Nov. 6
It was very cold this morning. Kathleen made a quiche in the oven and it helped to warm things up in the salon and made it a little easier to get underway. After clearing the dew off the dodger and raising the anchor we were underway.
Last year as we came through this stretch of the ICW the water was barely 5.4 feet deep. Today , as it was high tide when we left the water was at least 9.0 feet
At Ben Sawyer bridge we ended up waiting an hour for the bridge opening and as we entered Charleston Harbor the wind piped up to 25 knot and there was a regatta taking place in the harbor so we had to dodge sail boat of all sizes and types as we made our way Through to the Ashley River anchorage.
As we were laying the anchor there was a guy 100 feet away who objected to where we were anchoring so we upped anchor and moved about 300 feet more and dropped the anchor in 15 feet of water. The holding was good and we plan to stay here over the weekend and leave Monday morning.














Charleston Bridge












Another Snowbird Entering the Harbor













Part of the Regatta













Fort Sumpter

Nov. 5
We left Bucksport and headed south. The morning was cold and the windshield had fogged over. As we came down the River the ICW was in shadow from the trees on the east side. The Waccamaw River is a wildlife preserve and it is nice to have a river that is a mile wide and 30 feet deep in most spots. The only problem on the day was all the stink-potter gin palaces that wanted to pass on a plane and wake the hell out of us.
Georgetown South Carolina stunk as usual, I don't know what they make there but the factory stinks. We ran to the cut with a group of 5 boats as the day turned windier and colder.
We were planning on staying on South Edisto River but we pressed on and made Five fathom Creek just off the ICW south of Mcllellanville. We had the anchor down by 4:00 and settled down for a cold night. In the morning we plan to make Charleston and stay over through the weekend before moving on.

Nov. 4

The weather was somewhat calmer and it was slack high tide when we left the dock today at Southport and headed out. For most of the morning there was sun and the wind had calmed down to make the traveling pleasant. ( It turned out to be the calm before the storm.

We had timed our arrival at the Sunset Bridge Pontoon bridge for the hourly opening when the heavens opened and it started to rain buckets. Just at 3 minutes before the scheduled opening there was an emergency and the bridge was held for ½ hour. With a blinding rain falling and fifteen to twenty boats both power and sail trying to keep from going aground or hitting each other it made for a tense situation.

The pontoon bridge is the last of its kind in the state ( and maybe the nation) and will be replaced by a high rise bridge that is scheduled to open in a few weeks. The bridge is floated on pontoons and a cable is used to move a portion of the bridge out of the way so boats can pass through.

It continued to rain and at times we had very high winds as we continued on the ICW ( The decision to continue on the ICW as opposed to the Atlantic was looking better and better)

At about 4:00 PM the rain stopped but the wind was still out of the north and very cold as we entered a section of the ICW known as the Rockpile because there are large rocks lining the waterway and you have to be very careful to stay in the center of the channel. As we came around a bend there was a 45 foot catamaran with each side on top of a rock hard aground just 15 feet out of the channel. The good news for him was that his boat wasn't holed and it was low tide so he will probably be able to float off at high tide.

Just at 5:30 PM we got through the Socastee bridge and were able to make our anchorage just north of Bucksport , South Carolina with only about 15 minutes of daylight left to get the hook down and settle in for the night.Tomorrow we hope to reach McClellanville and anchor just off the ICW

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Wednesday Nov. 3
We were the first out this morning from the anchorage. The sky was overcast all day and the wind was cold out of the North. I think there were about 10 sailboats as well as 5 power boats moving along with us.

One of the big aggravations of the ICW are the swing and bascule bridges. Some only open on the hour and some open on the hour and half hour but it seems that at each bridge there a group of boats waiting for the opening with wind and current contriving to make each minute a hair raising, white knuckle event.

On today's leg there were 4 bridges and at the last ( Wrightsville) there must have been 12 or 13 boats all crammed into a 1/2 mile by 300 yard area waiting for the bridge to open.

Once past Wrightsville the current was favorable and we made good time to Snow's Cut which connects the New River to the Cape Fear River. The current thorough the cut gaves us a good push until we were on the Cape Fear were we encountered a 2.5 knot current against us. The river was fairly choppy and a strong wind was still blowing out of the north.

