Annapolis to Florida via the ICW

A web log of the sailing vessel "Gyatso"

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Sailing Log for trip from Annapolis to Florida via the ICW

Gyatso and crew departed Annapolis on Friday, January 6, 2006 to begin our journey south to Florida where we hauled out and spent two months finishing-up refit projects. As hard as we tried to win the unofficial prize for being the last to head south from Annapolis in 2005, it appears that we might have been the first to do so in 2006. We arrived in St. Augustine, Florida on Monday, February 27, 2006, and the sunny, warm weather was a welcome change after a chilly winter trip down the ICW.

Log Book Entries

Friday, 01/06/06--We departed Annapolis and motored 44.5 miles south to Solomon's, Maryland, making excellent time with 25-35 knot winds from the north. Cloudy skies and temperatures in the low 40s made for raw, but bearable conditions on the bay. We were vying for the prize for the last ones to head south for the year from Annapolis, but given our later-than-expected departure David noted, "Maybe we win the grand prize for being the first ones to head south in 2006!" We made tacos for dinner and went ashore for an after dinner drink at the Dry Dock.

Saturday, 01/07/06--We got off to a late start in the morning, and it was totally dark by the time we docked in Reedville, Virginia. A sunny, but chilly day on the Chesapeake with lots of water birds as we motored along. After arriving at the dock, we saw a meteor with a bright tail streaking behind it in the clear night sky.

Sunday, 01/08/06--A cloudy day with SW winds 10-15 knots and air temperatures in the low 40s. We made it to Deltaville which was only 22.2 NM from Reedville. The marina is much improved from the previous visit in 1997. As soon as we docked, several live-aboards started popping their heads out of their hatches like little moles coming out of their holes. Everyone was friendly and helpful in getting us oriented. We took a loaner tandem and rode it into town, but when it came time to stop, we learned how difficult it is to dismount from a bike that was too large for us. Our only mishap of the day was a dismount that went awry!

Monday, 01/09/06--A peaceful day at the dock in Deltaville waiting for the wind to switch from south to north. We ate curry chicken for dinner last night only to discover that we were out of dish soap. Somehow we managed to bring along 5 extra containers of hand soap from the house, but no dish soap. Curry dishes are not the time to have a dish soap crisis, so we rode to the convenience store to correct the problem. At the store, Lisa also asked the clerk for some butter. The clerk replied, "The butter is over here...we have Parkay and margarine." I guess those Parkay/butter ads really worked!

Tuesday, 01/10/06--We had good weather in the 50s for the trip to Portsmouth, VA, just across the river from Norfolk. We docked at Tidewater and arranged for a mechanic to help us with some engine maintenance the following morning.

Wednesday, 01/11/06--We spent the morning with Patrick, a mechanic, on board to help us with our first oil change and adjustment of the packing gland on the propeller shaft. He also fixed the electric bilge pump (a piece of plastic was jammed in the strainer) and discovered that there was no transmission fluid. We had not checked it since departing from Maine and had just assumed that it was checked during the commissioning of the engine by Yankee Marina. We have no idea if we actually went 1,000 miles without a drop of transmission oil, and so we filled the tank, ran the engine and then drained the oil to check for pieces of metal, etc. There were some small flecks of metal, but everything seemed okay. After studying the charts to refresh our memory about the challenging first few miles of the ICW, we got underway at 1:45 p.m. and made our way through the various bridges and a lock to Mile 12 before sunset. We walked to the grocery store for provisions and returned for a quiet dinner tied up at the canal wall.

Thursday, 01/12/06-Tuesday, 01/17/06--We spent five days traveling south on the ICW from Mile 12 to the Whittaker Creek Yacht Harbor at Mile 180.7 in Oriental, North Carolina. After making our way under the new bridge in Great Bridge on Thursday morning, we had great weather for the trip to Coinjock, North Carolina, a place we stopped on our trip in 1997. The marinas and docks had sustained quite a bit of damage from Hurricane Isabel a few years earlier. On Friday, while waiting for the fog to lift we were able to scrub down the decks for the first time since staying in Annapolis. It was a good thing we waited to cross the Albemarle Sound because we found out later that other boats had quite a time with the pea soup fog. We were the only boat tied up for the night at the Alligator River Marina, and the following day we were the last boat through the Alligator River Bridge before it was closed for two days due to high winds. We had more fuel filter/fuel supply problems while navigating the wind and choppy waves and ended up anchoring just after nightfall in the Pungo River. Unfortunately, the anchorage had no protection from the northwest wind, and we ended up riding out the gale at anchor until the wind subsided to below 30 knots on Sunday. We couldn't believe that our anchor held so strongly with winds gusting over 50 knots. Just in case, David slept one night with all of his foul weather gear on to be ready at a moments notice if the anchor broke free. We spent two days in Bell Haven at the dock so that we could have heat as the temperatures plunged into the high 20s overnight. This gave us time to catch-up on laundry and to provision the boat with more food. We also worked on the fuel filters before departing and made it to Oriental, NC just before an afternoon squall hit.

