St. Augustine “Pirates” (also known as the attempted boarding of Seadee)
We’re so lucky that the waterways in Florida are so safe, we sometimes become too complacent. In St. Augustine we had an interesting experience at the new mooring field just outside the fort…
Annie was sick with the flu (fever of 101) so she was in bed, but did get up and lollygag around the stairs in case there was an emergency of some sort during the mooring. Andy wanted to moor the boat himself, which he eventually succeeded in. This story is not about the mooring so I will leave it at that.
Anyway, because they require a credit card to be run at the dockhouse, the Captain departed Seadee and got onto the launch to go to the dockmaster’s office (across the Bridge of the Lions). Since it was a beautiful fall day in Florida and we don’t get many of those, and since Annie was still on the boat (albeit now asleep in the master stateroom down below), he left the side door to the boat open for some fresh air.
When you’re used to sleeping on a boat, and you hear something strike the hull with force, you wake up instantly. Annie heard something big hit the stern and got up to investigate. Now, knowing that Andy was out on the launch she thought it was probably just the dockmaster bringing Andy back to the boat. Upon ascending the stairs and looking out the rear of the pilothouse, however, she was looking at another man wearing camo with one foot on the swim platform. As soon as the intruder saw someone aboard Seadee, he got back into his 10′ green johnboat and he and his (also camo clad) buddy roared off at full throttle through the mooring field.
After locking up the boat, and calling Andy to see where he had gotten off to, Annie had to report the incident to the dockmaster, then to Police. Now the attempted boarding of Seadee is an official incident; it’s tough being famous.
Anyway, it’s lucky that Annie looks so intimidating when she’s sick. 
Georgetown to Beaufort
Upon freeing our prop, we zipped out of Grand Dunes and down the Waccamaw River (really quite pretty if you have time) to the quaint town of Georgetown, SC. Georgetown is purported to be the source of one of the varieties of rice that we still eat today, but a changing economic makeup has seen most of the industry move towards the craft paper mill and tourism (and boaters). I would be remiss if I did not mention that Andy did a masterful docking at the marina there and shoehorned Seadee into a slip barely large enough for a dinghy.
The next day we visited Charleston, SC (what a nice town) where we got to catch up with the crew of East Passage a little more. What fun to have trawler talk at the dock!
The next morning we went on to Beaufort, SC (pronounced like “beautiful” — because it is beautiful) and dined with the crew of Moonbeam. There we actually had to leave Seadee at the dock for a few days and pick it back up for the final leg of the journey.
Annie took this photo at the dock in Charleston since it's interesting to see a boat carrying a Honda CRV (usually carrying a Porsche). As it turns out, when we got to Beaufort, Moonbeam knew this boat already -- how's that for a small world?
Seadee was forced to slow to No Wake (such an inconvenience from our normally blistering speed) for this "Ferry Crossing." As it turns out, all the passengers were foul.
The Final Leg
Wise people tell us that good boating is done without deadlines. Well, we were supposed to be home by November 1st and on that day we were still in Beaufort which, although beautiful, was still 6 days from home (in trawler time).
The first day Annie intervened in the course and mandated an anchorage in Moon River, GA. This is the best anchorage on the East Coast (hey, who’s writing this blog, anyway?) and was the inspiration for the song (Johnny Mercer had a house on Moon River). If you don’t understand the reference you need to watch “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” again; and even if you do understand it’s always a good idea to watch the movie once a year just to keep it fresh in your mind.
Back to the story about the boat trip, we made it to another river in Georgia where we anchored all alone, it was so nice and peaceful. UNTIL 12 sailboats and 3 other trawlers invaded our spot and anchored all around us and ran their generators all night. Harumph! So much for the solitude of nature.
The next night we docked at Amelia Island amid a nasty rainstorm and Andy braved the rain to re-provision (which was good, because we had even eaten the tunafish). Did I mention that Annie had caught the flu and was laying in bed with a fever by now? This will become important later in the story about the St. Augustine pirates.
The following evening found Seadee at the brand new mooring field in St. Augustine. Here you’ll want to read the side-post entitled “St. Augustine Pirates.” It was fairly entertaining watching all the boats stack up in front of the Bridge of the Lions waiting for an opening, and then cruising right under it the next morning.
From St. Augustine we spent one night in Mosquito Lagoon (lots of room to anchor there) and then high-tailed it home to Merritt Island. We saw the space shuttle still sitting on the launch pad as we motored in the Banana River (that’s right, they haven’t launched it yet).
Here's Capt. Andy securing Seadee on a mooring in St. Augustine. This is the brand new city mooring field and Seadee was the first boat ever to use this mooring -- oooo so shiny and new!
A common sight in Cape Canaveral (technically Port Canaveral, I suppose), the cruise ships loaded and ready to depart on a Sunday afternoon. There are actually 3 boats in this picture although they look like buildings.
Coastal Carolinas
Ahh the beauty of the coastal Carolinas in the fall. Yeah, yeah, yeah. In the past 2.5 days we’ve waited for 8 bridges that were scheduled or on demand and passed under another 13 bridges and 1 cable car crossing tall enough for our air-draft. What a pain in the trawler dairy-aire. Also, our frigidaire went on the fritz for a day (now mysteriously returned to service after all the contents have been emptied, how convenient) and we managed to wrap a dock like around a prop thanks to a boneheaded marina attendant. Can’t a trawler get a break around here?
