Coastal Cruising: Bay Breeze & Aquavit

We like to be at our own dock on June 1 and through hurricane season. So, we don’t go far on Bay Breeze from June through Thanksgiving. We travel with an eye on Wundergound.com and stay within an easy return radius. AQUAVIT has enabled us to break out of our range. Because we can make more miles a day under power we can get to a marina for a slip or haul out in the event we see the “cone of death and destruction” is either where we are on the Atlantic coast or something headed to Apalachee Bay. Because a disturbance off Belize was forecast to develop into a tropical storm and head up the Gulf, we kept an eye on the weather. We’re thankful for the assistance friends extended to help us stay current with updates.. When the Big Bend coast was included in the “cone”, we found a well-protected marina on Hilton Head in South Carolina for AQUAVIT and then rented a truck to come home. Alberto is now making his way north but Tallahassee is still getting rain!  The drive b...

The sun was finally shining during today's short run from Isle of Hope to Hilton Head. Since we left St. Augustine it has been mostly gray skies. This kept the temperature comfortable but we've been missing the sunshine. Before leaving, we visited Wormsloe Plantation, a State of Georgia Historic Site. A costumed interpreter gave a nice, well-rehearsed tour.  Our small group listened intently to his presentation about the early settlement on land granted to Noble Jones by Oglethorpe in the early 1700s and the subsequent change of the occupants through the Revolutionary War to the Civil War. It is sad that war is the benchmark for a timeframe rather than peace times. We learned that the early plantation was initially staffed by indentured workers and then, when slavery was legalized by default by the British government, enslaved Africans worked the plantation until Emancipation. We are not sure we understood this explanation of how slavery was established in the Georgi...

Our last stop at The Sunbury Crab Company, really just a few docks behind Miss Elaine's house and restaurant, is up the Medway River. The river is wide, for the most part, and deep (25' to 35') in some places, interspersed with shallow shoals. Lots of creeks flow into the river through the vast marsh. This morning, o n the way back down the Medway River to the ICW, I was plotting the way to Isle of Hope and Marvin was heading back to the ICW in St Catherine's Sound. The Garmins and Navionics on our iPad said 14' but it was actually less than 3' (1.5' on the Garmin and 2.9' on the Tridata). We ran aground in soft mud, right after Marker 2 at the turn into St. Catherine's Sound. Fortunately, the tide was coming in. We didn't have to wait long before the current was carrying us. We were floating but it was still too shallow to turn engines on. In about 1/2 hour we were deep enough to power slowly to deeper water and the channel to St. Catherine...

"Do you have a transient slip for tonight," Lee asked when she called the Sunbury Crab Company Marina upon leaving Brunswick. Our friends Bill and Lisa told us about this place and the cruising guidebooks all say it's a good spot to stop while waiting for the tide at Hell Gate. (More about Hell Gate later.) "Hold a minute, let me check my book. What is your length, draft and beam?" replied the sweet southern drawl. A couple minutes later she said she could accommodate us. But call ahead when you are about an hour away and Kenny will meet you on the fuel dock. He does maintenance at the restaurant too. And if we want to eat in the restaurant, let her know an hour and a half before we want to be seated so she can put our name on the call list. To get to Sunbury, Georgia, we had to take a 2 to 3-mile side trip off the Intracoastal Waterway in an unmarked channel up the Medway River. At the marina's suggestion we called up a chart off their website and plot...

Brunswick Landing Marina has a reputation as a safe haven hurricane hole and cruisers favorite marina. After spending a few days, we can attest that this is a first rate marina and a wonderful place to take a break from cruise speed and spend time exploring the Georgia sea coast. Before stopping, our knowledge of Brunswick was limited to the view of the paper mill visible from I-95 at 70 mph. We are delighted our travels brought us here to see our friends and stopover to do a few boat chores. The marina is a gathering place for boaters and has a helpful and friendly dock crew a t the ready to assist with pumping out holding tanks and pumping in fuel.  With over 300 slips and a small boat yard, many cruisers extend their stay to become liveaboards in a convenient and friendly community.  The floating docks eliminate worries of the significant tidal range.   The courthouse situated in the middle of an old growth oak grove. Brunswi...

