Once we spend sometime in place it gets harder to leave. You make new friends and just get comfortable not worrying about weather, depth and all the other concerns when moving.
Towards the end of April Mischief finally left St Augustine going north on the ICW to make sure the engine was really fixed. It was, yeah!!! Pine Island was a nice anchorage for the first night making for an easy day going to the Jacksonville, FL. There are some really nice free docks there with room for about 4 maybe 5 boats. We stayed there for 3 nights waiting for a weather window to go offshore. There was no electricity and very questionable water. The algae coming out of the faucet quickly clogged our water filter. Thank goodness for the filter. Being free also means no security. On our last night there someone boarded our boat at about 12:30 in the morning. When the hull was pounded and I shouted at them, they quickly hopped off the boat saying I scared them. Probably just kids but still scary.
We went out the St John River Inlet for an overnight sail to the St Marys Inlet. We arrived before sunset so slowly did circles until the sun was thinking about rising and the tides would be favorable. A mooring ball was taken at Fernandina Beach for a couple of days. Fernandina is nice little town for a short visit.
Again the weather was not cooperating so we finally decided to take the ICW to Lady Island Marina near Beaufort, SC. This is a very nice marina and there were some really friendly and helpful sailors there. We took Duber (dinghy) off the boat and checked out the area. The river has a strong current and the Torqeedo (dinghy engine) really had to work to get us back. John wanted to get some work done so we then moved to Beaufort’s mooring field for a few days. This gave a chance to explore the historical area of Beaufort. There was a “taste of Beaufort” festival going on with some really great music.
From Beaufort we continued north to just south of Charleston, SC. Most of the cruising guides warn against anchoring anywhere near Charleston. Supposedly it has been used as a nautical trash disposal site for the last 300 years and anchors often come up fouled or they don’t come up at all. This caused us to decide to go to St John Yacht Harbor for the night. A first class marina. A little pricey but it was nice. We did not get a chance to visit Charleston, we have to save something to do when we go back south.
Next we arrived in Georgetown for a short stop. There are some really neat old houses there. On many of the old houses there is a placard that states what year the house was built. And just like the Florida Keys they had chickens wandering around loose.
Our short term goal was to get to Osprey Marina south of Myrtle Beach. We made a reservation there for a month so that John could spend at some time Raleigh, NC for work and we could sneak a trip back to see family. This is a nice well protected, fresh water marina off the ICW that was very reasonably priced. Thank goodness, Florida prices were crazy high in some places.
First photo is on the ICW in South Carolina showing some old rice paddies. This picture reminded me of a scene from “Where the Crawdads Sing”. Second photo was a sign seen as we were nearing an area of shoaling (shallow water). In one way it was nice to know they were ready to help. on the other hand a little worrisome about how they knew someone might need it about then.
On our way there we were 1 day early so we anchored on the Waccamaw River. It took us 2 tries to set the anchor even with our Mantus anchor but once set it held well. If you were a frog this is exactly the most perfect place you could live. It was very serene. I was going to say peaceful until I remembered how the frogs would periodically start croaking for several minutes only to erupt again a little while later.
Adventures of Mischief 