May 27th- Steamboat Creek, SC

Pull the arm on the weather slot machine. Tropical Storm Bertha. Our big dinghy dock is Steamboat Creek landing on Edisto Island. This is the reason why Catalpa has a big anchor.

It wasn’t that bad. We’ve been in heavier winds. We once had a micro burst happen in Provincetown Harbor. That one had gusts up to 70mph. This was far less. There was a ton of rain but we are in a boat so no problems with flooding out here. It was all over in a few hours. We slept through part of it.

That’s the news from Steamboat Creek. The rain has stopped. The dinghy is bailed out. The foul weather gear is drying. We have plenty of food and water. Ice might be a problem. We plan to move on tomorrow. The weather is 50/50 for Thursday. Hopefully the weather slot machine comes up with three suns.

May 25th (Memorial Day) and 26th- Factory Creek SC to Steamboat Creek SC

We spent 6 days in Factory Creek (Beaufort, SC). Lady’s Island Marina is a great place to hang out for a while. We used the loaner car to restock Catalpa. We were able to find hand sanitizer for the first time. Three different boats showed up whose crews we had met at various points during our trip. Oliver had a great time as it’s a very dog friendly place. He even stopped chasing the cats (sort of).

Rainbow over Factory Creek.

I’m sure Lynne is going to turn this one into a watercolor.

The weather for the week looked questionable so we decided we’d either get a slip or get going. You’d think we would have gotten a slip. Nope.

Yesterday was work getting to Steamboat Creek. Most of the day was spent battling wind and current.

Eventually we got to a portion of the ICW where the wind wasn’t directly on the nose. I was able to raise the sail and make up some of our lost time. We pulled into Steamboat around 6:00 with four other boats in the anchorage. All had passed us during the day.

Deja vu. Last time we were in Steamboat we had bad weather and this time looks like the same. We woke to rain today (Tuesday) and decided to stay anchored in the creek. The forecast for tomorrow is looking worse. One forecast is for thunderstorms, gusty winds, and 3 inches of rain. I think there was even a mention of water spouts on the ocean. Another weather app, I check, has the day with less drama. We’re going to stay anchored here for tomorrow also. We’ve got our big 35lb Vulcan anchor down with a bunch of chain and rope out. I moved our smaller danforth anchor up to the bow so I can deploy it if necessary. Probably overkill but it’s better to be prepared. We actually have a third heavy anchor and gear. That’ll stay in the bilge. Steamboat Creek is not that far from Charleston. Charleston has a big harbor and is much more exposed to the wind. We think this is a better spot to sit out a storm.

The most difficult part of a stormy day is getting Ollie to shore. Steamboat has a good dock to tie the dinghy at. When it’s not raining we walk up the dirt road a bit. There are a few houses distant but the area is mostly marsh and secluded. Verizon coverage is good.

Our dock for shore runs.

Steamboat Creek, looking toward where it connects to the North Edisto River.

The paint on our dinghy looks sandblasted. She needs some TLC.

Two of our neighbors left. These two big trawlers stayed.

Night shot of Catalpa with deck light on.

May 18th- Turner Creek, GA to Downtown Beaufort, SC

We got an early start out of Turner Creek as we had a long day ahead of us. At times we were traveling at 6 1/2 knots. Other times, 3 knots. With the 7 to 8 foot tides around here there is always lots of water moving around. Sometimes it’s with you. Sometimes not. You just have to have a sense of Zen. It all evens out.

Schooner sporting some colorful sails in Turner Creek.

Good name.

For example. We had to head up Port Royal sound. The wind was directly ahead of us and the tidal current against us. Our speed was around 3 knots. Waves breaking on the bow and spray flying. We did this for a couple of hours. We then rounded the buoy at Paris Island to head up the Beaufort River. The same tidal current pushed us along and we were able to sail with the wind behind us now. The next hour or so was fun and we covered a lot of distance.

Paris Island Marine Base.

We decided to end the day in the river by Downtown Beaufort. The Lady’s Island swing bridge wasn’t going to open again until after 6:00 due to evening commuter traffic. We’ll save that bridge for tomorrow morning.

May 19th- Beaufort River to Factory Creek (Beaufort, SC)

Coffee, eggs, bacon, and potatoes. Get Ollie in for a quick walk. Get Catalpa moving. Through the swing bridge. An hour after eating breakfast we were done for the day and anchored off of Lady’s Island Marina, our real goal in Beaufort. We stopped here on the way down and really enjoyed our stay. There is a nearby hardware store, grocery, meat market, and package store. We like the marina and the whole vibe. They’ll loan us a car for our provisioning run. It’s time for an oil change on the diesel and I have a broken fresh water pump to contend with. Maintenance must continue! We plan on staying here until next week.

