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.

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 can't recommend anchoring unattended for any time.

I think your plan isn't a good one if it depends on this.

Unattended at anchor for a month?

You've got one of the best 32 foot cruising sailboats ever designed.
Don't even think about it.

--

Roger Long



"Mike" wrote in message
ups.com...
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.

Here is one of many crew contact sites. Find someone who knows enough
to motor the boat and reset the anchor if necessary and would like a
place to hang out in the warm weather and write her novel or just
improve her tan while she takes care of your boat.

http://www.pointseast.com/crewmatch.shtml

It gets harder and harder to find places to anchor without hassle by
local authorities as you go south. This is especially true of long
term stays.

--

Roger Long

"Mike" wrote in news:1161119366.751945.167400
@i3g2000cwc.googlegroups.com:

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.



CHARLESTON, SC.....

There's a mooring field on the opposite side of the channel from the
Charleston City Marina in the no-wake zone. The local boaters lost in
court to the city bureaucrats, so call City Marina on (843)723-5098 to ask
about the status and fees to use the mooring field they stole. Lots of
boats have gone adrift trying to anchor in the 5-7' tides of Charleston.
Anchoring out would be OK if you were aboard, but don't leave it for a
month there. If I were you, I'd rent a mooring bouy in the field if I
could. This field is easy to find, too. From sea, come into Charleston
Harbor and take the Ashley River channel to port right after you pass Ft
Sumter National Monument. Where the ICW turns south at Wappoo Cut, the
mooring field is straight ahead of you across from the big Charleston City
Marina. It's 11 acres big on the port side of the channel. City Marina
monitors 16, 24/7.

There are some boats that anchor just towards the ICW from Buzzard's Roost
Marina in the Stono River, not far from the south end of Elliott's Cut
(where tides REALLY rip through the cut, by the way). Buzzard's Roost has
a little boatramp, but you'd have to take your dingy with you. Tides don't
rip through there as the river widens into a bay, but boat wakes might be a
problem. There's plenty of room but zero security.

Here's some good information, too:
http://mysite.verizon.net/tomdove/icw.html

WARNING - I know some people at City Marina who were on their way to
Florida, like you are. That was 3 years ago and they're STILL HERE!
Coming into Charleston Harbor was their downfall. Why would anyone want to
go to Florida and drive their boat in a DITCH with thousands of other nut
cases, lined with condos, when they can have nearly the same weather AND
3200 miles of uninhabited waterways within 50 miles of any dock?

Download Google Earth (earth.google.com) and compare.....
Man, look at NSB and Stuart! That water doesn't look deep enough to float
a rowboat! I remember those damned sandbars we dragged the bulb
through...how awful!...(c;

We'll save ya a spot on City Marina J-dock when ya git this anchor-out
nonsense out of your head. Do you like oysters, crabs, shrimp and parties?

"Larry" wrote in message
...
We'll save ya a spot on City Marina J-dock when ya git this anchor-out
nonsense out of your head. Do you like oysters, crabs, shrimp and
parties?

And "Palmetto Bugs," and the wonderful smell of that paper mill...

God, how I miss it... lol

"KLC Lewis" wrote in
et:

And "Palmetto Bugs," and the wonderful smell of that paper mill...

God, how I miss it... lol


One needs to spend the night on an unairconditioned ketch in August at the
little marina just north of Ponce Inlet, Florida, finding out by midnight
why they call it "Mosquito Bay" to appreciate how much one would trade a
thousand Palmetto Bugs for only 100 Florida mosquitoes.....(c;

Been there, done that, never again. Ended up sleeping on a table in the
marina lounge....

As to the paper mill, I'm sorry to say sailors will not be sniffing the air
coming home from the Med to sense Charleston's presence by the smell of
black liquor any more. Millions of dollars in pollution control equipment
were forced upon poor Westvaco's brown paper plant as the new Mark Clark
Expressway bridge over the Cooper River was completed so the drivers
wouldn't be asphixiated from the fumes of cooking wood. Even Mt Pleasant,
home of lawyers and doctors and other vermin, cannot smell the plant's
peculiar fragrance unless staring down on it from the bridge. Those days,
just like Koppers' creosote plant or the fertilizer plants is over. Hell,
Charleston rates as one of the cleanest air places in the country, now!

Some might appreciate this:
At 45 minutes past midnight:
75.7 °F / 24.3 °C
Light Rain
I'm reading 72.1F up here on the river 9 miles from the sea...(c;

Wednesday
Mostly cloudy with a slight chance of showers. Highs in the mid 80s. West
winds 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 20 percent.

Wednesday Night
Partly cloudy. Lows in the mid 60s. Northwest winds around 5 mph.

We keep our Palmetto Bugs warm....(c;
http://www.blufftontoday.com/images/palmettobug.jpg
For those that don't know, they are all over the South, anywhere there is
water. They eat almost anything, are gross but totally harmless, don't
bite or have venom. I've clocked them across the kitchen floor over 30 mph
running and 45 flying in on final approach. When one only lives a few
days, ones flying skills, especially turning and landing are extremely
limited to a controlled crash. So, they crawl like the little German
Yankee roaches, but mostly outdoors, though one crawled across my desk two
hours ago on his way to meet his maker!

DON'T STEP ON THEM IN BARE FEET! THEY EXPLODE INTO PROTOPLASM!

"Larry" wrote in message
...
"KLC Lewis" wrote in
et:

And "Palmetto Bugs," and the wonderful smell of that paper mill...

You are talking about the state bird of South Carolina. Btw, we had some
friends that stopped here in Beaufort for a couple weeks and it was 14
months before they were able to cut the lines and get away......

Leanne

And yes I know that they say the Carolina Wren is the official state bird

On 17 Oct 2006 14:09:26 -0700, "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.

Your plan is risky for several different reasons but if you insist,
then you need the "Skipper Bob" book on anchorages:

"Anchorages Along the Intracoastal Waterway", Tenth Edition
(Spiral-bound) by Skipper Bob

http://tinyurl.com/y3q97z

Your boat will be much safer in a marina however, and prices tend to
become more reasonable as you get further south. There's another
Skipper Bob book covering that option, also invaluable:

"Marinas Along the Intracoastal Waterway", Ninth Edition
(Spiral-bound)

http://tinyurl.com/yygc7r
by Skipper Bob

"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.