360 Water View

May 19 – June 2, 2020 – As we began moving north in April, the big question was how hard was it going to be to get necessary services (like fuel, water and pumpouts) amid the uncertainty and restrictions of the coronavirus response, as we transited the states that comprise the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway. Overlay on that the impending hurricane season, and wanting to have at least a little bit of certainty. Where would we stop (or could we stop) and for how long? And then what?

So, we’d made arrangements to pull 25 miles off the ICW in New Bern, NC, as a secure, and pleasant (in normal times, anyway) place to pause, while the Virginia and Maryland stances on COVID-19 boating restrictions relaxed. We wound up staying at the New Bern Grand Marina for two weeks, that coincided with the State’s progression to Phase 2 of their return to normalcy.

New Bern, North Carolina’s second oldest town, was founded in 1710 by a Swiss nobleman who named it after his native city of Berne, Switzerland. Bern means “bear” and the “Bern Bear” symbol is seen on the flag. Commemorative cast-iron bear heads decorate the historic City Hall and Central Fire Station, and all around town (see photo)

Stores open, restaurants serving, farmers market operational. Ahhh!

Good friends Bill and Geni, on Patriot, joined us early in our first week, and it was nice to catch up and plan our respective summers, over docktails. We even helped Bill celebrate a momentous birthday, at a local waterfront restaurant!

We decided to defer retrieval of our car from storage in Ft Lauderdale, so we took the bikes down and made a grocery run, and walked the town for exercise.

When we leave New Bern on June 2, we’ll be on the final leg of our Loop journey, with just a couple hundred miles to Norfolk.

May 17-19, 2020 – We knew there was a low pressure system brewing in the south Atlantic, as well as an even larger system brewing in the center of the country, and we figured we’d need to find a place to hunker down within the next day or so to let the uncertainty play out.

When we woke up on Sunday, it was indeed Tropical Storm Arthur, and the leading fringes would probably drop some showers on us as we moved on from Wilmington. Our track actually took us first southwest back down the Cape Fear River, to rejoin the ICW, before being more west-to-east. We left at first light, and passed by Phil and Karen’s home before 9; they’d offered to take some pictures of us as we passed, and from high on his third floor deck, Phil got a great angle of the boat with the barrier island and the ocean in the background.

The wind was very stiff on our bow all day, exceeding 30 knots, although waves in the ICW were generally small. We could see the leading edge fringes of the Tropical Storm begin to encroach, and felt the occasional showers more frequently.

At one point, the burgee on our bow begin to oscillate even more than it had a few moments before – turns out it was due to the metal being fatigued, and seconds later it snapped off, and the flag snagged momentarily on a storage bag we have mounted to the bow. Ben sprinted forward, onto the deck, and was able to retrieve it. Whew, we will have to remount our tattered white burgee for the last few hundred miles of our Loop, but we still have it !

Our first choice marina turned out to have no room for us, so we pressed on to a protected anchorage at Mile Hammock Bay, nestled up next to Camp Lejeune. We anchored with a couple of sailboats there, laying out lots of chain for the predicted blow.

As it turned out, though, the winds stayed in the mid-teens, and the rain stayed light to moderate, with no thunderstorms.

In the morning, it looked like the last of Arthur would clear the Morehead City / Beaufort area around mid-day, and the winds would lighten up later in the afternoon. Conditions later in the week were only predicted to worsen, so we thought it might be best to press on, rather than get pinned down where we were.

As we continued, we passed through a very strict swing bridge, that warned us not to be late for the opening EXACTLY ON the hour. This area adjoins a Camp Lejeune firing range, and fortunately we came by in the morning, as they often close down the waterway in the afternoons for gunnery practice.

We saw plentiful evidence of past hurricanes, and the damage they wrought to buildings, boats, and trees. Even now, some years later, the remnants remain.

We bypassed Morehead City and Beaufort, and pressed on up the ICW to stop short of the Neuse River. In more pleasant times, we’d have like to have stopped on one or the other; the two towns are across the river from each other, and feature history and good seafood. But we didn’t want to dock at either one in the high wind, and then get trapped there for the even worse weather expected in for the rest of the week. We figured we can go back on the nice sunny day of our choosing, by car, and get even more enjoyment, especially as the coronavirus comeback is scheduled to move to Phase 2 this weekend, and restaurants will start to reopen for onsite dining.

We anchored, again amidst a bunch of sailboats, and with crab-trap floats all around, at Cedar Creek.

We awoke to rain, with more forecast, but no thunderstorms. We watched the radar, and picked a time to leave that we thought might give the best chance to arrive at New Bern in light(er) rain.

The conditions on the lower Neuse River were quite rough, with swell and waves from a stiff east wind whipping things up the length of Pimlico Sound. The rain intensity varied, but remained continuous as we made our way into smoother conditions, and finally docked around midday at the New Bern Grand Marina.