Wednesday, 01/18/06-Tuesday, 01/24/06--We stayed a week in Oriental, NC to spend some time working on the boat and to visit with our cousins Dan, Sharon and Katherine. We were able to get the fuel tank cleaned out (finally!), and after removing a few inches of sludge along the baffle in the middle of the tank, we hope this is the end of our troubles with fuel filters and fuel supply! (See pictures in the Refit & Repairs Photo Gallery.) We enjoyed several meals with our cousins at their house, and we even had them on board for a pancake breakfast and a taco dinner. Sharon gave Lisa bread baking lessons, and Dan and David spent time together on electronic charts and learning about their recent two-year trip to the Caribbean. It was nice to stopover for a week and catch-up on rest after the cold trip down the first part of the ICW in January. We departed on a sunny, breezy day for Beaufort, NC and made the 2:30 p.m. opening of the bascule bridge.

Wednesday, 01/25/06-Thursday, 02/02/06--The town and harbor area of Beaufort were worth at least a three day stopover, especially since the Beaufort Docks had a courtesy car for running errands to get needed marine supplies. We had a great view of the beach and dunes across the harbor and enjoyed watching the Shackleford ponies grazing and the dolphins swimming by. On Friday, we departed under sunny skies with temperatures in the 40s and stopped for fuel in Swansboro, SC at low tide. Since we were basically in the mud at the fuel dock, we decided to spend the night there. We invited another couple traveling south on a smaller boat aboard for a visit and some fresh baked chocolate chip cookies. Temperatures dropped into the high 20s at night but eventually climbed up into the 50s the next day. On Monday, we had a foggy passage through the Cape Fear River and tied up for the night at a dock in Myrtle Beach. On Tuesday, we had strong northwest winds and chilly temperatures for the trip to Georgetown, SC where we decided to stay at anchor for two nights before continuing on to McClellanville, SC. We had a pleasant stay for the night while a big thunderstorm passed by, including a visit to the studio of Lee Arthur, a local artist who had made an amazing carving of a sturgeon that we admired at a local seafood restaurant during our stay in Georgetown. This part of the waterway is very beautiful with expansive marshes and lots of wildlife. Lisa spotted over a dozen eagles in just one day.

Friday, 02/03/06--We anchored amongst the marshes in Dewes Creek north of Charleston, SC with some hesitation based on the weather report calling for "a slight chance of severe weather." We ended up being hit with a weather phenomenon known as a "gravity wave" which was much like a microburst of wind and rain. Just as our anemometer clocked 77 knots of wind, our anchor broke free around midnight, and we had no time to respond before getting blown aground at the edge of the marsh at high tide. We called for a tow boat to meet us at the next high tide, and they pulled us off without much trouble at noon the next day. Unfortunately, we sustained damage to our rudder and steering during the storm or in the process of being towed off. With some assistance from Towboat US, we made it to the nearby marina at Isle of Palms so that we could fix the damage caused by the storm.

Saturday, 02/04/06-Wednesday, 02/15/06--It took a day or two to recuperate from the storm, but when we heard what happed to other boats and their owners in Charleston during the same storm, we were somewhat relieved. Several boats were damaged, one sank at the dock and an owner was hurt while trying to adjust dock lines. For us, it turned out that the cast bronze bracket associated with our steering quadrant had cracked in two. When we removed it, we found a fracture in the part which looked like it had been repaired previously. So, it was a blessing in disguise to find this weak link, and we found a shop nearby to fabricate a new part made out of stainless steel. Unfortunately, when the bracket broke, the linear drive for the autopilot also broke, and so this was removed and sent in for repairs/replacement. We were very lucky to end up at a marina with other friendly and helpful cruisers and liveaboards. We enjoyed time with John on Double Eagle, Joe & Mary on Typhoon, and Nancy & Mike on Steeling Away from VT. We watched the Superbowl and ate snow crabs on board Typhoon and had a fun dinner on board Double Eagle one night during our stay. Lisa tried her new bread baking skills and brought a freshly baked loaf of focaccia to the party. We were docked only three blocks from the beach, and Lisa enjoyed several walks and shelling outings while waiting for repairs to be completed. David worked hard on repairs and wrapping up other LakeNet business during our stay. The weather was mostly in the 30s at night and 50s during the day. We departed under sunny skies and 10 knots of wind from the southwest and anchored in Church Creek at Mile 481.6 on the ICW.

Thursday, 02/16/06-Wednesday, 02/22/06--David thinks that the Coosaw River in South Carolina is one of the most beautiful parts of the ICW so far. We arrived in Beaufort, SC and spent the first night at dock so that we could use the loaner car for provisioning. We anchored out the second night, after collecting our mail at the post office, and then continued south anchoring in Bull Creek at Mile 565.5, Redbird Creek at Mile 606.9 and Wally's Leg at Mile 684.5 on the ICW before arriving at Jekyll Island, Georgia on February 22nd. As we made our way south, we saw lots of dolphins, a small alligator swimming in the river, and lots of birds, including oyster catchers.

Thursday, 02/23/06-Sunday, 02/26/06--After an enjoyable two days at Jekyll Island we continued south via Fernandina Beach to our planned destination in St. Augustine, Florida.

Monday, 02/27/06--Arrived in St. Augustine, Florida. Our first day with temperatures in the 70s since we departed Maine! Seeing this lovely city from the water for the first time feels like you have just made landfall in Europe. We passed by the City Marina and the anchorage to the San Sebastian River. A cell phone call confirmed that we would go to St. Augustine Marine, a well-known yard that would be able to accommodate us for the next month or so.