We are finally back to the boat. We planned to leave today but when Marilou arrived last night she was sans checked bag. It’s all sorted out now.

This really is a great marina.  Free laundry, nice people, and lots of other free stuff.  I can’t think of much not to like here.

The remnant of the tall ship festival, the privateer Lynx, is still here.  They go out for a cruise several times a day, maybe raiding the commercial ships in the industrial area.  When they come back they usually fire their cannon.  Sinbad really likes that.

After happy hour at the marina we went out for dinner in the old downtown area.  This is much like other old coastal cities along the eastern seaboard.  Still hanging on as best they can.  It’s a great thing. And the pizza joint downtown even serves anti-pasta salad!  Wonderful stuff.

We plan to depart tomorrow morning and begin moving north again.  Our goal for tomorrow is somewhere near a passage called Hell Gate, a sort-of dredged channel between the Little Ogeechee and the Ogeechee Rivers.  I will write more tomorrow on this difficult spot, and we are hoping to be tied to a dock by Friday afternoon for a predicted gale on Friday night.

Our engine is repaired and we are ready to go.  Unfortunately we need to be away from the boat for a few days to attend a memorial service for an important friend.  This will be the last post for a few days.

We woke up this morning to a loud diesel engine near our boat.  When we stood up from the bed we saw a very large sailing ship just aft of our boat slip.  This is a replica of Columbus’s flagship, the Santa Maria.  She backed into the slip next to us, and will be here in Brunswick for a week or so for a tall ship festival.  Pretty impressive that a replica of the Santa Maria has diesel engines and a bow thruster.  I never knew Columbus had those luxuries.

Anyway, I will not blog again until after Easter.  I hope everyone has a blessed holiday.

When we left Cumberland Island two days ago one engine wouldn’t start.  After troubleshooting yesterday I think the starter has failed.  Ordered one today, and it should be installed tomorrow.  That’s great, but we need to be away from the boat for a few days for an important memorial service for a friend we highly respected.  So we will stay here another week.

I took today’s down day to go buy an antenna to replace one on the boat that had failed.  I took a marina bike there, and after buying the antenna I realized it didn’t exactly fit on the bike.  The store clerk (who I discovered later lives at this marina) helped me tie it onto the bike, and I rode the back streets with it sticking off the back of the bike.  Not the best neighborhoods, and I got a few strange looks, but it was fun anyway.

It is tough to be in this region when we know our upper Midwest friends are still dealing with snow and cold weather.  You should know we are thinking about you.

This is a great marina.  We went to happy hour tonight.  Free beer on tap, and free wine.  Lots of good conversation with people like us.  And a gorgeous sunset.

It was both a good and bad day.  After two days at anchor off of Cumberland Island we intended to move north today.  Our goal was Darien or that vicinity.  Unfortunately we had some engine trouble, so stopped at Brunswick, GA.

This part of Georgia and South Carolina have salt marshes that seemingly go on forever.
There is about 8 feet of tidal change in this area, and while that isn’t an overwhelming tide it does cause problems in the waterway.  There are lots of little creeks that run into the main channels and these deposit eroded soil that turns into shoals.  We didn’t hit any today, which is not a testament to my piloting skill.  The landscape seems to look the same all the time so some people dislike this area.  I think it has it’s own unique appeal.

Today we transited past the sub base at King’s Bay, up through the Cumberland Dividings into the Cumberland River, out St Andrew’s Sound, and then up Jekyll Creek to Brunswick.  St Andrew’s Sound is known for rough seas as you must go to a very shallow spot and and turn so the waves hit the boat broadside (called beam seas).  This can be very uncomfortable.  Fortunately it wasn’t too bad today.

Jekyll Creek is known as one of the worst spots on the east coast for shoaling.  At low tide it is only about 3 feet deep, so you have to time that passage according to the tides.  The government provided funding for dredging, and there are dredges in operation in the creek now to remediate that issue.  For those that have never seen a dredge it is quite an operation pulling mud from the bottom and depositing it in a spoil pile off to the side.

When I tried to start the engines this morning one had no electrical power on one, so was unable to start it.  After troubleshooting we decided to move using just the one good engine.  It slowed us down some, and we decided to stop at a marina in Brunswick, GA to have a chance for repairs.  We stayed here previously, and this marina is known for having free beer on tap.  If you gotta stop you might as well enjoy it.

