The long and winding Georgia ICW
11/14/19
Georgia, it’s like one big, long winding cruise through golden marshes. Today a power catamaran passed us and remarked that it was like being on a slalom course while skiing. They cruise at 20 knots, we cruise at 7 knots. I bet those turns do come up fast at 20 knots!
Today is Thursday so I have to back up. My MacBook seems to have died at sea so I am typing on my iPad without a keyboard. Bit of a drag. Hopefully, when we get to Florida Apple can help me figure it out. I hope it can be revived and won’t require a burial at sea!
On Sunday we left Charleston for an easy cruise to Beaufort, SC, pronounced Bewfort, and not to be confused with Beaufort, NC, pronounced Bōfort! Such a cute town. I was most enamored with the trees and the Spanish moss. Some more Dr. Seuss trees and some gorgeous live oaks.
We were able to get a spot on the free dock for a few hours. One cool tidbit is that Eddie has this exact picture from bringing the boat North 3 years ago!
We crossed under the Ladies Island Bridge to get to Beaufort.
Loved the way the sky shows through the windows of this building.
We meandered through the town, stopped for coffee and then headed out.
This house is like many of the other homes in the historic part of town. From the antebellum period- this one is from 1852.
This house was built in 1860. We estimated this tree to be 160 years old!
One more old home and beautiful tree! Happy and relaxed in Beaufort!
H
Magnificent gardens.
More South Carolina flowers!
After shmieing around the shops and getting a coffee we headed back to Seaquel for lunch, followed by an easy two hour cruise to our anchorage in Port Royal sound, just north of Skull Creek.
It was a beautiful cruise, water was like glass.
We’ve seen some unusual boats going by. The Hamburger Boat went by too fast to place an order!
”Shrimp boat, shrimp boat, we hailed on channel 16, This is the Trawler Seaquel, are you really going to cross in front of our bow?” No answer on the radio. But yes, just like the crab boats on the Chesapeake Bay, he ran right in front of us, like left turned hard in front of us. Good picture opportunity!
Looooong docks over the marshes all thru Georgia.
Our Port Royal sound anchorage was a little rolly. I think it bothered me more than Eddie. For one night it worked. We were treated to another beautiful sunset.
On Monday we got an early start, on our way to Turner Creek in Savannah. We were headed to skinny water and wanted to travel on the rising tide.
Looking off the stern as we left Port Royal Sound. Be still my heart.
This was another easy cruise, and we were anchored and in the dinghy on the way to Hogan’s Marina with our laundry by 2pm. We ubered to Spin City and were both happy to have all clean clothes. We do have a washer and dryer on board but the washer is a water hog using an estimated 30-35 gallons of water per wash. As we try to conserve our water (we carry 280 gallons), we opted for the laundromat! One of the Florida projects is to get our water maker running so we will be able to do our laundry on board in the Bahamas.
Seaquel looking pretty in the anchorage as seen from Hogan’s Marina.
We ubered to a super weird meeting, clean laundry in tow. There were 4 of us and Marley the mascot dog, in a small church meeting place, with a chirping smoke detector and a washing machine! We could have done our laundry! Later 2 more people rolled in. Ubered back to the dinghy with a chatty 21 year old. It was pitch black out and we drove in circles a few times trying to find the marina entrance. Back in the dinghy and down the creek to Seaquel.
On Tuesday we had a lay day. We were going to tour Savannah but rain was predicted. I never feel like cruising on the dinghy in the rain to get to land, plus Eddie wanted to repair the anchor wash down that had been acting up. Happy to say Eddie made me a new wash down, with raw water and great water pressure. Win win! We will tour Savannah another time.
Dredge passing us at anchorage on their way to the bridge.
I don’t think I’ve mentioned how cold it’s been. This was yesterday morning in the pilot house before we started the generator for heat.
Yep, we are wearing ski hats and lots of clothes! It may be cold but it’s not dampening our spirits. We love being out here and were treated to a gorgeous view of the full moon yesterday morning. The pictures don’t do it justice.
Yesterday was Wednesday and we started out with a long stop at Hogan’s for a pump out and water. The marina is next door to Publix so I walked over there and picked up some beef to try an Instant Pot recipe while Eddie did the pump out and got the water started.
It was a beautiful sunny day in the marshes. We cruised from Turner’s Creek to the Wahoo River. Too bad it is so cold out!
I didn’t take many pics yesterday but i was entertained by these gulls who appeared to be catching our wind off the stern. No zoom, they were very close. Silly birds!
