Mae-C: Storm Dog's adventure

[Storm Dog]

Came to Charleston today and ate lunch on the water off Ft Sumpter, where the Civil War started. Neat historical area. Lots of recreational boats and families on the island having fun on the beach and swimming. Anchored in Church Creek, near Hollywood. About 3 hrs outside Charleston. I did get turned around in Charleston harbor and lost sight of the ICW. After taking pictures of Sumpter, a Confederate fort, and the carrier Intrepid, I finally found the exit at Ashley River.

Now I'm just sitting here waiting for a storm front to hit I've been tracking on Windy. 111 Miles today, 1111 total miles.

Storm Dog

[hardee]

Nice even travel (miles) number. Thank for taking us along on your ride. Easy to get turned around when you are in new and strange areas. Good to have a good and trusted GPS Plotter... (...and a backup of some sort.)

Harvey
SleepyC

[Storm Dog]

I have a Garmin Echomap 54 dv. It's kind of dated (2016) but I do have Aqua Map on a 9.6 IPad pro. I was able to find the icw continuing by checking all rivers & such till I found it labeled to the west. This morning, I plainly found it in the 2019 ICW cruising guide by bob 423. Too bad I missed it yesterday.

Concerning Aqua Map, it drains the ipad of power in 3-4 hours. The ipad needs alot of current to charge up at any substantial rate. I'd have to start the generator and charge from a 2.4 amp usb power strip. By the way I happened to find icw mile markers every 5 miles in red on its zoomed in map. They're absent on the Garmin.

Breaking News!

Storm Dog and Mae-C no longer in a hurry to get to the Gulf!

Glenn

[thataway]

The Ashley River entrance is hard to find. There is a great anchorage (or was in 1983 and 84) just after the bridge .

There are a number of cig lighter plug adaptors which will keep the I pad charged up as you go. We have 3 built in dual USB charging ports, which put out 2.4 amps each. There is a 2 hour timer (just push a button) for the entire USB charging circuit. Ports are at the helm, at navigator's station (on dash back splash) and top of hanging locker.

The Tropical storm should should not effect you at this time. Best to continue to make tracks, and get to Biloxi ASAP. The effects in the Gulf are going to be mostly Storm surge--this just means some waves, and higher than normal tides. Even in Pensacola, we don't expect any severe winds. We are already getting outer bands of rain.

[gulfcoast john]

Hi Glenn!

Eileen and I think you likely have the roughest portions of your Adventure behind you. In June 2018, we had 7 weather SCA days in 6 weeks on the Chesapeake, 3 of them Gale Warnings. Last June we cruised from Jacksonville NAS to Wacca Weechee marina one-way. I concur the milage markers in Skipper Bob are pretty useless unless you reset your GPS odometer, do the math and note it in the book. Otherwise a pretty good guide.

I think navigation aids between the Ashley River and Cumberland Island were somewhat challenging (at 25-30 MPH). Lots of 90 to 270 degree surprising turns into what looks like a tiny creek (cuts between the large rivers) vs other nav aids leading out to sea. Granted the ICW aids have a small yellow marking on them, but it can be hard to see if it’s rough. Use extra care crossing the Savannah River and St John’s River...lots of giant freighters (and car carriers at Brunswick) and they can move surprisingly fast. Crossing Mobile Bay with a strong North wind can be ‘sporting’ but North winds are rare here in summer.

Georgia tides can be 10 vertical feet or more. We’re not used to that (we lived in Ocean Springs for 22 years before moving to Pensacola in 2017).

Keep your VHF vol up on CH16 way in advance of approaching Kings Bay Naval Sub Base south of Crab Island north of St Marys, GA. A nuclear sub coming or going to sea will be referred to as ‘A Navy Asset’ with patrol boats around it. All civilian marine traffic must clear the area. Max delay should be 30-60 minutes if it happens.

The Big Bend Gulf section is not protected ICW, but is often calm if there’s not a tropical storm to worry about. At Apalachicola you enter the protected Gulf ICW. The sea breeze often kicks in about 1130 with thunderstorms at max heating around 3pm, just like Biloxi.

If you like to anchor out, just west of Pensacola Pass is Sherman Cove marina where Cat O’ Mine is docked. A nice protected cove marked ‘spoil area’ is between Ft McCrae (McCree or McRee on some charts) and the tall white sand spoil island. Enter only from the west, between the No Wake signs. We’d be glad to give you a ride to WalMart or Publix if you need to re-provision and are still quarantining on a 25 foot boat 99 miles from the Biloxi Channel entrance. Base entry requires DoD ID or an escort. Sherman Cove has E-0 gas. PM sent with my cell number.

