We're back in Gloucester

I'm once again tardy with the updates.  We've been back in Gloucester for a couple of weeks, completing our winter Bahamas trip.  While the boat was in Charleston, we went home for a while and I spend a week in China doing the final checkout on the Nordhavn build.  More on that later.... On return, I went directly back to Charleston and met up with Laurie there, and the north trip continued.

This last segment took us first from Charleston to Annapolis with stops in Myrtle Beach SC,  Port Royal NC, Chesapeake VA, and Deltaville VA.  Once in Annapolis we stayed for a week, including a long weekend trip to CA to attend the Nordhavn owners rendezvous at their headquarters.  Our visit to Annapolis also included a personal tour of the Naval Academy by brother-in-law Joe who is a professor there.

After Annapolis we made an expedited run back to Gloucester, taking advantage of very favorable sea conditions and running fast several days.  You sure can cover a lot of ground running at 18kts.  The last segment included an anchor stop in the northern Chesapeake just a few miles before the C&D Canal, a stop at Cape Map, then a marathon run up the NJ coast in calm but foggy conditions (never saw NJ) all the way through NY Harbor to Port Jefferson LI for another night at anchor.  Then on to Westbrook CT for fuel and a marina night, followed by a run to Cuttyhunk.  Then from Cuttyhunk home.

Reflecting back, it was a great trip.  We had two goals; one to experience the ICW while we have a shallow draft boat, and the other to get a taste for the Bahamas.  We were pleasantly surprised by the ICW.  We knew it would be a combination of developed and undeveloped coast, but found it much less developed than we expected.  A few spots made for a tense moment or two as we watched the water depth drop then stop reading because it was too shallow, but we kept floating the whole time.  For us a big test of how much we like a trip is whether the return voyage is still fun, and it definitely was.  Would we want to do it again?  Yes, but not the same way.  There are inside parts that I would definitely do again, but in the future we look forward to longer outside passages directly between the places where we want to visit.

As for the Bahamas, what a great place.  It's so varied, and we only saw a small part of it, but you could spend months and months exploring any area of it.  We certainly look forward to returning once we are back cruising on the east coast again.

With the Grand Banks back in Gloucester, we have now officially moved off the boat and are nearly done returning her to factory condition.  The great thing about boats that get used regularly is that everything works, so we have no repairs to do.  Most of the work is cleaning to get the ICW scrubbed off the hull, but that's done and she's as shiny as ever.  All our stuff is moved off, and all the Grand Banks fitted bed covers, throw pillows, wine racks, wine glass racks, dishes, silverware, ice maker, etc are all back on board and ready for the next owner.  It's now in a what-you-see-is-what-you-get presentation form which makes things easier for prospective buyers.  Tanglewood II has been an awesome boat and carried us for nearly 8,000 nm of cruising.  I'm sure she will deliver the same to her next owner as we head out to the high seas.

The northern migration has begun

We are back underway and heading north.  Our trip will be broken up into segments intermixed with other commitments at home and elsewhere.  This first stint is for two weeks and will take us from Palm Beach Gardens, FL to Charleston, SC.  Although there are lots of places between those two stops, we only have one planned for anything other than a quick overnight.  That stop is Cumberland Island, GA.  It took 4 days to get there.

Cumberland has quite a history ranging from a no-man's-land hideaway that wasn't part of either Georgia or Florida, to plantations, to a playground for the Carnegie family.  It's now mostly a National Seashore with a few retained private parcels owned mostly by various Carnegie descendants.

Here's one of the cottages built for one of the Carnegie children

And here's another one.  Which would you prefer?

I do wonder how different the fabulously wealthy of the robber-barron era really were from today's fabulously wealthy?   They were all fabulous, of course, with huge houses, large staffs of people to attend to their every need, yachts and private rail cars, now replaced by yachts and private planes.  I don't think it's much different.  I'll bet that in 100 years there will be tours of Bill Gates's house, then a National Park or non-profit preservation foundation.   Other than the public areas, the place will be falling down because nobody can afford to maintain it, mostly because all the computers need to be rebooted twice a day, and windows XP isn't supported anymore.  In fact, all those computers will be just as fascinating an attraction as a kerosene lamp is today.

