Wayne.B wrote:


wayneb wrote:
If you had it to do over again, would you have gone offshore or up the
ICW?

===========================
On Thu, 24 Feb 2005 07:11:14 -0500, DSK wrote:

We didn't have the time. We made it in 4 days, on the ICW it would have
taken closer to ten. Doing the ICW with a few short inlet-to-inlet
outside hops would have been ideal (until the weather turned cold, anyway).

==========================

Not a hypothetical question for me since I'm going to face that choice
in late May when we take our trawler north for the summer. Hopefully
we'll have better weather then, but the Gulf Stream is always a big
question mark for weather and seas. I'm figuring it will take 2 1/2
days offshore from Ft Pierce to Beaufort but am planning some
alternative ports like St Mary's, Charlotte or Savannah in case
weather deteriorates unexpectedly. We might be looking for crew if
you're interested.

We are not constrained by time, and last year we did a much larger
number of offshore hops because Bob is bored of the ICW. I always
make him convince me it is safe to go, although I make up my own mind
based on weather forecasts etc. The one time I let him convince me
against my better judgment we had a horrible time.

Anyway, we always (after the first time) go offshore from Miami (we
always stop in Miami because we have grandchildren there) to Ft.
Pierce. Hate all the bridges that we get into otherwise.

We usually go inside from Ft Pierce and up the Indian River anchoring
around Melbourne, Titusville, Daytona, St. Augustine, and Fernandina
or St. Mary's. That's 5 days.

We've also gotten into the habit of doing offshore from the St. Mary's
River to Charleston. That way we avoid all the tides in Georgia. We
have more grandchildren in the Charleston area.

And on the way back this time we also went from Charleston to the Cape
Fear River and that worked out pretty well, although we missed
Georgetown and the Waccamaw which are very pretty. But OTOH we also
missed the rockpile and the pontoon bridge and a lot of shoaling.

Each of these trips takes about 24 hours - sometimes a little less.
That's about as much as I want Bob to go without sleeping, which he
doesn't do very well under those circumstances. He doesn't want to
take crew either (even if we could get someone).

When we came up the Cape Fear River, we went in to Southport, but
moved the next day to Masonboro to rest up. I suggested that we go
out Masonboro and come in at Beaufort as a day trip, but he vetoed the
idea and then we promptly ran aground which REALLY irritated him (we
were right in the middle of the channel). It would probably have been
a better idea to do that.


grandma Rosalie

Wayne.B wrote:
Not a hypothetical question for me since I'm going to face that choice
in late May when we take our trawler north for the summer.

There are lots of options but going ICW all the way is slow.

... Hopefully
we'll have better weather then, but the Gulf Stream is always a big
question mark for weather and seas. I'm figuring it will take 2 1/2
days offshore from Ft Pierce to Beaufort but am planning some
alternative ports like St Mary's, Charlotte or Savannah in case
weather deteriorates unexpectedly.

If you go out to the middle of the Gulf Stream looking for favorable
current, or follow a rhumb line all the way, you end up about 120 miles
out which is too far IMHO for weather contingincies.

... We might be looking for crew if
you're interested.


Thank you, I'm definitely interested but not sure I'll be able to take
the time off. Please keep me in mind!

Rosalie B. wrote:
We are not constrained by time, and last year we did a much larger
number of offshore hops because Bob is bored of the ICW. I always
make him convince me it is safe to go, although I make up my own mind
based on weather forecasts etc.

That sounds like a good decision method.

... The one time I let him convince me
against my better judgment we had a horrible time.


But I bet it was a learning experience

Anyway, we always (after the first time) go offshore from Miami (we
always stop in Miami because we have grandchildren there) to Ft.
Pierce. Hate all the bridges that we get into otherwise.

That's one of the places, like New Jersey, where it's just an exercise
in masochism to try and run the ICW.


We usually go inside from Ft Pierce and up the Indian River anchoring
around Melbourne, Titusville, Daytona, St. Augustine, and Fernandina
or St. Mary's. That's 5 days.


And still a relatively pretty stretch o' country IMHO

We've also gotten into the habit of doing offshore from the St. Mary's
River to Charleston. That way we avoid all the tides in Georgia. We
have more grandchildren in the Charleston area.


Oh c'mon! Sure the tides are big but this is the least developed and
prettiest part of the whole coast? There are zillions of beautiful
anchorages, rivers & creeks to explore... heck we could spend months
cruising Georgia and SC!

