Myrtle Beach

There was a constant theme throughout the loop last year, and it continues still: There's too much water. Today we traveled from Georgetown to Myrtle Beach on the Waccimaw River. It's swollen. Two days ago it was 3 feet over flood stage. Today, it's just at flood. Boaters who past this way just a few days ago posted pictures of water up onto the siding of homes. We didn't see that, but we saw flooded yards and small ponds where they surely shouldn't be any. We went very slowly through these areas, hoping not to add to their problems.

We also traversed "the rock pile" which is one of the narrowest places on the ICW. Named, of course, for the rock; The route was blasted for boats to pass through. While deep enough, it is very narrow, so much so that 2 medium sized boats (like ours) shouldn't pass each other. Unlike much of the intracoastal (which is grassy, sandy, or muddy), touching bottom here will really hurt.

First time we've seen a derelict boat
with the sail up.

Dog update: I finally was able to talk to the vet Savannah saw last Friday (they were closed on Tuesdays, which I found oh so convenient). After sharing what she was going through they recommended cutting all her meds in half. I also reached out the Robert Creech, who's the Harbor Host in Southport, North Carolina. He gave me vet recommendations. I was able to get an appointment for Friday. She isn't doing well. In addition to coughing she -- for the first time ever that we've had the dog -- snubbed her food. Several times throughout the day she fell down and couldn't get up. This isn't going in a good direction.

Anyone know what the heck this is??!!

To add to the "joys of boating" Russ has been waiting for same parts to be delivered, replacement engine monitoring systems. These are what sit on the engine and give us status up in the helm. We know they are wonky since they never give us accurate battery readings (the port is always low, around 10.2, while the starboard is crazy high, 16.1). Also, one never knows how much gas there is in the tank. 

Anyway, these parts were scheduled with UPS to be delivered in Georgetown when we were there. Of course they were not. The seller contacted UPS and had them shipped here. Which they are not. Russ is going to try to track them down tomorrow. Hopefully, they'll be delivered before noon, then we'll head out to Southport. If they don't, I'm not sure what we'll do. I really want to get underway to get the dog to the vet.

The Myrtle Beach Yacht Club. TONS of boats!

Thus are the vicissitudes of boating.

Georgetown

Got another earlier start to the day, largely out of habit now, which made it a pretty easy ride to Georgetown. 

Parts of the ICW remain thin on this section. Up to this point what we traveled through had been dredged this past year, so many of the exciting parts we dealt with on the loop were less exciting. Here, however, we had to remain a bit aware. Lots of little streams and rivers criss-cross the the intracoastal, creating shoals as well as cross currents. We faired well.

We skipped Georgetown last time through, stopping in Myrtle Beach instead. But many have said it was one of the best little towns in South Carolina. We can see why. The marina is just steps away from the quaint downtown. I'm sure during a typical summer this place his hopping with families on vacation. While the marina is full, there weren't many folks in town.

Trees! On both side of the waterway.
We haven't seen that since the rivers.

Back in Isle of Hope, about a week ago, one dog developed an eye thing. Again. So we took her to an eye specialist in the area. Over the last few days however she's developed tremendous lethargy (and this wasn't a whipper-snapper of a pug to begin with), a possible cough, eating issues (she eats but she's real slow, possibly the only thing she's ever done fast in her life), and today the other eye is covered in mucus. I called a number of vets in the area, both here and up the coast, hoping to get someone to take a look and none of them (!) would. They all claimed they were booked, they aren't taking new clients, or go to the emergency vet. Which I would do if I had a car. It's a 45 minute drive from here. I asked one what was going on? She said she wished she knew -- things have suddenly gotten real busy. 

I called said emergency vet and explained the situation -- they told me to put a warm compress on the eye. Needless to say, I'm bummed out. I've reached out to Harbor Hosts up the way, hoping they had a vet we could go to. Fingers crossed.

Historic Clock of Georgetown

Look at this cute downtown!

Note the burgees. We removed out gold AGLCA
looper flag and put on the MTOA turtle (on the left).
Seems fitting.

McClellanville

New Map from Garmin InReach

We stopped here last year. McClellanville is on a little creek off the ICW, and has a number of working marinas here for shrimp boats. It was a worn looking place with lots of early morning risers (the shrimp boats). I didn't have great memories (I recalled a half-submerged pier with several derelict boats also half-submerged attached to it), but I remember it was easy in and out.

Funny story. While on the loop we met another looper whose boat's name was Tiki Queen. The couple's name was Leland and Karen McClellan. Oh yeah. Apparently his ancestors founded McClellanville! I always wanted to discuss the condition of his small marina. But that's not a friendly thing to do.

So here we are a year later and, viola, the boats are gone. I mentioned that to the dock master. She said they did clean out those boats but 3 more derelict boats have managed to get on the pier. It's a never ending battle, she said.

