Cruising South in '09

Just like the geese, it’s time to head south for the winter. We had a wonderful summer cruising in the Chesapeake Bay, but we always look forward to traveling on the ICW. It’s beautiful and very interesting. There is usually always something new to see. Passing through the little towns, moving up or down the rivers and creeks, watching out for all of the shallow areas and seeing a lot of friends that we have made since we brought the boat to the East Coast is always a super time. We have made some wonderful friends in the last 4 years and always look forward to running into them in an anchorage or marina somewhere along the way. We’re all heading for the warmer climates in Florida and traveling on the same waterways, so seeing another boat that we know isn’t unusual.

We left Norfolk, VA on the second day of October excited about our trip south. Elaine and I decided that we were going to make the first day a short one and stop at Great Bridge to stay at the free dock that so many people had told us about. Also, everyone had told us that there was a really good Mexican restaurant, close enough to walk to, so we stopped. But before we got there, we had a call on the radio from friends that we met the very first year we started cruising. They heard us on the VHF radio contacting a lock and called us. Amazingly they were only about a mile from us heading north for new jobs. We both stopped at the free dock and renewed old friendships. It was great!

                                                              Good Bye Norfolk!

                                                        The free dock at Great Bridge Lock

                                                        Early morning on the Waterway

Leaving first thing in the morning, we continued our trip south heading for an overnight anchorage and traveled there with another boat that we had met the night before. We ended up cruising with Doug and Noodle, his cat, aboard “Water Torture” for the next few days.

                                                 "Water Torture" anchored in Broad Creek

During the day on the 3rd, we found out that Bud’s mother had fallen and broken her hip. Being 98 years old, her body just couldn’t handle it any more, and she passed away the next day (the 4th of October). Now we had to find somewhere we could leave “Diamond Girl” so that we could fly home. We finally decided to travel a few more days and leave the boat in Wilmington, NC. We knew some folks who had a slip we could use so that we could fly to California for her funeral. It’s always great to see our family but not under these conditions. We left “Diamond Girl” there for a week, and when we got back we had to do some preparation before we could get underway. After a couple days of provisioning, we were off again.

One of the things we wanted to do this trip was to stop in as many new (to us) places as possible. We pretty much pulled this off. We stopped in several places that we had never stopped in and a lot of favorite old haunts. We changed insurance carriers this summer, and as a consequence we are now able to be farther south earlier than we have been able to be in the past. Now we can go as far as Cumberland Island, GA before Nov.1, which is right at the GA and FL border. Before, we couldn’t be south of Cape Hatteras, NC prior to November 1. This means that we will be able to leisurely cruise the Carolinas on the trip north next spring.

                                              A navigation mark on the Wacamaw River

The weather going south was a little different than our past trips. This year we had a lot of rain (yuck!) and wind. We really didn’t have to hole up much, but we did have some “crappy” days of traveling. The visibility is extremely poor when it's raining hard as well as being uncomfortable. The wind doesn’t bother us a lot until it starts blowing really hard. We are used to traveling in 15 to 18 knots of wind, but above that it’s definitely not fun. So we look for somewhere to hide.  Georgetown, SC was one of those places.  We have some good friends who live there so we stopped and spent a couple of days with them while waiting for better weather.

"Diamond Girl" has performed great for the past 4 years, but this year we have had some unexpected issues with the boat. We had to rebuild one of our injector pumps, rebuild the freshwater pump, rebuild the electric motor for the head, haul the boat for an insurance survey, haul out to rebuild the dripless shaft seals, and replace high pressure hoses to the transmission cooler. As you can see, we encountered a lot of repairs (ouch!!!). That seriously hurts the cruising budget. Oh well, I guess considering how much we use the boat it’s not too bad. It would be nice to have a year without so many expensive problems, though.

Now “Diamond Girl” is in Palm Coast, FL. We have been there many times before as it is a good spot to leave the boat to fly home for the holidays with our kids. Our friends, Dave and Elaine, invited us to leave the boat at their dock. We know that the boat will be well protected and safe. We will be back on the water in January headed farther south and probably go over to the West Coast of FL for the balance of the winter and early spring. Then we’ll start the trek north again and continue having fun.  We're not really sure what next year will bring, but whatever it is I know it will be great!

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