You’ve got this. Stay safe and well-rested enough that you don’t make unforced errors.

John

[Storm Dog]

Thanks all for the great advice. Anchored New River just off Daufuski Island, SC. Crossed a couple of sounds today. Boy were they angry! They tossed my salad for me! Some slow going and Mae-C had a water baptism. Splashed and sprayed! Went to get a well deserved meal at Lucy Bells, but they were already closed. By 5pm. The rest of the island accessible by golf cart. I didn't have one. Oh well. Looks like ham & cheese tortilla tonight. By the way, these horse flies are impacting my screens to get at me! Like mosquitoes on steroids!

Glenn

[gulfcoast john]

Glenn,
You missed your chance on Dafuskie for a very nice $18 chili-dog, $4 bag of chips and a $6 single scoop of ice cream with a near mandatory $5 tip. So Sorry!

You can also get them at Hilton Head, Kiawah, St Simon, Little St Simon (you can get a very nice sea island camping experience for only $11,000 a week on this private island), Sapalo or 2 nights at Greyfield on Cumberland with meals for $1,000 plus tips (and $9 each for a Bud Lite). We really enjoyed 2 nights at the latter at half price one July, I must admit. Ancient plumbing and some shared bathrooms. But I digress.

If you are willing to have a marina night, I rec'd

https://brunswicklandingmarina.com/amenities/

They have a free wine and beer social every M/W/F night. If you drink enough...never mind. Superb wi-fi. Free laundry. Hurricane hole marina. Reasonalble prices, and GA generally has the least state gas tax around. Free bikes with basket to Winn Dixie. Brunswick is a fairly nitty gritty down on its luck town compared to Beaufort, and the prices reflect that, but the marina is well patrolled and safe.

Stay Safe,
John

[hardee]

Glenn, You are really having an adventure, enjoy and continue to stay safe. AS Bob mentioned, I think as long as the weather is doable, I would make track now, It is just the start of the "season".

Bob, I hope your prediction is right on re that inbound weather. Stay safe.

Harvey
SleepyC

[thataway]

In our area we have about 1' storm surge, wind not over 20--Toronado warning across the bay in Baldwin CO. AL. We have been looking out and not seen any funnel clouds. Should be making landfall shortly and pass just to West of New Orleans.

[hardee]

"....pass just to West of New Orleans."

Hope they have the pumps on

Harvey
SleepyC

[Storm Dog]

Anchored at Frederica River by an old fort, National Park/Monument. There's a dinghy dock but I don't own one. Day started well, overcast, cool no wind. Able to really skip down some streams. A couple of river sounds, that caused reduced speed or be pounded. Let one container ship go past on the Savannah River, then raced another coming from the opposite direction. Made it to the other side of the river and the icw was further upstream. Those ships are some of the biggest machines in the world! So I had to go along side the leviathan and face his wake.

Ran into a bit of shoaling, grounded once, briefly and almost 2 other times. Some of the route had only 4 ft. Had to creep along watching a small screen ensuring I strayed neither to the left or the right. For a couple hours.

But a dolphin visited when I anchored, saw a Roseate spoonbill , saw another bird pull something from the mud, maybe an eel. I saw a huge fish, maybe 4 ft long by 6" or so thick jump out of the water. And a bunch more dolphins, tern, pelicans, etc. And not many people.

[Hunkydory]

Glen, I’m enjoying following your interesting adventure.

Jay

[gulfcoast john]

Glenn,

Amazing progress from Savannah!

If you want a next marina rec'd from us (you won't but maybe others will) Ameilia Is Marina is great with courtesy car, clean bathrooms and a overall first rate operation.

Tricky navigation if low tide.

News is Ferandino marina finally partly open.

Be safe and careful!
John

[Storm Dog]

So Morningstar Marina, ok place because of distancing, can't go into the office. Got shower, lunch was grilled chicken salad. $12. Was ok, water wifi, pump out. Dock crew was nice enough. Got small discount being Boat US member. Lyft to Winn Dixie for cereal and beer, fruit, etc. Distancing is a thing in at least 90% of places. It's good people are still wary. Wanted to pick up the 6.5 qt oil sucker at WM, but was told it was held for another customer. Store inventory showed one. I wonder where I'll ever find a store with that pump. Florida? Jacksonville? Jacksonville NAS has transient slips. Maybe a future stop.

Glenn

[gulfcoast john]

Glenn,
we have an unused WM pump that should work if you can stay at JAX NAS marina, which is very nice. And take you to the commissary and BX .

About a 7 hour one way drive
John.