Goodbye Oil Leaks!

Hello to All – As we update this blog, we are sitting out a rainy day in Coinjock, NC. We are 50 miles south of Norfolk, and expect to be in the Chesapeake in a day or two.  We also want to make a correction to our last post…Nathanael Greene and family inhabited Cumberland Island, GA after the Revolutionary War, not the Civil War.  

So – we returned to Palm Coast in mid-May, with a quick stop at Fort Matanzas. This old Spanish outpost, constructed in 1740, lies between St. Augustine and Palm Coast, just inside the Matanzas Inlet from the ocean. It was used to protect the “back door” of the main fort in St. Augustine.  The National Park Service runs a small ferry to the fort, and the park includes a nice sandy beach inside the inlet as well as a large stretch of wild beach on the Atlantic. We anchored near the ferry dock and trusted our Rocna anchor and chain to hold us in the heavy current. It can be disconcerting to lie in bed and hear water rushing along the hull!  Private boats are not allowed on the little island where the fort lies – you must take the pontoon ferry, but it is free.  

We actually enjoyed returning to Palm Coast. We had already befriended a few of the cruisers in this small marina, which lies just off the ICW.  The town has everything in the way of shopping and services, and it was planned as a walkable/bikeable community, with plentiful trails and sidewalks (and the occasional alligator) and parks.  There is also a sizable population of Portuguese and Brazilians, and we were delighted to find their deli/wine shops and cafes.  

The parts we had ordered were waiting for us at the marina, and Edsel got right to work on our engine. He used a hoist hanging from a steel beam laid across two piles of railroad ties, and raised the engine out of the floor. Then Fred “went to school” as they worked together to remove and replace seals, check the oil pump and injectors, and check and seal the transmission. Three days later we dropped the engine back in the floor with high hopes of NOT having to swab oil every day.  And so far, so good!

We lingered a few more days, in part waiting for rain to pass, but in part just spending time. It’s amazing how we find “our tribe” as we move along. Here in Palm Coast is the retired veterinarian and his wife, who live on their catamaran with 5 whippets – and hail from the Seattle area (and you think we are crazy for having two cats onboard!). We met them first in Vero Beach but this is their home base. Then there is Meg and Gus, who live aboard their sailboat Seawinds. They made Palm Coast their land home 20 years ago and when not sailing, ran the kayak rental from the marina, and sold and delivered boats. Gus is Portuguese with roots in the northeast U.S., and it was fun to talk about sailing to Nantucket and even possibly to Portugal. Edsel had just replaced their engine (same one that we have), and when we found one of our fittings had a crack, he gave us his old one to use until we could get a new one.  It is “sailing serendipity”. Gus had scheduled their engine to be replaced after our work (nothing wrong – wanted more power). But a trawler limped in with a thrown rod in their Perkins 4-108, the same engine Gus was removing. Gus was able to sell his Perkins to the trawler, Edsel installed it and then installed the new engine in Seawinds. All this happened just a few days before we returned!

June 1, the start of hurricane season, was looming, and we needed to head north again. We trekked back through St. Augustine and the pretty Tolomato and St. John Rivers to Fernandina Beach and were happy to meet up with Blue Flamingo, our Vero Beach mooring buddies. We pulled the dinghy up on deck – a bit afraid of what was lurking beneath. The last cleaning was back in Vero Beach in March.  It is amazing the amount of biology that accumulates in these southern waters! Within a few days we had a good weather window for an overnight in the Atlantic, so we headed out with the tide and aimed for Hilton Head.  This was our first chance to sail using the monitor steering vane – and it was amazing! The downside is that it only works when the wind blows and the sails are balanced, and as evening fell and the wind died, we were back to hand steering.  It was a lovely night full of stars and no boat traffic, until we neared the Savannah River entrance just before dawn. We could see the glow of Savannah city lights to the west, and there was an additional glow to the east – from all the freighters sitting at anchor in the ocean! This is when we are really grateful for radar, which helped us determine that they were not moving through the channel. We safely crossed the channel and as the sun began to rise we headed up Port Royal Sound to Beaufort (Bewfort) SC.  

We tied to the face dock and topped off fuel, then backed up to our “slip”.  It was a bit rolly with the south wind hitting the dock, and we wish there had been a spot inside where we were on the trip south. But winds tend to lay at night, so it wasn’t too bad. The dinghy engine has been acting up lately, and the dinghy was on the foredeck from our ocean passage; otherwise we would have anchored out or tied to a mooring ball. But we definitely wanted to visit town and this one is worth the price of a slip.