Our anchorage on the Wahoo was very pretty with a strong current and winds that picked up overnight to 10-20 knots. When the current is strong the usual water lapping the hull (by the way, one of my favorite sounds ever) sounds like a river rushing by.
That sound of the water lapping the boat will forever remind me of sleeping on the deck of Happiness Is, our family 21’ boat when I was about 9-10 years old. Pete would be on one side of the deck on an air mattress and in a sleeping bag and I’d be on the other side. Such great memories. I think water lapping the hull is encoded in my cellular memory.
Up and out early today. There was lots of low water reported for our trip from The Wahoo River to St. Simons Island. Sadly, it’s still cold out and the day was very grey. The first part of our trip across the Sapelo sound was pretty uncomfortable. Seaquel doesn’t care but I do! We were rocking and rolling, happily it was short lived, the water calmed down as soon as we exited the sound and we had an uneventful cruise. We cruised the low water areas at mid tide and had no problems.
The gulls are back today. The whole day, start to finish, was shades of grey.
The view of the flat water and the marshes.
Meanwhile, in the pilot house, we are drinking hot coffee, have our hats on and are running the space heater!
Random palm tree island!
Check out this island compound!
We figured the only access was by boat or maybe plane!
I was trying to give a sense of the winding marshes of Georgia. Unfortunately, I think to really see, it would need to be an aerial view.
Since it’s too cold for me on the fly bridge to take a picture of the winding ICW, I screen shotted our route and you can see how windy it is. Back and forth through the marshes to Florida we go!
As we approached our anchorage Eddie kept saying, what is that out there? I finally picked up the binoculars and there sadly laying on its side is the vehicle carrier called the Golden Ray, which ran aground in September in St. Simons Sound as it was leaving the port of Brunswick, Ga.
We passed under the F.J. Causeway Bridge to get to the anchorage.
Pretty, sleek, catamaran that came through on the boat parade and anchored off our starboard.
Current view off our bow in the anchorage. We are facing the Morningstar Marina where we will dock for one night tomorrow night. It will be a rainy day and we will tour some of St Simons but not use our dinghy to get to shore!
Signing off with prayers for the students and families of the victims of the Santa Clarita shooting and for the beautiful city of Venice.
Georgia, it’s like one big, long winding cruise through golden marshes. Today a power catamaran passed us and remarked that it was like being on a slalom course while skiing. They cruise at 20 knots, we cruise at 7 knots. I bet those turns do come up fast at 20 knots!
Today is Thursday so I have to back up. My MacBook seems to have died at sea so I am typing on my iPad without a keyboard. Bit of a drag. Hopefully, when we get to Florida Apple can help me figure it out. I hope it can be revived and won’t require a burial at sea!
On Sunday we left Charleston for an easy cruise to Beaufort, SC, pronounced Bewfort, and not to be confused with Beaufort, NC, pronounced Bōfort! Such a cute town. I was most enamored with the trees and the Spanish moss. Some more Dr. Seuss trees and some gorgeous live oaks.
We crossed under the Ladies Island Bridge to get to Beaufort.
Loved the way the sky shows through the windows of this building.
We meandered through the town, stopped for coffee and then headed out.
This house was built in 1860. We estimated this tree to be 160 years old!
One more old home and beautiful tree! Happy and relaxed in Beaufort!
HMagnificent gardens.
After shmieing around the shops and getting a coffee we headed back to Seaquel for lunch, followed by an easy two hour cruise to our anchorage in Port Royal sound, just north of Skull Creek.
It was a beautiful cruise, water was like glass.
We’ve seen some unusual boats going by. The Hamburger Boat went by too fast to place an order!
Looooong docks over the marshes all thru Georgia.
Our Port Royal sound anchorage was a little rolly. I think it bothered me more than Eddie. For one night it worked. We were treated to another beautiful sunset.
On Monday we got an early start, on our way to Turner Creek in Savannah. We were headed to skinny water and wanted to travel on the rising tide.
Looking off the stern as we left Port Royal Sound. Be still my heart.
This was another easy cruise, and we were anchored and in the dinghy on the way to Hogan’s Marina with our laundry by 2pm. We ubered to Spin City and were both happy to have all clean clothes. We do have a washer and dryer on board but the washer is a water hog using an estimated 30-35 gallons of water per wash. As we try to conserve our water (we carry 280 gallons), we opted for the laundromat! One of the Florida projects is to get our water maker running so we will be able to do our laundry on board in the Bahamas.
Seaquel looking pretty in the anchorage as seen from Hogan’s Marina.