Ahhh, to rest here for a few weeks, and get ourselves ready for the summer months ahead!

May 14-16, 2020 – We left Wacca Wache Marina pretty early, enroute to Southport, and then Wilmington, where we would meet up with friends Phil and Karen. We’d met them early in our Loop planning phase, as they prepared for and completed their Loop on Seascape, a Mainship trawler.

They left the DC area and now live in a beautiful waterfront home overlooking the ICW between Carolina Beach and Wrightsville Beach.

In Southport, we’d meet up with Harbor Hosts (of the Year!) Robert and Kay Creech, and some fellow Loopers that we knew were also inbound to Southport Marina that evening.

May 13, 2020 – The crew of Kissed Some Frogs, who we’d originally met last May in Norfolk, recently completed their Loop and returned home to Murrells Inlet and took on the role of Harbor Hosts for that area. A few weeks ago, they posted on the AGLCA forum that something was OPEN, there was SOMETHING TO SEE!

We reached out to them as we got close, and they were nice enough to offer us their truck to go to the store, and to visit Brookgreen Gardens.

Brookgreen Gardens is a sculpture garden and wildlife preserve, founded by Archer Milton Huntington, stepson of railroad magnate Collis Potter Huntington, and Anna Hyatt Huntington, his wife. It opened in 1932, and is built on four former rice plantations, taking its name from the former Brookgreen Plantation. (See official website here)

The gardens and sculptures were really quite spectacular, and it’s easy to see why our friends are members there; there is so much to see that the few hours we spent just scratched the surface.

And in addition to the massive scale of the gardens and sculptures, there was a special exhibition of miniature paintings. Amazingly tiny pieces, with detail that needs a magnifying glass to appreciate.

May 9-10, 2020 – Charleston is our second big cultural stop in South Carolina. In normal times, it has quite a reputation as a ‘foodie paradise’, in addition to all its history and architectural beauty.

Unfortunately, it wasn’t normal times, so we weren’t really able to get the full dining experience; maybe next time. We did manage to get a sidewalk table on Mothers Day, though, and ordered some pretty good takeout from a well-known restaurant for lunch on Monday while we were waiting for tide/current to allow our safe exit from our dock at the Carolina Yacht Club.

We took our bikes all around on Sunday, and managed to see quite a bit of the historic area. We went for walk in the morning sunshine on Monday back around the Battery, to get a closer view.

The Battery is a landmark defensive seawall and promenade in Charleston, South Carolina. Named for a civil-war coastal defense artillery battery at the site, it stretches along the lower shores of the Charleston peninsula, bordered by the Ashley and Cooper Rivers, which meet here to form Charleston harbor. (Wikipedia)

While its Civil War history is front and center, there is a lot of Revolutionary War history on display as well.

May 7, 2020 – After anchoring in a remote spot just north of the SC/GA border, we made a short run up to take a mooring ball at Beaufort, SC.

Beaufort, South Carolina, is pronounced “BEW-fert”,  with a similar sound as the one you find in the word “beautiful.”

In about 330 more miles, we will come to Beaufort, North Carolina, which is pronounced “BOW-fert” or “BOH-fert.” It has a similar pronunciation as the one you find in the old-fashioned name “Beauregard.”

Important to know, since you don’t want to go around mispronouncing the name of the place when talking to people who live there!

Founded in 1711, Beaufort is known for its historic Antebellum streets framed by natural foliage and centuries-old, moss-draped live oak trees, so we dinghied ashore to take a look around.

In addition to the residential buildings, we noted a couple churches (in addition to the big Baptist church) with interesting side stories.

The first of these was the First African Baptist Church. It doesn’t exactly say why it needed to be founded. But I think that we know why.

Anyway, a very nice looking church, and and interesting story about one of its notable members is described below.

Not being familiar with Mr Smalls, mentioned on the plaque, we looked him up, and found that he lived quite a remarkable life. From Wikipedia: Robert Smalls (April 5, 1839 – February 23, 1915) was an American businessman, publisher, and politician. Born into slavery in Beaufort, South Carolina, he freed himself, his crew, and their families during the American Civil War by commandeering a Confederate transport ship, CSS Planter, in Charleston harbor, on May 13, 1862, and sailing it from Confederate-controlled waters of the harbor to the U.S. blockade that surrounded it. He then piloted the ship to the Union-controlled enclave in Beaufort-Port Royal-Hilton Head area, where it became a Union warship. His example and persuasion helped convince President Abraham Lincoln to accept African-American soldiers into the Union Army.

After the American Civil War he returned to Beaufort and became a politician, winning election as a Republican to the South Carolina State legislature and the United States House of Representatives during the Reconstruction era. Smalls authored state legislation providing for South Carolina to have the first free and compulsory public school system in the United States. He founded the Republican Party of South Carolina. Smalls was the last Republican to represent South Carolina’s 5th congressional district until 2010.

