Day trip to Georgetown, SC

We FINALLY have a window where the wind isn’t out of the northeast coming up! Joy! But with a day to burn we decided to check out Georgetown, SC. The Skipper had been there in college, but this was our first boat visit.

First—the entrance. It’s skinny! We went in on a +0.5’ tide, dropping to -0.5’. So our boat’s spec draft is 6.25’ but as a fully-loaded liveaboard we plan like we are 6.5’ draft because, well, the waterline sure looks a few inches higher than it should! Following the USACE survey tracks we hugged the marina to starboard and watched the fathometer...7.4, 7.2, 6.8, 6.4...GAH!!!!! The bottom is soft and mucky and while we didn’t ground, I have no doubt we glided right over the bottom before getting into the “deep” 8’s. Goodness, it was stressful! But anchoring near the steel mill was easy and knowing that we would be leaving with 2 more feet of water under the keel made me happy. Be forewarned—there is a paper mill nearby so depending on the wind direction you could get a “Fernandina experience.”

All of the museums are closed on Sunday (the day we were in town), but we headed in to check it out and of course find ice cream on a hot afternoon. First impression was honestly not that great. Dinghies at the free dock were tied fore and aft and locked so it was tough to wedge in. Once ashore we found the trash cans along the harbor walk to be totally overflowing—all of them. Then a quick stop at the public restroom almost had me running back to the boat—no TP, no soap, trash everywhere in the women’s, but surprisingly the men’s was much better (and I used it while the boys guarded outside!). I told myself that maybe Saturday was a big party day and the town just hadn’t cleaned up yet and we pressed on. 

Lots of little waterfront parks, including this one with a nice view of our boat!

While several businesses were closed we found a great ice cream place and the winner of Georgetown—Purr & Pour Cafe. This is literally a place where you can get a drink and play with CATS! There is a modest fee, but it’s well worth it as the proprietors are in the business of socializing these cats and finding them homes. With over 145 adoptions under their belts, it seems to be working! The kids spent an hour playing with the cats and will be looking for this type of place everywhere we go.

Purr & Pour

The Skipper and I ditched the kids for a date/route-planning night at Root. We liked the vibe, the cocktail selection, and the fresh, flavorful dishes. And we had a nice view of our boat!

Root

I’d give this one an “okay.” I would like to return to check out the Rice Museum if convenient on one of our trips and see the town when more businesses are open, but I can’t say that I would divert to return. Many cruisers love it here and love one of the vibrant local bars...it just didn’t really grab us.

The steel mill and commercial fleet.

A new adventure...the ICW through Georgia

We have avoided this option for many transits of the area due to narrow channels, shallows that require precise tide planning (especially with our 6'3"+ draft), shifting and silting inlets, and anchoring laws that many other cruisers complained about, but...we decided to keep moving north via the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway through Georgia! Winds out of the northeast (the direction we want to head) just weren't letting up and the timing of high tide was mid-afternoon (so we didn't have to dawn patrol or go through those spots at sunset) so we decided to go for it.

We planned very conservatively and didn't tap the bottom once! We also didn't have any issues with the anchoring restrictions. I think this might be because we weren't trying to get close to docks or shore to relieve pets and we are comfortable trying anchorages that aren't "marked" in any of the popular apps, but it worked well for us. We anchored at Wally's Leg and the south end of Walburg Creek without issue for our two nights in Georgia. And we saw a “site”—the wreck of the Golden Ray!

1st Mate at the helm

The wreck of the Golden Ray, slowly getting removed.

The only real issue? THE HORSEFLIES! Oh my word, there are so many of them! Thankfully they rarely tried to bite but just the shear volume of them was insane. One day Frank got so sick of them flying around his head that we stripped the ENTIRE bimini off! Extreme? Maybe, but it was effective! This persisted as we made our way into South Carolina...

Trent wages war with our weapon of choice, the Bug-A-Salt. When all else fails, rip the bimini down!

