*In
the interest of preventing our readers from dying of boredom, we have not
written entries for every port. In those instances, we cruised the
entire day and went to bed early, with no significant events to
report.
February 28 - March 2, 2001
Location:
Titusville, Florida
Yahoo! We pull into Titusville Municipal Marina and experience the
joys of washers and dryers, running water and electricity! The
marina is also home for 15 manatees and we loved seeing these amazing,
endangered creatures! The manatees crave fresh water and if a boater
"accidentally" left a hose running into the water the manatees
would drink from the hose in a matter of minutes! Watering the
manatees became a favorite activity for me, as you all can imagine.
We rented a car for the day and drove to Epcot Center which was an hour
away from Titusville. We enjoyed our day at Epcot and had a
wonderful sushi lunch in the country of Japan (Epcot has areas
representing most major countries). I was very sad to leave our
manatee friends but left a hose running for them!
March 3, 2001
Location:
Daytona, Florida
The drive to Daytona was a long one and we anchored under a bridge and
went to sleep to the sounds of Harley motorcycles (it was biker week in
Daytona). We did not visit Daytona but pressed onward the next day!
March 4, 2001
Location:
Pine Island, Florida
March 5, 2001
Location:
Brickhill River, Georgia
March 6, 2001
Location:
Frederica River, Georgia
March 7, 2001
Location:
Isle of Hope, Georgia
We are not making much forward progress as the winds are howling at 35
knots and waves are crashing into the bow and covering the bimini top with
salt water. It is pretty darn cold up on the fly bridge so we decide
to call it a day and head for Savannah tomorrow. Wow, we miss the
warm weather and crystal waters of the Bahamas!
March 8 - 9, 2001
Location:
Savannah, Georgia
The engine is leaking alarming amounts of oil into the bilge so we decide
to stop at a marina in Savannah to get some engine parts and a
mechanic if necessary. We met a wonderful diesel mechanic who tried
to find parts for our engine and was successful in locating one part
out of three. He did help us plug one of the leaking areas and we
will continue on to Deale to order all required parts. We did spend
one day touring Savannah - what a beautiful city! The city was laid
out by General James Oglethorpe, the founder of Georgia and the
architecture is interesting and the historic homes elegant. We toured the
waterfront and city market and enjoyed an incredible southern meal at
"The Lady & Sons" restaurant. The restaurant serves a
huge buffet which includes such items as fried chicken and fish, black-eyed
pea casserole, baked grits, macaroni and cheese, corn bread, cheese muffins and banana cream
pudding! My dad, from Alabama, would have been in heaven! I
purchased the "Lady & Sons" cookbook so hopefully will be
able to recreate this meal at home! We enjoyed our day touring
Savannah immensely and the friendly southern hospitality can't be beat!
March 10, 2001
Location:
Bull Creek, South Carolina
March 11, 2001
Location:
Beaufort, South Carolina
It is nice to be back in beautiful Beaufort, one of our favorite towns on
the Intracoastal Waterway. We spent our time in Beaufort walking
around the small town and had the pleasure of visiting Michael Sutton and
his dog Breezy at the Marketplace News (Michael and Breezy are on our
October 2000 trip report). Michael only works on Sunday so we were
lucky to be in Beaufort on a Sunday!
March 12, 2001
Location:
Church Creek, South Carolina
March 13, 2001
Location:
Minim Creek, South Carolina (Georgetown)
We stopped early to visit the quaint town of Georgetown, South
Carolina. There is a small historic district filled with colonial
homes, shops and restaurants - the picture of Small town USA.
We also had a wonderful lunch at the River Grill and experienced the joys
of shrimp and grits - amazingly delicious! I convinced the waitress
to provide me with the ingredients for shrimp and grits and hope to make
this sinful dish at home! The holding was poor in Georgetown harbor
so we decided to anchor in Minum Creek, 15 miles north of Georgetown.
March 14, 2001
Location:
Thoroughfare Creek, South Carolina
March 15, 2001
Location:
Barefoot Landing, South Carolina
Wow, is it cold - we are dressed in four layers of our warmest clothing
and it is rainy. We decide to take advantage of the free dockage at
Barefoot Landing, near Myrtle Beach, and turn on the heat! Barefoot
Landing is a large outlet mall with numerous restaurants. We did
some window shopping in the afternoon and spent a warm evening on board.
March 16, 2001
Location:
Wrightsville Beach, North Carolina
We left Barefoot Landing around 7am and arrived in Wrightsville Beach
around 6pm. We anchored in the harbor and took the dinghy to
shore. We walked on the pretty beach and explored the beach town on
foot.
March 17, 2001
Location:
Beaufort, North Carolina
We were having slight problems with clogged fuel filters so decided to
make a stop in Beaufort. We immensely enjoyed our stay in Beaufort
in the fall and were happy to return. The anchorage is beautiful and
we saw eight wild horses on the shore. We anchored in the late evening and
had a light dinner at the Landing Restaurant. The next morning we
changed the fuel filters and continued north.
March 18, 2001
Location:
Oriental, North Carolina
Many of our friends and other cruisers suggested we visit friendly
Oriental. Oriental is extremely small and dedicated to visiting
cruisers. There is a provisioning store, a general store and a few
restaurants. There is free dockage in the harbor and we tied up for
the night. We had an incredible dinner at M&M's restaurant -
wonderful shrimp and scallops at reasonable prices! We would have
liked to spend more time in Oriental, but a cold front was forecasted to
hit North Carolina by Tuesday.
March 19, 2001
Location:
Eastham Creek, North Carolina
March 20-21, 2001
Location:
Belhaven, North Carolina
There is a huge cold front heading for North Carolina with 40-60 knot
winds forecasted and high seas. We head for River Forest Marina to
ride out the storm. We have never experienced a storm of this
caliber before and spent most of the night securing additional lines to
the dock. The winds gusted to 50 mph with heavy rains and did not
diminish until early the next morning. Whew, we were happy to have
made it through this storm and plan to continue north on Thursday!
