Transiting the East
Coast Northbound
Transiting the East
Coast Northbound
At one point George's Dad said it looked like we had abandoned the Bahamas and were racing home. That wasn’t our intent but we can see how that might be the perception.
After one night at North Lake Worth where we bought a few provisions and had a burger at a sports bar, we upped anchor and headed back down to the inlet to make a day passage to Ft. Pierce. We passed Pacific Rose along the way, and that night we were invited aboard for a nice dinner.
We anchored much closer to the inlet and got an earlier start to sail up the cost to Port Canaveral. The port is a cruise terminal, Navy sub base, cargo port, and has marinas full of pleasure craft. The entry was busy with big, fast ships for us to dodge. We were both tired by the time we got tied up and dropped plans to do an overnight passage the next day in an effort to get to Saint Simmons inlet near Brunswick, GA.
Instead, we went through our first lock ever, crossed the Banana River via Canaveral Barge Canal to the Indian River and the ICW. We motored up to Titusville and were on the hook early.
We motored north along the ICW stopping at Daytona Beach and Saint Augustine. At Daytona, George bought another starter switch to fix a problem on the port engine. This time he used the existing wiring since it seemed functional so it was less work.
Our plan was to go outside at Saint Augustine and sail up the coast to the Saint Mary’s inlet and spend the night on the hook at Fernandina Beach. After getting outside and underway, Lynn suggested that we should take advantage of the great conditions and run overnight to make more miles. George plotted a route to Port Royal inlet and Beaufort, SC. By running about 157 nautical miles we cut out a lot of extra miles on the ICW. We completely skipped Georgia.
Lucky. Unbeknownst to us a bridge in the Savannah area was damaged and out of operation. That would have been a major inconvenience.
From Beaufort it felt we were in home waters although we were still hundreds of miles away. We made good time and got north of Charleston harbor in one day. We thought we would have to stop short due to bridge restrictions and were fortunate to get there before the first bridge closed for rush hour.
Another long run got us to Myrtle Beach where we fueled up for the dash home. We stopped at Masonboro. Friends who live along the water nearby saw us and called our cell phone. They brought their runabout to the marina and visited over a couple of cocktails.
An early start and more luck with bridge timing got us to Dudley’s at Swansboro in good time.
It is a fairly long day run to New Bern from Swansboro. Last year we stopped at Oriental for a nice last night before ending the cruise. We considered that this year, but we had good wind through the early day and by motor sailing with the Genoa we made really good time.
I expected 15 to 20 knot southwest winds on the Neuse. We stopped in Cedar Creek and put the anchor down long enough to stow the dinghy and get the main up. Once out in the river, the wind was more west than anticipated but after a couple of big tacks across the river, I could finally point to clear Minnesott Beach and head home. Shortly after getting on course and trimming out the sails, the wind shifted another 30 degrees or so and we had to choose between sailing and getting in before the marina closed. We furled the Genoa and motored back.