We went to the little marine store to get transmission fluid, and a lady asked Fred what he needed. Thinking she was the “help”, he told her. The store did not have it, but she offered to get it when she went shopping!  Turns out she was a boater, NOT the help, and graciously dropped off 2 quarts at our boat later that afternoon!  We enjoyed the pretty waterfront park and swings, and had a wonderful dinner at the Old Bull Tavern. Don’t miss this one if you are ever visiting!

Charleston was our real destination on this leg. We calculated the tides to get through the shallow channels, and stayed in the ICW, dropping the hook in the Stono River just outside Charleston to ride out a storm and wait for our slip to open. There are not any good anchorages in Charleston Harbor, and all the dock space was full. We lucked out getting a slip for 3 nights at the Maritime Center, which is located close to the historic district on the point, and next door to the National Park Service (NPS) Visitors Center for Fort Sumter. It was a perfect location! We walked the streets and historic city market, oogled at the stately old homes, and admired the old walls and gates and window boxes overflowing with flowers. We took a Ghost Tour in the evening with a good story teller who recounted the history and hauntings of some select locations.  Under construction next to our marina is the International African American museum, which should be worth a visit once it opens next year. We felt that the slave history was well portrayed and definitely acknowledged in the presentations we saw/heard. We visited the NPS Visitors Center, but did not take the ferry to the forts. Fort Sumter (first shots of the Civil War) sits on an island at the entry to Charleston Bay, and Fort Moultrie sits across from it on the north side. Both are national monuments run by the NPS.  

Our friend Carol’s sister lives outside the city, and on our last night Nancy picked us up and gave us a great tour of the city. Then she drove us over the bridge to Shem’s Creek, where the shrimp boats come in and there are several restaurants along the waterway. We had a good visit and lovely meal on the patio as night fell.  We could have easily spent another week here!

Since the ocean weather was not hospitable, we continued north in the ICW. We had not traversed the portion from Winyah Bay, SC to Beaufort (Bowfort) NC. We loved the Waccamaw River with its wild, deeply forested shores. That eventually gave way to the homes and condos lining the inhabited stretch of the ICW inside the popular Myrtle Beach area. We took a slip at the Myrtle Beach Yacht Club for the night, and as we walked up to the office, heard a voice shout “That’s Fred and Lisa!”. It was friends we had made in the Chesapeake on our trip south. They have since bought a bigger boat and a slip here. We extended a day to have enough time to have dinner, swim in the pool, and be driven around on errands!

Our trek continued through Southport, a tempting stop, but we pushed on up the Cape Fear River, and tied to a mooring ball in Carolina Beach, NC, outside Wilmington.  This little harbor is almost completely enclosed, and offers good protection from any weather.  The afternoon thunderstorms have become more frequent so it seemed like a good (and economical) spot. The Atlantic beach is a 2-block walk from the town dinghy dock, and we found a parts store for the dinghy engine. The town was not as charming as we had hoped – it was almost completely wiped out by Hurricane Hazel in 1954. It is now a vacation destination known for its beach and boardwalk.

Just north of here, at Wrightsville Beach, was our last reliable inlet to the ocean, but the wind would have been strong on our nose, so we stayed inside, spending one night at Mile Hammock Bay, literally inside Camp Lejeune Marine Corps base, and then arriving in Beaufort, NC. We found a spot among several other boats across from the town docks and dropped the hook. This is typically a charming waterfront view with a lovely wild beach to the south. This time ALL the area marinas were packed with huge fishing boats for the Big Rock Blue Marlin Festival. The ENTRY fee was $27,500, and 266 boats competed. The top prize was over $3 mill for a 572 lb marlin. The public weigh-ins were across the bridge in Morehead City, so we did not see any of the big fish.

We looked forward to visiting Oriental, the Sailing Capitol of North Carolina. Tides in the North Carolina sounds are wind-driven, and it was too shallow (6’) for us to enter the harbor last December.  This time winds were in our favor (8’), and we spent 2 days at the little Oriental Marina and Inn. The town is small and walkable, and the marina has a cute tiki bar and inviting pool. We were also treated to good music on the deck Saturday night.  Lisa found an old historic house for sale and we briefly imagined rehabbing it – but came to our senses!

Moving on north, we opted for the marina at Dowry Creek, east of Belhaven. We loved our time in Belhaven, but several cruising friends had recommended this place. It had a lovely pool, which is a nice amenity when it is 85-90 degrees, and free laundry!  It is also 6 miles from anything, although they do have a courtesy car.  We swam, did laundry, and left the next morning for an anchorage in the Alligator River. We had a nice downwind slide across the Albemarle Sound, a more pleasant experience than our southerly crossing!  So here we are in Coinjock, poised for our jump to the Chesapeake Bay. We will be hauling out north of Annapolis for a month while we get a few projects completed, and squeeze in a visit to Michigan. Maybe we will see you in Traverse City!

Fair winds, Fred and Lisa