Trip Diary for November, 2009

Nov. 1-5; Little River, SC:  Wayne and Judy Skaggs picked us up a 9 AM Sunday.  Along the way to their home in Raleigh we stopped by Rose Hill, NC to attend services an the United Methodist Church where their daughter-in-law is the pastor.  We then enjoyed a wonderful lunch at the Mad Boar in nearby Wallace with the Skaggs' family before continuing to Raleigh.  Monday we rented a car and drove to Deltaville, VA (230 mi.) to pick up our car, bringing both back to Raleigh.  The fall colors help make the long drive enjoyable.  Tuesday we left the Skaggs about 9 AM for the return to Little River.  We diverted slightly into Calabash for a great seafood lunch at Ella's and for shopping.  Wednesday was a relaxed, enjoyable day with a 73 degree high and light winds.  Beginning with a 9 AM McD breakfast followed by a bit of shopping in Ocean Isle we then drove to its beach.  We walked a deserted beach, sat up two beach chairs and listened to waves while playing Sudoku and Spider on our iPhones before a late lunch at Ella's. It was 4:30 before we returned to the boat.  Thursday was spent on the road taking the car to St. Simons Island, GA (640 mi. round trip).  We left the Enterprise office in N. Myrtle Beach at 8 AM, making it back to the boat at 7:45 PM.  Lola drove the Lincoln down and the last 90 min. with the rental.

Friday, Nov. 6:  Larry was at the Enterprise office to return the rental 15 min. before their official 8 AM opening.  That task delayed departure until 8:25 AM.  It was a beautiful, crisp morning (45) with 10 mph NE winds.  The two bridges requiring opening, Little River and Socastee, both had only 5 min. waits; however, with the tide current, wind and boat traffic they both seemed like much longer.  The number of boats on the ICW this year, especially sail, is larger than we remembered.  We covered the 59 mi. trip with many no-wake areas to arrive at the excellent, new Riverwalk Marina in Georgetown, SC's 3rd oldest city, at 3:30 PM.  This provided time for a bit of shopping in the historic district half-a-block from the marina before returning to delicious crab cake dinners aboard.

Nov. 7-8; Charleston, SC:  Wanting to cover the 67 mi. to Charleston's City Marina in time to utilize its shuttle service for dinner, we left at first light, 6:20 AM Saturday.  Benefitting from favorable tide current the majority of the cruise enabled us to arrive at 2:10 PM.  It was a gorgeous day for cruising: East 5-10 mph winds on narrow waters (until Charleston harbor) and sunny with highs around 70.  We spotted only 1 eagle, but radio traffic from other boats indicated we missed seeing several others.  We caught the 4 PM shuttle and enjoyed an outstanding rib dinner at Sticky Fingers.  We returned to Sticky Fingers after the 11:15 service at Trinity UMC Sunday.  A 5-block walk to Kilwin's for ice cream before continuing to Harris Teeter's for a few groceries completed our visit in the historic district.

Monday, Nov. 9:  Departure waited until the office opened for checkout at 7 AM.  Winds were light, but forecast to increase to 14 by 1; for once, they were 100 percent accurate.  Lola has developed a habit of serving hot chocolate at 10 AM, a delightful practice that continued on this leg.  Boat traffic on the ICW continued to be unusually heavy.  Tides were not quite as helpful as Saturday, but were with us about half the trip.  Thus, we and 3 other boats reached Beaufort Downtown Marina at nearly the same time, 2:20 PM.  This overloaded dockhands, requiring a 25 min. wait to dock.  Fortunately, this matched slack tide (which is wicked for docking here) and winds died; unfortunately, calm winds preceded a gentle rainfall.  When the rain slacked, we registered and took the courtesy car to Bruster's for ice cream before dinner aboard i.e. following Kilwin's motto: "eat dessert first!".

Tuesday, Nov. 10:  Unsettled weather due to uncertainty about hurricane/tropical storm Ida's path from Pensacola across the southeastern states constipated marina reservations as boaters chose not the leave.  Thus, space was unavailable at our preferred location, Isle of Hope Marina near Savannah.  We continued another 11 mi. to the remote Delegal Marina on Skidaway Island.  Temperatures remained a steady 71 all day.  It began raining about 2:30 PM, but despite our late 9:15 departure hoping for an opening at Isle of Hope we still arrived by 4:30; time for dinner aboard and early bedtime.

