Follow the Gatsby on the Great Circle Cruise
5
STARTING DOWN THE HEARTLAND
On a windy Wednesday Gatsby finally left Lake Michigan, possibly for her first time. We entered the Chicago Lock at about 1015, along with some new friends on an Endeavor catamaran with her mast lashed to top of the cabin. This was the first of many locks on the Illinois River part of our journey, and also the worst! Lines were already attached to the lock walls for us to hold onto, but they proved to be too short for us, particularly Nancy, who was stationed on the very low rear side deck. She ended up with a bruised muscle in her right forearm from straining to hold the boat. Fortunately the drop was only about two feet, and didn't take long. After exiting the lock, we started a beautiful low speed passage through the canyon of downtown Chicago, shown in the photo below. We passed under dozens of bridges, some with clearances as low as 16 feet. This was especially interesting to Eric, who had studied bridge design 50+ years ago. Many of these bridges in Chicago were built in the 1800's!
On the Chicago River in Downtown
The scenery changed, however. As we continued into the South Chicago River, and then into the Sanitary and Ship Canal, it was 100% industrial, almost to the Lockport Lock, some 35 miles from Lake Michigan. We had to dodge numerous tugs moving barges in and out of docks. At the lock, we had to wait about 45 minutes, which we spent rafted to the catamaran along a seawall, while we also experienced a brief thunderstorm. We finally locked down with a towboat (tug), which had already taken 15 barges through (5 barges long and 3 wide!). The drop was about 35 feet. This time the lines were long enough!
It was getting late in the afternoon and we were tired. We got into Joliet right after 1700, and tied up at a seawall along a city park, which was suggested in one of our guidebooks. It also was suggested that an anchor light be displayed here, since tows (tugs pushing barges) must maneuver to get through nearby bridges, and sometimes get close to the same seawall. We took that advice, and were thankful, because one came very close that evening while I was in the shower. Nancy said it was almost close enough for her to touch! Our catamaran friends saw another, also very close, later that night. Without that light we might have been history! In the midst of all this excitement, we had more strong thunderstorms, but the next morning was bright and sunny, and we left early to enter the Brandon Road Lock, only a few miles downriver. We had called ahead to determine a good arrival time, which worked well. I've attached two photos taken in the lock; one as we entered to tie up, and the other as the doors were opening for us to exit. You can see the Brandon Road bridge, which also opened for a Coast Guard tug, which was in the lock with us.
Entering Brandon Road Lock
Ready to Exit the Lock
Our friends were continuing south, but we opted to go into Harborside Marina, making a short day. I wanted to get some help to re-step our mast (we now were through all the low bridges). With the mast back up, we would regain the use of our radar, in case we encountered some unexpected fog. The owner of Harborside, together with his son, came aboard to help me with the task. When we checked out in the morning, he refused to charge us for the service. We think he enjoyed seeing the boat, and he also took to Gretel! Anyone making this trip should stop at Harborside and say hello to Ron for us.
We unofficially decided that, when possible, we would plan on one lock per day. The delays can be long and are unpredictable, and the locking still is a bit hectic, with eddies in the lock, crosswinds, etc. A cold beer usually is in order after making it through one. Our next one was the Dresden Island Lock, a few miles south, and then we proceeded to the Spring Brook Marina in Seneca. We arrived at noon and had a relaxing afternoon. Yet another lock at Marseilles awaited us in the morning, and as the river seemed to get much prettier, we continued through Ottawa to a marina with the interesting name of Starved Rock. This apparently comes from some Illini Indian folklore. The marina proved to be a rather social spot, with a good restaurant, and we enjoyed a lay day here. We also met several folks who wanted to see the boat and/or meet Gretel, who was turning out to be a main attraction. One couple even did some minor shopping for us
Typical Grain Elevator on Illinois River
On September 20th we headed further south to the Henry Harbor Landing & Inn, in the little town of Henry. The beginning of this leg was the descending through Starved Rock Lock, and then we had a somewhat longer passage of nearly 40 miles. Guidebooks rarely depict the true character on the marinas they list. They really missed it on this one! It could be called "funky". We had been told to pick any empty slip. The one we found proved to be shallow, and we were touching the bottom. The floating docks were very unstable, requiring careful balance, and the boards were spaced about 1-1/2" apart, so that we could not let Gretel walk on them. She probably would break a leg! The good part was a neat bar and restaurant with really good but cheap fare. Even the dockage was only 50 cents per foot. We met several nice people here, including the local Buick dealer, who offered us a loaner car. And the little town was delightful.