Moving to the other end of the spectrum, at the north end of the island are the remnants of a settlement by freed slaves.  Below is the First African Baptist Church which is a simple, yet effective, one room church.  JFK Jr was married here back in '96 just three years before he and his wife were killed in a pane crash.

One falling down building shows touches of care and decoration as seen in these decorative tiles set around the fire place hearth.

Today's largest population on Cumberland Island are teh wild horse that roam about all over the place.  No lawn mowers required - the horses take care of it all.

From Cumberland we went straight to Charleston in three day hops.  We are now comfortably tied up and looking forward to a few days touring about and eating great food.

St Augustine

Welcome to Florida!  Cumberland Island is the last stretch of coast in Georgia, so it was only 30 minutes or so after departure that we crossed into Florida.  Our first stop was St Augustine which is unlike any other place in Florida that I've ever visited.  It has history, architecture, an old fort, and lots of charm.  In contrast, most of Florida has emerged over the past 50 years.  St Augustine is actually the oldest city in North America, though not the oldest in the US since it didn't become pat of the States until Florida became a territory in 1822 and a State in 1845.  We spend a full day wondering around and sampling the food which is always welcome.

Skipping ahead a bit we ended up at anchor just south of Cape Canaveral.  We could see the VAB and launch gantries off in the distance, and were reminded of the launch we saw back in 1985.  It was right at dawn, and one of the most spectacular sights I've ever seen.  The sad part is that after the launch completed and the base opened for visitors, we went for a tour and saw Challenger on the launch pad getting prepped for its ill-fated mission about a week later.

The next day after we got underway there were non-stop security calls on the VHF warning about keep-out zones for a pending launch later that morning.  And we were right there.  I jotted down the launch time with great plans to turn and look behind us at the appointed time, but guess what?  I completely forgot and the darn thing took off right behind us.  My brother said he could see it from New Jersey, and I missed it in the rear view mirror.  Oh well.

We finally arrived pretty much as planned at our pause-point in Palm Beach Gardens.  Through a friend we leased a privately owned slip in a condo-marina which has worked out great.

Later in the week we caught a flight home for the holidays.  It took 6 weeks door-to-door to get to Florida in the boat, and 6 hrs to get home.  That's cruising, and we love it :-)

Beaufort, Ossabow, Cumberland Island.

Next stop was Beaufort - actually a little south in Port Royal where we stopped for a quick overnight at a marina then continued on in the morning.  That evening we anchored in a really nice and remote tributary along Ossabow Island.

Sunset at Ossabow Island

Then the next morning it was off the Cumberland Island where we planned to stay for two full days (three nights).

Cumberland Island is an amazing place, originally the playground of the Carnegies, and now mostly a National Park with a few remaining private homes of Carnegie's descendents.  We explored the various ruins of the original mansion, walked for miles on the beach, and had a tremendous meal at the Greyfield Inn which is one of the private properties and still owned and run by a great-grandson of the original owner.  It's one of the most pristine landscapes we have seen in a long time.

Lions and Tigers and Bears, oh my

Cumberland Island Beach

Patterns in the Sand

Georgetown to Charleston

From Myrtle Beach, our next major stop was Charleston where we planned to spend 2 nights so we'd get a full day to explore the city, and it sure was worth it.

The mid-way point traveling from Myrtle Beach was Georgetown, SC.  It looked like a nice place, but after a week in Myrtle Beach for Laurie and several days in Ft Lauderdale for me, anchoring out is a remote place was high on both our lists.  We continued  a bit south of Georgetown and anchored in the North Santee River for a quiet evening.

