6th and Final Leg: Beaufort, SC to Key Largo, Fla

Saturday, October 31st: Happy Halloween

Nip leaves Spring Island solo after another wonderful evening with Billy and Alison Crossman. Thank you guys for your unbelievable southern hospitality. I am in LA working so our plan is to meet in Savannah on Sunday. Nip left Charlie Manker's dock on the Culliton River on a beautiful day around 10:30.  (Thanks for the great pix, Charlie)

After leaving the Culliton, back tracking on the Checheesee and turning right to run west of Hilton Head he encounters fog for about 30 minutes. But it soon turns back into a gorgeous day. Savannah is up the Savannah River quite a ways, so he finds a fabulous little marina right on the ICW on a little island called Isle of Hope. (How he managed to get there without his little naviguesser is beyond me.) On his way, he notices a little hesitation with the engine and decides we better have a mechanic look at the engines. The mechanic won't be there on Sunday, but promises to be there on Monday morning early. So we know that we are going to be in the Savannah area for a couple of nights. My sister Chapman has become part of our trip. She and Nip meet up at the marina and have a lovely dinner. On their way back to the marina, they can't move for all the Trick or Treaters out on the quiet little streets of Isle of Hope.

 This is one of the beautiful antebellum houses that border the ICW next to our marina. Spectacular! Halloween is huge in this area because of all the ghosts that are said to wander in and around the Savannah area. The smaller picture is the view from this front porch. This is South Carolina in all it's gentrified glory.

Sunday, November 1st:   

                                                

Chappy picks me up at the Savannah airport and brings me down to the boat. It's a gorgeous day and since we are waiting for the mechanic to arrive the next day, we go sightseeing in Savannah. Savannah is gorgeous. If you ever have the opurtunity to visit it, DO IT! The restoration school has bought alot of the old buildings and restored them to their original beauty. The city is on a grid running parallel to the river with these wonderful squares every few blocks. The squares are named after Generals or famous patrons. When Grant did his march to the sea during the Civil War burning everything in his path, he spared Savannah so that he could give it to Lincoln as a present. Centuries later, it is still a present to anyone who visits her. Every square is surrounded by beautiful homes. Every square is filled with live oaks draped in Spanish moss. There are paths to walk in the shad and benches to sit and enjoy the scenery.  

We decided to play tourist and take the Old Savannah Tour. It was great. We travelled around the city on trolley cars and just drank in the beauty. Down at the waterfront we had an amazing lunch and then hopped back on the trolley-like car and headed back to the boat where we rested and then off for a fabulous dinner. Instead of dinner rolls they served home-made hush puppies. Lets just say that Chappy and I almost came to fisty cuffs over the basket. We headed back to the boat and said our good-byes hoping to meet up again in Jupiter or West Palm Beach where Chap lives.

Monday, November 2nd:

It was a luxury to have these two days to rest and catch up from the time change and so much travel. The mechanic came around 9:00AM and decided that a part was definitely needed. We were there for the day. So off to the store for some extra supplies, read up on the charts, napped and biked around our little island.

This was a little music school we biked past. There was a young girl inside singing. Could it get any prettier? We cooked dinner and by dark, after bets that he wouldn't show, our mechanic showed up with the part and installed it by the light of a flashlight. We were good to go! We had lost two days and we now heard about a storm in the gulf. We were going to have to push hard! UGH! Two hundred mile days coming up

Tuesday, November 3rd, Isle of Hope, GA to Palm Coast, Fla:

It was still a full moon at dawn when we left the marina at Isle of Hope. Everything was quiet on the ICW except the shrimpers and the dredgers who were already hard at work.The Georgian coastline is as picturesque as the South Carolina coast. We wound our way through the marsh grass and rivers. We looked outside the inlets to the ocean and decided that we would stay on the ICW. The wind was wrong and the currents were strong.

Everytime we passed a river mouth out to the ocean, we could feel the current against us or with us. It varied our speed by as much as three knots. We crossed the St Mary's river into Florida, and everything changed. Fernandina Beach which is on Amelia Island is very industrial from the waterway. We tried to stop for gas, but the current was so strong, the winds had picked up and there was so much comercial traffic that we pushed forward. From there to the St John's River is more developed. The St Johns River goes past Jacksonville. From Jacksonville Beach we continued into the palm Valley Cut. Brand new homes with docks left us responsible for our own wakes. It was slow going but we pushed through.

The day was almost a blur until we reached St. Augustine. If we had the time we would have gone ashore to see St Augustine. It is the oldest continuously occupied city in Florida with its Spanish heritage still visible from the ICW. The Castillo De San Marcos with it's dungeons is visible from the ICW as well as the moorish architecture of some of the older buildings. We stayed at the Palm Coast Marina that night. Deliriously happy to be tied up with shore power and water. It was a long day. We were now at MM:802.9. Key Largo is at MM:1142. We had another long day ahead of us.