Henry Harbor Marina
September 22nd was our wedding anniversary, and we celebrated by going into the Illinois Valley Yacht Club in Peoria, commonly called the "IVY Club", to have dinner and spend a few days. A special treat was getting here from Henry with no locks! While here we will rent a car for some errands and sightseeing, and another major provisioning. After this stop the distances between provisioning opportunities become great, with nothing really major until we reach Barkley Lake on the Cumberland River, after we finish the Illinois, and do long passages on the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers. The IVY Club is next door to an engine servicing business, so we also will do oil and filter changes while here.
IVY Club in Peoria
The IVY Club staff graciously offered us a telephone hook up, so we can send this report before we leave
Eric, Nancy & Gretel aboard GATSBY
7
ADVENTURES ON THE BIG RIVERS
Fog was no problem when we woke up in the Alton, IL marina, on October 1st. We headed out for Hoppie's Marina, some 44 miles down the Mississippi. In doing so, we would encounter two locks, both busy with a lot of barge traffic, and would transit the busy St. Louis area. The first lock was only two miles from the marina, so we called and were able to depart to meet an opening on schedule. This was our first experience with tying up to floating bollards in the lock walls, eliminating the need for the attendants throwing lines to the boat. Positioning Gatsby to the bollard was tricky, but Nancy got the line on in good fashion, and Eric took over to hold it, while she fended off with a boat hook. The 12-foot drop was easy. Downstream, the current had picked up to 2 1/2 knots, giving us around 10 knots over the bottom. The wind was over 15 knots out of the south, however, and the resulting waves were very lumpy.
The second lock is in a canal, separated from the river. As we approached that lock, the operator advised "another pleasure boat is already in the lock, if you could call it that". We entered and saw a guy in an open boat with an outboard motor, maybe 14 feet long, towing two small boats, each about 10 feet long. All three were loaded with camping gear, fuel cans, coolers, and who knows what. A bit unusual for the Mississippi River! The rest of the trip was uneventful, with only the wave conditions being somewhat nasty. We arrived at Hoppie's in the early afternoon.
We had a nice stay here. The marina, really just a dock made up of old barges along the river bank, is a "must" stop for most boats traveling down river, because it is the only fuel stop for a long, long way. The owners, the Hopkins, have been there for 30-some years, and are most knowledgeable and gracious. They even conduct a daily seminar on anchorages and river conditions from their location to Kentucky Lake. The nearby town of Kimmswick, MO, is very quaint and historic, with some good restaurants. The next morning we joined some new friends, on an Island Gypsy trawler, for a great breakfast in one of them. One of our photos shows the barge dock at Hoppie's. Note the sailboat behind Gatsby, with her mast lashed on top.
The Famous Hoppie’s
Our trawler friends told us the "rest of the story" on the gentleman in the small outboard boat. They had entered the canal leading to that second lock about 45 minutes before we did. They had been flagged down by him, and when they went alongside, he had asked "which way to Arkansas?” Obviously, they had directed him into the canal, so he didn't end up going over the dam! Sure enough, later that afternoon he was seen proceeding down the river past Hoppie's. Nancy had taken this photo of him on our first encounter.
Arkansas Traveler
After a lay day at Hoppie's, allowing the flooding Ohio to get a little lower, the Island Gypsy and Gatsby were joined by a Mainship trawler, and we all left after the early morning fog for a long trek to an anchorage 80 miles south. Although the Mississippi River charts show no buoys (they change too often) the marks were easy to find by the Island Gypsy skipper, who was a very experienced sailor. We just relaxed and followed the leader! Half way down we passed our old buddy, who we now called "The Arkansas Traveler". He was out there dodging giant towboats pushing 20 barges! Our anchorage was too shallow to get the whole way in, but we had a good night anyway. We were all tired.
Our final day on the Mississippi was another 77 miles to an even better anchorage just above the mouth of the Ohio River, at Cairo, IL. However, in the morning, Gatsby had a submerged log or something similar tangled with her anchor line, near the bow. We finally were able to free her by driving the boat forward at full rpms. For a few minutes, we were afraid we would have to cut the line!
Now we were heading up the Ohio against the current, which again was about 2 1/2 knots. Our net speed was cut to 5 knots, so we had planed anchorages at much shorter intervals. We also now had to contend with high water instead of low, and, although the Ohio River charts do show the buoys, about half of them were missing due to the flooding from Ivan. The high water did have an advantage; the wickets on the two locks on the lower Ohio were down, so we could sail right over the submerged dams, instead of waiting for lockage. This proved to be scary at the second lock, where there were severe eddies and the current was about 6 knots! For a few seconds we did less than 2 knots, while the boat was turning uncontrollably! The anchorages, one behind a bar between the locks and the other behind an island near the mouth of the Cumberland River, were both fine.
