Beaufort South Carolina

Sunset Daufuskie Island Dock

We had a short day on the water yesterday to travel to historic Beaufort, South Carolina. It was a very calm day on the water, perfect for crossing the big sounds. Sounds are very close to being on the Atlantic ocean. We are tied up to a sea wall on the very beautiful waterfront. It is free and close to all the action.

Beaufort waterfront

We had lunch at Luthers Pharmacy which is a waterfront restaurant. We rode our bicycles about 2 miles to a Publix for provisions. We will go back today for more if it doesn't rain. The Downtown Marina is close so I will go over to do some laundry.

North Star tied to the Seawall in Beaufort

Port Royal Sound on a calm day

We went to the smallest pub we have ever been to for drinks last night and met some folks who bought everyone a fireball shot. We went back to Luthers for happy hour and a snack then moved on to Nippy's for live entertainment.  We then went back to that cute small pub,Hemingway. The inside looked a lot like Sloppy Joe's in Key West. This is a very nice clean city with eclectic shops and galleries and large beautiful houses.
Good thing we had our bicycles tied to the railing or we would not have found the boat after the evening libations. At low tide even the roof is lower than the sea wall. It is challenging to get on and off.
Thundershowers are predicted so we will stay put today and carry on tomorrow.

South Carolina

South Carolina across the Savannah River

We are travelling 6 hours a day and making good time. We crossed into South Carolina today and are tied up to a free dock at Daufuskie Island, just past the Savannah River. There is a restaurant here called Marshland Mama that is supposed to be open but it is not.  The locals tell us that the opening is sporadic at best. The dock says no overnight docking but apparently it is not enforced.
We actually went through a town today, Thunderbolt. We are seeing signs of civilization after 3 days of travel through marshland and mud flats. We had a lovely sunset and sunrise at last night's anchorage on Walburg Creek.
We will carry on to Beaufort tomorrow where we will reprovision and stay at a free dock.

Sunset at Walburg Creek

The dock enforcer

North Star at Daufuskie Island

Marshland Mama Restaurant

Walburg Creek

Our journey north continues to traverse creeks, narrow rivers and wide sounds.  The wind was light today so the sounds were not so daunting. The scenery continues to be low lying marshes with endless grassy shores.  We still have palm trees.  We saw a few more houses today and some cattle so we are nearing civilization.  All the cities are at least 30 miles inland so way out of the way for us at this time.  We feel like we want to make way.
We were swarmed by no-see-ums this morning so this afternoon, when we anchored in Walburg Creek (N31 40.1236 and W81 10.3354), I put up more screens.  We have screens on our v-birth windows but it is not small enough to keep the pesky little things out.  I have doubled up the screens with mesh using toothpicks to secure it. A little backyard engineering trick. We also sprayed ourselves with bug spray.  Apparently these get worse as we travel towards South Caroline. We should be crossing into that state tomorrow.  We will anchor again tomorrow and the next day find a dock so we can reprovision.

Not much scenery

Walburg Creek anchorage

Not much going on in Walburg Creek

By Jove we are in Georgia

We crossed the St Mary's River early this morning
which means we are in Georgia.

Fort Geroge Florida before the Georgia border

Us submarine Naval base King's Bay in Georgia

We fueled at the Florida Petroleum dock after spending the night tied up there.  Not a great night's sleep with fishing boats leaving at all hours of the night and bouncing us off the pilings. North Star can take it, she is unscathed. We paid $3.72 a gallon for diesel fuel and because we were headed north, we did not pay a sales tax.


The wind is up today so crossing some of the sounds was a little lumpy, lots of splashing but bearable.  The ICW in Georgia is made up of rivers and creeks and crosses many sounds that go right out to the ocean so it gets rough in those areas.  We took a small craft route through the Satilla river but with the shoaling, we decided we would rather brave the sounds, less stressful than a potential grounding.
The scenery continues to be flat marsh grass areas with little habitation. There are lots of anchorages and of course marinas but we chose to anchor in Jove Creek off the Mackay River (N31 1.0149 and W81 25.1501). There is not much wind protection with the flat low land but there is no wake from boats.  The tide is 7 feet here so we will see if we calculated correctly.  Many people anchor in enough water only to find out they are high and dry at low tide.  Low tide is at 7:00 so lots of daylight left to move if we got it wrong.
We are back dodging crab pots, tides and listening to shrimp nibble the hull at night.  It sounds like bacon frying.  The dolphins are also back and there is lots of birding to be enjoyed.
We will continue our trek north tomorrow.

