Intra-Coastal Waterway - Trip South - Nov 2008
Out trip south down the Intra-Coastal Waterway this year has been a bit of an odyssey - in every sense of the word. It started with our towing Necessity in the Dismal Swamp.
We stopped off for a wonderful couple of days in Elizabeth City - the self-proclaimed, and very apply named 'Harbor of Hospitality' at the south end of the canal. Fred Fearing, founder of Elizabeth City's Rose Buddies, may have passed away last year - but the town continues to be a very welcoming stop for boaters. Elizabeth City is also home to a couple of blimp hangars - like the one shown in the photo to the right below.
Our next 'adventure' happened while we were at anchor on the Alligator River. Jeremy was doing the daily engine checks in the evening when he discovered a broken impellor vane when he pulled out a zinc at the bottom of the raw water heat exchanger to check it. He went to change out the impellor in the raw water pump, only to discover that it had corroded onto the shaft in the pump - so he couldn't get it out. No problem, we have a spare water pump - so we could change out the whole pump. Of course, that entails removing an engine mount (since one of the bolts holding on the water pump is behind the engine mount). That means that we had to dig out our bottle jack to support the engine in order to remove the engine mount - before we could take out the old pump. All this is done to the tune of "the hip bone's connected to the leg bone." Well, you get the idea. At least we had all the tools and the spare parts on board, which was a good job since - did I mention we did all this while at anchor??? We finally finished installing the new pump on the engine sometime after midnight. We crawled into bed and hoped that it would all be OK in the morning.
The next morning, we made it to Oriental and were fortunate to get onto the free town dock. In the three years we've been coming through Oriental, this is the first time we've found a space on the town dock when we got there. The town only permits you to stay on the town dock for 2 days - which is fine, except that the day we needed to leave we woke up to pea-soup fog. I shot the photo on the left from the back of out boat at the dock in Oriental in the morning. After several hours, it looked like it was lifting so we figured it would be OK to leave. We were wrong. Soon after we left the marina we were surrounded in fog so thick that we could barely see the front of the boat. Not nice. Fortunately we have radar and a good GPS - but still it was weird and a bit scary not being able to see boats that we knew (based on the radar) were less than 1/4 mile away. I could hear the deep 'thrum, thrum' of the engines as they passed by, but never did see them. It was also weird passing by markers that were almost close enough to touch, but not being able to see them except as blips on the radar screen.
We made it to Morehead City just as the fog was lifting. Our 'town dock' luck held up, and we got a spot on the dock behind the Sanitary Fish market restaurant. Sanitary offers basic dockage (no power or water - but a safe place to tie up) for $10 a night. It was full when we got there, but Jeremy saw a big boat pull out just as we were making an abortive attempt at docking at the Morehead City marina. The current there was so swift when we got there, that it would have been nearly impossible to get into the dock without hitting something. Needless to say, when Jeremy saw a spot open at Sanitary, we grabbed it. The dock runs parallel to the current, so it's easy to work your way into the current to tie up.
We were rewarded with a spectacular sunset at the end of a very stressful day.
Heading farther south, our next adventure was to come across a broken bridge. The bridge has a 12' clearance, which is too low for us to get under - even with our radar arch folded back. We can, however, get down to 11' 3" if we remove the radar arch entirely. You guessed it - I climbed up to the top of the boat while Jeremy slowly chugged towards the bridge and removed the arch. I lashed it down on the top deck and headed back down as we approached the bridge. We maneuvered through a mass of sailboats and power-boats too tall to get under the bridge and were aiming up the bridge to slide under when we got an announcement on the radio that the bridge has been fixed and was about to open up. We ended up being the first boat through when it opened. A very good deal since the boards on the bridge were showing a clearance of 11' - not the 12' that the charts showed, so I'm not entirely sure we would have fit even with the radar arch removed. On to our next adventure!
One of the next bridges we came to is the Sunset Beach Pontoon bridge. It's kind of neat in that it's the last one of this type on the waterway. It is built on a floating barge that the bridge tender swings out of the way to open the bridge. It's really slow to open, only opens on the hour, and does not open if the tide is so low that it would run aground when pulled open. The photo to the left below shows the bridge in it's open position. It's also a bit shallow leading up to the bridge, so if you get there too early, you run a fair risk of running aground while waiting for it to open. All in all, it's not one of the favorites of boaters. We were, therefore, delighted to see the start of a new 65' bridge being build to replace this old bridge. It's still several years away, but at least it is coming!
It was cold on the way south - really cold. Temperatures were dropping down just below 30 degrees at night. Cold enough for us to have a thin layer of ice on the deck in the morning. Normally we anchor out a lot on the way south, but with those low temps, we were looking for places to tie up with power so that we could plug in and run our heat during the night. We could run the genset to power the heat, but we really hate to run it all night - so into a dock we went. I know, what can I say?? We're wimps.. But at least we were warm wimps...