Typical View on the Cumberland River
Finally, we were able to leave the Ohio. The Cumberland is much more beautiful. Nancy snapped the above photo of the high rocky bank, as we wound our way in the curvy river up to Barkley Lock, some 31 miles away, where we would be lifted into the lake. After a slow passage due to even stronger currents, we had to wait almost 3 hours at the lock! A southbound tow was being dropped down, requiring emptying and refilling this big lock twice. The normal pool in Lake Barkley is 57 feet above the downstream elevation. A short distance above the lock is the very nice Green Turtle Bay Marina, from where this report will be sent, and where we will spend a week, doing some R&R, boat maintenance, dental work, etc. After that, we will explore next-door Kentucky Lake for a while.
Eric, Nancy & Gretel aboard GATSBY
10
THE NORTH GULF COAST
It seemed like a long trip from Lake Michigan to the Gulf of Mexico. When we arrived in Mobile, AL, at the bottom end of the Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway, we were glad to once again be at sea level, and experience tides, and currents that are not always in the same direction! We put into the Grand Mariner Marina in Dog River, right off Mobile Bay. We had planned to spend several days here, and then head west to spend Thanksgiving in New Orleans.
Things didn't work out quite that way. First of all, some friends who had hoped to join us for the New Orleans side trip had to cancel. Then, when we took a hard look at the charts, we discovered that anchorages and/or marinas weren't spaced out too well for Gatsby's pace. In addition, and most important, the weather became a big factor. We had six rainy days in a row! So, we just hunkered down right there in Dog River. We got a good deal on a rental car, and did some sight seeing along with the usual provisioning, visits to the nearby West Marine store, lunch at the Mobile Yacht Club, etc. A gal on one of the sailboats at the marina was a retired beautician, and we both got haircuts right on the dock. Gatsby got her second oil change.
Dock Haircut in Mobile
The friendly folks at Grand Mariner invited all of their customers to Thanksgiving dinner, served in their restaurant, which was about to reopen after major repairs following hurricane Ivan. We all brought a dish to share, and the marina provided turkey and ham. Nancy made her pearl onions in cream sauce.
Finally the weather improved and we headed west out of Mobile Bay. We would be traveling in the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway for a good part of the way, along the Florida Panhandle. The GIWW ends at Carrabelle, and then we would have to choose our travel days very carefully, because we would now be in unprotected waters until we reach Tarpon Springs, a distance of about 175 miles. This portion is what they call the "Big Bend".
Our first stop out of Mobile was an anchorage in Ingram Bayou, near Ft. Walton. The marinas in Ft. Walton were all severely damaged by Ivan, and were out of service. We planned to anchor there for just one night, but that improved weather didn't last long. The next morning NOAA was calling for 20 to 25 knot winds, out of the south, the only direction from which we had no protection. We put out extra anchor line and spent the day reading and playing backgammon, while the boat swung in gusts up to 30 knots and the rain came down in torrents. We even had white caps in there! I took the Ingram Bayou photo on the second morning, when all was calm. We got underway early and motored to another anchorage in Santa Rosa Sound, this time to enjoy a quiet evening with light NE winds. We were finally in Florida! On Monday, November 28, we tied up at the Shalimar Yacht Basin, near Destin.
Ingram Bayou
Hurricane Damage in Santa Rosa Sound
Again, the now-familiar sequence of fronts caused us to stay extra days in Shalimar. They had a beat-up VW Cabriolet courtesy car, so we were able to get around. We were shoe-horned into a tight space in the working part of the yard, and on Wednesday we got some help to turn Gatsby around, so we could leave very early the next morning on our way to St. Andrew, near Panama City. This would be a trip of over 60 statute miles, and with limited daylight and allowing for adverse currents, we wanted to make sure we arrived well before dark! The passage was an easy one, actually with favorable currents for part of the way, and we arrived at St. Andrew’s Marina at 1400. This marina is homeport for several shrimp boats. We bought a pound of large shrimp for $5.75 and Nancy made a fettuccini dish with them. Tomorrow we will try the highly recommended Uncle Ernie's Bar & Grill right around the corner.
Sunrise over Destin
Shrimp Boats in St. Andrew
Uncle Ernie lived up to his reputation. The plan now was to move on to a marina at Port St. Joe, a little town right on the Gulf, protected by a barrier island. To get there involved traveling down a 5-mile canal off the GIWW. It was worth the trip; the marina was one of the better ones we encountered, and had an "islandy-type" restaurant on site, plus a very modern laundromat. We spent two nights there, and then made a short run to Apalachicola, where we tied up at the Scipio Creek Marina. Papa Joe's Restaurant on the property served some of the best raw oysters we'd ever eaten!