After a brief stop in Beaufort, SC for lunch at Herban (our favorite!), laundry, groceries, fuel, water, and pump-out, we opted to continue along on our "new places" journey up the ICW. We anchored at some beautiful spots off Bluff Point on the Edisto River and at Five Fathom Creek. We did some long days to take advantage of the high tide, even going through Charleston and the nearby waters on a weekend which was totally crazy with runabouts, but it was so worth it. 

The ICW anchorages have been lovely!

Weather is looking better and we should be making a hop offshore soon!

Weather pushes us to...Illinois!

With weather on the east coast looking pretty crappy last week, the kids and I made a quick decision to hop on a plane to see some family for four days. It was crazy, busy, and so much fun! My parents dropped everything to provide airport taxi service with 18 hours of notice and loaned us a car so we could make the most of our brief stay. We toured town (great revitalization in progress!), visited friends and businesses, visited with my parents and my sisters, and enjoyed a night around the fire with friends. 

The highlights...

The kids loved looking through old photos at Grandma and Grandpa's house!  We found some real gems.

The downtown area of my hometown is really looking great! The "phone on the building" confused the kids a bit...I gave them some quarters so they could try it out.

Oh, so much emotion here! My dad is finally slowing down and will close the retail side of his HVAC business this summer. So many memories were made in this building and through the business! I learned so much watching him and working alongside him over the years. And the kids loved the collection of pinball machines he has in the store. 

Our trip included fireworks, walks on the railroad tracks, skateboarding with awesome borrowed boards, and visiting some of my classmates at their local businesses. So many great people welcomed us and helped us!

Family time included a trip to see my sisters/aunts/cousins for a night and a trip to clean up the resting places of the previous generations. 

So thankful for this friendship and the memories we've made over the years! The kids enjoyed some country fun and got to meet a lot of friends, old and new.

 

The kids also managed to get their first COVID vaccine while we were there which is huge for some of our upcoming plans... 😉

My soul needed this trip more than I realized. I have been away for a very long time...too long, but with travel opening up and us settling into our nomadic existence, I think we will be back relatively soon.

~Jo, 1st Mate

No time to relax in Jax

What started out as a planned one-week stay in Jacksonville for medical appointments (and paintball!) turned into a two-week stay with medical appointments, paintball, skateboarding, tons of boat maintenance, and even a flight to Illinois for 3/4 of the crew! 

The fun

So what did we manage to knock out while tied to a dock for two weeks? Other than four doc appointments, final COVID shots for the adults, a few trips to the local skatepark, two awesome days of paintball fun, and lots of WiFi downloads, we:

- picked up tons of mail (and started a passport renewal!)

- waxed the hull of the boat

- started some interior wood care

- updated our spice wall in the galley

- cleaned the bilges

- filled the bilges with Trader Joe’s goodies

- replaced the water heater

- refilled water heater coolant

- changed engine oil & filter

- changed Yanmar and Racor fuel filters

- replaced pre-filters on the water maker

- pickled the water maker 

- reinforced the arch connections to the deck with steel backing plates 

- lubricated the shaft seal

- inspected the steering system

- topped off battery bank water

- replaced the aft condensate pump

- dewatered the lazerette from the condensate pump failure 

- cleaned the engine seawater strainer

- inspected engine impeller 

- topped off water/diesel/gas

- laundry, laundry, laundry (it was FREE!)

- filed taxes

- graded schoolwork (JUST KIDDING! Still behind there...)

A little bit of the work

There was some shopping and good dining in there as well, along with our Mother’s Day and Illinois fun, but we definitely took advantage of this stop for some maintenance. 

Weather is still not great, but we are itching to move along and make some progress north while we watch for a good offshore weather window. We are in reach of St. Mary’s Inlet with a decision to make—inside through Georgia (new and terrifying) or wait almost a week to go outside. Which will it be?

Leaving JAX

A Mother’s Day to remember

Mother’s Day was a lovely affair! While we did tackle some chores (and I honestly was happy with that) the kids treated me to an amazing brunch, complete with mimosas and entertainment (Big Bang Theory). It was awesome!