Despite the weather the Charleston Bay was calm

The original plan was to get to Georgetown today. However, the weather was really blustery and rainy when we got up this morning. In fact, we weren't sure we were even going to leave Charleston. It poured buckets of rain during the night, and the forecast called for more of the same all day. But by 9 am the clouds broke a little, the rain stopped, and we could even see patches of blue. 

Problem 2 was the tide. The current at St. Johns Yacht Harbor is formidable until very near slack. Today that wasn't until 11:30 am.  Getting a later start of course meant getting in late to Georgetown. 

Lastly, Georgetown marina didn't have space for us today (our reservation is for Tuesday). We thought we'd anchor out near the marina tonight and get in early the next day.

We pushed off the dock around 10:30 am with John and Martha tossing us our lines one last time. As the day progressed we wouldn't get into G-town until 7 pm. Days are long, so there'd be plenty of light, but why push? We had a couple of hectic days behind us, so let's turn in a little early. Heck, they had space for us in McClellanville.

Glad we did stop. The place looks great. It's peaceful and quiet here. And I need a nap.

Last year

This year

Charleston, well, close to Charleston

Yet again the day was planned around tides. We'd been told that the current through our destination, St. Johns Yacht Harbor, could be a problem. Slack time should be around 10:30 am.

We were up around 5:30 to walk dogs on the shore. Then we weighed anchor and headed out before even having our coffee. 

After a quick round of texting with As You Wish it turns out slack tide was closer to 11 am. Moreover, once we turned a corner the tide was pushing us right along at 7.5 knot as near-idle speeds. We were getting in closer to 10 am. About an hour out we called the marina to tell them we were coming in early. Right away he warned us of the current and it would be a thing. We planned on doing a stern in, but knew if things were tricky we'd just bow in.

Last time we came this way we stayed in Charleston, which was handy for getting to the history downtown. However, the weather got so bad and our boat tossed madly just sitting in the marina that I abandoned ship and checked myself into a hotel. This marina isn't on the Charleston bay. We'll go to and through the bay when we leave here.

John serving "tiny beers", a looper favorite.
It's really Liquor 43 (really cold) with a float 
of heavy cream. Tastes like a milkshake!

As we turned the corner to come down the fairway, between the current and the wind, inQuest crabbed on me, her stern coming around a bit. Yep, we're going bow in. That position put us perfectly into Poughkeepsie mode, so I mostly let the forces move the boat down to our slip. Then I bumped her forward as close to the up-current boat as I dared as I moved her nose into the slip. It was perfect.

As You Wish arrived about an hour later, timing the arrival on slack tide perfectly. From that moment on the day was spent celebrating their loop completion. Champagne, tiny beers, and the changing-of-the-burgee.

It was kinda sad in a way. This was really the end of the loop. All of the loopers we'd been traveling with had now finished. Today, we're not loopers. We're just boaters. That doesn't have the same ring to it.

Congratulations, crew of As You Wish

Steamboat Creek

We thought we'd be leaving Isle of Hope on Thursday, however, Wednesday I noticed the pug with eye issues was having another eye issue. One eye was larger than the other. I called a vet who they couldn't see her but they recommended an eye specialist in Savannah. After calling them, the only time they could look at the dog was Friday, 3:45 pm. ...sigh...

She received a couple of meds, one a steroid the other an antibiotic, as well as new drops. We're to watch how she does and report back in a week. They have affiliated eye vets up and down the eastern seaboard, so we can bring her in again, should things go badly.

But that made us free to travel on Saturday. First thing Russ did Saturday morning was take the car back to the rental office and bike home. I walked dogs, did the breakfast dishes, then filled up the water tanks so we were ready for the next few days. 

Amazing sunset due to rain Friday night.

We headed out around 8:30 am. 

With 2 shiny new belts on the port engine we put inQuest through some paces, from slow boating to sustained high RPMs. We knew it would be a long day, so when we could we put the spurs to her! Everything worked like it should.

Our friends from As You Wish cross their wake in Charleston. They plan on arriving around 10 am. In order to be there about then as well we pushed today into a really long day. That put us dropping anchor about 2 1/2 hours from Charleston.

We traveled by Paris Island today.
Now I have that song in my head.
"And we would aaaall go dooooown together!"

Along this route are a couple of notoriously thin cuts that need to be dredged yearly to be passable. Due to our timing, however, we entered both at high or just past high tide so we had no issues. Russ had me all worried about them, and while going through I kept yelling, "Cheesecake!" because they were nothing to fret over.

I just have to mention that our dogs are amazing. They took a walk at Isle of Hope, ate dinner around 5 pm, and didn't get a second walk until we dinghy-ed them over to Steamboat Landing, a little pier and boat ramp. They never complained and they weren't pacing in frustration. That to me is astounding.