Our final leg on this phase of our journey was through Apalachicola Bay and St. George Sound to Carrabelle. It was foggy in the morning. When we could see across the river we left. The conditions in the bay were a different matter! At the start we could barely see from one mark to the next. The marks do not have radar reflectors on them, so we had to rely on the compass and GPS. The fog lifted somewhat after the first hour, and we were able the go ahead at cruising speed into our destination, where we had a reservation at the Moorings Marina. Here we joined several other boats we had met at various stops on the loop. Most of them had been here many days waiting for suitable weather to head down to Tarpon Springs. They got it the next day, and everyone left, leaving Gatsby behind alone. We wanted to spend a few days here. Hopefully we'll get our window after that!
Eric, Nancy & Gretel aboard GATSBY
11
DOING THE BIG BEND
Here we were, at Carrabelle, FL, sort of out in the "boonies", and faced with a decision on how to get down to the Tampa Bay area, where we wanted to spend the holidays. Our original idea was to transit the 175 mile "Big Bend" in several steps, putting in to the St. Marks River, Steinhatchee, and Suwannee, before running down to Clearwater or Tarpon Springs. From there, we would be back in the protected waters of the Intracoastal Waterway, not out in the Gulf. The problem with that idea was that frontal passages were coming every three or four days, and we would have to wait out these events at each location, making the trip take a very long time! We decided to do what the others had done: make the passage in one shot, which meant doing it overnight out in the Gulf.
Buddy, the Moorings Marina Dockmaster, in Carrabelle, is a bona fide weather guru. He has long experience in recognizing and predicting the conditions in his part of the Gulf at any given time. A small change in the forecast, plus a good report from an early-departing boat, and a consultation with Buddy, led to a quick decision on our part to leave on Sunday, December 12th, for Tarpon Springs. We left behind La Flaneuse, the French boat that had joined us two days before (see attached over-exposed photo). This unique boat is a whole story by itself. She was designed by her owners, built in France, and sailed by them across the Atlantic so they could cruise North America. We hoped we would see them later on the trip.
An Over Exposed La Flaneuse
At the start of our passage the light winds were out of the west, putting them on our starboard quarter. Gatsby was riding very well. As the day progressed, and darkness approached, the winds unfortunately backed around to the SW with an increase in strength. Gatsby now took on a substantial roll, as we were plowing through the Gulf in the total blackness of a new moon! Thank God for our autopilot. All we could do was to take turns standing watch (watching the radar) while holding on. Gretel slept through the whole 20 hours. We came into the area of Anclote Key an hour before daybreak, and decided to reduce speed so that we could see the marks into the river. It was dead low tide, and getting up to Tarpon Springs would be very dicey in the dark!
Get there we did, and with good feeling of accomplishment after a 140 nautical mile trek, we tied up next to several of our newly acquired friends at a dock right by the horde of Greek restaurants. After some naps, we did some sampling of their wares, including a fantastic dinner that evening at Pappas.
Tarpon Springs Waterfront at Low Tide
After a few R&R days in Tarpon Springs, we will head down the friendly ICW to Pass-A-Grille and St. Pete.
MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL!
Eric, Nancy & Gretel aboard GATSBY
12
THE HOLIDAYS AT SOME OLD HAUNTS
She Ran Aground at High Tide and Now It’s Low
After our two days at Tarpon Springs we left on an outgoing tide to head down through Clearwater to our destination of the Pass-A-Grille Yacht Club. The tide was extra low, and the winds were blowing water out to the Gulf. Gatsby, with her 3.5 foot draft, bumped on the bottom several times in a channel that normally would be 6 feet deep! We made it ok, but I was glad we have Boat US towing insurance, even if we didn't need it. We arrived at the club that afternoon, and, for the first time in more than five months, we were at a place we had been before. We visited here four years ago on Blue Heron, and Nancy was here on her parents' sailboat in 1949!
The club had not changed much since our last visit, and we enjoyed some more meals in their dining room. We also caught up on email and were able to send out some reports. Our plan had been to stay there five days before heading over to St. Petersburg. Mr. NOAA again interfered with a nasty weather forecast, however, so we left after three days to get tied up in the Harborage Marina, next to the Dali Museum, where we would spend the rest of 2004.
St. Pete has been a favorite of ours since our first boat visit in 1996. An old Baltimore friend, Skip Morgenthaler, spends the winters here in his condo, and if we're in town we always get together for some reminiscing. This time Skip, and visiting daughter Diane, invited us for Christmas dinner. The day was cold and rainy, but the company was warm and the meal excellent! That night we were awakened by the sound of high winds and the boat heeling in her slip. We were experiencing gale force winds right in the protected marina!