And on the way back this time we also went from Charleston to the Cape
Fear River and that worked out pretty well, although we missed
Georgetown and the Waccamaw which are very pretty. But OTOH we also
missed the rockpile and the pontoon bridge and a lot of shoaling.


True. Ever made the side trip up the Waccamaw to Conway?

The problem as I see it, making inlet to inlet hops, is that sooner or
later you're bound to hit an inlet on the wrong tide with something ugly
brewing... poor visibility, offshore breeze against ebbing tide, sudden
T-storm, etc etc. I'd rather do a slightly longer hop & overnight, then
rest up at anchor if need be. You still save a few days.


When we came up the Cape Fear River, we went in to Southport, but
moved the next day to Masonboro to rest up.

I can't make up my mind if going out around Cape Fear is better than the
river & Snow's Cut. If the tide is against you there, it's long uphill
battle.

... I suggested that we go
out Masonboro and come in at Beaufort as a day trip, but he vetoed the
idea and then we promptly ran aground which REALLY irritated him (we
were right in the middle of the channel). It would probably have been
a better idea to do that.


That's a shallow boring stretch anyway, and the bridges are a big PITA.
A bonus is that you can overnight at Lookout Bight, one of my favorite
places (when it's not too crowded). I've plotted doing Beaufort to
Little River as an overnight, saving 1 day or so.

Fresh Breezes- Doug King

DSK wrote:
snip

Rosalie B. wrote:
We are not constrained by time, and last year we did a much larger
number of offshore hops because Bob is bored of the ICW. I always
make him convince me it is safe to go, although I make up my own mind
based on weather forecasts etc.

That sounds like a good decision method.

... The one time I let him convince me
against my better judgment we had a horrible time.

But I bet it was a learning experience

Well not so much for him - it's taught him to say that I don't want to
sail and am chicken. It's also made me really BE a chicken whereas
before I wasn't really. It was also right after his heart attack, so
I was quite anxious about being on the boat anyway.

Anyway, we always (after the first time) go offshore from Miami (we
always stop in Miami because we have grandchildren there) to Ft.
Pierce. Hate all the bridges that we get into otherwise.

That's one of the places, like New Jersey, where it's just an exercise
in masochism to try and run the ICW.

We usually go inside from Ft Pierce and up the Indian River anchoring
around Melbourne, Titusville, Daytona, St. Augustine, and Fernandina
or St. Mary's. That's 5 days.

And still a relatively pretty stretch o' country IMHO

We've also gotten into the habit of doing offshore from the St. Mary's
River to Charleston. That way we avoid all the tides in Georgia. We
have more grandchildren in the Charleston area.

Oh c'mon! Sure the tides are big but this is the least developed and
prettiest part of the whole coast? There are zillions of beautiful
anchorages, rivers & creeks to explore... heck we could spend months
cruising Georgia and SC!

I love the area, but Bob hates it. He hates having to worry about
running aground on a falling tide and he doesn't like to have nothing
to look at. (We have a 50 foot boat and a 5 foot draft, and it takes
us three days - we usually do Jekyll, anchor in the Wahoo, and then
Thunderbolt)

And on the way back this time we also went from Charleston to the Cape
Fear River and that worked out pretty well, although we missed
Georgetown and the Waccamaw which are very pretty. But OTOH we also
missed the rockpile and the pontoon bridge and a lot of shoaling.

True. Ever made the side trip up the Waccamaw to Conway?

No we haven't

The problem as I see it, making inlet to inlet hops, is that sooner or
later you're bound to hit an inlet on the wrong tide with something ugly
brewing... poor visibility, offshore breeze against ebbing tide, sudden
T-storm, etc etc. I'd rather do a slightly longer hop & overnight, then
rest up at anchor if need be. You still save a few days.

We have had some hairy inlet entries, but Bob doesn't mind that, and I
don't really either.

We've been into Ft. Pierce against an outgoing tide with a wind from
the ESE and big rollers coming in to the shore, and we managed OK.

The last time we came into Charleston it was heavy, heavy fog. We
couldn't see the ATONs until we were within about 35 feet of them. I
saw a big ship coming out of the inlet WAY before I could see him in
person (and the radar was set just to show the jetties and not much
past that - we don't usually have it set longer than 3 miles), and I
wouldn't have been able to see him even then if he hadn't had a black
hull. (We went outside the channel)

We do have a computer chart in the cockpit with prior trip tracks on
it.


When we came up the Cape Fear River, we went in to Southport, but
moved the next day to Masonboro to rest up.