 

Yesterday we started our Loop trip.  We departed the marina where we spent the winter in Jacksonville, cruised down the St John’s River, and turned north into Sister’s Creek.  After a typical day of cruising we anchored last night just off Cumberland Island.

Marilou stayed up most of the night trying to get Sinbad to void himself on the boat.  Because of that, and for my personal safety (Marilou without sleep…use your imagination), we decided to spend today at anchor.  We didn’t go ashore to the National Park, but maybe we should have.  While Sinbad can catch up on his sleep we are slogging along with projects today.

We plan to depart tomorrow morning and continue northward.  One of the very rough water areas on the east coast is St Andrew’s Sound.  The reputation in this body of water is for short period, steep seas with easterly component winds over 15 knots which means a very uncomfortable ride.  We have to cross this to get to Jekyll Creek which has it’s own set of problems.  There is a route around the western shore of St Andrew’s Sound, and we may take that.

This is a great anchorage.  Lots of boats anchor in here.  Not much protection from the southwest, but this sure works in an east wind.

Our plan for 2019 (and early 2020) is to cruise the American Great Loop.  This is a circumnavigation of the eastern US using rivers, man made canals, lakes and occasional ocean passages.  An overview map is shown below.

 

As can be seen on the map, there are several optional routes that can be used.  We plan to use the Erie Canal across central New York, and then the Oswego Canal to Lake Ontario.  We then plan to use the Trent-Severn Canal in Canada, transit along the Georgian Bay along the north side of Lake Huron, the Wisconsin side of Lake Michigan, and then the Ohio-Tennessee-Tombigbee river systems to Mobile, Alabama.  Finally we plan to use the Lake Okeechobee system to cross Florida, and will be back at our starting point.

In addition to the loop transit we plan to spend time on side trips in the inland river systems.  I’ve read it is possible to go upstream on the Mississippi to Minneapolis, up the Missouri to Sioux City, the Ohio to beyond Pittsburgh, and the Tennessee to Chattanooga.  We probably won’t go on all these routes in one trip, but there is lots of cruising available.

We are beginning our loop from Jacksonville, FL moving north along the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway.  Our plan is to be along the east coast in the spring, Canada in the summer, the rivers in the fall, and back in Florida for the winter.

Hi. This is my first attempt at writing a web page or blog to talk about our adventures. I’m really not sure what I’m doing, but that never dissuaded me in the past.

As our primary retirement activity (for now) we bought a boat. Inshallah (God Willing) is a 48 foot Defever built in mainland China in 2002. We have three staterooms (bedrooms), two heads (bathrooms), saloon (living room), galley (kitchen), a stand-up engine room, and lots of space. While we have lots of space it is never enough. The boat is powered by two main engines, Cummins 220HP, and has two electric generators, 12.5 KW each. All living spaces are air conditioned and heated. We have a dinghy for shore excursions when we are anchored out. We normally carry 400 gallons fresh water, 800 gallons diesel, and we have a 50-ish gallon holding tank that is large enough for two people for 2-3 weeks. You can think of the boat as an RV with a top speed of 8 MPH.

We very much enjoy visitors. Thus far we have welcomed our good friends Bob and Dawn, Tim and Susan, Cheri, Marilou’s brother Mark, our good friend Dana, Alan and Sheryl with Alex and Jonathon, Dave and Kathy, Tom and Les (Peanut), Ray and Barb, Dave and Violet, Nicole and Kirk with Nora, and probably others I have already forgotten. If you are reading this you should know you are welcome to join us, and we would value your visit.

Our cruising plans for 2019 are to begin the American Great Loop. This is a trip that circumnavigates the eastern U.S. We plan to leave Jacksonville, FL in the spring, be in the Great Lakes and Canada in the summer, in the inland rivers (Mississippi, Ohio, Tennessee, Tombigbee) in the fall, and back in Florida and the Gulf coast in the winter. No sense being south in the summer, nor north in the winter. I will try to write more tomorrow about the Great Loop, but you can read more about it at greatloop.org.

Thanks for joining me!

Good company in a journey makes the way seem shorter. — Izaak Walton