Gatsby’s Christmas Tree
The weather did improve in time, and our New Year's Eve was enjoyed in almost 70-degree temps. We had some of Eric's rich oyster stew and were in bed by 2200 hours. Over the weekend the mornings were spent on exterior boat cleaning (playing with the hose was ok in the warm sunshine) and in the afternoon we watched several of those football games we could get on the marina's cable. Our plan is to leave on Monday, January 3rd, and head south to visit several of the friends and family we have on Florida's west coast. Our first stop will be Moore's Stone Crab Restaurant on the north end of Longboat Key, to enjoy some of those wonderful claws and spend the night at the free dock.
A Quiet January 2nd in Harborage Marina
HAPPY NEW YEAR!
Eric, Nancy & Gretel aboard GATSBY
14
OFF THROUGH OKEECHOBEE
On January 19th Gatsby got fueled up and pumped out in preparation for her trip across Florida, via the Caloosahatchee River & Canal, Lake Okeechobee, and the St. Lucie Canal & River, to a destination of Manatee Pocket in Stuart. Our first stop was a tight anchorage in an ox-bow lake about 20 miles east of Ft. Myers. After a quiet night, we headed out for the little town of LaBelle, where the town provides a free dock for visitors. We encountered our first lock shortly after our departure. It seemed like child's play compared with all those big river locks we came through a few months ago!
We had been warned that the LaBelle dock required a "Mediterranean Mooring", meaning that a boat tying up must drop an anchor and back into the dock, attaching the stern, thereby making more space available for others. Gatsby's design prevents boarding from the stern, so we hoped the dock would be empty and we could tie alongside. This was not the case, however, so we opted for the motel dock across the river. It wasn't free, but it was cheap! The photo shows us there, with the filled-up free dock in the background. Next to us was a cute replica of a Norwegian fishing boat, complete with a diesel engine and a reverse boom for net handling. One of the motel staff had fashioned it from an old lifeboat.
Docking at LaBelle
Norwegian Fishing Boat Replica
Another short leg, with our second lock, brought us to Moore Haven, on the southwest rim of the lake. Eric had been here, several years ago, when he crewed for friend Don Shanklin, bringing a sailboat home from near Tarpon Springs. The town was pretty quiet then; it was almost dead now. Gatsby was alone at the dock. We did manage to find a Spanish restaurant that delivered, and enjoyed a different sort of meal that evening.
Our NOAA friends were telling us about a very strong front coming our way, part of the same system that was bringing all that cold wind and snow up north (where most of you are--hah!). We did not want to be out on the Lake in 25-knot winds. We decided to go on to Clewiston, only 12 miles, to a full service marina where we could wait out the front. We arrived right in the middle of a professional bass fishing tournament, with fishermen everywhere. The next morning was amateur day, and we woke up to see about 200 bass boats waiting to head out. They were packed into the marina basin, many hanging on to the sides of other boats, including Gatsby.
Our plan was to continue around the rim after the front. We called the marina at Pahokee, a little fishing town that was to be our next stop, and found out that it was closed for repairs. It had been hit by all four Florida hurricanes last fall! Now it made no sense to go the additional distance required by the rim route. We waited one more day and headed across Lake Okeechobee, in light winds, to a destination of Indiantown on the St. Lucie canal, east of the Lake. The Port Macaya Lock lowered us only one foot. It didn't seem to make sense; why couldn't the Corps of Engineers just keep it open and accomplish all control with the last lock near St. Lucie? We'll never know the answer.
We reached Indiantown on a Wednesday afternoon, and checked the weather forecast for Thursday, which was fine. Friday, however, didn't look too good, with more 20 to 25 knot winds coming from the northeast! In the morning we decided we could make it in one day all the way to Vero Beach, a distance of 65 statute miles. We had one more lock and a couple of bridges to go through, which would cause delays, but if we could average 8 mph, 8 hours would do it. We left at 0830, feeling optimistic.
Indiantown Marina
The first sign of trouble came at the St. Lucie Lock. Westbound boats had just entered the lock, and we would have to wait until it filled and these boats got out, before we could enter. Several more eastbound boats arrived and we all waited. It turned out to be a very slow lock, and by the time we got through we had lost an hour. Our 1630 arrival at Vero was now 1730.
Then came a big delay at the Dixie Highway bridge. The adjacent (and antiquated) railroad bridge had been closed for a train, and the highway bridge would not open until the railroad bridge could do the same, which took another one-half hour! By now there were about 25 boats milling around, waiting to get through this mess! At best we would reach Vero at sunset. We went back to plan A, and anchored in Manatee Pocket, a few miles further along. We had been here many times on Blue Heron, and knew it would be comfortable. It was quite possible that we would need to spend two nights here, waiting for better wind conditions on Saturday!