The next day we continued on arriving at Charleston early afternoon.  The most popular marina appears to be over on the west side of town (Charleston is a north-south peninsula), but when I called they didn't have any room for us, so we ended up at another place over on the east side of town.  Well, it was quite fortuitous after all.  The whole downtown area of Charleston is on the East side just a couple of blocks from the marina, and what a great city it is.  I know this isn't news to many people, but it was our visit and Charleston definitely lived up to it's reputation.

Wrightsville, Southport, Myrtle Beach, and FLIBS

The march continues on.  From Wrightsville we continued south through a cut and into Cape Fear.  There's another great name, due to some early explorers who got in there, couldn't get out, and feared they would become shipwrecked.  But it wasn't particularly fearful the day we crossed and soon we were back in the confines of the ICW.  It was a short day with an overnight in Southport just at the southern end of Cape Fear.

The next day completed our trip to Myrtle Beach where Laurie would stay with the boat for a few days while I flew down to Ft Lauderdale for the boat show, formally known as the Ft Lauderdale In-water Boat Show, or FLIBS for short.  I had lots of vendors to visit and things to sort out relative to commissioning our Nordhavn, none of which was particularly interesting to Laurie, so she hung out on the boat and got a bunch of projects done.

FLIBS was exhausting, but a success all around.  I got a life raft ordered, figured out boarding ladders and dinghy chocks, a dinghy swim ladder, and a whole host of other things.  PAE also hosted a gathering of Nordhavn owners which was great fun, and both a chance to catch up with people we already know, and meet a few new people.  All in all, the trip was a success.

Lots to catch up on, Roanoke Island to Wrightsville, NC

OK, I have a confession to make.  The last blog entry had us exiting the Dismal Swamp and having just crossed into North Carolina.  We are now actually in St Augustine, FL.  I have a lot to catch up on.

After entering the Albemarle Sound, we headed east towards the barrier islands - Kitty Hawk  and Nags Head in particular.  The actual ICW goes more to the west and cuts through the Alligator river and canal.  Originally we were thinking we'd go visit Kitty Hawk, but then realized it would involve renting a car, so we decided against it in the end.  We ended up at a Marina on Roanoke Island which is the island you pass through to reach the barrier islands where Kitty Hawk and Nags Head are.

One thing we were warned about, and I'm not sure if it's real or a wives tale, is that crabbers in the Albemarle and Pamlico Sounds are allowed to (and do) use stainless wire between their floats and traps.  I've got line cutters on our running gear to deal with any errant encounters, but wire would make quite the mess.  Needless to say, we kept a careful watch for floats, but fortunately there were not very many.

The next day we made a straight run - at least as straight as the shallow water allowed - across the Pamlico Sound and rejoined the ICW at the Adams River/Canal.  Just inside the river we found a very nice spot to anchor for the night.

The next day we had some decisions to make.  The first was whether or not to spend a day in Beaufort, NC which is at the other end of the Adams Creek/Canal, or to bypass and keep moving.  One constraint was that the Ft Lauderdale Boat Show was approaching, and I had booked a room and planned to attend.  We needed to get to a spot with reasonable transportation so I could catch a flight down, and a spot where Laurie could enjoy the 5 days or so that I'd be away.  Myrtle Beach looked like the spot with a good marina, regular flights, and all the goods and services that one might need.  A few quick calculations made it clear that we needed to keep moving.  In fact, we needed to make up some time.  So the decision was made to bypass Beaufort, and put it on the list of places to visit on our return.  The next decision was whether to run inside the ICW, or go outside down to Wrightsville.  Along the ICW is Camp LeJeune, and they do regular live firing exercises across the ICW out into the ocean.  They shut down the ICW for their playtime, and there is a large section of the shoreline that is off limits at all times.  This one became another easy decision.  We headed outside, cranked up the speed, and went all the way to Wrightsville.  Along the way we encountered two warships, one hanging out just inside the keep-out zone, and a carrier off on the horizon.  Although we didn't hear any booms, I can only think that all the activity signaled playtime and that the ICW would have been shut down for a few hours.  And as a bonus, we were rewarded with absolutely glassy seas the whole way down to Wrightsville.