Lady’s Island Marina. Docks are full. We are anchored a short dinghy ride away. Ollie has a few doggy friends here.

View off of the back porch. The tide goes out and we are below the marsh. It comes in and we are on top.

May 16th- Crescent River to Kilkenny Creek, GA

Our anchorage on the Crescent River allowed us to get an early start for crossing Sapelo Sound. Winds were predicted (correctly) to increase through the day, out of the northeast. As we needed to travel northeast this would have created a problem on the big bay. Combine that with an afternoon flood tide going against us. Big problems. Big waves. Early start: not too much wind and an ebb tide pushing us along. Later in the day we ran into the same issue on St Catherine Bay. We had to plow through but it’s a smaller body of water.

We ended the day at Kilkenny Creek. It was one of our stops on the way down. The marina is very rustic. The grounds are beautiful with giant live oaks anchoring the whole scene.

Lynne did a little reconnaissance of the big house and found out some information. Here are her pictures and notes.

Kilkenny Plantation circa 1836 …on the national region historic places …Henry ford owned it in the 1930s and extensively renovated inside the house. Reportedly indigo, rice, cotton and pine were sourced here.
Small building is the kitchen with huge cooking fire place and bread oven. It is in its original form, one of only a couple of such buildings in the state of Georgia.

Also of note- We have been living on Catalpa for 8 months. We’ve always enjoyed sailing her but now she feels like a home. I knew we were going to be gone for a long time but I really didn’t think much about it. There was so much planning and work to do before we left port. The trip has been difficult at times. Unbelievably peaceful at other times. Always interesting. All in all it’s been a very positive experience. Onward!

May 17th- Kilkenny Creek to Turner Creek, GA

Not much to report on. Last night was quiet and filled with stars. Today the wind seemed to be on the nose most of the time (same yesterday). Where are the southerlies? A few rough patches of water but not bad. We are seeing much more small boat traffic as we get closer to Savannah.

Passing through Hell Gate (the Georgia one)

Back to civilization.

Turner Creek.

There is a marina with a nearby supermarket. We don’t need anything today so we decided to just use the public boat ramp for Ollie’s evening commando raid.

May 15th- Jekyll Island to Crescent River, GA

Today we crossed through the shallowest part of the Georgia ICW. Second time around is far less drama. I timed the Little Mud River with a rising tide.

At some point in Florida we passed from mangroves to tidal grasslands. The marshes of the South are spectacular. We noticed that the grass is shorter and greener than the fall. In addition to the different land scape we are back in the tea colored ICW water.

Georgia tidal marsh.

To go along with the new landscape we have a new bug. The yellow fly (Diachlora ferrugatus Fabricius). To quote the entomology website, “The yellow fly is a fierce biter”. Luckily lemon eucalyptus bug spray seems to keep them off of us. We spent many hours improving our fly swatting skills. They are big so the boat screens have no problem keeping them out.

Tonight’s anchorage is on the Crescent River. We located (using the Bob book) a small island for Ollie’s evening commando raid.

Not many Palm trees around.

Catalpa anchored on the Crescent River.

May 13th and 14th- Fernandina Beach, FL to Jekyll Island, GA

We left Fernandina Beach, went down the Amelia River, and crossed Cumberland Sound to Georgia. Fernandina is a little noisy due to the large pulp factory on the waterfront. There is also a big gravel factory but I don’t think they were running at night.

Noisy factory.

Another cruise ship, mothballed due to covid-19.

Futuristic little vessel.

Coast Guard buoy tender working in Cumberland Sound.

Kings bay Submarine base. Security vessels but no subs visible.

Toward the end of the day we crossed over St Andrew Sound. This area is plagued with shoals. The depths go from 50 feet to almost nothing. It’s pretty on a nice day. It’s ugly when the winds are up. Today was bouncy but Catalpa powered through unscathed. The wind was less than 20. Over 20mph would be tough.

The Little Cumberland Island Light.

