Adventures of Obiewan and Jo

Day 34 MM 776.5

St. Augustine, Florida

Saturday, December 3, 2011

Filled the water tanks, fuel tank, wash the salt, off the deck and on the way to town we dumped the trash. The town was having a celebration of the British takeover of the Fort, once a year the town has this day set aside; We went in to the Fort and attended the cannon firings at the fort, over the Port of St. Augustine, there were  also people in period costumes every during the day.  We went to church, had some dinner than later in the evening there was a parade up the middle of town with drum and bagpipes the people followed in period costumes, really neat day all around. We went back to the marina and ran in to a couple we met in Charleston and again in Hilton Head.  Had a drink on their cut little trawler, they are from Texas, but bought their boat in Baltimore and are in the process bringing it to Florida then after the first of the year taking it to Texas.

Day 32, MM 665.5  Start at Walley’s Leg, GA

Anchor up late at 8:40 waited a little while for the tide to come up, we entered ICW channel we had 32 feet.   Hopefully today the lines will dry from Monday night’s rains; we have them stretched all over the leani for days to dry. Still in long pants even thou the sun is shining and it is warm in the leani, but the wind is cold. We will be going thru St. Simons Sound have to keep a close watch for markers & Large container ships. Some bad spots pretty scary with hard to read markers.  Continuing thru Cumberland Sound we had to stop for 15 min for a Submarine to pass in to Kings Bay.  The Navy (as we found out this summer off of Annapolis) do not allow us since 9/11 to get any closer than 500 Yards.  Moving on we crossed the Florida line and we did Pass Fernandina the town and passed all the anchored boats.  Did some more twisty turns and ended in Amelia River Anchorage. There are lots of shrimp boats everywhere Fernandina is considered the birth place of shrimping.    

MM 614 Kilkenny Creek, Georgia

Lovely night, very protected from the North West wind, with high trees and deep water.  We were so close to shore we could hear a dog bark.  After high winds all day we needed a good night’s rest.  The night was very cold, but we were snuggled all night with lots of blankets.

In the morning there was dew all over the deck and lanai windows; the good news is the sun was shining and it warmed up fast.  The anchor was up at 8:15 and we were off for the day. More interesting twists and turns, range markers--quite a few markers gone, just not there anymore--markers there that are not on chart; an interesting day all around. 

We traveled around the St. Catherine's Sound, Walberg Creek, Teakettle Creek (where we encountered shrimp boat and a large tug pushing a barge), on to Wahoo River, Buttermilk Sound and Frederick River. We did 52 miles today: we try to do at least 50 a day.  

We pulled into Wally’s Leg Creek, anchor down around 3:30. We are getting quite good at the anchor dance--nice spot, we are so close to houses can actually hear a dog bark.  There is a big line of trees to protect us from the north side, but open marshes all around. Fixed dinner and watched the most spectacular sunset we have seen--a beautiful turquoise sky with a low cloud to one side, changing to magenta, red and then rust; it lasted a long time. To bed at 8:30 after we did our homework for the next day.

MM564 Hilton Head, Harbor Town Marina

Everything was soaked when we woke up--the lines were soaked, we had to use the windshield wipers to mop down the enclosure (we will hereafter refer to it as the lanai--sounds better.)  We left the dock at 8:20 gave Harmony some fuel and we were off at 8:30. 

First obstacle of the day was Rams Horn Creek--narrow, about 1 1/2 miles long. The good news was we were at high tide, much easier than Sunday. We made the Savannah river and encountered some big container ships  for a little while, the Skidaway Bridge, Moon River, Burnside River to name a few. On the Ageechee River and the Vernon River we encountered heavy winds up to 35 knots, taking spray over the bow but (thank you, Lord) no rain. 

We arrived at our designated anchorage at 3PM, Kilkenny Creek, doing 50 miles today. We watched to sun go down; I baked cookies and pork tenderloin, and some dessert.  The reason for the bake was to warm up the cabin--it was as low as 38 degrees last night. 

We managed to get a computer connection; do not always have any, or phone bars. Received the picture from Brenda of us in Charleston, did our homework (planning the next day and where we will be going) and went to bed at 8:30 PM.