I hope you are enjoying this, and feel free to comment or ask questions in the "Comments" space below.

The Dismal Swamp, and things that go bump in the night.

The Dismal Swamp.  You have to admit, that's a great name.  It's actually a canal that cuts through from the Chesapeake Bay south of Norfolk and comes out in the Albemarle Sound in North Carolina.  It's narrow, shallow, quite beautiful, and full of things to hit along the way.

Lock entering the Dismal Swamp

 
All I could think of as we slipped by it's banks of overhanging trees was "the great grey-green greasy Limpopo River, all set about with fever trees".  Does anyone remember that line from "The Elephant's Child", one of Rudyard Kipling's "Just So Stories"? I used to read that all the time as a kid.

Great, grey green greasy Limpopo River, all set about with fever trees

On paper the route isn't too bad with 8-10' depths.  That's much more than the Rideau Canal where we traveled last summer and, by the way, never hit bottom.  But that theoretical depth doesn't account for all the crap on the bottom that seems to have crept in and died.  I suppose it's submerged branches and the like, but we went bump no less than a dozen times.  And every time the depth sounder continued to show 7-8' (we draw a little under 4').

Some people can just brush it off when they run aground or hit something, but I just can't get over it very easily.  To me the boat is supposed to be floating, not hitting the bottom.  We met a guy in Deltaville who apparently wasn't phased at all by running aground or by other gross navigational errors.  He crossed lake Ontario from Toronto to Oswego, and managed to arrive at the NY shoreline a whopping 70 miles from Oswego.  That's pretty far off course for a crossing that's probably only about 100 miles long.  But it didn't bother him a bit.  Then he told me one story after another about the rest of his trip where he ran aground, got towed, then ran aground again and got towed.  He must have grounded (and I mean hard aground, you aren't going anywhere aground) a half dozen times, all while saying how easy boat navigation is.  Go figure.

Welcome to North Carolina

Anyway, we made it through the Dismal Swamp with no damage - just a lot of cuss words.  I'm glad we did it.  After all, this trip is about seeing the inland parts of the east coast.  But I'll be happy to go around it next time.

Our trip through was rewarded by a wonderful night at anchor off Goat Island in the Pasquotank River which is the outflow of the canal.  Fall is coming too - we had frost on the fore deck in the morning.

Beautiful Morning off Goat Island

Frost on the fore deck this morning

Norfolk the Navy town

Today we left Deltaville and headed across the south bay to Norfolk, VA, home to one of the largest US Naval bases.  Along the way we heard some interesting things on the radio.  There were two Korean war ships in the bay, apparently in for refueling.  That's not something you see every day, at least not where we are from.  We could see them off in the distance, but never got very close.

As we approached Norfolk, one of the US war ships (that's what they call themselves - War Ship 72, or War Ship 66) was alerting everyone that he was departing at 2:30 and to be on the lookout.  Well, just as we were getting ready to turn into the Elizabeth River, out came War Ship D72.  I tried hailing him on 13 (the standard bridge-to-bridge channel that all ships in the area use to coordinate passages), but they didn't respond.  I just decided to give him a wide berth and continue on our way.  A little later I heard War Ship 66 trying to hail him on 13 as well with no response, so I didn't feel so bad about being ignored.  99% of the time ships respond right away and happily coordinate passes.  For whatever reason 72 wasn't monitoring 13.

War Ship 72 leaving Norfolk Naval Base as we head down the Elizabeth River

Air Craft Carrier 77 - George Bush

Stealthy looking ships of some sort

Now THAT's a Cargo Ship.  I'll bet you could drive a sub inside and take it for a ride.

And a Hospital ship to clean up the mess.

Going through Norfolk and the surrounding towns, there is no mistake who butters the bread.  The Navy.  I've never seen so many ships in various states of refurbishment.   Have you ever seen an air craft carrier hauled out of the water?  We did.  And it was one of three carriers that were there at the time.  Plus a Hospital ship, and a huge rear-loading cargo ship.  Check out the pictures.