Life on Isle of Hope

"New Normal Menu" -- love it!

Every now and again you have to stop for a while to reprovision, run errands, and fix stuff. That's us, here in Savannah. Technically, Sand Fly. But that's not as romantic as Savannah.

Russ has spent a bunch of time tracking down belts for the port engine. While every auto part store has them (AutoZone, Napa Auto Parts, O'Reilly, Advanced, Pep Boys) they all seem to have exactly one, and even though they are the exact same size we're looking for, they are not. Some are thicker, some are longer -- yes, longer! It's been as frustrating as confusing.

We have had a chance to eat out a couple of times. Restaurants are doing a number of interesting things amid the new world of "social distancing" and "clean surfaces." Driftwood, a seafood restaurant, have small tripods on their tables with a QR code on it. Once scanned, your phone will bring up their menu. TA-DA! The waitress said they love the new system. They don't have to handle and clean menus, nor throw out used paper ones, and the chef can change it on the fly. Brilliant! (Btw, they had some of the BEST fish tacos we've had in a looooong time!

High tide -- the top of the piling is at arm's height

Now, it is NOT. 

We also ordered some stuff from Amazon. Side note: there are a lot of things that Covid-19 changed that I'm happy to have stay changed, like the menu thing at Driftwood. Or tap pay (which many restaurants and stores have recently added). Nothing like a pandemic to instigate tech upgrades. But I miss Amazon, REAL Amazon. You remember. Just $3 more for next day delivery? Good times, good times. PS. Russ would just order the engine belts from Amazon if we could get them here in a timely manner.

Anyway, our stuff is taking a while to get here, so we'll continue to wait.

One of our favorite places to eat, 
The Original Pancake House. 
Thems 49er Flapjacks.

The pandemic has hit everything in an odd way. This marina, for example, has never had this many boats here this time of year. Most folks are usually up north by now. They're kind of packing us in. So, yet again, we're in a glut of "lots of boats" while we travel. Seems the norm for us.

Isle of Hope (made it!)

We left Sunbury around 9:30 am, just shy of slack high tide. Turns out, getting off the dock was still a bit tricky, even with the slowing tide. As soon as we untied the stern line the back drifted into the current. I was concerned to over use the port engine given it only had 1 belt. It wasn't a pretty exit, but we didn't hit or damage anything, so we claim victory.

At our normal speed it should be a 4 1/2 hour run to Isle of Hope. But we wanted to go slower this trip, largely to keep the port's RPM lower than normal just to make sure it was alright. We ran around 1800 RPM, and usually we go 2300. However, we also wanted to time the tides. Low tide would be just past 3 pm in Savannah. Going slower meant we'd arrive right around then.

Russ at the helm

The trip was uneventful. No rain, no wind. Just some patchy cloud cover. Russ checked the belt a number of times during the trip while I kept a watchful eye on the engine temp. It ran just fine.

Getting in a little earlier than we planned meant we still had a little current. Docking required going past the marina, turning around, then coming in. The spot they wanted us was between a huge and beautiful Nordhaven and a fishing trawler. We were to parallel parking right between them.

I told Russ I was bummed not to get up to the Hudson this year for one reason only -- to see and thank Keith, the dock master at Poughkeepsie. He taught us "The Poughkeepsie Manuever" which has been one of the handiest things we have ever learned. And we used it today.

With the current coming at us I aimed for a boat on the dock beside ours, Nectar (turns out we know him -- he was in Ortega Landing while we were there). Then I just turned the bow slightly towards our dock. The current does the rest, pushing us sideways. All I have to do it apply enough engine to keep us in our "slot," and off the fancy Nordhaven (Russ coached that we shouldn't hit boats we couldn't afford to rent for a week.)

I aimed for the boat on the far left, with the green canvas.
The tide pushed us all way to the right against our dock. Ta Da!

We slowly slid to the starboard side, and settled nicely into our slip. Which was extremely encouraging since we had a couple of iffy days.

We've rented a car for the week to get some shopping and errands done, including getting new belts. So we'll be here a while. 

This stretch is called Hell's Gate, due to it being
both shallow and narrow. It's been dredged 
recently. So it's only Heck's Gate now.

Lovely sunrise in Sunbury

Getting to Sunbury, limping

Recall that I mentioned once, every day's a friggin' adventure? Today was one of those days.

The weirdness started last night when we realized that, boy, we just don't know nuthin' yet. While the anchorage was handy for dog walking (nice dinghy dock) it was a long bay that runs north and south. Around 7:30 pm the tide went slack, which lasted 30 mintues, then the tide went out. And by 9 pm it was racing. You didn't want to fall into the water because you'd be heading out to sea -- crazy tidal flow. This was not unexpected, nor our issue. However, weather was also coming up from the south.