We have been enjoying watching birds as we pass by. We’re trying to keep a list of what we see and thought you might be interested in it too. The list is in no particular order, not by species, nor day spotted, nor location (although when I can I will post the location.)   Bald Eagle Great Blue Heron Green Heron Little Blue Heron Snowy Egret Common Egret White Ibis Wood Stork - Jax Beach Brown Pelican Ruddy Turnstone - Vilano Beach Towhee - St Augustine  Northern Mockingbird Mississippi Kite Eastern Bluebird - Jacksonville Beach Osprey   Snail Kite - Lake Okeechobee  Caracara - Lake Okeechobee   Mallard Boat-tailed Grackle Laughing Gull   Canada Goose Eastern Kingbird - Brunswick  B onaparte Gull Tricolor Heron Red-winged Blackbird Turkey Vulture Anhinga Cormorant Black-crowned Night-Heron - Harris Neck NWR Gallinule - Harris Neck  Blue Jay Cattle Egret Cardinal - Sunbury GA Painted Bunti...

We arrived at Camachee Cove Marina  on Tuesday afternoon, just in time to catch a great bistro before they closed. Called Dessert First, it’s a great place for breakfast or lunch. After lunch, we unloaded the rental car onto the boat. Just in time for a brief rain shower. In the rain, we traveled across the Vivano Beach bridge to the closest Publix for reprovisioning. It stopping raining while we were shopping. While we were here, we decided to go the beach, not to swim, but for sand for our sand collection. It’s interesting sand, with a layer of broken shell on the surface. Underneath it was fine dark gray sand. The surf was rough! Two guys were surfing on short boards. Just a couple days ago a guy drowned in the rip current on a St Augustine Beach! Along with the surfers there were a half dozen dolphins surfing too! They would shoot completely out of the water as the wave curled. Amazing! While we prepared to leave St Augustine on Wednesday the 16th, the weather looked ...

The BEST and the REST … we’re sharing ratings of our favorite top 3 as we go!  RESTAURANTS/BARS 1. Sailor’s Return, Stuart - good food and a great view! 2. Dessert First, St. Augustine - at the Camachee Island Marina. This breakfast and lunch place is right in line with Lee’s epicurean philosophy! 3. Chart House, Melbourne - as restaurant chains go this one is at the top. MARINAS 1. New Smyrna Municipal Marina - helpful and friendly and a very nice downtown district. 2. Melbourne Harbour Marina - nice quiet place with decent facilities 3. Camachee Marina, St. Augustine - a large marina with great facilities, a little further away from the historic district, but very nice. 4. Windmill Harbour Marina, Hilton Head - while the surrounding community is a little too sanitized for our taste and Hilton Head is a tourist town, this marina was very nice. Boats lock into (and out of) the marina basin from the wide river, but that keeps the 6-8' tides at bay and provide...

Today was a layover day. In the morning, We brought the boat over from the city marina to Camache Cove Marina located on the north side of the Vivano Beach bridge. We tied up to the fuel dock because that is closer to the boatyard than the slip we are assigned to. At 1:00 a mechanic came to start working on the broken gauges issue. After about an hour and a half, he had diagnosed and fixed the problem. It was a wire behind the starboard gauges that came loose yesterday in the rough seas. But, in fixing the gauges, he also made it so we could start the engines independently of one another, except that now they would not shut off independently. As mentioned in an earlier blog, the only way to turn on an engine was to have both keys on. Then, if only one engine was started, the key alarm for the other engine would whistle until the engine was turned on. There was never an issue with turning the engines off independently. This starting issue was now fixed, but now both keys have to be of...