I can't make up my mind if going out around Cape Fear is better than the
river & Snow's Cut. If the tide is against you there, it's long uphill
battle.

We've done this twice, once we went to Bald Head (which I will not do
again) and this time to Southport. If you stop there, you can pick
the time to go through Snow's Cut.

... I suggested that we go
out Masonboro and come in at Beaufort as a day trip, but he vetoed the
idea and then we promptly ran aground which REALLY irritated him (we
were right in the middle of the channel). It would probably have been
a better idea to do that.

That's a shallow boring stretch anyway, and the bridges are a big PITA.
A bonus is that you can overnight at Lookout Bight, one of my favorite
places (when it's not too crowded). I've plotted doing Beaufort to
Little River as an overnight, saving 1 day or so.

The other time we came into the Cape Fear River, we went out Little
River and it was a day trip to Cape Fear. I'm sure that you could do
Little River to Beaufort easily. But I really don't like the Rockpile
section.

Fresh Breezes- Doug King

grandma Rosalie

DSK wrote in
:

Oh c'mon! Sure the tides are big but this is the least developed and
prettiest part of the whole coast? There are zillions of beautiful
anchorages, rivers & creeks to explore... heck we could spend months
cruising Georgia and SC!


I always hear something like this down on the docks from the folks passing
through, but can never figure out why they are so anxious to get to Florida
so they can line up bow anchor to swim platform with the idiot in front of
them in that awful crowded ditch down there....??

There were some people from CT in a beautifully-kept 50' trawler at Ashley
Marina a year ago who said something like this about exploring our area. I
asked him if he'd ever been up in the lake above the dam in Lake Moultrie.
He had no idea he could get there, so we hauled out the charts and I drew
him a line up through the lock, which is free. Now invited to go as tour
guide/pilot, I took them up for a day or overnight. We got back 3 days
later and they've been coming back to Charleston to STAY ever since. I
think the trawler was the biggest boat to dock at The Dock Restaurant, just
below the dam in Moncks Corner. The Portuguese Bridge kinda spoiled the
restaurant view until we had lunch...(c; The Missus made the locals happy
as she had opened all the curtains so the restaurant crowd could get a look
into her "living room", as I heard one lady put it 2 tables away. The
catfish stew was delicious, as usual. Transients hardly ever go up there.
I've never figured out why. By the time we got back, the trawler bottom
and seawater passages were all fresh-water-flushed from just above Goose
Creek, not a bad idea at all!....

Stay in the deep part of the lake if you go. There are vast underwater
forests full of stumps that are NO FUN in big areas of the lake. There's
60' of water at the dam and plenty of depth in the cross-lake channel.

I brought along an old map of the area before they flooded it in the 30's.
We charted several of the submerged towns, tracking several church steeples
on their sonar. The buildings are still all there, underwater, abandoned.

Larry W4CSC wrote:
I always hear something like this down on the docks from the folks passing
through, but can never figure out why they are so anxious to get to Florida
.... snip...
I brought along an old map of the area before they flooded it in the 30's.
We charted several of the submerged towns, tracking several church steeples
on their sonar. The buildings are still all there, underwater, abandoned.


Cool! Larry, I just read this to my wife who got a big smile of
anticipation... we're definitely going!

DSK

I brought along an old map of the area before they flooded it in the
30's. We charted several of the submerged towns, tracking several
church steeples on their sonar. The buildings are still all there,
underwater, abandoned. .

What's the visibility? Any diving possibilities?

wrote in
m:

What's the visibility? Any diving possibilities?



A lot depends on rainfall. I've seen it clear and I've seen it muddy. I'd
say, right now, it's probably nice and clear because the lake is down 1.5'
and it hasn't rained much.

There's lots of diving always going on in the Cooper River just downstream
of the fresh water canal that feeds the Bushy Park water treatment lake.
It must be a hotbed of Civil War materials. Again, the river diving is
dependant a lot of the releasing of water through the tailrace canal at
Moncks Corner.

There's lots of diving always going on


Very interesting. Thanks.

On Fri, 25 Feb 2005 07:19:31 -0500, DSK wrote:

If you go out to the middle of the Gulf Stream looking for favorable
current, or follow a rhumb line all the way, you end up about 120 miles
out which is too far IMHO for weather contingincies.

============================

That is true but you can shade the course a bit to the west for the
first half of the trip and still get a piece of the gulf stream. I
can average over 8 kts with the trawler so getting a full kick from
the stream is not as important.