Geo-Rida

We were on our way to Southport, NC to see our friends Jim & Wende. We had to slow down to no wake speed to keep from swamping this fella who was motoring a small work barge down the ICW.

We arrived at St. James Plantation Marina just before sundown. The homes along the harbor are beautiful.

Jim and Wende let us use their truck to reprovision which was perfect as it was the day before Thanksgiving and we needed TURKEY!

Later that night Jim & Wende took us to dinner at a Joseph’s Italian Bistro @ Safe Harbor Marina. We had dinner with some good local IPAs & lots of laughs. I wish we had taken a photo but I think we were just having too much fun. Jim and Wende told us all about their trip back from Buzzards Bay, MA to Southport, NC in their new Pursuit OS 355. The weather was a bit ruff off the RI coast but they made great time with stops in places like Atlantic City.

In the AM we were off and Capt T was at the helm.

We passed a boat dock that was more boat than dock. Capt T thought she recognized a casino boat as we passed and sure enough the “Big M” hailed from Fort Myers, FL.

As we made our way into the Waccamaw River preserve we had to get through the Socastee swing bridge but we were staring straight into the sun. The best we could do was go slow and use the radar to see in front of the boat.

Camera may see the swing bridge on the right but we only saw a bright spot looking out the pilothouse

We anchored in what I call the Waccamaw River (ie. swamp) and it’s beautiful. We had a great night on anchor as the high trees provide protection from everything but the cold.

It was COLD.

We weighed anchor at first light and the swamp was steaming due to early morning low temps.

We had to slow to no wake so as to not disturb this Nordhavn anchored right off the main ICW route.

The next swing bridge is actually a floating swing bridge. Very cool. It simply uses drop-able drive-on ramps and a huge tilt-able bow thruster.

We arrived in Charleston, SC and the marina we requested a slip from had us “wait-listed”. We anchored for the night next to the USS Yorktown.

The sun was setting on Charleston.

Sunrise in the AM and we were off… bound for Beaufort, SC

We anchored in Beaufort with hopes of getting off the waitlist for the marina. In the AM we called and they found a spot for us on the outer face dock.

Beaufort is a fun town and we wasted no time getting ashore at Plums Restaurant for some lunch.

We napped after lunch and made a second run on the town before we would leave in the AM. Beaufort has a great outside park area right in front of the marina.

In the morning we were off to Savannah, GA. Last time I docked right in downtown around River Street but felt it a bit seedy at night. We decided to stay at Thunderbolt Marina and Uber’d into town for a Savannah pub crawl.

Are impromptu pub crawl consisted of the following venues:

Spanky’s
Boar’s Head Grill
The Cotton Exchange
Huey’s
The Warehouse Bar

We ended the night singing Journey.

Up early to a Whiskey Sunrise & potato pancakes and off to Fernandina Beach, FL

This post consists of 5 legs of our journey

Leg 15 – Waccamaw River, SC to Charleston, SC

We hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving with family!!!

A Journey of a Thousand Miles Begins with One Step

Just Don’t Be Late

Simple Life was supposed to leave the dock on Saturday, October 17th. Now, two weeks later, it’s Halloween and Preppy and I are out on the bow in the blowing snow trying to wire up a windlass.

It’s Cold!

Our hands are barely working after letting go of the freezing cold anchor chain. We laugh at how ridiculous the situation is.

It’s says it’s 34 degrees and snowing but the raw wind definitely does make it feel like 22 degrees.

Snow! It’s everywhere.

The original departure date was missed but with Preppy aboard we were now ready to depart. Another quick check of the weather and there’s the remnants of a hurricane that are blanketing our area.

Gale Warning

So we give it a couple days and what’s next? A Gale Warning!

The Shanty

With nothing to do but wait we decide to walk to The Shanty for dinner and some IPAs .

Frozen Dock Lines

It’s Halloween morning and Preppy is going home as he has next week’s jobs to prepare for. Preppy had agreed to make the trip over to the fuel dock in the morning before we parted ways. The only challenge now was getting off the dock?

Me attempting to thaw my dock lines

Sometimes I don’t think… I just do. So when Preppy said the dock lines are frozen solid on the cleat, I just grabbed the torch which was right next to me and started heating them up. It was not until Preppy said … Umm.. why don’t we just pour some hot water over them? Duh? Yes, that did the trick!

With the dock lines finally freed we made our way out of the slip and over to the fuel dock.

At the fuel dock were Peter & Leslie of MV Leap of Faith. They were attempting to use the pumpout hose but it was frozen and would not operate. MV Leap of Faith is also heading south for the winter. They travel faster than I do so we’ll stay in touch as we go through text & calls.

I really like leaving with full water tanks and an empty blackwater tank, especially when it’s cold as I’ve run into situations where you try to pull into a marina to get water & pumpout and it’s either frozen or winterized. I spent quite a while with the pumpout hose locked open and in the seawater till it thawed and came to life writhing like a snake. A short suck of the 54 degree seawater and it was time to pump out.