So the tide is racing from the north, the wind is blowing from the south. What does that get you? CHOP. And given the speed of the tide and the speed of the wind, LOTS OF CHOP. Like 1 - 2 feet.

Dreary day. This was before the belt blew.

In the boat this isn't a big problem -- a little bouncy, which is kinda nice at bed time. For our dinghy, however, this was a problem. It rides low, so a 1 - 2 foot wave tossed it pretty good. We struggled with the idea of getting it out of the water, but to do that with our davit system you have to turn the boat sideways. We were sure it would get breached in an attempt. And sink. So we gave it an extra line, and let it drift a little farther from our hull (being close seemed to add to the bouncing and wiggling), and hoped for the best.

Yes. We still have a dinghy. Things calmed down within a couple of hours, so all was good.

Morning came. We walked dogs, had coffee and breakfast, and fired up the engines. While Russ fiddled with the anchor, I felt a shudder in the helm. I noticed the gauges for the port engine jumped all over the place, the RPM going up and down, as if it were sputtering from running out of gas. It only lasted a moment, then ran fine. Hm.

Fast forward about a hour or so underway. We're getting a bit of help from the tide, pulling us over 10 knots (which shows in red on our map). I noticed a boat coming down the ICW in the bay we're going to turn up into. As they approach I noticed a sound, and as they get closer it got louder. I mentioned it to Russ, "What the heck is that noise?" Then I realized, it's not them -- it's us. Russ decided to go check the engines.

Next he's yelling, "ALL STOP!"

I put the engines in idle. The air was smoky and had that burnt rubber smell. We broke the 2 fan belts on the port engine. Russ opened the windows to help air out the saloon.

We try to run a little while slowly without belts, but the engine started to over heat. So we killed it and ran on the starboard one, only.

The starboard engine running forward without the port engine means the boat will turn left, making circles with the single engine. So we mashed the rudder to the right to compensate. It's slow going, and eddys and current wreak havoc with steering. We did manage to get her moving in a relatively straight line, albeit much slower than our usually speed. Around 5 knots.

Originally bound for Sunbury (and their wonderful food) we were not sure that was right destination given the circumstance. It's not a town so they don't have easy access to auto repair stores (these are the same engines in big rigs, so parts is parts!). But given we were traveling on 1 engine the ride to Isle of Hope, our next intended stop, would be many hours. Furthermore, driving with 1 engine was tricky and taxiing. I didn't want to do that.

Russ called Sunbury and explained our situation. They had a volunteer that would take him to a Napa Auto Parts about 12 miles from the restaurant. We stayed the course. While on the way we hit a couple of downpours. Recall that Russ opened the windows? Yep. Water everywhere downstairs.

Why you come to Sunbury -- the Sunbury Crab Company!
Their flounder on top, crab and ahi tuna on the bottom. 

We made it to Sunbury and docked. Thankfully the wind was calm and the current was slacking. I was able to do it with just the starboard.

Based the part number from the shredded belts Russ bought 2 replacements. They are tight. So tight he can only put one on. 

We'll run to Isle of Hope with the one belt. Fingers crossed we get there!

Oh. And this happened. Some kind of bite that 
turned into a big blister.

Duplin Anchorage

We enjoyed our short visit on Jekyll Island, taking advantage of their great bike paths that are NOT on the road and go around the entire island. But it was time to keep moving, keep getting north.

While installing the new water filter system Russ ran into (yet another) plumbing issue and needed a particular fitting. Jekyll Island has no hardware stores. After a quick google search we found one on the next island up. 

So, we broke the day into 2 parts. First, a small trip to an anchorage just outside St. Simons. Russ dropped the dinghy, loaded up his bike, went to shore, and did some shopping. He returned about a hour later, victorious, hoisted the dinghy and off we went. That could not have been more perfect.

If you zoom you'll see a red and green channel
marker. You know this will be a tight left turn 
 because the red will be on our left.

There was only one hitch in our giddyup, however. Tides.

We are a very shallow draft boat. And we are very cautious about certain section of the Intracoastal that run insanely shallow. This was definitely one.

At the very moment of low tide we made the turn up the Little Muddy River (the sharp left on the map near the time stamp). And bumped bottom. Bumped a couple of times after that, too. We proceeded very slowly, our motto being "The slower you go the less damage you do!" The charts showed bright colors, indicating danger and depths around 4 feet. We draft 3.6. 

This was our AquaMaps view through the Little Muddy River.
The bright red line was a Coast Guard depth chart, so it's the only 
"known". You want to stay on that, despite the fact that red means
there's NO WATER!!!

This is a known issue about Georgia. In fact, there are a number of boaters who skip it altogether, leaving the ICW for the Atlantic around Brunswick and coming back inside around Savannah. Why stress, and once you've done the ICW why do the icky part again?

We're just not that smart. Maybe next time.