We finally arrived at Southport at 5:15PM and are now tied up at a marina for the night.

The plan is to continue on the ICW as the weather outlook for the next 4 days doesn't look good. We will continue to the Waccamaw, Edisto Rivers and then to Charleston, and finally Beufort, S.C. where we plan to anchor as we wait for a weather window to go out on the Atlantic to Fernandina.

































ICW Rush Hour

Tuesday, November 2

We got up this morning at 6:00 am to discover that it is still dark. We were able to up anchor at 6:45 AM and start down Adams Creek.

Boy was it cold! The temperature was in the low 50's with 15 to 20 knots of wind out of the North. We were somewhat protected form the wind until we got Moorehead City on the Bogue sound and we were getting the full flow of the wind right in the face.

We planned a stop at Dudley's marina in Swansboro and were within 10 feet of their fuel dock when we went aground in 5.0 feet of water. After a fruitless ½ hour we decided to continue on toward Mile Hammock Bay which is part of Camp Lejeune. We arrived here at 3:30 and had the anchor down by 3:45. The holding is good and there is plenty of room for boats to anchor. They allow cruisers to anchor here but we are not allowed to go to shore. Right now Sea Horse helicopters are flying about but I expect most of it will die down this evening.

We plan to leave at first light tomorrow morning and plan to make Southport by the end of the day.Hopefully we will be able to stay warm tonight and have warmer weather tomorrow.

Nov

We're off. We finally got all our errands done today, I got a prop zinc and two shaft zincs, filled up the dingy tanks as well as the tanks for the generator, topped up the propane, Kathleen got the shot and health records for Uraine, as well as some last minute provisions.

It was good that we waited until today as Sunday the wind was out of the south and the water at the dock was only 5 feet 4 inches, Today, with the wind out of the North the water was up to 6 feet ( all depths referenced to my depth sounder). It was a piece of cake getting out of the harbor and channel as the lowest depth we saw was 5' 9” ( we draw 5' 2”)

1st Night's anchorage

We decided to cross the Neuse and drop anchor in Jonaquin creek, just off the ICW. The wind was pretty stiff on the river but the anchorage is fairly well protected and there is very little chop. We are anchored in 7 feet of water with a heavy clay bottom so we are snug at anchor here. In the morning we just have to raise anchor to be on our way at first light with tomorrow's destination Mile Hammock Bay.














Looking North












Other Boats in the anchorage

Thursday July 22

The last time I updated the blog Kathleen and I were in Vero Beach, Florida. We had Just leased a new Ford Focus and now had to figure out how to get both the car and the boat back to Sea Harbour. We thought we would both drive the car back and take a one way rental from New Bern, NC to Vero

Beach. No joy! All rental agencies we contacted did not have a car available in the time frame we needed so after much discussion we decided that I would single hand the boat back to North Carolina.

My first stop on the way back was at the Canaveral barge canal to fuel up. I had to wait for about an hour as there was ab oat in front of me and this caused me to have to anchor in Titusville. In the morning when I started out I lost the Raymarine GPS and had to fall back on the Furuno system that was tied into the NMEA network. This was helpful but the system was no very accurate and only was able to give me a position within feet of my true position. I was going to stop at New Smyrna but I arrived there at about 1300 hours and decided to continue on. Just outside of Daytona and I was stopped by the potty police who wanted to make sure I wasn't discharging my heads overboard. I wasn't. Later in the afternoon as I was passing Daytona I ran into a thunderstorm and was forced to slow down as visibility was limited for a while. I decided to continue on and try to make it through Saint Augustine. I made it through the Matansas inlet , it was mid tide, but I noticed one of the markers was aground on the beach. I arrived at Saint Augustine just as dark was falling and decided to continue to an anchorage about 10 miles north of the city. It was interesting going through the city in the dark but I made it through okay. and made the anchorage at about 2300.

The next morning I continued on and made it to Fernandina by about 1500 and was able to relax a little before continuing on. In the morning (0600) I left for the 30 hour trip on the Atlantic to Charleston. The day was fair and I had a nice wind for the first 10 hours. At 1400 the wind dropped and the sea was calm so I pulled down the sails and began to motor. The calm helped the motoring but I began to be assaulted by hordes of biting flies and other bugs. Fortunately at dusk the wind began to blow and the bugs slowly disappeared.

