December 2011
Well our trip south is behind us, and we are on the West Coast enjoying our family for the holidays.
Our journey south was a little rougher this year. We had a lot of wind and rain and were held up on several occasions waiting for the weather to improve. When we started heading south, we left from Portsmouth, VA and went down the Virginia Cut Route, which is the alternate route to the Dismal Swamp. It’s a little faster and a lot more crowded but certainly not as pretty. We usually go south on this route and then come north through the Dismal Swamp. After an overnight stop in Coinjock, NC we crossed the Albemarle Sound and anchored in a very remote spot for the night. We had heard a lot of people talking about anchoring in the South Lake off of the Alligator River so we decided to give it a try. What we found was a very, very remote wide creek with shallow water and some really good protection from the wind. When it got dark we couldn’t see anything except stars. There was a carpet of stars as it was so dark and absolutely no lights or other boats. It’s a little off of the beaten path so a lot of people won’t venture in there, but we thought that it was certainly worth the trip. |
| Leaving Portsmouth in our wake. |
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| In a lock heading to Coinjock, NC. |
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| Sunset at South Lake...there is nothing around us. |
In the morning when we left South Lake, we headed for Dowry Creek Marina. This is one of our favorite places to visit on the ICW. The marina is close to the little town of Belhaven, NC. We like the marina because of the people there. Mary, the owner, is just a very sweet lady and all of the other folks that live and work there are always very welcoming and helpful. Every night at 5:00 they have a cocktail gathering in the captain’s lounge. We always meet several new cruisers and usually meet up with some friends that we have already made. It’s always a nice stop and one that we will continue.
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| 5:00 cocktails at Dowry Creek Marina. |
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| Making new friends is always great. |
A great place to gather.
At this point we were working our way south to meet some friends from Annapolis (Nan and Terry) who were going to be spending a week or so cruising with us from Southport, NC to Charleston, SC. We got held up in Carolina Beach, SC because of weather so Nan and Terry met us there, and when the weather squared away we took off and continued south. We had a blast with our friends on board. They are boaters also but had never really spent any time on the ICW. We introduced them to some really relaxed cruising (the way it should be), and we think they enjoyed it as much as we enjoyed having them aboard.
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| Nan and Terry with Elaine in Georgetown, SC. |
After we dropped off our friends we continued south. We anchored out at Toms Point Creek which was a good stop, and then continued to Port Royal Landing Marina which again is a favorite of ours. While there, we got a phone call from some old friends from Ventura Yacht Club in CA (Dennis & Tina) who have a vacation home in Beaufort, SC. We met them for dinner and really had "old home" time. It’s wonderful to have the opportunity to see old friends in strange places.
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| Port Royal Landing Marina, Beaufort, SC. |
When leaving Port Royal and Beaufort, SC, you are only a very few miles from the GA border. Savannah is only about 30 or 35 miles away. GA is notorious for shallow water. It’s usually the shallowest that you will encounter on the ICW. We always plan, as best we can, to travel on a rising tide because if you go aground the rising tide will you help get off. By the way, we never go aground….but we have been known to park in some “unusual” places. Everybody has this experience at some point when cruising the ICW. Everybody!
After we left the Savannah area our next stop was going to be the Duplin River for an overnight anchorage, but the weather turned really “snotty” on us so we cut our day short because we didn’t think crossing the Sapelo Sound would be wise in our little boat (25 to 30 knots of wind with large seas). Our decision turned out to be a smart one. A friend of ours, who was an hour or two ahead of us at that point, said that it was really nasty when he crossed and he has a much larger boat than ours. All was not lost, though, because the next day we met up with the same friends and celebrated Elaine’s birthday with a really nice dinner out at St. Simon's Island.St. Mary’s, GA was our next destination. It’s a very small town on the GA and FL border. Again, we met up with some other cruising friends (Jim & Paula) who we had met there last year. Meeting with friends is one of the things that we especially love about cruising. The camaraderie is amazing! We have been very fortunate to make some special new friends over the last six years.
We finally got to our destination which was Palm Coast, FL. We know several people in the area and it’s very protected and secure. We leave our boat there every year and head out to the West Coast to be with our family and old friends for the holidays.
When we get back to FL, we will be starting our travels again about mid-January and cover the state of Florida. This year we are going down through the FL Keys again so stay tuned for additional postings.
As always, we would love to hear from you. Let us know what’s going on in your lives so we don’t lose touch. Also, sign up to be a “follower” on our blog and tell others who might be interested to check out the blog. The more the merrier. If you would like to view more pictures, go to our website www.picasaweb.google.com/budlloyd. You will be able to view all of our pictures as a slide show.
Enjoy!
Bud and Elaine 