Trawler Blogs

17-27 Nov 2010  Charleston
We always visit Ted’s former home, Quarters LL, on the former Naval Station in Charleston.  You can see the house set back from what is now a Navy memorial.

Ted’s childhood chum, Rabbit Lockwood, and the new puppy out on Longwood Plantation.  He still thinks he’s a lap dog.

The Holiday Festival of Lights on James Island – always fun to drive through to look at the light display.

Cooper River Bridge

And what is the most important thing on Thanksgiving?  Dessert!  We spent Thanksgiving with Ted’s son and family.  Debbie prepared a great meal!

Cheesecake, Tiramisu, Pumpkin Pie

27 Nov  Charleston to South Edisto River
Back to the real world….  We left Charleston and headed for the South Edisto River anchorage.  The river here is quite muddy and the landscape is largely unremarkable.  At max ebb (1.2 kts), the current was turning the propellers at 75 rpm.  Ted used his chain vise grips and a pipe wrench to stop the shafts from turning.  Too noisy to sleep in the stateroom otherwise.

28 Nov South Edisto River to Beaufort
We tried a new anchorage in Beaufort since the one near the city marina was quite crowded.  There’s a greater tidal range in SC and we just didn’t have the swinging room near the city marina.  The green arrow marks where we anchored.  Did I mention we’ve pulled out the electric blanket?

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29 Nov Beaufort, SC to Herb River, GA

Range marker – Wilmington River, GA

We crossed the Savannah River today and entered Georgia waters.  The tidal ranges are even greater in Georgia.  This is not a problem; there are lots of anchorages.  The waterway really winds in Georgia.  Here’s an example of a “range” on the Wilmington River.  You want to line the 2 range marks up; one over the other.  This lets you know you are in the middle of the channel.  More critical for the commercial tugs and tows than for us.  But we do use them.

30 Nov Herb River to Thunderbolt
We stopped in Thunderbolt to pick up a new table base for the salon table.  The table top is on the right on the couch.  Needless to say this turned into a minor project.

1 Dec Thunderbolt to Wahoo River
Take a look at the tide marker under the Skidaway Narrows Bridge….low tide.

Georgia also has lots of “sounds” one cruises in and out of on the waterway.  You can see how close we are to Sapelo Sound from the anchorage in the Wahoo River.

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Given the tidal range there are also a handful of areas one wants to pass through on a rising tide.

Hell Gate southbound.  Shoal marker on land.  Approaching green navigation aid.

We passed through Hell Gate at low tide.  Normally this is passable for us but strong westerly winds compounded the already shallow situation by blowing more water out of the narrow channel.  My stomach starts doing flip flops when the depth sounder sounds 7′ (we draw 4’10”).  I had to turn my back when we passed, I mean “plowed” through the mud at Hell Gate.  The last time I looked at the depth sounder it showed 4.3′.  You can see the shoal marker on land; the green navigation aid stays to the your left, the red on to your right.

This is the view looking behind us.

2 Dec Wahoo River to Frederica River
Little Mud River is another problem spot on the Intracoastal Waterway.  We passed through here 30 minutes before mid-tide, on a rising tide.  We and a tug hung back waiting and slowly passed through.  Never saw less than 7′.

We anchored in the Frederica River which is on the old Intracoastal waterway.  Fort Frederica used to grace the banks here.

Fort Frederica

You can see the newer ICW to the left of the Frederica River where we are anchored (green arrow).  St Simons Island is below us and the tip of Jekyll Island can be seen in the bottom of the photo.

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3 Dec Frederica River to Bells River, FL
We passed through the rest of Georgia uneventfully.  Not everyone was so lucky.  In the Cumberland Dividings passage we saw this sailboat.  He was on the wrong side of 4 red markers.  You can see the green mark well behind the red across the channel.  Talk about a bad day.  This area has shoaled badly
on the red side inside the channel.  What you can’t see in this photo are the additional floating red navaids to the right of the red daymarks.

Sailboat aground – Cumberland Dividings

We passed by the submarine base in Kings Bay, Georgia.

DSRV atop submarine – Kings Bay, GA

4 Dec Bells River to Pine Island
We anchored at Pine Island enroute to St Augustine.  We spotted an adult eagle and what we think was a younger eagle on the shoal at high tide.

5 Dec Pine Island to St Augustine
We’ve stopped in St Augustine a lot but they’ve never had a mooring field before.  We tied to one of the mooring balls for a few days to allow us to visit Jane & George Miller (M/Y Plain Jane).  What was a little different here, with respect to the mooring ball, was not only the current, but opposing wind and current.  We’ve tied to a fair number of mooring balls over the years but one of the things we discovered here was that our longer bridle for the mooring ball does not work with a strong current and a strong opposing wind.  Either the mooring ball was was being passed close under the boat or the shackle on the bridle was chafing on the bow of the boat (due to the geometry of our bridle).  Ultimately we took the bridle off and pulled the thimble on the mooring line up onto the anchor roller as far as we could.  This prevented the mooring ball from passing under the boat and any chafing on the bow itself.  Seems like the weather started getting colder about the same time. 

The satellite shots are too old to show the mooring field; what you see are boats anchored.  It still gives you an idea where we were.

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6 Dec St Augustine to Rockhouse Creek
This is a great anchorage.  The head of it is largely protected from any current by sandbars.  We’re in the New Smyrna, FL area.  That’s Ponce Inlet you see on the ocean side.

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7 Dec  Rockhouse Creek to Cocoa, FL
Our trip to Cocoa should have been uneventful.  A couple things changed that.  There was a launch from the Kennedy Space Center by SpaceX –  the first test flight of the Falcon 9 rocket with the Dragon capsule atop demonstrated key launch capabilities including on-orbit operation, entry, descent and splashdown of the capsule.  We could see the rocket with the naked eye a good 10 miles off.  Very impressive!
There’s also a NASA railroad bridge going out to the Kennedy Space Center that is normally open (unless a train is coming).  As we approached it we noted a barge and a tug were blocking our passage.  As it turns out, the barge was unloading rocks to fill the inside of the breakwater formed around the inside of the RR bridge.

We anchored and after an hour or so we and a gaggle of others were finally allowed to pass.

Sailboats pass through NASA RR bridge

We arrived at the marina shortly after 5PM.

11 Dec 2010  Cocoa to Manatee Cove Marina, Patrick AFB, Cocoa Beach, FL
Its a short jog down to Patrick AFB from Cocoa Village Marina.  One heads south on the Indian River and makes a u-turn at the Banana River and heads north.

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The channel is narrow and shallow so there’s range markers to help you stay in the channel.

Range marker – entrance to Manatee Cove Marina

We arrived in time to watch the Army-Navy game.  Not being a football fan, I went shopping after 1 beer.  Have met some wonderful people since we have been here.  Ted keeps running into people who know some of his former EOD colleagues.  On our last night here we ran into MTOA members, Bill & Anna Feller (M/Y Knot Tide Down).   We first met them at an MTOA event we hosted in Solomons, MD in August.

We’ve experienced the coldest weather thus far (and unseasonably cold for December in FL) while we were here.  To top it off the Reverse Y Adapter (that lets us hook our 50 amp power to 2 30 amp receptacles) isn’t working.  The “so what” here meant I couldn’t run the heat on the boat because the breaker would pop.  Fortunately we have a couple ceramic heaters and an electric blanket on the bed (only my side works).  It was 54 degrees one morning in the stateroom!  Brrrr…..

I’m happy to report that the weather appears to be moving back into the 70 degree range but I’m not sure how long it will stay there.