It was fairly calm on Friday morning when we got up. We listened again to NOAA. The heavy winds were still predicted later that day. But, now they were talking about similar winds on Saturday, too. We decided to head out. Gatsby had handled a lot worse, and we wanted to see our friends in Vero Beach!
It was blowing before we got the anchor up! Fortunately, we had good tidal currents at the start, and made good time for the first few hours. Conditions got worse as we approached Ft. Pierce, however, with Gatsby developing an uncomfortable roll in the two to three foot seas that were sometimes on the beam. North of Ft. Pierce the ICW narrows somewhat, which reduced those seas. We pulled into the municipal marina in Vero at about 1300, wanting to tie up at the fuel dock for diesel and a pumpout. The wind was blowing us away from the dock so badly that we gave up after two tries, and tackled the problem of getting into a crosswind slip. Six months’ experience in handling the boat paid off! We managed to get her turned into the slip by relying on her left-hand prop, which causes the stern to kick to starboard when giving a short burst of RPMs in reverse. Several such bursts, accompanied by port bursts of the bow thruster and an occasional forward normal RPM "bump" with port helm got us in there! Two strong dockhands didn't hurt.
It was a long day, even though it was early afternoon. We called our friends and made arrangements to see them for bloody marys on Gatsby's "back porch" on Saturday morning. Meanwhile, we would clean up the boat, and turn in early after dinner.
Eric, Nancy & Gretel aboard GATSBY
15
BEGINNING THE TREK NORTH
Our stay in Vero Beach was highlighted with spending several days with our oldest mutual friends, Gere and Margaret Coffey, the couple who introduced us back in 1977. The Coffeys have a lovely villa in The Moorings, an upscale development on the barrier island on the south side of town. Gere treated us to several gourmet dinners prepared by the pool, on his Weber grill (appropriately). While visiting, Eric took a number of photos, and, would you believe, while viewing them in the camera he accidentally deleted them? One is supposed to do that after downloading them into the computer! Just imagine a beautiful patio and pool scene, which was supposed to be attached.
We had to leave on the seventh day in Vero, and continue up the ICW toward our next major destination, Daytona Beach. This is a three-day trip, and we knew the winds were forecast to be strong from the north on the second day. We anchored near Melbourne on the first night, and just as predicted, we had a wind shift right at midnight, with NE winds in excess of 20 knots. We were in the lee of the bridge at Eau Gallie when this happened, as planned. Even so, Gatsby was rocking and rolling quite a bit. Eric napped in the salon, so he could check the anchor periodically. Nancy and Gretel slept below in the stateroom, but not well.
The next morning was menacing, and we thought about just staying anchored, even with the discomfort. The forecast for the following day, Saturday, was about the same, however, so we decided to plug on to our intermediate destination, Titusville. Besides, we had a reservation at the Halifax River Yacht Club in Daytona, where we planned to watch the Superbowl! The going didn't get really rough until an hour south of Titusville. We were clocking over 30 knots of apparent wind. We made into the marina with a crosswind landing at the T-pier, what Nancy refers to as an "arrival". Fortunately there was no damage!
Gray Day in Titusville
Reading these reports, you all can get the idea that weather is paramount in our planning, as it is with all boaters, particularly sailors and ex-sailors. So, once in Titusville, we immediately reviewed the new Sunday forecast, which previously had been fairly good for getting up to the HRYC and the Superbowl viewing in the bar. Things had changed again! The first decent day to make the trip was now Monday, a day late. Even then it might be windier than we like. We would just stay on board and watch the game in Titusville, and then reassess the situation on Monday morning.
Monday turned out to be more benign than NOAA called for, and we had a pleasant run up to Daytona. The photo shows Gatsby tied up to the HRYC dock right next to the dining room and bar. We were in this exact spot four years ago on Blue Heron This will be our last visit at this dock; the club is starting construction of a new building, and this will be torn down shortly.
Gatsby at the HRYC
In Daytona we continued to enjoy reuniting with various old friends. Ned and Fayla Sherrer, sailing buddies from Annapolis, had us over to their winter home in nearby Spruce Creek, a really interesting community. Although it has a country club with golf and tennis, the real emphasis is on flying. There is a runway with associated taxiways and hangars, and many of the homes on the taxiways have attached hangars. Our next experience was dinner with Frank and Mary Didot, friends who moved here from our area in VA, in their high-rise condo on the beach. It was the first time we had been more than three stories high since we started our trip last July! Then we joined Mike and Connie Jarrett for dinner at one of our favorite Italian restaurants, near the yacht club. We first met Mike and Connie on our mutual boats in 1991, at the town docks in Beaufort, SC, when we were on our way to the Bahamas, and have encountered them on the ICW on several occasions since. They now are land-based in Port Orange. On our last night Frank and Mary joined us for dinner at the yacht club.
