"Mike" wrote:

I would like to take my Endeavour 32 down to Florida from NC offshore,
on a coastwise route, over a series of six weekends. I would be
interested to hear from sailors in the Charleston, St. Simons Island,
New Smyrna Beach, and Stuart areas, about the feasibility of leaving
the boat unattended at anchor for up to a month at a time in between
trips, in those areas, and any suggested anchorages. Thanks.

I agree with Roger about long term anchoring, Wayne (about Skipper Bob's
book) and Larry about Charleston.

I don't know about St. Simons Island as we have never been there except for
one overnight anchorage off Little St. Simons..

I also would advise taking moorings (or going into a marina) rather than
anchoring and leaving the boat unattended. If you want long term marina
stays, there is Harbour Village marina in Hampstead NC MM 266.3 that used
to offer long term rates for people north of the Maryland line.

If we were going to go coastwise offshore, we'd probably go from Beaufort
NC to Little River, Masonboro or Southport. There's not much anchoring
that I'd recommend in the Cape Fear River area though.

From Cape Fear, it is an easy overnight to Charleston.

From Charleston it is another overnight to the St. Mary's River. You can
go into Port Royal, but that's backwards at an acute angle north (although
Beaufort SC is a nice town). You could also go into the Savannah River.
But we've never bothered to do anything except Charleston to St. Mary's
after the first time when we left from Jekyll Island to go out and around
to the St. Mary's River, but it's a short daysail and just as easy to do it
from Charleston. You could also go on down to the St. Johns River.

After you get to the St. Mary's River, and if you weren't going to live
aboard, you can probably stay pretty cheaply in Lang's marina in St. Mary's
Georgia.

In the other direction (south) from the St. Mary's River is Fernandina
Beach where there is an anchorage. We have always traveled inside from
Fernandina to Fort Pierce.

Some people come into the St. Augustine inlet, but I've seen the surf all
across that inlet and would not want to do it myself.

I don't know why you would want to go to New Smyrna - not that it isn't a
nice town, but there's almost no dockage and no marinas there. I've never
liked the Stuart area either. If there was anyplace in central Florida to
anchor, I'd recommend Titusville. Not Melbourne though - it has a current
ordinance prohibiting anchoring for more than 72 hours. Just north of
Fort Pierce, Vero Beach has moorings. And a little farther north, Cocoa
seems to have some boats anchored.

We usually go from Fort Pierce to Miami overnight. We don't stop in Lake
Worth/Stuart anymore. . Did that once.