaw Cutoff. This is and area that connects to different rivers and is known for shoaling. I saw a barge and some construction equipment at the entrance to the cut, but it wasn't operating and we passed through without incident.

We made much better time than anticipated, arriving at the marina around 12:25, a four and a half hour trip. It was getting near low tide, the current was moving swiftly and the wind was gusting a bit. As seems to be the norm, these conditions made docking a little tricky. The marina gave us instructions to travel down the last fairway and tie up at the fuel dock. They warned us about the swift current. It was another heart-thumping moment getting into the fairway, but once in, we laid up against the fuel dock easily and the dockhands took the lines and walked us to the overnight spot. All in all, it worked well, but the knuckles got a little white there for a moment. You would think I should be getting used to this, but every situation is a little different and we are completely at the mercy of the elements. It's even more exciting when it is a marina that we have not visited before.

We had a chance to visit with some new friends that we met in Beaufort and ended up here as well. We will explore the area a little this afternoon. The marina is pretty isolated. Tomorrow we head to Georgetown. We have tried not to repeat marina visits, but Georgetown was one of our favorite stops on the way south.