A bit later we experienced the 1% of commercial captains who are not so cooperative.  We were gaining on a tow and an unladen tug working their way up the Elizabeth river and I wanted to pass them, so I called and asked to pass on their starboard side.  They said fine but as I was getting closer they started turning to starboard, and soon after got on the radio asking where I was going and said I should pass their port side.  Umm?  I'm not sure where the miss-communication happened, but it did, and highlights the need to always be alert.

A few more miles down the river was the Top Rack Marina just past where the Dismal Swamp turns off.  We stayed there for the night, ready to transit the Dismal Swamp the next day.

Is this the north or the south?

Lots of things distinguish the north from the south, and clearly we are on the boarder.  Today's trip took us from Annapolis, MD down the Chesapeake to Deltaville, VA.  It was a long trip, but tomorrow looks to be bad weather so we figured we'd just go for it.  Plus, we are meeting up with friends and Nordhavn owners Wytie and Sally aboard Happy (isn't that a great name?).  It was a very uneventful trip except for the funny large birds we kept seeing.  They kind of looked like pelicans, but in all our time on the Chesapeake we've never seen a pelican here.  I associate them with Florida and Southern California, not Maryland.  Maybe their range has changed over the past 25 years, maybe it's the time of year, or maybe we just never went far enough south in the bay to see them, but sure enough, they were brown pelicans.  I guess we are getting south, aren't we?

But then, at the same time, there was as loon floating not too far from the pelican.  To me, loons are the ultimate northern bird whistling in the lakes in the summer.  So I guess we are still in the north while at the same time we are the south.

Cape May to Annapolis

An update is long overdue.  When we last left off I was debating whether to run inside the NJ Inter Coastal Waterway (NJ-ICW), or head back out and run a long the coast.  The forecast called for continued Small Craft Warnings and anywhere from 3-5' seas depending on where you were.  A call to Sea Tow in the morning sealed the deal.  They said that hundreds of boats have made the trip as long as you go through at mid-tide or above.  A quick look at the tide charts revealed that low tide was right around noon which meant that we would be traveling at mid tide and below, not mid tide and above.  So outside we went.

The route from the Barnegat inlet into and across the bay to the marina where we stayed was quite the circuitous path.  None of the markers are on the charts since they get moved all the time as the shoals shift around.  The way back out was a bit easier since we could just follow our previous track on the chart plotter.  But it turns out that wasn't good enough and we still bumped the bottom at one spot even though we were well inside the marked channel.  I guess that's the NJ-ICW!

Running out of the Barnegat inlet was even more of a wild ride than coming in, but once we were clear and able to turn south we had most of the seas behind us so the ride was bearable.  Next stop, Cape May.

The ride was pretty uneventful until we got off Atlantic City.  We were out in clear water well outside the markets when up ahead I spotted something odd floating in the water.  As we got closer, it became clear that whatever it was, it stretched for several hundred feet.  There were some off floats along it, but it was otherwise unmarked.  We turned and went well around it, but what a mess it would have been if we were running at night and ran into it.  As best we could tell it was a dredge line (the pipes they use for dredging) that had been anchored there.

Once to Cape May, we decided to hang out for a day to rest up and get a few things done on the boat.  It's a nice spot, but I'm glad we were there off-season.

We left Cape Map at 7:00AM to catch favorable tides and currents and had a quick run through the Cape May Canal which cuts through to the Delaware Bay.  Once through, the Delaware bay was like glass so we decided to crank it up and put a few miles behind us.  Despite being a little overcast, it couldn't have been an easier run all the way up to the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal just south of Wilmington.  Other than a tow exiting as we entered, there was no other commercial traffic - just us and a handful of sail boats.  We were thinking of stopping for the night at Chesapeake City which is about 2/3 of the way through the canal, but it looked crowded and it was only 11:30 when we passed, so we decided to keep on going.  On the Chesapeake side there were a couple of  places where we were thinking of anchoring, but again it was so early and the water was so calm that we decided to just go for it and run all the way to Annapolis.