The water in Greenwich Bay is a chilly 54 degrees

The Lookback

As I pulled away from the fuel dock, I looked back. Every time I leave I look back. There is an undeniable feeling of freedom. It’s the first moments of a 6 month, 5K mile journey. I smile. The world seems right.

Snow covered fly deck looking back at fuel dock

As I pass Warwick Neck I can see the snow covered Warwick Country Club.

Point Judith

MV Leap of Faith had already called me and gave me the word that the sea was very calm when they exited Narragansett Bay. I was passing Point Judith Light and slowing coming up on a Hunter sailboat who was also enjoying the trip west down Long Island Sound.

At this moment I noticed that my Garmin satellite tracker seemed frozen. I checked my blog’s current position page and it showed that I was still in Warwick, RI? I quick reset of the satellite tracker and it update my position. Ofcourse it drew a straight line between where I left and where I was when the tracker came back to life. I’m guessing someone is going to ask me how I piloted the boat over the state of RI?

Watch Hill

Soon I was passing Watch Hill, RI and some of the beautiful homes along the coast.

Fisher’s Island

I made my way up the inside of Fisher’s Island. There were fishermen working the current between the island and mainland CT.

I don’t know a lot about Fisher’s Island but it looks beautiful as you cruise past.

On the west side of Fisher’s Island you must keep an eye out for the ferry’s as they can sneak up on you pretty fast.

Cross Sound Ferry MV John H – between Orient Point, Long Island, New York and New London, CT

I had planned to anchor behind Fisher’s Island because I had never done that. However, the sea was calm and the moon was bright. I decided to keep going west. The area around Fisher’s Island is called “The Race” and it has strong currents and often gets pretty choppy. Getting inside the northern fork of Long Island seemed like the right thing to do.

With the sun setting Long Island Sound looked amazing.

As night settled in around me I flicked my running lights on and settled back in the captain’s chair for a long night.

Ultimately I settled on an anchorage with only minimal protection but “just off the beaten path” as they say. Not to far inland that it takes an hour to get in and an hour the next morning just to get out.

I anchored just off Fort Trumbull Beach in Milford Harbor. This location is just west of Bridgeport, CT. There is a small island called, Charles Island with a low-tide land bridge. You need to watch your tides down here near the head of Long Island Sound. If you anchor at high tide you might wake up at low tide with the boat resting on the bottom.

The time was now midnight. It had left Warwick, RI at around 10AM so roughly 14 hours to Bridgeport, CT. The 1st 98NM leg of my Winter 2020 journey looked something like this.

It was around 1AM by the time I took a hot shower and got to bed. I’m typing this blog post as I sit in the captain’s chair navigating leg 2 of my journey. Stay tuned for the Leg 2 post.

Fernandina Beach Florida

I awoke at 4AM before any of the crew. Neither Happy or Brody came out from under the covers to join me. We are in Georgia and it’s only 40 degrees when I awoke.

Heck, the temps were going to fall deeper before the 7:13AM sunrise.

By 6:30AM the sky was starting to lighten up on the ICW.

I decided to walk out on the bow while underway and snap a picture and a quick video before sunrise.

Once the sun rose you could see it burning the face of the daymarks as we passed.

It’s high tide and the rivers are swollen around here. Daymark almost underwater.

When you are at the helm for hours the internet is your entertainment. I was watching Mike-the-Drunken-Donkey from Mike’s Weather Page broadcasting FB Live video stream. I tuned in as Mike taught about weather and what to expect from the winter storm making its way across the US.

Thankfully, MV Simple Life will be in Florida by the end of the day

We were amazed at how flat calm the ICW was as we pushed along at 7 knots.

Not a frozen Lake but contrails in the reflected sky
Daymarks Reflected
Flotsam in the sky
Flotsam everywhere
My reflection as I snap a picture of the bow’s wake

At the helm I’m wearing my work pajamas because it’s still a bit chilly even with the diesel heat on. Happy just figured out that there is HEAT coming out of that little black round duct below the AC panel door. She parked herself right under my feet to steal all the heat.

We were making incredible time as we approached Cumberland Island in Georgia.

10.4 knots because we were enjoying a strong current on our stern.

Then as we looked out, we could see a current line on the surface of the water.

Opposing currents meeting causing white chop

We feared as soon as we crossed this line that our 10.4 knot speed would begin to erode. We could never have guessed just how much.

Strong Current on the nose. 10.4 => 3.9 knots

Knowing we would face this current from our trip around Cumberland Island we attempted to ride close to shore looking for an eddy current (reverse direction). But alas it was no use. We had a long slow ride around the island.

Then it happened. We crossed over the state line into Florida’s Amelia Island A.K.A. Fernandina Beach. As we passed we saw a ship that looked like a member of the Sea Shepherd fleet. We snapped a photo on the way by and low & behold, it was a Sea Shepherd ship.

Kelly & I have always been fans of ocean conservation and the crew of Sea Shepherd work hard to keep our oceans and their inhabitants safe.

We are currently anchored in the Amelia River just over the GA-FL state line.