We had also been advised to visit the cemetery of the St Helena church. St. Helena’s Church is one of the oldest active churches in the country. The congregation dates back to 1712 when St. Helena’s colonial parish was established by the Church of England. 

In the cemetery, we found headstones for combatants on both sides during the Revolutionary War.

The church was also used as a Union hospital during the Civil War.

May 6, 2020 -After our stay at Jekyll Island, we made a short run up toward Brunswick, GA for fuel before continuing on.

As we came out the river, we were able to see the salvage operation going on for the Golden Ray, a car carrier ship that capsized and ran aground back on September 8, 2019. It is being cut into pieces to be loaded on barges and hauled away, as they determined that it could not be righted/floated off the sandbar.

There is quite an interesting story about the harbor pilot who managed to get the capsizing ship onto the sandbar rather than in the middle of the channel, and how he helped in the rescue of the crew. See that article here: Charleston SC-born harbor pilot is hero of Georgia cargo ship capsize

We soon got to a notorious section of the ICW, historically prone to shoaling, called Hell Gate. Chantale was at the helm, and brought us through unscathed.

Continuing on our way, we passed the town of Thunderbolt , located along the Wilmington River section of the intracoastal waterway, leading from the Atlantic Ocean to the City of Savannah.

Wikipedia: According to tradition, Thunderbolt was named from an incident when lightning strike caused a spring to open up.^[7] A pretty cool name for a town.

We saw a number of megayachts docked at Thunderbolt Marine here, including this one.

Looking at the name, Ben was intrigued. Perhaps somebody who made his money in the biotech industry?

A little Googling yielded the owner to be Dr Jonathan Rothberg, an American chemical engineer and biologist, inventor and entrepreneur.

This article gives some more insights into the owner and the yacht: On board with Jonathan Rothberg, owner of 55m explorer yacht Gene Machine

May 4-6, 2020 – It was a very strange couple of days, boating through the Georgia coastal salt marshes. Curving and twisting through the AICW channel, we navigated a number of tricky spots, waited out the tide one afternoon to make sure we had good depth in one shallow area, and anchored in water that rose and fell more than 9 feet overnight with the tide, the water surging into the river, and out of the river.

May 5, 2020 – Finally, an almost normal day, enjoying some local sights, restaurants, and stores. A nice long bike ride, a walk on the beach.

We had decided on a two-night stop here, for Chantale’s birthday, and it turned out to be a really great day. Sunny and breezy, we took advantage of the many bike trails to ride up to Driftwood Beach, and the historical area where the rich and famous once summered.

May 4, 2020 – Today we crossed the Florida line into Georgia. Looking back, we’ve been in Florida since we arrived at Pensacola on November 12, almost 6 months ago! From there it was 889 miles down to Boca Chica, our southernmost stop, and 581 miles back up the Eastern side. More than a quarter of all the miles we have traveled on the Loop so far – Florida is a big state!

As we have gotten into northern Florida, we have gone from heavily developed urban and suburban waterways, relatively straight and defined, to a much more natural, rural and meandering scene. Whereas in some parts of Florida the tides are a foot or less, the water raises twice a day here eight feet or more! We tend to focus on what that means for navigating, but there are fascinating natural aspects of this that we will have a chance to observe.

As briefly described in a very nice article, linked here, “Georgia salt marshes are flat, extensive coastal “prairies” dominated by a tall, marine-adapted grass, smooth cordgrass”

Another article, from the National Park Service, points out that there are actually two major zones in the marsh – the high and the low marsh. These two areas are delineated by the vegetation type, which is an indication of the daily water coverage.

The high marsh is covered with water only at the highest tides, which occur when the moon is new or full and during stormy weather. It has sandy soil and a high diversity of plants. These include sea oxeye, glasswort or sea pickle, needle rush and saltwort.

The low marsh is flooded with salt water for 6-8 hours per day. There is only one kind of plant that has adapted to survive this – Spartina alternaflora (smooth cordgrass), making it a true, natural monoculture.

Just over the Georgia line, we passed Naval Submarine Base Kings Bay naval, home to many of the Navy’s Ohio-class nuclear powered ballistic missile submarines (so-called ‘boomers’), as well as guided missile submarines.

We were able to see some of the facilities as we cruised by, but fortunately there were no subs transiting in or out, as their accompanying security zones (as we found out when departing Norfolk almost a year ago) can dictate the pace of passing by the area, and the tide was running pretty hard here. Our speed was way down, because of that, and it would have been especially troublesome to also contend with a nuclear sub in the channel!

Unfortunately, green-head flies are also one of the natural phenomena; one minute we are cruising along happily, and the next, we are swatting away, and rigging some makeshift screens on the sides of the flybridge. We put some new batteries in the electric zapper, kept fly swatters at the ready, and broke out the bug jackets, just in case.

We end the day after a short cruise by docking at the Jekyll Harbor Marina, on Jekyll Island, for a two night stay.