We pulled into Jekyll Creek and anchored in our spot. At about the same time another boat was headed to our anchor area. The area I anchor in is charted at having less than 4′ at low tide. To shallow for most sailboats. It’s actually closer to 15′. I know this due to my guide book from Bob (The 2018 Cruising Guide by Bob423). So who was the other vessel pulling in? Bob. We didn’t get to talk due to social distancing. Maybe next time. Later I read in his blog that the problem with writing a guide book is you give up all the best spots and that someone (us) got to his spot just before him (sorry). Thank you Bob. We use his guide and “Anchorages Along the Intracoastal Waterway ” by Skipper Bob (Skipper Bob passed away several years ago). If you’ve been reading this blog, these are the books I collectively refer to as The Books of Bob. They’ve been very helpful when trying to figure out where to put Catalpa at the end of the day. Fleetwing (Bob’s boat) left this morning. She is much faster than Catalpa so we won’t likely see them again on this trip.

Last night was a very quiet night. Through most of Florida we were accompanied by road noise, trains, and air traffic. Even though the Keys you can hear the traffic on route 1. Fernandina Beach had factory noise all night. This portion of our trip gets much quieter at night.

Today (the 14th) we’re staying in Jekyll Creek. We went in to town to get a few groceries. We’re also stocking up on diesel, ice, and water. Frisbee is also on the agenda. Into the wildlands of Georgia tomorrow.

View off the back porch.

May 11th- St Augustine to Sisters Creek, Jacksonville FL

We spent a restful weekend in St Augustine. Most of the time we were on the boat due to heavy winds on Saturday and rain on Sunday. It’s probably for the best as there weren’t many people taking any kind of precautions.

Tiki boat. We’ve seen these in other ports.

We searched out some quiet streets to walk on.

Flagler College (closed)

These birds were pink. It doesn’t show well in the picture. I don’t think they are flamingos.

We were going to stay in St Augustine for an extra day to take care of a few things but we couldn’t reserve the mooring for another day. There was a chance that we could benefit from a cancellation but we decided to move on.

The trip to Sisters Creek was an easy one. We picked up some favorable current along the way. When last we were anchored here there was only one other boat. Today we were one of 4. The free city docks were full.

May 12th- Sisters Creek to Fernandina Beach, FL

Wake up! Where are we going today?

We moved on up the ICW to Fernandina Beach. The marina was closed on our trip down but recently reopened. The mooring area is on the Amelia River. It’s a rather open area with a lot of current. Catalpa is dancing around on the mooring and occasionally slamming into the mooring ball. The town looks nice but again, not many people taking precautions. The ice cream shop looked great but there were too many people milling around. We skipped it.

What’s everyone looking at?

Impossible to get everyone looking at the camera when this is rumbling by. Olliver did not like the horn.

Retake. Everyone smiling.

Around town.

We’ll be back someday to see more of Fernandina Beach. I managed to buy a hat. Lynne found a nice dress and some fresh shrimp for dinner. We’re actually a little chilly here. Last night was 57 degrees. Today around 70, with a north wind. We are acclimated to much warmer weather. We’ll have to slow down our north-ward progress if it gets much colder. This is our last stop in Florida. On to Georgia.

Ollie doing some frisbee work in Fernandina Beach.

May 5th- Melbourne to Titusville, FL

We’ve been in the habit of sleeping late but are attempting to reverse the trend. The days are much longer now with the sun setting around 8:00. Still, it’s nice to get a few hours in before the sun is blazing. Today we experimented with leaving our harbor awning up while motoring along. We can’t use the main sail with the awning up but the shade was much appreciated. We mostly just use the jib when motor-sailing.

Sunrise at Melbourne.

We had another entomology lesson today. Lovebugs (Plecia nearctica) is a species of fly native to South America and southern Florida. They’re hatched in May. Luckily they are vegetarian and don’t bite poor sailors.

Catalpa was covered.

The bugs eventually left. Our destination for the evening was Titusville. The marina recently reopened from its covid-19 shutdown. Onward.

May 6th- Titusville to Daytona Beach, FL

Another sunny day. Ollie to shore. Start the engine. Drop the mooring lines. Coffee in hand and off we go.

Haulover Canal. There are tons of fish in here. I believe NASA runs the bridge.

After Haulover we spent a few hours sailing down Mosquito Lagoon. No mosquitoes today. It’s a very scenic area with lots of sandy, wind swept, islands.

Our destination for the night, Daytona.

Can we go to the PARK!!!!

A fiery sunset.

Catalpa anchored in Daytona with a nearly full moon over head.

May 7th and 8th- Daytona Beach to St Augustine, FL

Today was another long haul. We got out early.