Jove Creek anchorage

Fernandina Beach

We left Jacksonville at 1:00 after waiting out the tide so that the current wouldn't be too strong at Mayport. That worked out but it also meant that we arrived in Fernandina Beach at low tide and some of the ICW was quite shallow.  We only scraped the bottom once.  Luckily it is mud and sand and very forgiving.
Once we left the St. John's River, we were in narrow creeks that make up this section of the Intracoastal Waterway (ICW). Low lying shores with marsh like grass and few houses. We will soon be leaving the palm trees behind.
We are tied up at Florida Petroleum dock for the night waiting for fuel first thing in the morning.  These docks are made for huge ships and tugs so they are high.  At low tide we are looking at the underside of the dock.  There is a 6 foot tide so tying up the lines is challenging.  We did see a fabulous sunset from here and the light breeze is keeping us off the rough dock.
We will fuel up and get going first thing in the morning.  We will be leaving Florida and entering  Georgia 4 miles from here.

ICW - Sister Creek

Sunset in Fernandina Beach

Jacksonville for the last day

Riverside trail goes under the bridge

The rain finally cleared up last night so we were able to go listen to the outdoor music. What a great place for people watching and what a show the people are.  The band was OK also. We closed off the evening with a frosty mug and sandwich at Hooters.
We are just hanging around today.  We went for a long walk along the river boardwalk.  They really have a nice waterfront, Jacksonville is quite a nice city.
We are leaving tomorrow and we will most likely stop at Fernandina Beach to fuel up at Florida Petroleum Pier.  They supposedly offer the cheapest fuel and if we get there after 5 we stay at the dock free. More on that tomorrow.

The Brain along the riverside walk

Architectural Company along the river walk

Green Cove Springs-Jacksonville

Green Cove Springs

We completed our chores in Polatka and decided to make way.  It was really hot and the forecast was for wind, thunderstorms and hail so we thought we would get going since this part of the river is wide and can get rough.
We stayed in Green Cove springs last night.  We had dinner at our cheap little Chinese Restaurant and went for a night cap at Corner Pocket pool hall type bar.  Not much action in Green Cove Springs on a Friday night,  We went back to the boat for a movie and an early night to be up and at it on Saturday early.

It was hot yesterday...the thermometer on our back deck at 3:00

We arrived in Jacksonville at 10:00 to find the dock quite full.  We are under the main street bridge at Jacksonville Landing.  Not a bad place to be when hail is on the way.  It is raining hard and we did have thunderstorms earlier.  We went on a 3 hour bus ride to get more paint at West Marine.  We got caught in the rain and got soaked.  There is live outdoor music here but we have yet to be able to get to it.  We are staying tomorrow because the forecast is not good.  We will start heading north n the ICW on Monday.  We are going home and should be there in 2 months.

North Star at Green Cove Springs town dock

Corky Bell's Seafood Restaurant and Bar



Resident of Corky Bell's restaurant

Outdoor seating and bar at Corky Bell's

We left Welaka yesterday morning and had a pleasant steam to Corky Bell's Restaurant in Polatka. The reviews on this establishment are really good and they have a nice new floating dock with no overnight dockage posted.  The guide claims that these can be ignored and if you eat at the restaurant you can stay overnight. Sure enough we had lunch and frosty mugs of draft with appetizers for dinner. We like to sit at the bar and chat with the locals.  What a wealth of information you get about a place when you do that.  A very good stop that I would highly recommend.

Can't beat the view

There is a good grocery store across the road from the restaurant as well as a second hand shop, hardware and auto parts store not far up the road.
We are now at the town dock in Polatka and will be staying the night.  Apparently there is a laundry close by so that is my goal for today.  Jerry is working on an other section of the deck, he has 2 left to do.
We are going back to the Blues Bar tonight to check out the action there.  More on that tomorrow.

Corky Bell's in Polatka

Welaka

Welaka is famous for its Marine Museum but it is closed because the chap who ran it died. As luck would have it, the antique boat club came to town and they opened the museum just for them. We of course were invited to come along.
There are all kinds of steam powered boats on display as well as other interesting nautical items.  They were selling some items and eventually all will be sold once the estate is settled. We got some great buys from an alligator tooth necklace to a pirate for the fly bridge on Hemingway.
The son has a wooden boat building shop that we were also able to visit and talk to builder who is the son of the deceased museum owner. All very interesting.  The club stayed for lunch in town then everyone left to go to Astor. The locals tell us they do this every year at this time.
We went out to dinner at Shrimps R US last night.  We are getting smarter, we share a meal and then we don't have any left overs.  The portions are enormous, we can barely finish a meal even when we share it.
They were having Karaoke night at the Tiki Bar so we went back in the evening for this.  There are some good singers out there.  I even went up for a couple of songs. We stopped at the Log Cabin Bar and they also had Karaoke on the go.  I sang one here also as I was in a good singing mood by then.
The Captain does not sing.
We left Welaka this morning and we are headed to Polatka. We are making the free dock round again.