MM 564 Harbor town Yacht Basin

Harbor town Yacht Center has a 90 foot light house  painted red and white stripes.  The light house, at MM 564, marks the waterway’s southern junction with the Calibogue Sound (pronounced KAL-Uh-Bogee).  It is a new light house built in 1970 but in notable as the first privately built light house since the 1800’s.  It is located at the marina at the tip of Hilton Head Island and is open to the public. We spent Sunday and Monday nights there to wait for a bad weather window to pass thru.

The tide difference is amazing--about 7 or 8 feet.  Last night the ramps from shore (floating docks) to the docks were on a vertical, when we woke up they were flat.  There are high cement walls when the tide is low and we are level with the world when it is high; amazing the difference in the tides in this area.  The marina is built in a circle and the docks come out in the middle like spokes of a wheel.  There are some big boats in this marina. John calls them babs? The area has all the Christmas decorations up and it is lovely after dark. 

It rained on and off with the sun peeking out every now and then all day.  At dusk the wind blew, the rains came and it rained all night long, we were snug as bugs in our little Vbirth.

MM 521.5 Wimbee Creek-Bull Run

Woke to a cloudy day, but a beautiful behind-the-clouds sunrise. Engine on, anchor up at 7:55, underway to make the Ladies Island Bridge at 10AM--you guessed it, today is Sunday and the bridge opens on request.  We twist and turn thru the entire alley-ways of the ICW headed to Hilton Head before the weather gets bad; it is supposed to turn sour this afternoon, and continue all night and the next day and night.

We arrive in Harbor Town Yacht Basin at 2:15 with the rain starting to fall.  It did not rain long, but we have a good safe spot to spend during the rain and wind. We went to Crazy Crab for dinner, and went to bed early.

Charleston City Marina

We left Charleston City Marina at 8:55 trying to make the Wapoo Bridge only to realize it was Saturday and(guess what?) we can get it on request. We passed thru some cuts and rivers called Ashapoo, Coosaw cutoff, Ashapoo River, Edisto River, Dawho River, Fenwick Cut.  We found it was very low tide, .7 below mean low tide, it was scary but we took it slow, touched a few times--what a relief to finally get thru the other end.  After the nerve racking day we found an anchorage and settled in for the night. We found a lovely spot, anchored and had dinner, only to be awakened at midnight with rattling chain; the tide was changing and the wind was from a different direction, hence the chain was rubbing on itself.  John put a snubber on and we slapped all thru the night.

The weather has been lovely; went to provision for our trip in the morning.  More boat stuff--John filled the boat with diesel, water, pump out etc.  The afternoon we met Terry and Jim and took a horse drawn carriage ride thru the historic town of Charleston.  We had dinner at Bubba Gumps, famous for the shrimp and fish.  Terry and Jim dropped us off at the Marina and we did more laundry until 10PM and flopped into bed.

Charleston, South Carolina

HAPPY THANKSGIVING EVERYONE!

We have been very busy entertaining Terry & Jim, John’s sister and brother-in-law; we are really having a great time with them they are great fun. 

Still keeping up with boat chores, trying to get ready for the day we take off again. Charleston is a great place to provision and just have some laid back time--not that we had much of that.    John, Terry, Jim and I went to Magnolia gardens, about 10 miles outside of town; we spent several hours there and saw the House, gardens, slave quarters and old rice ponds.

Before the civil war rice was grown in the area; when the slaves were cut loose after the war no one would venture into the ponds because of the bugs and alligators.  The slaves were brought here from an area in Africa that grew rice--the skills they brought with them were rice growing and the baskets they made, called sweet grass baskets. Made of grass, pine, or palmetto fronds, these baskets were used to winnow rice on the plantations.  The grains were tossed into the air and the wind “fanned’ the chaff from the rice.  These baskets were originally made for the hulling of rice, but today they are made by the descendants of the slaves who cultivated the rice.  We saw perhaps 8 or 10 alligators just sunning on the banks of these ponds. 

We had Thanksgiving Dinner with Terry and Jim Kelly at Magnolias on East Bay Street.  After a lovely dinner we walked around Battery Park.