Southbound!

And so the 900 mile southbound journey began on the morning of December 9th.  

Objective:  Make it home for Christmas

Leaving Deltaville 

The biggest variable for our trip was whether we would get a weather window which would allow us to sail offshore for any portion of the trip or whether we would have to stay in the Intracoastal Waterway (ICW) the whole way. The benefit to sailing offshore is that overnight travel is possible. The ICW is too dark and fraught with obstacles to travel safely at night.

We had no good weather window for the first eight days, so from December 9th until December 16th, we got up at 5:30 am every day and sailed/motored through the Albemarle and Pamlico Sounds, and on various rivers which are part of the ICW for between 11 and 13 hours per day. 

The screenshot below shows each of our stops along the way, indicated by the 1 in the yellow bubble.

Dec 9: Deltaville, VA to Chesapeake, VA 

I had actually been dreading the trip down the ICW, as I had imagined it to be endless miles of houses on either side of the canal.  In fact, it was lovely and very peaceful.  

Naval Presence in Norfolk, Virginia

Chesapeake, VA is just south of Norfolk and offers a free dock for ICW cruisers at the Great Bridge Park. It was beautifully maintained and within a short walk of everything one could need...banks, restaurants, grocery stores, etc. This will definitely be on our list of convenient stops for next year's journey.

Dec 10: Chesapeake, VA to Sandy Creek, NC (Alligator River) 

Bald eagle sighting in Virginia

The next day, we decided to go as far as we could during daylight so we looked for an anchorage in the vicinity we expected to be at dusk.  We made better time than estimated so I spent most of my day finding suitable anchorages further south as our expected stopping point changed.  This was a pattern that would continue for the rest of the journey.  I thought that Steve and I would have plenty of time for reading, blogging, working out, or other activities while the other of us was at the helm, but it turned out that we both were fully engaged most of the day:  one driving and the other route planning and navigating.

Dec 11: Sandy Creek to Facing Point, NC (Pamlico River)

 

On day three, we discussed trying to motor overnight since there was very little boat traffic and we could expedite the journey considerably.  That lasted until about 10 minutes after it was fully dark.  At that point, we realized that it was a very bad idea; given the twists and turns of the river, the narrow channel with areas of shoaling and floating debris, the probability of an incident was too high. Fortunately, I had identified an anchorage "just in case" and we anchored there for the night. 

Dec 12: Facing Point, NC to Swansboro, NC

Pamlico Sound

RE Mayo Co Shrimp Dock, North Carolina

Camp LeJeune, NC

After two days on anchor, without land access for Jake, we stopped at Swansboro, NC where they offer a very reasonably priced town dock.  The dock is located right in the downtown, where there were cute boutiques and restaurants which were all merry and bright for the holidays. We added this to our list of places to stop again, and plan to stay for a day or two next time!

Note: I can't remember if I've ever mentioned Jake's on-board "accommodations" for multi-day journeys....he has his very own "Pet Loo" which he will use when he is very sure that we are not taking him to shore by dinghy. LOL 

Dec 13: Swansboro, NC to Carolina Beach, NC

Next stop:  Carolina Beach

This was an easy stop since we had stayed here on the northbound journey and were familiar with the town mooring balls. We moored late and left early.

Dec 14: Swansboro, NC to Bucksport, SC

After taking advantage of a morning walk for Jake, we left Swansboro at sunrise. By this time, we had a nice routine going and we continued our established pattern of anchoring shortly before dark.

Sunrise at Swansboro

Dec 15: Bucksport, SC to McClellanville, SC

You may have noticed that I didn't mention the weather at all on this trip....That's because our new enclosure kept us warm and toasty regardless of the temperatures in the 40s and 50s.  Merry Christmas to us!!

We were blessed with beautiful, sunny weather for nearly the whole trip down to Florida, and of course the temperature continued to increase as we proceeded south. We had a bit of rain on this particular day, but once again, thanked our lucky stars that we were able to have the enclosure installed before leaving Deltaville.

Less than Perfect Weather

South Carolina was beautiful, and we enjoyed the scenic grasses of the low country.

Our anchorage at McClellanville provided a challenge...crab pots, gusty winds, shallow spots, and fairly narrow space....but there were no other boats to worry about and once anchored, we were rock solid and the winds diminished, offering a peaceful night's rest.