Wednesday, November 4th: Palm Coast, Fla to Jupiter Inlet, Fla. 

It was another early morning departure from the marina. It was freezing cold. Nip turned on the heat so I could warm up enough to get out of bed to make coffee.People were just stirring. We were hoping to get to Jupiter by the end of the day which meant we had 203 miles to go.

The intercoastal is very narrow here and there are many new developments that have cropped up in the recent real estate boom years. We were responsible for our own wake so we took it slow in spots.... many spots. We might have made more time going outside, but the wind was picking up and the ocean did not look happy. Just before Daytona Beach at MM#830, the waterway widens and allowed us to pick up speed. Daytona was hopping even on the inland waterway side. I could only imagine what the beach looked like on this sunny day. Just south of Daytona, the ICW goes into the Halifax River. It's an area of grassy marshes with nesting bird sanctuaries and small boats fishing happily in the middle of the channel. To say we went slow would be an understatement. As we approached the Ponce De Leon Inlet, we could feel the current against us. We opted to take the inland side of a marshy island instead of navigating the channel to and from the inlet. Through the grass we spotted the historic red lighthouse that marks the opening of the inlet. This inlet is so prone to shoaling because of the current that the waterway guides recommend following commercial traffic through the inlet rather than try to make it on your own. This is some of the fishing traffic coming in the inlet.

Down into New Smyrna beach, (Gotta love the name) through the Haulover Canal and into Mosquito Lagoon. This is an open body of water that has a very specific channel. The depths outside of the channel are 1 foot in places. As you enter the Lagoon, you can see the NASA hangar for the space shuttle. At this point it is 12 miles away and stills looms in the distance. Past Titusville, Fla (in Ft Lauderdale we heard the first Coast Guard plee for information on an overdue 34 foot black hulled boat named Sky that left San Juan for Titusville. We heard those reports the rest of our trip. Hope you got home safe Sky) and down into a cut that put us in the Indian River. Here we passed the Cape Canaveral Bridges rail and car and the barge canals. CUE THE SHUTTLE: ? No, but thank God because they will close portions of the waterway during launchings.

The ICW is pretty wide open all the way down to Vero Beach, MM#952, and then it slows waaaaay down. As we approached Johns Island, we gave Aunt Heidi a call, hoping that she would come out and wave as we went by. No such luck, not home. This whole area through to the St Lucie Inlet is slow going. The manatee are very prevalent here and boaters are ordered to keep their speed down. Even when the channel is wide the speed is restricted to 25mph in the channel and idle speed outside. When the channel narrows it is idle speed within 50 feet of the shoreline or idle speed period! The St Lucie River goes inland here. This is what boaters take to go to Lake Okeechobee. From there another canal heads west to Ft Meyers. (That's a trip we are looking forward to) But we are still heading south for the last 20 miles of our day that takes us by Loblolly and Hobe Sound. This is where I starting making calls for the marinas. We made a reservation at a place called Blowing Rocks with a guy named John, but I really wanted to stay at the JIB Yacht Club solely for the purpose of being able to walk to the inlet and look at the ocean. We had a decision to make in regards to our course. It was going to be slow going from here to Miami and we had a stop to make in Hillsboro to pick up Whips and bouys for our seawall. We wanted to be able to sea what the ocean was doing. Finally I got through to the JIB club, made a reservation and called John at Blowing Rocks back to cancel. We were tired, our brains were on overload..actually mine had seized and we were ready for a relaxing night. As we tied up at the gas dock to fill up, all the local fishermen were standing around the convenience store next to the gas dock. It was the first time anyone had asked about our trip, where we started from and where we were going without saying "In that boat?" They all said "cool!" "that's the perfect boat" and then looked at me and said, "Did you sleep on the boat the whole time?" and proudly and happily I said, "I sure did." Nip and I just looked at each other and began to understand just what we had accomplished. Just then I heard, "Hey Rum Drop! I thought I would find you here." It's John from Blowing Rocks." He owned both marinas and knew as soons as we called that we were passing him to come here. So we all chatted for a bit about the weather and the virtues of going outside versus staying in. Some thought it was going to be too rough and some said it would be no problem. But they all agreed that the wind would be picking up and it was going to get progressively worse as the weekend approached. Ida was causing a turmoil in the Gulf and the wind was headed our way. So off to the showers and with a cocktail in hand we walked to the beach and toasted to our last night sleeping on the boat. The surf was angry; breaking high on the beach and receeding with a rip tide effect. The wind was coming out of the east. This was not going to be the wind that we wanted. We made the decision to stay in the rest of the way which meant a really long day was ahead of us. As we stared out at the angry ocean, a 23 foot center console raced out of the inlet, spray flying, bouncing off of each large wave and headed for the fishing grounds. He was a young man that had been at the marina. He would stay out until 11:00PM fishing for bait for the big boys. No thank you! That night we slept with the air conditioning on. Started the day with heat and ended the day with air conditioning. I know the temperature was heading in the right direction. We were at MM#1004.2.

