Bellatrix

27 October 2015

South of St. Augustine

It has been awhile since I’ve posted, I’ll pickup at Little River.

We did stop and went to the Shrimpfest, good music, food and beer. We only stopped for a couple of hours and then moved on. We stayed the night at a public boat ramp that had a floating dock. I bumped something really hard going in and I think I bent the rudder shaft. I walked to a Walmart in search of a new phone, my old one only lasted two days after drying out, no luck at Walmart. We left early in the morning. Monday was Robin’s Birthday and we had an interesting day. Because of the heavy rains there was a lot of flooding. This area is between Myrtle Beach and Georgetown, SC. We were warned by the Coast guard to travel slowly and make no wake. Most of the fixed bridges are 65’ clearance from the water but since the water was so high the clearance was much less. The tide boards on two of the bridges read 60’, they must leave a little for safety as we are 62 1/2’. We had the current moving against us and we would edge up to the bridge keeping binoculars on the top of the mast. We went under two bridges that the VHF antenna pinged as we passed each beam of the bridge, close… There were a few boats following us and as we were the tallest, they felt safe if we made it through. The last bridge before Georgetown the tide was with us and carried us a little too quickly under the bridge, we ended up sideways under but made it.

We anchored in Georgetown harbor and took the dinghy to a dock. We had a Happy Birthday Robin Italian dinner at “Alfresco”, shrimp with bacon, caper berry, calamari, veal francese, and grouper scallopini. Excellent. We left in the morning and anchored that night in Whiteside Creek, an area with a shell beach that Bella enjoyed, her leg is much better.

Wednesday, October 14th we stayed at Charleston Maritime Marina. We spent 2 nights in Charleston and ran into Mark from “Sarafina” who we had met in the Dismal Swamp. We went to the Apple store and got a new phone, then a sorely needed haircut and it just so happen to be across from a White House Black Market (Robin’s favorite clothing store). We walked the town, beautiful old homes, and visited the local market and of course had some shrimp and grits at Hyman’s Seafood,excellent. We ran into Dr. Bud Liddel and his wife with whom I worked at Mercy, they were down for the weekend, small world.

We anchored out the next few nights and “buddy boated” with Mark on “Sarafina”. He is single handing now and a little unsure, but he’ll do better with more solo traveling. We arrived in Beaufort, SC on Saturday. We met Kate and Bill on an Island Packet “Katydid” from Rock Hall, MD. A nice couple. We all buddy boated the next day and anchored in a marsh on the Wright River on Sunday and Big Tom Creek on Monday. On Tuesday we decided to take a detour off of the ICW 7 miles up Darien Creek to the town of Darien, GA. It was well worth the trip. They offered free floating town docks with free electric and water, we stayed two nights. We were met at the dock by David the honorary “Dockmaster” who gave us the lowdown on the town. We had dinner a “Skipper’s Fish Camp”, lunch the next day at “Que Pasa” the best Mexican food I’ve ever had, and visited the local wine bar both evenings. It is a great hang out where the locals stop after work. Music and dancing at Skipper’s Wednesday night, Mark had fun dancing with some of the local girls. We met a guy at the wine bar who told us he owned a Bed and Breakfast, “Open Gates” in town and asked if we’d like breakfast, we agreed and met at 8 AM, Crepes filled with mascarpone cheese and covered in fresh strawberries and blue berries, coffee, juice, and bacon, $10.

We motor/sailed to Brunswick, GA on Thursday. As we pulled up to the fuel dock we heard a train whistle and Bella started howling, we’ve never heard her howl before. Brunswick is a nice town that has not yet recovered from the 2008 market. They are filming a movie starring Ben Affleck and many of the storefronts are being painted to look like a Cuban settlement in Florida in the early 1900’s. Robin and I enjoyed an excellent sushi dinner at “Basil Thai Sushi”. On Saturday we said goodbye to Mark and Kate and Bill and sailed out into the ocean for the trip down to Fernandina Beach, FL. It is interesting that we have had many cool days through the Carolinas and Georgia but as you get to Florida its 80 degrees, sunny and warm.

We anchored in Fernandina Beach and continued south to St. Augustine to meet up with Wendy Shortes…drinks, reggae music, and dinner, more shrimp and grits, also very yummy. Wendy graciously took Robin and Bella to the beach and then took Robin to pick up supplies and made dinner for us Monday night. Thank you Wendy !!!

Motoring to Daytona today, we are trying to get to Stuart by Friday, the Hinckley Yard there is going to try to fix my rudder.

In Daytona we will be at ICW mile marker 830. Almost 1000 miles from home now.