We ubered to a super weird meeting, clean laundry in tow. There were 4 of us and Marley the mascot dog, in a small church meeting place, with a chirping smoke detector and a washing machine! We could have done our laundry! Later 2 more people rolled in. Ubered back to the dinghy with a chatty 21 year old. It was pitch black out and we drove in circles a few times trying to find the marina entrance. Back in the dinghy and down the creek to Seaquel.
On Tuesday we had a lay day. We were going to tour Savannah but rain was predicted. I never feel like cruising on the dinghy in the rain to get to land, plus Eddie wanted to repair the anchor wash down that had been acting up. Happy to say Eddie made me a new wash down, with raw water and great water pressure. Win win! We will tour Savannah another time.
I don’t think I’ve mentioned how cold it’s been. This was yesterday morning in the pilot house before we started the generator for heat.
Yesterday was Wednesday and we started out with a long stop at Hogan’s for a pump out and water. The marina is next door to Publix so I walked over there and picked up some beef to try an Instant Pot recipe while Eddie did the pump out and got the water started.
It was a beautiful sunny day in the marshes. We cruised from Turner’s Creek to the Wahoo River. Too bad it is so cold out!
I didn’t take many pics yesterday but i was entertained by these gulls who appeared to be catching our wind off the stern. No zoom, they were very close. Silly birds!
Our anchorage on the Wahoo was very pretty with a strong current and winds that picked up overnight to 10-20 knots. When the current is strong the usual water lapping the hull (by the way, one of my favorite sounds ever) sounds like a river rushing by.
That sound of the water lapping the boat will forever remind me of sleeping on the deck of Happiness Is, our family 21’ boat when I was about 9-10 years old. Pete would be on one side of the deck on an air mattress and in a sleeping bag and I’d be on the other side. Such great memories. I think water lapping the hull is encoded in my cellular memory.
Up and out early today. There was lots of low water reported for our trip from The Wahoo River to St. Simons Island. Sadly, it’s still cold out and the day was very grey. The first part of our trip across the Sapelo sound was pretty uncomfortable. Seaquel doesn’t care but I do! We were rocking and rolling, happily it was short lived, the water calmed down as soon as we exited the sound and we had an uneventful cruise. We cruised the low water areas at mid tide and had no problems.
The gulls are back today. The whole day, start to finish, was shades of grey.
The view of the flat water and the marshes.
Meanwhile, in the pilot house, we are drinking hot coffee, have our hats on and are running the space heater!
Random palm tree island!
Check out this island compound!
We figured the only access was by boat or maybe plane!
I was trying to give a sense of the winding marshes of Georgia. Unfortunately, I think to really see, it would need to be an aerial view.
Since it’s too cold for me on the fly bridge to take a picture of the winding ICW, I screen shotted our route and you can see how windy it is. Back and forth through the marshes to Florida we go!
As we approached our anchorage Eddie kept saying, what is that out there? I finally picked up the binoculars and there sadly laying on its side is the vehicle carrier called the Golden Ray, which ran aground in September in St. Simons Sound as it was leaving the port of Brunswick, Ga.
The cargo ship is owned by Hyundai Glovis and was carrying 4000 Hyundai and Kia vehicles. It has been determined that it’s not possible to safely right and refloat the ship and it will have to be cut up and removed.
I spent my afternoon watching the boat parade, trying out a new to me coconut lime muffin recipe that turned out disgusting,and blogging. Eddie spent his afternoon watching a movie and working in the engine room.
Here’s a few pics of the anchorage and an especially cool tall ship that you may recognize from Annapolis or Chestertown where it spent time this summer.
This is the tall ship Lynx, hailing from Portsmouth, NH, sister ship to the Pride of Baltimore. Pretty girl.
Pretty, sleek, catamaran that came through on the boat parade and anchored off our starboard.
Current view off our bow in the anchorage. We are facing the Morningstar Marina where we will dock for one night tomorrow night. It will be a rainy day and we will tour some of St Simons but not use our dinghy to get to shore!
Signing off with prayers for the students and families of the victims of the Santa Clarita shooting and for the beautiful city of Venice.
Great pictures. The sunsets are beautiful. Theres one particular house that impressed me. The house with the 1st and 2nd floor balconies. You and Eddie love so happy. Sorry about your cold spell. Seems you're seeing some amazing ships. Life on the water!!
ReplyDeleteWhere are you guys?
ReplyDeleteWow! I love the details and photos. Beaufort looked so much like what I've seen of Savannah. Having been to Edisto Island and Charleston in the summer months those live oaks and miss ARE the scenery. How are you liking your insta-pot? Xoxo
ReplyDelete