Early afternoon we noticed some “excitement” near the docks. Long story short, a 31’ sailboat had broken free of its mooring and had run aground. Lots of folks were trying to tug it by hand, with a patrol boat, suggested tying it off to a vehicle on shore...those weren’t working. The tide was dropping and it was a negative tide. Frank headed over to ask the Skipper if he needed anything and as apparently the only other sailboat types around, offered some ideas. We ended up assembling our Fortress anchor (our spare storm anchor) and ran it out to keep the stern clear of the rocks. Frank was actually able to muscle the stern over a bit and I did donuts with the dinghy to try to wake the sailboat off the shoal. But...you can’t fight the tide! We encouraged the owners to head home, enjoy the day as much as they could, and let them know we would keep an eye on the boat/lines/anchors, and agreed we would all get back together when the tide was rising and hope to float her before sunset.

As sunset approached we took soundings with our handheld fathometer—their keel was on the absolute shallowest spot and the way the boat had been pulled earlier in the day was actually toward shallower water. But we were close and we knew the path to deep water! With the sun setting, the Skipper powered forward while his wife and Frank worked the anchor lines and I used the dinghy to push, first from the bow then on the hip...and she broke free! We quickly cleared the lines, and I grabbed the stern anchor line, and they were off to the dock! My job—retrieve the Fortress. It was TOUGH! Once they were docked, I grabbed Frank and headed back to our anchor. We drove over it, tugged, swung, pulled...nothing. We finally decided to just run the line to the dock and come back in the morning for a dive.

The next morning was nice and calm. The water was only about 5 feet deep so Frank held tension on the anchor chain while I dove (no tank, just skin diving) to dig out the anchor. It. Was. In. I dug with my feet, my hands...it was exhausting, but I finally found the flukes and cleared the top of them. Then I dug in and found the crossbar...after a few dives and a hearty pull, it was free! It probably took less than a half hour, but there was a bit there where I wasn’t sure if I could do it.

Happy to have our anchor back. Happy that our new friends’ boat is safe. Happy to be living this crazy, challenging life!

Happy diver with our recovered Fortress anchor!

The Plan*

If you've seen our "The Plan" page, you know that full-time cruising isn't ALL that we're about. When we retired/quit/cast off the lines we had in mind something that was a combination of cruising and international or non-boat travel. We did a fair bit of travel with the kids over the years (they have a seriously sweet set of passport stamps!), but every trip was limited to 7-10 days due to work and school commitments. We always found ourselves craving more time in the places we were exploring. Over the years, we decided that we want to spend at least 2-4 weeks in the places we travel to so that we can really experience daily life rather than just seeing sites. We did bits of this where we could...we went to Ireland for 10 days but spent almost the entire trip in just the southwest corner of the country rather than trying to "do it all." Same in Iceland...we focused our energy on the southern coast for most of that trip. In Scotland, we stretched out a bit, but didn't hit the Highlands. I'm not too surprised that all of those are places that even the kids have at the top of their "let's return" lists! We did those countries right, taking it slow and focusing on a limited, good experience rather than a once-in-a-lifetime, cram-it-all-in slog. And then there are so many places to explore in our own country!

So I guess what I'm saying is, don't be surprised if we leave the boat for a bit! We love cruising and we certainly love our little home of a decade, but being full-time cruisers that don't have a home marina means that we are constantly stressed about the weather and have to work just a little harder to handle all of our daily tasks (food, water, waste, power)--it can get exhausting! And the boat will need maintenance as the years tick by that will just be easier if we aren't living on it. So with one crew member heading abroad and the rest of us getting vaccinated as soon as we can, it might be time to let a Boeing or a land yacht take us to windward for a change!

The kids' first trip to the Bahamas, 2008

Costa Rica, 2012

Ireland, 2014

Iceland, 2018

Scotland, 2019

As of this writing, the kids have traveled internationally to Bahamas, Canada, Costa Rica, Iceland, Ireland, Jamaica, Mexico, and Scotland, and have enjoyed lots of trips within their own country and in their own backyards as we have moved around (Maine, New York City, Florida parks and beaches, camping and waterfall hikes in Alabama, Yosemite National Park, Washington, D.C., Mardi Gras in New Orleans, Baltimore, Williamsburg, Philadelphia...the list goes on!) and sailed the coast. Live the voyage!