June 24-June 26, 2018 3 days. 103 days since start. 83 nautical miles. 1138 total since start. Catfish Point to Elizabeth City 39 nautical miles. 1094 since start. 9 hours mostly sailing The theme of our passages as we finished the previous blog post was the big water areas of the ICW and Outer Banks where we could sail and also where we needed to watch the weather more carefully. This leg would conclude those areas as we did the second half of the huge Alligator River and then crossed the Albemarle Sound (the next largest body of water after …

June 12-June 23, 2018 12 days. 100 days since start. 182 nautical miles. 1055 total since start. Mile Hammock Bay to Beaufort, NC 37 nautical miles. 910 since start. 7 hours motoring Recall from the previous post that Mile Hammock Bay is smack dab in the middle of Marine Corps base Camp Lejeune. We stopped here because it was a nice protected anchorage around our typical 35 nautical mile distance from the previous stop. We also stopped here because it allowed us an early morning start to go through the live-fire training section of the base that the ICW goes …

June 1-June 11, 2018 11 days. 88 days since start. 144 nautical miles. 873 total since start. Georgetown to Prince Creek 22 nautical miles. 751 since start. 4 hours motoring Soon after leaving Georgetown harbor heading north on the ICW, Winyah Bay begins to shrink down until it flows between the banks of the beautiful Waccamaw River. We motored a short distance through the tall tree lined dark water river then turned off the ICW onto Prince Creek. Prince Creek winds for a few miles and then connects back with the ICW. The relatively narrow creek is deep enough for …

May 23-May 31, 2018 9 days. 77 days since start. 121 nautical miles. 729 total since start. Beaufort, SC Mooring Field to Toogoodoo Creek 37 nautical miles. 645 since start. 6.5 hours motoring Continuing up the Lowcountry, the ICW here is similar to Georgia in that it follows small creeks that empty into larger rivers running into the Atlantic. Again, we would go down the large river for a while before hitting another small creek on the other side. The scenery is different from Georgia’s marsh land but just as beautiful. The banks of the rivers are covered in oak …

May 12-May 22, 2018 11 days. 68 days since start. 122 nautical miles. 608 total since start. St Simons Island to New Teakettle Creek 24 nautical miles. 510 since start. 5 hours motoring Leaving St Simons, we entered the area of coastal GA that is dominated by marsh land. The Georgia marshes are vast areas of tall grass etched with winding rivers created by the strong ebb and flood of the tidal flow. Tides in this area are a huge 7 to 9 feet with current to match. When the tide is high the grass is partially submerged, and you …

April 28-May 11, 2018 14 days. 57 days since start. 103 nautical miles. 486 total since start. St Augustine Mooring Field to Little Marsh Island St Johns River Jacksonville 35 nautical miles. 418 total since start. 5.5 hours motoring Favorable current through this stretch so we were moving along good. Monitored a diesel leak that seemed to be getting worse around the injector lines coming from the high pressure pump. Approaching St Johns River we watched for any large ship traffic in this busy shipping port area but didn’t see any. We opted to come up the St Johns a …

April 10-April 27, 2018 18 days. 43 since start. 253 nautical miles. 383 total since start. Las Olas Marina Ft Lauderdale to Lake Boca Raton April 10, 2018 19 nautical miles. 149 total since start. 4 hours motoring Beautiful huge mansions line the ICW here. Lots of draw bridges that had to open for us. Anchored 6 nights This was an unexpected stop for us. At the draw bridge just south of Lake Boca Raton, the bridge tender informed us that the Southern Blvd draw bridge a few more hours north was closed for construction for the next 7 days! …

March 16-April 9, 2018 25 days 130 nautical miles Boot Key Harbor Marathon to Jewfish Hole Fiesta Key March 16, 2018 28 nautical miles 5 hours half motoring, half motor sailing Traveled west to center of 7 mile bridge before going under and heading back east on Florida Bay side of Keys. Anchored 1 night Ate with friends Andy, Sarah, Chad, Michelle, John, and Michelle at Lobster Crawl just next to anchorage. Afterward played ukulele and sang with the group on Holiday.   Jewfish Hole Fiesta Key to Tarpon Basin Key Largo March 17, 2018 30 nautical miles. 58 total …