On Sunday, April 24, we pulled into Fernandina Beach Marina on Amelia Island after traveling 60 miles. It was a fairly easy day of cruising as we had enough water in all the shallow spots. The marina was right next to downtown Fernandina Beach so we were able to walk around the town. Carey found an ice cream store - a highlight of our visit! Fernandina Beach is a touristy little town and had a fair number of shops and restaurants. They were getting ready for Shrimp Fest that was being held the following weekend. Apparently, the marina had been booked up for months for Shrimp Fest.
Monday, April 25 - We left Fernandina Beach at 7:00 a.m. to get a good start to our day. We cruised 76 miles and at 2:30 p.m. pulled into the Crescent River to anchor for the night. It was a challenging cruise as we had many problem areas that promised skinny water, but we never saw depth less than 8-1/2 feet. Our anchorage was very isolated and the tide was a rather dramatic 7 foot tide. When the tide was out, we had a lot of bugs and had to close up the boat as evening arrived. We did see a few dolphins that were looking for their dinner!
Tuesday, April 26 - It was another early departure. We left our anchorage on the Crescent River in Georgia at 7:10 a.m. We had a couple of problem areas (skinny water) when we first started our cruise and we left early so we could travel on a rising tide. We pulled out of our anchorage and were soon being followed by a big commercial shrimp boat in a fairly narrow channel of water. The shrimp boat stayed directly behind us and did not attempt to pass us. The water started getting very shallow (3.9 ft) and we looked back and realized the shrimp boat had gone to the opposite shore. Once we drove to the other side (now directly in from of the shrimp boat) we had deeper water and we were fine. Lesson learned . . we should have let the shrimp boat go in front of us so we could follow it! Local knowledge is always valuable!
The rest of the day proved to be uneventful. We had plenty of water along the way and didn't have any major areas of concern. It was a long day, though. We cruised 60 miles and stopped at 2:15 p.m. to anchor in the Herb River near Savannah, Georgia. Our anchorage was nice and there were a couple of other boats nearby.
Wednesday, April 27 - We wanted to leave on a rising tide, so didn't leave until 8:00 a.m. As we were leaving the our anchorage we drove right by Thunderbolt Marina where our Looper friends Monica and Rick on Moni Jean had spent the night. We texted them that we were passing by and they came out and waved to us. It was nice to see familiar faces again, if only for a few minutes. It was another long day of cruising. We traveled 62 miles that day.
The highlight of the day was seeing 5 (yes, 5!) loggerhead sea turtles as we cruised along. Seeing 1 is rare, but seeing 5 was amazing! They were as big as garbage can lids. And no, we did not get pictures. Their dark shell is visible and then their huge head pokes up to get air, but then they dive down again. They did not want to pose for pictures!
We had planned to stay at Beaufort, South Carolina, but as we passed the marina we realized the current would make docking difficult. Several bigger boats that were waiting to dock at this marina were talking on the radio about how they didn't like the slips they were given. We decided to continue on to an anchorage for the night. We stopped at Sam's Piers about 10 miles further up the ICW. It was a good anchorage with many other boats, but the wind was really strong. Our anchor held ok, but we had a lot of bow slap that night!
Thursday and Friday, April 28 and 29 - We left Sam's Piers at 8:00 a.m. and traveled 58 miles for the day, destination Charleston, South Carolina! On our way we were passed by fellow Loopers Sax and Sherri on Red Eagle that we had met back when we were on the river system in Tennessee. We chatted on the radio a bit to "catch up" on our travels. It was great to see them, if only passing by boat!
One of our favorite cities is Charleston. We stayed at the Charleston Maritime Marina which is just a short walk to a full-size grocery store and to the heart of the city. We spent 2 nights there and enjoyed walking and seeing the sights. We had been there a few years ago with friends Hal and Wendy (Hawk Valley Retreat in Galena) and had always hoped to get back. Now we were missing Hal and Wendy, but we did our best to uphold the spirit of our friendship as we ate at a couple of our favorite restaurants and walked through the historic section of the city. We would have liked to stay one more night, but bad weather was moving in and we needed to get north as quickly as possible. We will be back on Tug LeeLoo!
A nice surprise when we arrived at the marina was that fellow Loopers Rodney and Sherri on Sasified and Pete and Pam on Endoxy were there. They are from Door County, Wisconsin and we met them while we were going down the river system. One of the interesting things about doing the Loop is how many times you "run" into other Loopers that you met months ago. You have a short visit, then we separate again as we travel.
Saturday, April 30 - We left Charleston a little later (for us) because we needed to get to some problem areas on a rising tide. We traveled 71 miles and anchored out at Butler Island north of Georgetown, South Carolina. Our first trouble spot for low water was 20 miles into our cruise, but once we got through that the water depths were good. A highlight of the day was seeing 2 Bald Eagles!
Sunday, May 1 - It was another early day. We were on the water by 7:05 a.m., but cruised for only 45 miles. We stopped at Barefoot Marina near North Myrtle Beach, SC. We had a problem area coming up just past the marina called The Rock Pile. We decided we wanted to cruise The Rock Pile on a high tide and it was low tide by the time we got there. Fellow Loopers Rodney and Sherri from Sasified and Pete and Pam on Endoxy that we had seen in Charleston docked at the marina directly across from us on the ICW. Their side of the ICW had restaurants, so we hiked over a swing bring and met up with them for dinner.
Monday and Tuesday, May 2 and 3 - So, The Rock Pile awaited us! it turned out that it was a non-event. Fortunately, going through this dangerous section of the ICW early in the day and during the week paid off. We did not come across any other boats and made the trip easily, staying in the middle. However, we still had 2 additional very challenging areas to go through. One was Shallots Inlet and the other was Lockwood's Folly (both are inlets from the Atlantic). They were very shallow and the markers were confusing. We made it through the Shallots Inlet, but when we got close to Lockwood's Folly we were at low tide. We slowed down to give the tide a chance to rise. As we neared Lockwood's Folly, we could see up ahead that a sailboat had gone hard aground. Two sailboats were coming up behind us and after radioing them, we realized that they had gone through Lockwood's Folly many time. We let them go ahead of us and we followed their route through the inlet. Again, local knowledge in invaluable! We think the sailboat that was aground was waiting for the tide to rise so they could float off.
We decided to spend the night at a marina in Southport NC, rather than going further to an anchorage, because storms were predicted for the next few days. The plan was to leave on Tuesday, but the weather did not cooperate. We decided to stay another night and hopefully we will leave on Wednesday. There was a boat that came into the marina today (Tuesday) that had been hit by lightening during a bad morning storm. It reinforced to us that we made the right decision!
Southport is a pretty community with a lot of history. There are several shops and many restaurants - and Carey found ice cream!
Although we couldn't join you on your "loop" we are so enjoying "living" it through you. Love seeing pictures of some great new places that we will perhaps have to visit and love seeing the pictures of places visited in the past. So jealous of your stop over in Charleston. Enjoy the trip with Tug LeeLoo
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