Wednesday, Nov. 11:  We planned to leave early to cover the 77 mi. to our winter destination of Morningstar Marina at Golden Isles, but an intense rain squall with high winds delayed departure until 8.  That, coupled with mostly unfavorable tide currents and other unexpected delays, made it impossible to reach our intended destination before dark and there are no marinas along the last 40 mi. of that stretch.  Winds, light during the morning, picked up suddenly as forecast to 15 mph at 2:30 PM with rain when we were halfway through the last of our large open waters, Sapelo Sound.  Rather than risk running at night for 2 hrs, the Admiral decided we should anchor at one of the several spots recommended by Skipper Bob's publication, Broughton Island at MM 661.9 on the ICW.  Arriving at 4:50, just before dark, enabled a quick, easy hook set in excellent holding conditions; thus, despite a night of 15-20 mph winds, gusts up to 25 mph, and reversal of the current with the tide change, the anchor held firm all night.

Nov. 12-18; St. Simons Island, GA:  Wanting to make Morningstar's Golden Isles at slack tide, we had an easy anchor release and leisurely 8:20 AM departure on a cloudy, windy Thursday.  Since today's water was all narrow, the wind was not a concern except when docking.  Now that it wasn't important, we had favorable tide current the entire 15 mi.  We chose an easy mooring on the face dock for fuel and pumping the holding tank while awaiting noon's slack tide to move into slip A3 where we expect to stay until April except for an extended excursion up Florida's St. Johns River next January.  After 750 mi., weather-challenged 3 weeks cruising from Deltaville, VA it was nice to quit worrying about tomorrow's conditions.  A mail shipment from Sharon Hawks together with boat rinsing and getting settled occupied the afternoon.  For dinner we enjoyed seafood at one of our favorite local restaurants, Gnat's Landing on the Island.  Friday and Saturday were devoted to organizing and packing for the extended return to IN for the holidays.  Larry finished the thorough boat scrubbing and worked on boat maintenance tasks.  Of course, those were suspended to watch Purdue lose a tough game to Michigan State.  Sunday began with the 10:45 service at the large, beautiful Wesley UMC and grounds adjacent to Fort Frederica Mounument; quite a contrast to churches attended the past several months.  Following brunch at Cafe Frederica we undertook the monthly fiscal tasks on the computer.  We stayed up late to watch an exciting Colts victory over New England.  Monday was laundry and ironing for Lola while Larry worked on boat projects, interrupted only for delightful crab sandwiches at Cafe Frederica.  It was cockpit cleanup day Tuesday with cleaning/polishing the eisenglas the biggest task.  After a late lunch at Five Guys and Lola's nail fill we had an appoint with Dr. Morales for her knee.  Dinner was aboard.  Lola managed to get a 10 AM Wednesday appointment at Advance Rehabilitation where an excellent therapist, Kimberly French, taught her exercises to improve knee function.  The remainder of the day was devoted to final packing for the trip to IN.

Nov. 19-24; W. Lafayette, IN:  No more boating this year!  We drove 10 mi. to the Golden Isles Airport in Brunswick Thursday for our 11:40 AM Delta flight to Indianapolis via Atlanta.  Unfortunately, FAA's flight scheduling computer in Denver had been down for several hours, delaying our departure by 2 1/2 hrs; fortunately, our schedule included a 3 1/4 hr. layover in Atlanta.  While the Atlanta flight departure was also slightly delayed we arrived on time in Indy.  Sandy and Klaus met us with our car and we headed quickly for Lafayette to attend an Optimists' Club youth award banquet where grandson Tyler Wood was honored for starting an EMT program with the Red Cross in his high school.  Friday-Tuesday were devoted to re-entry to W. Lafayette and doctor appointments.

Nov. 25-30; Cordova, TN:  We departed at 8:30 AM Wednesday for the 500 mi. drive to daughter Judy's home for a Thanksgiving holiday with her family.  We had 4 wonderful days visiting, eating with some of us watching much football.  The really exciting news came Friday: our second great-grandson, Noah Leitem, was born in Indianapolis to Sandy's son Nick and his wife Jamie. Monday, the 30th, we drove back to W. Lafayette via Decatur, IL, celebrating Larry's birthday dinner at Applebee's with his brother, sister and their spouses.

We'll be in Indiana all of December for a Christmas holiday; no boating and no web reports until 2010.

Water miles traveled to date: 4,342; this month: 337

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