New Bridge being built.

Today was forecast to have some heavy North winds. We are going north. Prudence would have had us stay at Daytona for the day. Our Daytona anchorage is kind of seedy so I decided to push on. The wind blasted us all day. For several hours we traveled at only 3 knots. Part way through the day we started looking at other anchoring options. I didn’t think we’d make it to St Augustine. We had reservations but the marina closes at 8:00pm. We both were looking forward to being there for a long weekend. Catalpa pressed on. Upon entering the Matanzas River we picked up a favorable tidal current which pushed us along at over 6 knots. YAY! We smashed through the wind and chop. We arrived at the St Augustine marina around 7pm. Filled up with diesel, ice, and water, then went through the Bridge of Lions to our mooring for the next few days.

Today (the 8th) we lounged around Catalpa for most of the day. The night was great for sleeping as it was cool (upper 50s) due to some kind of Polar vortex. We’re here for the weekend to relax.

Some scenes from St Augustine.

The fort is right off the back porch.

Me and Ollie on our morning walk. Lynne took this shot from the boat. (She takes most of the good pics)

The fort is pretty empty in the morning. No leash needed. Happy dog. He cleared the moat of all pigeons.

Catalpa moored in St Augustine.

May 4th- Vero Beach to Melbourne, FL

We left Vero today. We’re a little sad to leave but it was time to go. I’m glad we spent the extra time here. Coronavirus made things difficult but we still had some fun. Florida is relaxing much of its restrictions so maybe that is another reason to mosey on. Having a car for a week was a real luxury.

Some scenes from Vero-

Ollie looking for squirrels on the power lines.

The green machine.

Some evening shots of the marina the night before we left.

Me and Ollie getting water and ice after our last pizza dinner.

Tired from playing with Maggie. Ready for sleep. (I love this pic)

We got Catalpa ready most of the day yesterday and still had a few things to do in the morning. Eventually we announced our departure to the marina, dropped the mooring line, paraded around the mooring field a bit, and hit the ICW.

Goodbye Vero

The marker at the entrance. I have a G139 sticker on the dinghy motor now.

Finally on the ICW again.

Osprey nest with a chick.

Finally our destination for the night. The Melbourne bridge.

Today was a short 6 hour trip. Melbourne bridge is not a very scenic spot but an adequate anchorage with a spot to land Ollie. Catalpa ran well and I was able to do a little sailing. We actually passed 2 sailboats today. The zipper on the sail cover broke so I have to do something about that at some point. Olliver is a little sick so he’s going to have some rice and turkey tonight. Lynne and I are having shrimp!

April 30th- Vero Beach, FL

We are still floating around in Vero Beach Harbor. The problem with social distancing during a pandemic is that it doesn’t leave the narrarator with a lot to write about. We occasionally get together with other boaters (at a distance). We had a nice Easter dinner a few weeks back. We all brought different plates of food. A fun time was had by all.

We’ve enjoyed our time in Florida but it’s time to start the trip North. The temperatures are regularly hitting 90 during the day. Catalpa is a buggy mess. I finally resorted to chemicals in an attempt to reduce some of the crawling critters. The flying critters keep us on our toes in the evening.

Ollie is still getting lots of exercise (us too). His leash walking has improved. We go on long walks in the morning. He’s got another girlfriend. Maggie. They play in the evening when the marina is quiet. Both dogs race around the trees at top speed.

Warm day activities.
I spent some time working on the genoa repair. I reinforced the machine stitching with some old-time hand stitching. I believe it’s all set for the remainder of our journey.


We’ve had a rental car for several days. Catalpa is fully stocked up. We toured the area around Vero. There are many parks and beaches. Unfortunately they are all closed. Since we haven’t had a car in months, it’s nice to just take a drive around.  The local fish market recently reopened. We had some of the best sea scallops (dry) since leaving the New Bedford area. They’re probably from New Bedford. We’ve also had cocktail shrimp for a few days. Mahi or Grouper for dinner tonight.

The plan is to leave on Monday (weather permitting). I don’t think Coronavirus is going to disappear any time soon. We’ll just take precautions and keep to the boat. We’ve got a months worth of food on board, so no problems there. We hired a diver to clean the hull again. I think it will be a nice trip up with warm southerlies pushing us along.

Ollie seems to get in every shot.
Flora.


Fauna.


Veterans island.
Scenes from the mooring field.
We see dolphins almost every day. They are difficult to catch on film.