Saturday morning was quiet and sunny. We got away at noon for a short run up to an anchorage in the abandoned cement plant channel, where we were all alone. It was early to be heading north; most "snow birds" were still in the Bahamas! On Sunday we checked into Camachee Cove Marina in St. Augustine, where we did minor shopping and laundry, plus took advantage of the best- equipped computer lounge on the ICW. We were surrounded by huge sportfish boats. The one next to us at the T pier was captained by a nice young man from Maryland's Eastern Shore, and we swapped a lot of stories. Next we headed up to another favorite anchorage at Pine Island, where we were joined by two southbound sailboats! Were they trying to tell us something?
Morning Sky at Camachee Cove
Another fairly calm day took us across the St. Johns River and up to Amelia Island, where we had scheduled some boat maintenance at the Yacht Basin, which has a good yard. We enjoyed listening to our VHF radio on the way; the Navy was conducting exercises in the ocean, and reporting the sighting of numerous right whales. Also, the Coast Guard reported that they had been seen in Cumberland Sound, which is exactly where we would be in a few days!
Again at Amelia Island we met up with friends (and relatives), this time somewhat unexpectedly. Nancy's sister Jane and her husband Don
were in town calling on clients, and all four were waiting at the docks when we came in! Fortunately we made a very good landing in spite of a crosswind. The next morning, Joe and Carole Sarnowski, friends from back home, stopped by for coffee on their way down to Delray Beach. We all sat out on Gatsby's "back porch" while the mechanic was changing oil, checking batteries, cleaning strainers, etc. All the equipment checked out well. This should be our last servicing of the trip!
We will stay here one more day, waiting out a cold front, and then exit the State of Florida. We probably mentioned before that we would be exposed to a large tax on Gatsby if she stayed in Florida waters more than 90 days, which will be up next week. The tax in Virginia is less than one-fifth the amount! Our next stop will be a long one. We have reserved a slip at Jekyll Harbor Marina for a month, at a very reasonable rate. This is another favorite stop from our sailboat days, complete with good restaurant, cable TV, courtesy car, etc. By mid-March the temperatures should be more conducive to moving further north. In the meantime, we expect to meet up with many of our old sailing friends from previous Florida and Bahamas trips. Almost everyone traveling the ICW stays at Jekyll Island a few days.
Eric, Nancy & Gretel aboard GATSBY
16
THE JEKYLL DAYS
On February 19th we left Amelia Island and Florida on a cool, sunny day, motoring past Fernandina into the St. Mary's River, up Cumberland Sound to the Kings Bay Submarine Base, and into the dividing waterway. We did not see any of those right whales we had heard about, but we were still hearing radio reports of sightings out in the ocean.
The current in the Sound was about 2.5 knots against us, so it was slow going for a while. Once we got behind Little Cumberland Island and into St. Catherine Sound, however, we picked up speed, and we checked in at the Jekyll Harbor Marina on Georgia's beautiful Jekyll Island at about 1315. This was to be our home for 3 or 4 weeks, while warmer weather moved into the mid-Atlantic.
It felt like old times here: Blue Heron had been tied up to these same docks on many occasions, both north- and southbound. The restaurant, SeaJay's, was exactly the same, and we enjoyed some low country food and entertainment that evening. About the only disappointment was that we discovered our cell phones were practically inoperable here. But then, we never even had cell phones on our previous trips, so we really can't complain! On the plus side was our discovery that the marina had installed a wireless internet connection, so we could use the computer to communicate without a phone line, and do it right from the boat.
The first week at Jekyll gave us some very mixed weather conditions-slightly warm to really cold, and included a day of windy downpour on our second Sunday. We kept our spirits up by enjoying the fabulous brunch at the Jekyll Island Club, founded by a group of America's wealthiest captains of industry in the late 19th century. We planned to take a tour of their "cottages" later on, when it's a bit more pleasant outside. Two days later, after the rain was long gone, we had near gale-force winds at the dock for about six hours! The tour would wait.
Jekyll Sunset before the Rain
It was time to get to some of those chores we had been putting off. While Nancy worked on the ever-present laundry, Eric decided to finally install the stick-on names (GATSBY) on the two life rings and the transom of the dinghy (T/T GATSBY). T/T stands for "tender to", for you non-boaters. We had had these stick-ons made in the same style of those on the mother vessel when we first bought her, and they have resided in a locker ever since! The dinghy got done, including the Virginia registration numbers and stickers, but more cool, rainy weather came along, postponing the life ring project.