*Sun is setting in the Amelia River as I finish this post*

Today’s leg looked something like this finger drawn route.

W02L021 – Darien, GA to Fernandina Beach, FL

St. Catherine’s Island Anchorage

Just before weighing anchor at Turtle Island we snapped one last panoramic picture (below)

The trip down the ICW to St. Catherine’s Island was made a bit more difficult by the 7+ foot tides that were running into low.

Of course you don’t need the depth finder to see where the shallows are; it’s where the birds are standing rather than floating.

I snapped the below picture as we ducked under this 30′ bascule bridge as Kelly piloted the boat.

Yesterday’s trip took us across the line into Georgia and past the Savannah River. We had a moment when we passed the marina where 12 years earlier we purchased our previous sailboat, Skull & Swords.

Isle of Hope Marina is on a bight along the ICW’s Skidaway River.

All points South of Isle of Hope Marina are new cruising grounds for us. Some of what we saw was bird life such as this unidentifiable bird of prey.

Or this stalker of the shallows:

We passed these guys who decided to pitch tents along the shore rather than sleep aboard.

Today’s trip will take us from St. Catherine’s Island to somewhere around Sapelo Island

We are going anchor to anchor over the next few days to find the sun. These unseasonably cold mornings (in the 40’s) are continuing to bedevil us.

That said, I needed to solve the riddle of who destroyed our porch pumpkin back home.

We searched through our home surveillance footage and nabbed the suspects.

Be on the lookout for these two.

The Winds of November Came Early

We left Morris Cove Anchorage at 5:30AM. It was dark, very dark. We had woken up around 4 AM. I had pulled up the anchor, spun the boat around and MV Simple Life started going bow up, bow down. I thought… the winds were not supposed to increase until Thursday afternoon (per the NWS – National Weather Service Gale Warning). In the words of Gordon Lightfoot, “The winds of November came early”. We used our searchlight to spot the buoys on our way out of New Haven Harbor’s channel.

Jay Marques, you asked for video in addition to photos so these links are for you.

Leaving Morris Cove Anchorage – Low Light

Sorry, that video is the lightest of the three I recorded. With the winds out of the south it meant that the 16 mile fetch of water from the NY side to the CT side was making the CT side of the sound lumpy. I heard the VHF radio crackle alive with a tugboat captain complaining that the winds had been honking all night long. Here is a video after the sun came up and we were slogging our way South across Long Island Sound from New Haven, CT to Long Island’s Huntington Bay area.

Slogging our way South Across LIS

When Kelly & I first met I had a 1998 35′ Beneteau 352 Oceanis ,S/V Saltyhacker, (I’ll upload a pic of SV Saltyhacker later) that had only a dodger (the see-thru plastic and canvas that covers the companionway opening into the boat. We sold her to a great couple from Canada and bought a 2001 45′ Hunter 450 Center Cockpit. (I’ll upload a pick of SV Skull & Swords later, promise). The Hunter was owned by friends of ours who were living aboard her in Exuma Key, Bahamas and ever since we’ve said someday we’ll spend a few months on anchor there. We loved the Hunter for it’s liveaboardness; for it’s fully enclosed cockpit and interior space but Kelly would often quip that unless we are sitting in the outside cockpit you don’t get to enjoy the scenery. So we decided to buy a new boat that met our mutual demands. Kelly wanted a boat that was easier to move around in (Kelly has a habit of twisting / breaking ankles when underway or simply aboard). After spending 10 hour days at the helm outside and often cold, I was fancy on an enclosed pilot house. In the video above you will just have to imagine as the cold sea spray is hitting the pilothouse windows that I’m sipping my coffee in my PJs at the helm (smile).

Todays trip looked something like this..

As you approach the East-end of LIS you enter into the East River that takes you from the Bronx to the Statue of Liberty. As many times as we have made this trip we still find ourselves taking pictures of the scenery as we go down the river. Below are some of the photos we snapped along the way…

Prison — After going by Riker’s Island Jail you pass the Vernon C. Bain Correctional Center. This is a 47,000-ton, five-story barge with 800 beds spread over 16 “dormitories” and 100 proper jail cells. At 625 feet in length and 125 feet wide, it also holds a gym, a basketball court, a library, three chapels, a rooftop exercise area

Broklyn Bridge — Brooklyn Bridge – built in 1870

Helicopter — Whirly Birds buzz the East River and land just North of Battery March

Water Taxis are everywhere and as a captain you must be alert and ready to dodge them

We timed our trip down the East River to make sure we caught favorable currents that saved us easily an hour during our transit. After arriving in NYC harbor we hailed Liberty Landing Marina and requested our slip assignment. The wind was gusting but an attendant met us at the slip and caught the lines that 1st Mate Kelly threw to him.

LibertyLandingMarina — MV Simple Life tied off at Liberty Landing Marina

Tomorrow we’ll take the water taxi and find somewhere to grab a IPA & Capt-Pepsi -NFL (No-Flipping-Lime) & a bite. Tonight we’ll just relax 😉