Charleston to Manatee Cove Marina

While Bob stayed in Charleston with Sanderling, Julie and Khepera, Judy rented a car and drove back to Florida to work two days in her hospital and to attend some meetings. Cruising friends of ours live in Charleston, and they invited Bob to attend the Charleston Symphony one night, and for dinner at their house another. One of the men who worked at the marina (Ashley Marina) helped Bob turn the boat so it would be facing "out" when it came time to leave. Bob continued to take care of minor things on Sanderling, and the day Judy arrived did some last minute grocery shopping.

October 20, 2009

We departed Charleston (Ashley Marina) at 0800 when the tide was nearing slack. We made good time with the tide in our favor most of the day, and arrived at an anchorage across the river in Beaufort, South Carolina, at 1700 while it was still light.

Day: 68.5SM - 9H05M
Trip: 2264.7SM - 326H19M

October 21, 2009

We wanted to make a few extra miles so departed the anchorage while it was still dark at 0630 (with Judy steering while Bob raised the anchor), crossed Port Royal Sound (south of Beaufort), and by noon had crossed the Savannah River and were in Georgia. From there we continued south past Isle of Hope (a suburb of Savannah), through Hell Gate, and then departed the ICW to go further up the Ogeechee River to Ft. McAllister Marina, about seven miles beyond where the ICW turns. Navigating the river beyond the ICW was a little tricky as the charts were obviously not up-to-date; when we were within about a mile or so of the marina we called them to get directions, after discovering water that was only about 3.5 feet deep (not deep enough for us). The people at the marina gave us directions over the phone to cross to the south side, then along the bank in deep water until we reached the marina at about 1645.

This was a two-night stop while Judy borrowed her daughter's car (they live about 10 miles from the marina) and drove back to Merritt Island for the day, returning in time for dinner at the marina restaurant that evening. While Judy was gone, Bob walked to Ft. McAllister and walked the earthen-ware ramparts and enjoyed the exhibits of the Civil War era fortification which was involved in the battle for Savannah and the site of shelling by some of the Union forces' ironclads.

Day: 74.3SM - 10H15M
Trip: 2339.0SM - 336H34M

October 23, 2009

We departed Ft. McAllister Marina at slack ebb tide, despite the shallow water we encountered on the way up river, relying on information provided by a tow boat operator at the marina and the track of our upstream trip on the GPS - we never saw water less than about 8 feet deep in the shallowest areas.

After rejoining the ICW, we crossed St. Catherine Sound and Sapello Sound, eventually anchoring in the Frederica River to the east of Brunswick, Georgia. There were several boats already in the anchorage, and it was almost dark by the time we selected our spot and got the anchor down.

Day: 74.7SM - 10H05M
Trip: 2413.7SM - 346H39M

October 24 & 25, 2009

We had a lazy start from the Frederica River anchorage at 0720, but again had favorable current most of the day, and crossed into Florida about 1245 as we came down Cumberland Sound and past the huge submarine base where we saw three submarines undergoing repairs and replenishment.

We stayed that night in Palm Cove Marina after trying to find a good anchorage just south of the St. Johns River (there aren't any).

The next day (October 25) we departed the marina at 0755 since we only had to get as far as the Palm Coast Marina (less than 60 miles) where friends from Merritt Island were going to meet us. Judy had to be home to work at her hospital on Monday, and Melissa would drive her back to Merritt Island while Mike stayed on Sanderling with me to complete the trip home over the next several days.

We arrived at the Palm Coast Marina at 1450; Mike and Melissa showed up about an hour later. We had a nice reunion with them, ate dinner at a nearby restaurant, then Judy and Melissa departed to drive to Merritt Island while Mike and Bob (with Julie and Khepera) stayed aboard.

Day: 56.1SM - 6H55M
Trip: 2545.9SM - 363H24M

October 26, 2009

Mike and Bob were underway and heading south by 0715. We ran the engines at 1800 rpm most of the day with a fair current until Mike mentioned that if we kept up the good speed we could anchor about 20 miles from our marina that night. We discussed it a bit, and decided that we could just as well run later into the evening and get all the way to our marina without having to spend another night on board. We boosted the rpms to 2000, and were making about 8.1 mph over the ground. By 1840 we turned off the ICW into the Canaveral Barge Canal heading toward the Banana River. We passed Melissa at their marina, waiving from the dock. Within half an hour it was dark and we were relying on radar, GPS and a little light reflecting from the clouds and sky to see the water surface as best we could. The remainder of the trip was made interesting by the fact that after it got dark about 7:15 it was apparent that the water was full of luminescent "stuff" (whatever creates a blue luminescence) and the entire transom, swim platform and dinghy were lighted in an eerie blue glow from the water which was light enough to read by. Then after we turned south on the Banana River near the Canaveral Locks (which connect Port Canaveral with the Banana River), when we were about an hour and a half away from the marina Mike noticed two "blue" dolphins swimming alongside Sanderling's port flank, entirely visible underwater and bathed in a blue glow that made them more visible than they ever would have been in daylight - so visible that we could clearly see their mouths, eyes, breathing hole, fins etc. - and they were big ones, about 7-8 feet long. They stayed alongside about 8-10 minutes until the water started getting shallow. We continued on to the marina, relying on the GPS and radar to keep us on our track.

Judy and some marina friends met us on the dock to help get our lines tied at the dock near the marina office to make it easier to offload all of the things that were coming home; we turned off the engines, took Julie and Khepera (the cats) off in their cages, locked up, and left for home! We tied up at 2120.

Day: 112SM - 14H 05M
Trip: 2657.9SM - 382H49M

Judy and I moved Sanderling from the office dock to our slip on Friday October 30, 2009. We were finally "home."