Sunset in Welaka

He is for sale also

Welaka Marine Museum

North Star with the antique boats

Antique Boat Clug rendez-vous

Ocklawaha River



Ocklawaha River

Welaka is a really nice quiet little town.  A free dock where you can chat with the local fishermen, showers and good restaurants within walking distance. We went back to Shrimps R Us for the cheap breakfast.
A lady was fishing on the dock last night using a stick with line wrapped around it.  She was catching catfish and blue gill.  She lost one of her sticks overboard and Jerry was able to retrieve it for her.  I was winding the line back up for her when a cat fish took the hook.  There wasn't even any bait on it.
Today one of the fishermen gave Jerry some fish, nice folks.

Lots of Live Oaks, palms and Spanish moss

We went for a dinghy ride over to the Ocklawaha River but soon turned back because of the pesky deer flies.  We also went into Snake Creek and saw a 10 foot alligator.  Something about being in an inflatable boat with those large beasts around does not really thrill me.  The deer flies were bad here also so we came back to the boat. We found an other tiki bar on the water not far from here so we may go see what is happening there tonight.  We are most likely staying here tomorrow as well while Jerry continues his painting.

This gator did not want to get out of the way

Back in Welaka

We enjoyed the day at the dock at Hontoon Park yesterday with the kind folks we met there. I visited the exhibit on the wildlife in the park as well as the history.  There was a manatee skull and others that were quite interesting.
We left at 3:00 and anchored near Boat Show Marina, which is now called St. Johns Marina, at River Forest Oxbow (n29 01.3095 and W81 23.6673).  We took the dinghy over to walk around the marina, the place is in ruins. A lot of the docks are falling down and the restaurant is now closed.
We continued on to Shady Oak restaurant where I had some delicious frog legs. We went back to our anchorage where we were serenaded to a deafening chorus of tree frogs.  they were getting me back for eating their kin. It was an other quiet peaceful anchorage. 
We stopped at Silver Glen Springs on the way here.  This spring is off Lake George.  We could not get in with North Star because the water is too low.  We anchored and took the dinghy in.  I had a swim and we walked over to the spring, it is only 16 feet deep.  The water is nice and clear and refreshing.  Perfect for this hot day.  It appears to be a party place with folks anchored and standing waist deep in water drinking.  We carried on since anchoring on the Lake is not a good option.  The lake was dead calm today.
We are now tied up at the Welaka town dock.  We will avail ourselves to showers and dinghy over to the Oklawaha river tomorrow.  Again, not enough water for North Star but apparently worth seeing.  it is only a mile from here but it goes inland for many miles. There should be some large alligators there.

North Star At River Forest Oxbow

Shady Oaks Restaurant n the river

Silver Glen Springs

Anchorage at Silver Glen Springs

Lake George on a really calm day

Hontoon Island State Park

Sally the birthday girl

What a nice evening we had. Our dock neighbours all 10 strong were having a feast and an extended happy hour, they kindly invited us to join them. Appetizers, a nice dinner, drinks and music with stimulating conversation, who can ask for anything more. Thanks folks!
I actually had a dip in the river without worrying about alligators.  Some of the ladies did it and they are from these parts so it must be OK. It is quite refreshing at 76 degrees.
We are leaving some time today and we are not sure where we will stop.

Jane and Steve

Sue

Linda and Mike

Steve and Sherry

Emily with Pat in the background

Hontoon State Park

Happy St. Patrick's day from Hontoon State Park on the St. Johns River.

Blue Grass band at Hontoon State Park

We had a wonderful time snorkeling at Blue Springs Park yesterday.  The deep hole is quite intimidating but the water is pushing you out not sucking you down.  the current is quite strong so swimming to the spring was challenging but it was a nice ride back to the beginning of the stream.  We saw lots of nice fish but no Manatees.  The river is where they are right now.
This morning the St. Johns River volunteers were canoeing around picking up garbage. One couple came over to collect ours.  Imagine, an anchorage with garbage pick up.

They had lunch ready for us

We are now at Hontoon State Park where the annual members are having a rendez-vous.  There is blue grass music and a $5.00 hamburger lunch.  Lots of folks to socialize with so good timing on our part.
We went for a walk on the 2 mile nature trail. It is quite hot so it felt like a long walk.

We are staying overnight so more on Hontoon tomorrow.

No blog is complete without North Star

Nature trail in Hontoon

Nature trail in Hontoon