Meanwhile, we did get in the tour of the historic area. The attached photo shows the Club, which had been enlarged several times from its start in the 1880s, to the 1930s, when the apartments on the right side were completed. The other photo shows one of the many cottages. This one belonged to William Rockefeller. Most of these cottages did not have kitchens; the owners all had meals served at the Club. They did have dining rooms where the children were fed, under the supervision of live-in servants (the food was carried from the Club).
The Jekyll Club
Rockefeller Cottage
Finally it was time to move on. We had been at Jekyll for one month, much longer than any other port we had ever visited. The weather up north seemed to be improving, after some really cold and snowy times. Most of you receiving these reports know about them only too well! During our last week we moved temporarily to the fuel dock, for a holding tank pumpout and topping off the diesel tanks. On March 20th, the first day of spring, we started north again, with plans to anchor out a few nights, and then tie up at the refurbished marina at Isle of Hope, near Savannah.
Eric, Nancy & Gretel aboard GATSBY
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were joined by a motor-sailor owned by a couple we had just met in Jekyll. They previously had owned a "serious" sailboat, and had sailed to England, France and the Mediterranean, in their younger days! During cocktail hour we learned that he had graduated from Union College in Schenectady, NY, the same year that Eric graduated from RPI in Troy. Union and RPI were arch- rivals in sports.
Our new friends were heading to a different destination the next day; we went into Kilkenny Creek to anchor again. On the following day, Tuesday the 22nd, we had a short ride up to Isle of Hope, near Savannah. The marina there had been completely rebuilt in recent years, and offered all the amenities, including a Lexus courtesy car. We had planned a lay day here for some grocery shopping, and had dinner out the on second night. The next marina stop was to be Beaufort, SC, where we hoped to meet up with old friends, and take a few more lay days. Some of these would be due to some strong winds in the forecast. We had an intermediate stop on the way, in Bull Creek near Hilton Head, a very protected anchorage. After negotiating our way through very shallow water in Field Cut, north of the Savannah River, where we ran aground briefly, we pulled into Bull Creek on Thursday afternoon. The forecast for Friday was good.
NOAA had one of their infrequent faulty forecasts. Friday morning produced ominous gray clouds, with thunder in the distance. We watched the TV forecasts, which showed storms bearing down on us, and more headed for Beaufort later in the day. Gatsby's radar confirmed the local rain. After about two hours we thought we saw an improvement in conditions, and we decided to get underway. Beaufort was only a four hour run. We got as far as Calibogue Sound, right around the corner, when the sky darkened again, only worse! Soon lightening and heavier rains came, and visibility got down to a few hundred yards. We were heading toward a narrow portion of the ICW, through Skull Creek, with shallow water all around. The prudent thing to do was to turn around return to Bull Creek. Even that wasn't easy. Of course, not long after we re-anchored the rain ended and visibility returned. By that time we had called the marina in Beaufort and postponed our arrival until Saturday. We had plenty to eat and drink, ample fuel and water, and no time commitment, so we just " 'laxed out" for another day!
Beaufort turned out to be just the same-full of "snowbirds". We did the customary visits to some local eateries and the supermarket. We also stayed a few extra days to let more weather pass through. This was becoming a habit! Leaving Beaufort on March 31st, we anchored in another favorite spot in the South Edisto River, and then pulled into a new stop for us, Buzzard's Roost Marina on the Stono River right below Charleston. Believe it or not, more severe weather was waiting and we spent four days there. Gale force winds were on our beam one day!
Low Country Home near Charleston
Waccamaw River Swamp
Now we began thinking of making up some lost time, so we cut out our planned stop in Georgetown and went up to Wacca Wache Marina in the Waccamaw River. It was a long day exacerbated by a three-knot adverse current in Winyah Bay! After a one-nighter there, we continued up to another new stop in North Myrtle Beach, the Dock Holidays Marina, on April 6th. More rain is coming, and we'll probably spend extra days here, before tackling all those shallow, silted-in stretches waiting for us in the North Carolina ICW.
Yellow Bird
We have encountered this interesting little ketch about 6 or 7 times, in this stretch of the ICW. She was anchored in that Winyah Bay current, because she couldn't make any headway! Later that day she sailed past our marina, and sure enough, we passed her again the next morning! Undoubtedly we will see her up the way.
Eric, Nancy & Gretel aboard GATSBY
17
CONTINUING IN THE LOW COUNTRY
Gatsby's first day out of Jekyll Island got her to our customary anchorage in New Teakettle Creek. We
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