The good part of this was that we got to see some towns we'd not stopped in before, like the tiny town of McClellanville. This is home of the 'Deer Oak,' a 1000-year old oak tree in which you can see - at least in theory - the profile of a deer in it's gnarly trunk. I couldn't see it - but then I usually can't make these things out. Remember when those pictures were popular? The ones where you stared at something that looked like a bunch of random dots and you would eventually be able to make out a picture in there?? Well I never could. Jeremy did, but not me. I asked if he could see the deer in the trunk and he couldn't find it either - so I felt better.
We also saw this neat miniature lighthouse in the front yard of a house.
The major industry in McClellanville is shrimping. The shrimp boats were docked right behind us on the town dock - so needless to say, we had a fantastic fresh shrimp dinner while we were here.
We are casually looking around for a possible land-home as we travel up and down the coast. We found this 'fixer-upper' in town. Wasn't for sale - so we moved on. Then we stumbled across this very nice house shown in the picture to the right that was for sale. Nice place, not too large, waterfront, built up high - presumably to protect against flooding. Yours for only $1.4 million. OK - definitely time to move on. (I love my boat, I love my boat, I love my boat....)
Not far from town, heading south on the Intra-Coastal Waterway, we came across the shrimp-boat graveyard.
Our friend Fred, on his Nordic Tug 32 'North Star' passing us in the ICW. I took a picture since he usually goes so slow that he never passes anyone! I guess we were going even slower that day. With the high price of diesel these days, it's almost a contest to see who can go slower and save more fuel.
We finally made it to the wonderful city of Charleston, where we ended up staying for several days. Charleston is a great city for walking around - lots of wonderful neighborhoods with beautiful old houses, like the Gaillard Bennett House shown in the photo on the right below. It was built by Theodore Gaillard in 1800 and passed through the hands of many notable Charlestonians over the years. including Washington Jefferson Bennett who purchased the house in 1851. It stayed in the Bennett family until 1948. From 1950 to 1951, the house was home to Palmer Gaillard, a direct descendent of the original owner.
Many homes in Charleston feature prominent porches along one side - set so that they can best capture the afternoon breezes off of the bay.
The unusual house shown in the photo to the right below is the Middleton-Pinckey house. This house was begun in 1796 by Mrs. Francis Motte Middleton. It was completed by Mrs,. Middleton and her second husband and former brother-in-law Major General Thomas Pinkney, whom she married in 1797. When it was built, the house sat on a bluff beside a large creek. The creek was later filled in to become Calhoun Street. In 1880, the building was sold to the Water Works Company, which later became the Charleston Commission of Public Works (CPW). The CPW constructed a reservour on the property, which was later converted into a public pool until it closed in the 1960s. In 1988, the building became the headquarters for the Spoleto Festival, a 17-day festival that is held in Charleston each spring. The arts festival hosts hundreds of performances by renowned artists as well as emerging performers in disciplines including opera, theater, music, dance, as well as the visual arts.
Charleston is the home of the Citadel - the military college in South Carolina which was established in 1842. Unlike other military colleges like Annapolis and West Point, the Citidal is not associated with any one branch of the military. About 40% of graduates go on to earn military commissions, while the remainder either go on to graduate school or into the private sector.
It's a very impressive campus with lots of fortress-styled buildings surrounding a central square. We saw the sculpture of the Bulldog mascot near the stadium.
Leaving the Citadel and wandering through a nearby park, we came across the sculpture called the Peace Wall. It is covered by tiles painted by kids and folks that live in the neighborhood with the theme of 'Stop the Violence.'
Continuing south on the ICW from Charleston, we headed through some areas where you really have to watch the tides. The difference between low and high tide in parts of South Carolina and Georgia can be as much as 8 feet. We passed this marker at low tide in South Carolina - and found it to be high and dry!
Thanksgiving Day sunrise on a river in South Carolina. We were up and moving early so we could get to Beaufort in time for Thanksgiving dinner!
We arrived in Beaufort, South Carolina on Thanksgiving morning - in time to join into the community dinner. This would be the third time we've enjoyed Thanksgiving in this wonderful town. Every year, the town puts together a community Thanksgiving dinner where all are welcome. They always make a point of inviting all of the boaters who happen to be in town on this day. We had dinner with our friends Fred from 'North Star' (shown on the left in the photo below) as well as Lynne and Dick from 'Lady Hawk' (shown between Jeremy and I). Good friends, good food - can't ask for more than that!
Leaving Beaufort and traveling south, we came across a sting of homes on the water that were all built up on stilts. This, along with poles along the side of the road so that snow plows know where to go, are signs of places were we don't think we want to settle!
We stayed in Isle of Hope (just south of Savannah, Georgia) for a few days waiting out some windy weather before heading on to Brunswick - where we will leave the boat for at least the next two months.
While we were in Isle of Hope, we borrowed the courtesy car with another couple and headed over to spend a few hours visiting Tybee Island. We found this storm surge pole (yet another sign!) and the very pretty Tybee Island Light House.
Updated December 17, 2008