We’re only 15% into the 6000 mile great loop and this is what we’ve learned so far:
Don’t cruise through Georgia in the spring without a vacuum cleaner in the pilot house. This is ours. It runs over ten minutes on a charge.
Hand held lithium powered Black and Decker vacuum cleaner
The biting horse flies love it. It gives them good exercise playing hide and seek with the inlet, and when they are ready they dive in and get a carousel ride round and round. When we step out on deck and open it, some fly away to tell their friends who soon show up on our windows. Others like it so much they stay.
Never drop more anchor chain than the distance from the boat to the nearest shore. We learned this when the hook was dropped in the center of the channel at a secluded anchorage. Wind and current placed us near the shore as the tide went out. Oops! We were up late that evening waiting to refloat.
Three weeks ago our lifestyle changed. We left land, found ourselves becoming more focused, taking the challenges of boat travel in stride, laughing together and enjoying life.
Tonight we are anchored in Church Creek, SC, a mile off the intercoastal waterway. Its quiet and peaceful. Should be a beautiful sunset.
Dolly is talking to her daughter in Michigan to whom our mail is being forwarded.
The Beach House eight days ago in Fernandina Beach Marina.
Part of that enjoyment has been meeting with old friends and partners over a delicious meal at Hudson’s Seafood on Hilton Head Island, South Carolina.
Karl Bambas – George Townes – Paul Ebel
George, Paul and I plus several others formed what became a very successful engineering consulting company in 1984 when our employer, Allied General Nuclear Services, shut down in Barnwell, SC. George and Paul found their nuclear expertise in high demand. I was a financial guy and left on good terms after about a year.
Now on day 23 of our great loop cruise around the eastern third of the United States we have dropped the hook on seventeen evenings. Six nights at marinas is about what I anticipated at the start. The goal is about two nights per week. Marinas are required for fresh food provisioning, fuel, water and laundry.
Where to start!? Yesterday was scattered clouds and warm. There was a wind that was a nuisance when combined with an incoming tide at an inlet. The two together made it hard to keep on course. Karl says I am properly initiated into boating… I ran us aground. He says the old saying about two types of motorcycle riders, “those who have dumped their bike, and those who will dump their bike” applies to boating and running aground too.
Night before last, we stopped for the night at an anchorage just off the intracoastal waterway and thought we had enough room beneath us for the night. Hmmmmm…… to make a long story short, we stayed up until after 10 p.m. to wait for the tide to lift us off the bottom and we moved a little further from shore to deeper water.
We were only going to go about 26 miles to Safe Harbor Skull Creek (Hilton Head Island, SC.) and made a lazy start to the day. When we got to the Savannah River, we spotted our first ship. I’m grateful she was sitting still so we wouldn’t have to contend with her wake. We watched a tug approach her and go down her far side. As we passed, we saw that the tug was helping to steer the ship around a bend just upstream. Please excuse my foot, I’m an amateur photographer!
A few minutes later, we decided that we were done with the scenic route, turned around and got back on the intracoastal waterway. In that wind, we didn’t want to go out into the Atlantic.
We got to Safe Harbor, and were lucky to get dockage at the end of a T-dock. The wind and currents were so strong, it took several tries to get close enough to throw lines to be tied down. We were grateful to get docked. The guy manning the office told us that someone earlier was trying to dock in one of the slips, and the wind blew him off and the side of his boat hit the bow pulpit of another boat. He broke out a window. We added more lines because of the wind, and settled down to a nice spaghetti dinner. We had a restful and quiet night.
I was able to wear my sweater last night. It is going to be perfect for this trip. I’m sitting in the marina laundry right now, waiting for my second load to finish washing. We’ve been on board for so long that it seems the solid ground is moving beneath me. Hope you are having a great day!
Dolly
PS (1:34 p.m.): I was just going through photos, and found a video I took just before we got here. It was cool to watch.
