Month: May 2021

Left Georgetown at 7:30 AM and had an easy trip, including 3 of the worst shoaling areas on the ICW; Lockwood’s Folly, Shallotte Inlet, and Little River Inlet…all just north of Myrtle Beach.  The first two have been dredged, eliminating concerns for a while, and the third appears to be stable and when we went thru today at dead low tide we never saw less than 6 feet of water. Some definite improvements over the last decade and half in care of the waterways!

Stopped at Osprey Marine, south of Myrtle Beach, to fuel as they have the cheapest fuel on the waterway, then continued on to St. James Marina in Southport, NC about 3 PM, an 88 mile trip.  Had time to top off the tanks again, relax, drink a little wine, and firm up plans for the rest of the trip to Virginia and Maryland.  We’re now 400 miles from Colonial Beach and friends and to family and grandkids in Annapolis.  Looking forward to seeing some baseball, T-ball, and soccer games in Annapolis.

Still planning a Friday 14 May arrival in Colonial Beach, with stops at Beaufort, NC, Belhaven, NC, Coinjock, NC, Deltaville, VA, and Olverson’s Marina in Lottsburg, VA. along the way.  We’ve checked the weather, prayed to the boat mechanical gods, and are optimistic.  Let’s see what happens!   We’ll be moving on to Annapolis on the 17th, ready for a big birthday celebration for daughter Lauren on the 21st.

Another day of great performance by the boat.  Think it’s just not been used over the years and needed this day after day trip to work out the kinks. Not that unusual for seldom run boats.  Still questionable this is the boat for us to cruise on, but we’re giving it a good test.

There appear to be few COVID concerns on the ICW.  Places are busy… people out and about.  Few wearing masks.  Restaurants where servers wear masks are rare.   Let’s hope folks are getting vaccinated.   We wouldn’t have embarked on the trip without our vaccine shots.  We follow science, as well as charts!

Here are a few pictures from today.

Underway this morning with the help of several of the transient boaters at 7:30 AM.  One boater was jealous.  He recently bought a new Regal 40+ foot cabin cruiser and is on his 5th engine replacement.  Apparently Regal, trying to save money and weight, reduced the strength of the hull and the engines are not being properly supported.  They just vibrate themselves to death.  He wants to go boating but just now has a condo.

Winds were above 15 knots but we were in fairly protected waters so moved fairly rapidly.  We stopped at St John’s Marina, near Charleston, and fueled then continued on to Georgetown, probably our favorite stop.  We lucked out with fairly clear waterways and pulled into Harbor Walk Marina in Georgetown at 5 PM.  A 135 mile trip completed in 9.5 hours.  A good day.  The boat performed flawlessly, finally.

Carey took me to River Room Restaurant for dinner, our favorite on the ICW.  We’re now back on  board and ready for our trip to South Port tomorrow.  We’re hoping the winds die down somewhat.  And, we’ll have a tough day making South Port as we have a lot of no-wake zones to travel through.  We’ll see how it ends up.

Thunderbolt Marine was true to their word.  So nice to see a professional organization at work.  They said we’d be fixed by noon and in the water shortly after.  True to statements, we were put in the water at 1 PM.  Moved over to the marina and loaded Carey and Maddie and our overnight bag.  By 2 PM we were underway for Beaufort, SC, landing at Lady’s Island Marina at 5:30 PM having moved a comfortable 54 miles since 2 PM.  What could be better.

The local restaurant is just up the walkway from the marina.  I had a low country boil and Carey had a pasta seafood dish.  All is well with the world.  We’ll move on tomorrow hopefully reaching our goal of Georgetown, SC, a simple 130 miles away.  We’ll be up early to make this goal.  Boat ran great this afternoon, so we hope for more of the same.

Look at a few pictures around the Ladies Island Marina area and there Dockside Restaurant.

I always speak too soon.  Underway this morning at 8, we first stopped for diesel fuel at a marina in the Thunderbolt area of Savannah.  Then underway to enjoy a nice trip to Steamboat Creek anchorage, then on to Georgetown.  During my mid morning engine room check I noticed the bilge area under the starboard engine filling with water.  Short story — the starboard shaft dripless shaft seal had failed and we had water.  I mean water coming into the engine room.  We pumped and pumped to keep up with the inflow, and talked on the phone trying to find a place to help replace the seal.  Everyone including Thunderbolt Marine said the repair job would have to be scheduled at least 3 weeks out, but Thunderbolt said they would look at the issue.  So, we quickly turned back to let them investigate.

Thunderbolt is a huge repair facility that specializes in mega yachts repairs.  Mega meaning 250-350 foot yachts.  Luckily, they were happy to help us out and a project manager and two mechanics came to have a look.  Thirty minutes later Apolonia was out of the water, which was necessary to fix this major seal failure.  Further, the crew decided to fix us tomorrow morning and have us back in the water around noon.  Not sure what changed their minds and decide to do this job.  But, boy am I happy and eager to continue the trip.  So is Carey as she’s determined to see family and friends.   And, as she always says, if everything goes perfectly you have no good stories to tell later.  But, this boat is providing her more fodder for resale than for oft-told tales.

We grabbed a motel room for the evening and enjoyed a Mexican Taco Pizza.  Tomorrow we’ll reboard the boat and hopefully say farewell to the boat’s misbehaving.  We can still make Colonial Beach by the 14th and that’s the plan.  We wanted to see if we could travel long trips on this boat and that’s what we’re doing.  Some of what we’re seeing is just adjustments to what is stored where and how much we can take with us, but there are other issues concerning living space size and basic comfort.  Only one of us is close to a decision on this so far, but Carey continues to compile her “list.”

We saw some strange and some beautiful boats at Thunderbolt  Take a look at a couple of the vessels and you’ll also see Carey and the hauled out Apolonia.

 

Up early this morning, but relaxing with coffee.  Can’t leave until 11 AM due to a very shallow area ahead that requires tidal help to get thru.  It is called Little Mud River and I don’t want to touch the bottom.  We made it thru and then picked up speed to make Turner Creek, near Savannah, where we have anchored for the first time on this boat.  It has been a 92 mile run today.  Launching the dinghy was really easy with our new Hurley Davits, but the little gas engine that I bought and tested did not make the grade — it only ran a very short time.  Good the dinghy has oars,  but we decided in heavy current where we anchored to try to get Maddie to do her business on board and not row the boat long distances in 4 knots of current.  Tonight is a bummer since we can’t use the dinghy to go ashore but we are enjoying the quiet of our first anchorage.

It does appear all boat issues are resolved and she is running great.

It rained on us and Carey is noticing lighting as we prepare for bed.  She’s out buttoning up the aft deck and I’m getting ready to turn the generator off and get us really for our first night at anchor.

Strange things happen on the water.  We encountered this at Morningstar Marina.  The picture below shows a one man boat that is powered by pedals (yes, like a bike with paddles) and/or a small sale.  A young man is taking this boat up the water way from Miami to Virginia.  I couldn’t believe it.  He has been at it for 4 weeks.   No idea when he will be seen in Virginia.  Amazing.