 

McClellanville Anchorage

Sunset at McClellanville Anchorage

Dec 16: McClellanville, SC to Charleston, SC

Our next stop was Charleston, SC.  The broker that we worked with to buy Starry Night is located in Charleston and he offered us dock space at the Charleston City Marina, which we gratefully accepted.  

What we didn't know was that the dock space would require parallel parking between two other large catamarans 😮 Let's just say that this required considerable skill, especially with the wind and current pushing us off the dock.

Clearance between Starry Night and the boat in front of us at Charleston Marina

The timing of our arrival in Charleston was fortunate, since it was near Bridgette's birthday. We stayed two nights and were able to celebrate :-)

Breakfast brunch with Bridgette and Elliot ❤

We also acquired crew in Charleston - our friend Mark - who wanted to experience a bit of the cruising lifestyle. His wife, Jan, joined us overnight but needed to head home the next day. As luck would have it the weather opened up to allow us to go offshore from Charleston to St. Augustine, which just so happens to be where Mark lives, saving Jan a trip to pick Mark up again. 

Dec 18 & 19: Charleston, SC to St. Augustine, FL

After 8 days of motoring (sometimes with a little boost from our jib), we were super-excited to be able to sail again!  We had beautiful wind and were able to sail the whole way from Charleston to St. Augustine without needing a boost from the motors.

One of the interesting things we ran across during our trip from Charleston to Florida was a large number of cargo ships anchored off the coast of Georgia at Brunswick. 

I tried to take a photo but we were too far away to show the ships clearly so took a photo of our GPS display instead. All of the blue-outlined figures are the cargo ships and the black icon represents Starry Night.  For those of you who are interested in the some of the other details in the display: our SOG (speed over ground was 8.5 knots...yay!), our COG (course over ground was 206 degrees), the TWS (true wind speed) was 17.0 knots, the AWS (apparent wind speed) was 16.3 knots. 

This passage was the first time I actually felt a bit queasy since the first night of our adventure. I'm not sure if I was on land for too long in Deltaville, or if it was because the waves were rollers in a direction perpendicular to the forward motion of the boat.  In any event, it wasn't too bad and it was fabulous to be under wind power again.

Sunrise after a night sail from Charleston

Welcomed to Florida by Bow-Surfing Dolphins

Downtown St. Augustine

The City of St. Augustine is home to a marina at the historic Bridge of Lions, which offers mooring balls with access to the dinghy dock and other facilities, and we enjoyed the beautiful park and glorious lights on our evening walk. 

Park at the St. Augustine City Marina

Dec 20: St. Augustine to Ponce Inlet, FL

From St. Augustine we motored to Ponce Inlet, where we docked at a local marina.  That area and the marina had sustained damage from Hurricanes Ian and Nicole but we were able to dock overnight and have dinner out at the restaurant next door. 

Dec 21: Ponce Inlet to Cocoa, FL

As we left the marina the next morning, we crossed through Ponce Inlet.  This particular passage was a bit of a challenge and the depths shown on the charts are no longer correct...probably due to last year's hurricanes.  We made it through, nevertheless, and the rest of the trip to Cocoa was a breeze. We decided to stop in Cocoa for the night since we had learned that Cocoa has a dock that cruisers can use for up to 48 hours and we wouldn't be able to make it to Satellite Beach in the daylight.

When we arrived at the dock, one of the sailboats that we had seen over the past several days was there and offered to move his boat a bit to make room for us and helped us secure our dock lines.  Chances are that we will cross paths again.  

Dec 22: Cocoa to Indian Harbor Beach, FL 

We made it!! On the morning of December 22, we arrived at our "January home' in Indian Harbor Beach. 

We had just enough time to put a few lights on the boat, finish our Christmas shopping and then spend Christmas with Bridgette,  Steve's parents and sister, and my parents and sister. 

I was so thankful to spend this Christmas with our family and hope that all of you had a wonderful Christmas too! 

Steve and I plan to spend the month of January here in Florida and then head further south to the Bahamas sometime in early February.  I'll keep you posted!!

In the meantime, best wishes from Steve and I for a happy and healthy New Year!!