The passage offshore of Savannah was fairly uneventful as I moved inside the ship channel and avoided the many ships that were waiting for passage into Savannah. The evening was fairly pleasant until about 03:30 when I saw north of my position what looked like artillery practice- The clouds would light like bombs were exploding. As I came closer to Charleston the wind picked up and started blowing at 23 to 30 knots and I realized what I was was a thunderstorm cell generating a light show.

When I was about 10 miles from Charleston the seas also started to build to 8 to 10 feet, and my boat speed dropped to only about 1 to 1.5 knots as I had to move into the teeth of the wind to make the ship channel. I finally made the ship channel at about 1400 and was able to make an anchorage at bout 1600. After I made sure the anchor was set I went below and fell into a sound sleep.

When I awoke at 0600 I decided to continue the trip up the ICW as the forecast was still for higher wind and seas. From Charleston I was able to make it to just outside Georgetown and arrived there fairly early in the afternoon.

From Georgetown I planned to make my evening at Southport. The pontoon bridge at the North Carolina border was not cooperating however/ The bridge operator could not open due to low tide and I had to anchor for two hours waiting for the tide to rise to allow the bridge to open. Fortunately I had a nice current and I was able to tie up to the marina slip at 1600.

From Southport I was able to ride the tide up the river and made up to 10 knots for the next 2 hours. This allowed me to anchor in Mile Hammock Bay where I was only one day away from Sea Harbour. The day was uneventful and I made our slip at Sea Harbour at 1500 and was finally home.

The last two months have been busy making repairs

1. fixed GPS antenna ( broken wire in the antenna lead)

2. Fixed water system. The original system supply pipe to the pump was too large and was allowing the pump to suck air ( It is amazing how much you miss water pressure when you don't have it)

3. repaired air conditioning condensing pipe leak

4. Repaired the solar panel charging system. ( the system showed battery voltage at only 10 volts and all lights were flashing on the charging panel. It ended up being a fuse that wasn't blown but had a high resistance across it. After replacing the fuse the system is working fine.)

5. Varnishing the teak. The sun had done a job on all exposed surfaces and the varnish was flaking off.

We had Kirk Hathaway dive on the boat to replace the prop zincs and we discovered that the cutlass bearing has spun out and the prop shaft is able to move fairly freely and we are scheduled to go on the travelift at Sailcraft to inspect and repair.

Hopefully all will be complete before we leave November 1 for the Bahamas.

Thursday July 29

Tow Boat US showed up this morning and we were towed to Sailcraft to have the necessary repairs made. When we asked Sailcraft to give us an estimate on the potential cost to repair the high end was $2,500.00 if we needed to replace the prop shaft, prop strut cutlass bearing, and this was an optimistic estimate, if the strut was truly broken we could have fiberglass damage and face a much larger bill.

We arrived at Sailcraft at 8:30am and had to lower the aft mast stays and the forestay to allow the travelift access to lift Legacy out of the water.

Securing the forestay Legacy in the Travellift slings

When we had Legacy in the slings, out of the water, we were pleasantly surprised. As it turn out the prop shaft on Calibers is secured to a shoe with two bolts. The bolts were had loosened over time and

was allowing movement in the prop shaft. The cutlass bearing was worn and it allowed the shaft some movement in the shaft. It was a fairly simple matter to unbolt, and remove the strut and replace
the cutlass bearing on the bench.

After the bearing was replaced and the strut reassembled and the bolts tightened there was zero movement in the prop shaft! Boy did we dodge a bullet!

While we were in the slings we were able to tighten the rudder shaft and prop shaft stuffing boxes and tighten a lose motor mount, and refill the transmission oil. At 11:45 we were back in the water and the total bill was only about a ¼ of the original estimate.

Motoring back to Seaharbour there was virtually no vibration and the engine seemed to be running much smoother. BIG SMILE. It looks like we will be well prepared for this winters trek to the Bahamas.

The only thing left on the punch list is to replace the anchor chain. That will be done on August 18^th and we hope to shake down all the repairs on a trip to Ocracoke, or Cape Lookout.