Thursday, November 5th: The last Day

We were up at 5:00AM, coffee made and spotlights on, we passed the Jupiter Lighthouse pictured above. We used the spotlight to find our bouys and turned left away from the inlet with it's angry seas to continue our journey on the ICW. It was slow going through the Manatee Zones. By 6:45AM we had plenty of light and came out onto Lake Worth by Old Port Cove. This was my old stomping grounds where I was raised. We passed Peanut Island by the Palm Beach inlet where I used to picnic as a child. It was amazing to see the transformation. I hadn't been on a boat in Lake Worth for at least 30 years. The island was now a conservation island with walks and docking areas. The port was still busy with container ships and the Riviera Power plant was still going. (I remember one of my father's small yellow submarines had gotten caught in the intake of the power plant. It took hours of negotiations before the plant would brown out some areas and power down enough to release the sub from it's strong suction. Two divers were on board. Everyone was fine.) At 7:15AM we passed my sister Chappy's building and she snapped this picture as we passed. Storms were brewing.That's Palm Beach in the backround. It was slow going with some bridges to wait for and lots of manatee zones. The area is very built up with boats and docks bristling the retaining walls of the ICW. Past Del Ray, it gets even narrower and our progress slowed to idle speed. We made Hillsboro by 10:00AM and pulled up to Greg McLaughlin's dock. The boys left to fetch the whips that we would need in Key Largo, and I got a blissful 30 minutes to tidy up, make lunch and actually read a few pages while it intermittently rained and blew. We were definitely going to have to make Key Largo today. The weather was definitely going to get worse. Nip and Greg returned, loaded up the boat and off we went with excellent instructions on how to circumnavigate the slow part of the ICW through Miami. Thank you, Greg!

We passed Ft Lauderdale as they were still dismantling the docks from the boat show from the weekend before. As we crossed under the 17th St. Causeway, we were amazed at the number of yachts that were equal in size and bigger than the Mary Alice. (Yes we were still looking for her)

The bigger picture is of a private yacht with to smaller vessels on board. You can make out the mast of the 45 foot sailboat on her port side and the 38 foot power boat on her starboard side. We would have been the dinghy for the tender. This boat was so big it had to be docked at Port Everglades on the commercial docks instead of over at the marinas. There is a helicopter pad on the stern, but the chopper is not there. Nothing like taking your toys with you. We pushed on to Miami. Instead of staying with the ICW we took Greg's advice and ran along the eastern shore of Upper Biscayne Bay. This area hugs the shore of Miami Beach and has us using the eastern bridges on the varius causeways that cross the bay to the beach from the city of Miami.  It leads out to the Port of Miami between the very exclusive Fisher's Island and Dodge Island.We crossed under the bridge, rejoined the ICW and into Biscayne Bay. We watched Maimi and South Beach disappear from view. When we passed through the Feather Beds in a small channel marked by markers, you could not see the marshy grass that distinguishes them. This is a 30 mile or so run and then we saw it... Pumpkin Island which sits off of Ocean Reef. We were there. We turned into Angelfish Creek and came around to the ocean side and was met with a blast of wind. Oh the ocean side was a bit differnet. But it didn't matter. We crossed down to the markers for Channel Cay and off blew my Ocean Reef visor. Oh Well! I was there now anyway. We zipped along the seawall and entered our canal system. At 4:06PM on Thursday November 5th, we had arrived at Ocean Reef, Key Largo,Fla. MM# 1130.

Friday, Novenber 6th:

With her completely unloaded and laundry cleaned and stored, we brought our boat around to the marina to have her bottom washed. The South Carolina "TEA" as they call it had yellowed our white hull and there was some growth on her underside.

Saturday, November 7th:

Back on the seawall all scrubbed and shiny, she sat happily in her new home. That night before we left to come home we went down to say "Good-Bye". We never saw Mr OR again. We never saw the Mary Alice again. But we saw shrimpers and tugs, barges, cargo vessels, nesting birds, turtles and bottlenose dolphin. We saw the beautiful eastern seaboard of our fabulous country. What a magnificent trip. We were happy to be there and sad that the adventure was done. Rum Drop was magnificent and so was my captain. Thank you, Nip! As we sat there in the moonlight looking at her, we planned our next trip...to Bimini! That's right!

IN THAT BOAT!