Ok, finally relief in the form of Ruth’s Chris Steak House and a blessedly cold-blooded diver willing to free the dock line…breathe out.
This is how you dock a tanker with 2 tugs; coincidentally also the recommended method for docking a trawler if you have 2 dingies available, so take notes!
What's missing from this picture? I'll give you 3 good answers: tequila, Andy, and a blender!
Annie enjoying some Port City Java in Southport. I think it was a mochachino but my hands are still shaking from the sugar high.
A Frank Lloyd Wright Church or the VORTAC at Myrtle Beach Airport? You decide.
To our knowledge there are 2 places where cable cars cross the "Intracoastal Waterway." This is one...
Andy thanks God there are those among us that feel strongly about strong color statements, otherwise we'd all live in a beige world.
Friendly Faces!
Great Harbours learn to recognize each other, so when we looked out of our salon windows in the Pungo Creek anchorage last night and saw a Great Harbour bow coming in we couldn’t have been more excited. As it turned out, it was East Passage and we dingied over for some trawler socialization. What a pleasant surprise!
We’ve been cruising swiftly down the ICW beginning at Norfolk, the ICW’s mile “0.” We couldn’t resist a stay at the Tidewater Yacht Agency and a movie at The Commodore Theater (which also includes dinner) in Portsmouth. The movie showing this time was Secretariat which, predictably, Annie loved.
We took the Dismal Swamp Canal route this time, which was a much better experience than its name suggests. The Dismal Swamp Canal is fun because you have to lock in and out of it (9′ locking on the day we went through) and then it’s really quite a peaceful float down the river at about 5.5mph. The end of the canal spit us out at Elizabeth City, NC, where we tied up to the Mariner’s Wharf city-owned dock. The dock was FULL as boaters, and particularly cruisers, love a free dock and everyone seems to be headed South right now. We did manage to climb (we almost needed rock climbing equipment to get off the boat, but we made it) to the dock and have a little dinner at Grouper’s. Unfortunately we were outside of range to watch the MLB NLCS so we had to go a night without baseball (horrifying).
The next day was the (dreaded) Albemarle Sound and (less fearsome) Alligator River which were both blessedly flat. The Pungo River anchorage was our stopover that night (where we got to catch-up with East Passage) and now we are headed on to Morehead City, NC.
Annie made some new friends in Norfolk with our stale bread. Ducks love rice bread!
We were the last boat in, and the only trawler, to clear the Deep Creek Lock's 11am opening. As you can see, we were packed in pretty tight with 5 sailboats.
The Dismal Swamp Canal isn't so bad! We saw a tiny bit of color change in the leaves and no less than 11 turtles, but all else was fairly quiet on our journey. Annie did, of course, play a little hip-hop on the flybridge to spice things up and scare away snakes.
What is this thing? Ok, I'll tell you: it's a WWII Blimp Hangar on the shore of the Pasquotank River southeast of Elizabeth City, NC.
Here's Seadee all tied up at Mariner's Wharf in Elizabeth City, NC, looking very handsome indeed. Note the fact that we had to jump from the wall onto the anchor platform to board.
Andy took this photo of East Passage anchoring in the Pungo River under a beautiful moon rise.
Seadee (back) in Solomons
-
I shouldn't have to tell you why this "workboat" warranted a photo on the blog. Suffice it to say that if you put a port-o-let and a full-size dumpster on the front of your boat, I'll put a picture of it on the blog, too.
The Stieltto M80 is 88 ft long with a 40 ft beam and was moving along at 40 knots when she passed us. Photo source http://www.diseno-art.com/watercraft.html
Back at the dock at Zahniser's in Solomons, MD, but only for 1 night this time. We're tied up facing a Catana 50 (a French sailing catamaran) - Seadee almost feels small!
Seadee returns through the C&D Canal
We’ve had fair seas but grey skies and we have covered a lot of ground (for a trawler)! Departing Newport, RI, we overnighted again in our new favorite free moorings at Old Saybrook, CT. From there we did the Long Island Sound and New York Harbor in 1 day; and just pulled into Sandy Hook, NJ, to throw out our own hook just in the nick of time, in the dark, before a wicked lightning storm hit. The next day we pressed on down the coast of New Jersey and took the “inside” (Intracoastal Waterway) route from Manasquan to Beach Haven, NJ, where we spent the night and took on fuel (notable since fueling up is such a rarity on a boat that burns 2 gal/hr and has a 500 gal tank). We snuck back outside into the Atlantic Ocean the next day at Atlantic City and spent another wonderful night at Cape May, NJ, where we had another Lobster House dinner that couldn’t be beat. The next day we continued on to Chesapeake City (we made new trawler friends at Cape May and are now traveling together!) and we’re all here sitting out some rainy weather at the Chesapeake City Marina.
Annie driving through the "Hell's Gate" portion of New York Harbor.
The Captain wielding Seadee past downtown NYC.
Is this the world's largest collection of over-sized rubber duckies? If you want to visit them their home port is Cape May, NJ.
"Can you believe ADA had all these #1 records after I left?"
Merritt Island Weather
