ICW-South Carolina

We've been slowing cruising up the ICW through South Carolina for the past week.  We didn't stop in Charleston, just sailed through the bay.  It was a very busy bay so we didn't want to try to stop and there really wasn't a very good anchorage in the bay.  It's been real slow going because there hasn't been much wind inside the ICW and we've been going against the tides some of the time.  It's great when we could time it so we were going with the current because it would speed up us up a couple of knots but we still have to use the engines most of the time because it twists and turns so much.  We anchored one night just outside of the Charleston bay because we missed the last bridge opening for the Ben Sawyer Memorial swing bridge.  The swing bridges are pretty cool to go through because the middle swings around for two openings to go through rather than the normal bascule bridges that lift up in the middle.  The next night we stayed up river about 30 miles just off to the side and when we were getting ready to leave Wes was pulling the anchor up and I was driving.  Well, we were at low tide and I turned the wrong way and got us stuck in the 1.5 feet of water.  Then if it couldn't get worse, the dinghy line wrapped around the port prop.  So we were stuck there until the tide lifted us off, which was about 2 hours and while we waited Wes had to get in the water and untangle the dinghy line from the prop.  It's impossible to see under the water because its so mucky from the mud and the tides stirring it up so he wasn't able to see to get it off but he was able to get it done.  I was sitting up front waiting for the tide and I saw an alligator over on the bank, which didn't make Wes feel any better about having to get in the water.  But all ended well and we were able to get going again.

We decided to stop at the Harborwalk Marina in Georgetown and stay for a couple of nights.  What a cute town.  The marina is right on the boardwalk with several really good restaurants and unique shops.  We rented a car for a day and drove over to Myrtle Beach to check it out since we weren't going to be able to see it on the boat.  We decided to go out and sail the open water up to the outer banks and not travel up the ICW any longer.  It was just such a slow process and kind of a bummer not to being able to use the sails much.   So we are on our way and it will probably be at least 2 full days to get up there, but it would have probably taken us a week or more if we stayed inside the ICW.

Ladies Island swing bridge

The alligator

A nice paddle wheel boat we saw

Wappoo Creek bridge

Charleston Bay

Fort Sumter in Charleston

Ben Sawyer swing bridge just outside of Charleston

The clock tower in Georgetown

 

Myrtle beach

The lighthouse leaving Georgetown

Hilton Head Island

After pushing it hard for a week we decided to take a break and stop at a marina in Hilton Head for a couple of nights.  What a beautiful island Hilton Head is.  We needed to get to West Marine because our water pump went out and it was about 2.5 miles away and we tried to rent a car but they didn't have any available so we ended up renting bicycles.  A lot of the vacationers here rent bicycles and they have really nice bike paths that go all around the island.  It was probably better anyways renting the bikes because we needed the exercise.
We biked to West Marine, the beach, the grocery store twice, a really good pizza place (Fat Baby's) and it felt like we covered every inch of the island.  We would bike over these bridges and they would have these signs "don't feed the alligators".  I thought they were kidding but sure enough we saw a couple.  One was under the water and another was a baby that was out on a branch, which I was able to get a picture of.  It's hard to see them with all the trees and the water is really murky and marshy.  We also saw a turtle under the water and a couple up on land.
Today is Saturday the 11th of June and we are heading out again making our way up the ICW.  This is such a cool way to see these east coast states.  Way different than when we did it on our motorcycles a few years back. 

The baby alligator

Amanda look-Turtles

  

ICW-Georgia

We’ve been cruising up the ICW for 3 days now and we are about half way through Georgia.  Sometimes it’s a very slow ride because we’ll be going directly into the current and only do about 2 knots then the tide will shift and we’ll speed up to 4-5 knots.  There hasn’t been any wind so the sails are useless.  Yesterday we had a little bit more wind (around 5-6 knots) so Wes would put out the jib sail but then we would hit a curve and  he’d have to pull it in.  At least it’s a very smooth ride.  We’ve only had to have one bridge lifted so far and that was down in Florida when we first entered the ICW at Jacksonville.  We actually stayed in Jacksonville (Sister’s Creek) for three days because we were able to tie up at a free dock.  They have several of these along the ICW I guess.  This one even had free water. 

We rented a car and ran all over Jacksonville picking up things that we’ve done without for several months or things we needed that we couldn’t find down in the Caribbean.  We were a bit overwhelmed because there were so many shopping centers and stores to buy stuff that we just weren’t use to having so many options.  We also had to find customs so we could check into the US, which was an adventure.  We found the office after driving about 25 miles inland only to find out they moved.  I thought it was strange that the office wasn’t right on the water like all of the other customs offices in the Caribbean.  Once we were able to find it, we found out that we were suppose to call in first and have them complete all the information over the phone then go to the office for a face to face.  This was the strangest check in process we encountered our whole time down here, but we were finally able to check in after about 5 hours.   We kept the car for two days because Wes’s sister and her family were flying into Jacksonville to visit family so we were able to meet up with them for a few hours on Saturday, which was nice.

There isn’t really much along the ICW in Georgia.  You will go for miles before you see any boats, people or structures.  Sometimes the water will be really wide then it will get very narrow.  It is so different than the cruising we’ve been doing, but we have seen more dolphins inside the ICW then we saw out in the Caribbean. 

Opening the bridge for us at Sister's Creek

I thought it was crazy how long their docks have to be to go over the marsh

What most of the shoreline looks like in Georgia

a lighthouse along the way

Dolphins

Mama and her baby

The end of an era

Looks like we got to the end of an era, we had our last big hurrah. We are going to be leaving the Bahamas in two days so we took time to go to “Nippers” which is a bar on great guana cay.
It’s a great bar but expensive.  7 dollars a beer, but it has a big following. There had to be 1000 people there yesterday. They are right on the atlantic, so you can get a beer and also swim in the ocean. They also have a pool and several layers of decks, which were all full of people and a lot of them were dancing. We took the dogs and it seemed like everyone there left a dog at home and could not get enough of Max and Lexie.

When I say its the end of an era, I mean that we will no longer have the turquoise waters that we’ve had for the last two years. So we will not be able to jump into these waters anytime we like. We are going to the U.S. up the inter coastal water way. Which I’m sure is nice in many ways but the color and clarity of the water will not be one of them. It’s really kind of sad.

On the other had it will be nice to get back to the U.S. I haven’t been there in a year and a half and there are things that I miss.
 1. Getting any kind of food in the grocery store.
            There have been times where we couldn’t even get hamburger or chicken breasts
 2. Having cell phone coverage everywhere.
             It will be weird to just pick up the phone anytime and call someone.
 3. Being able to talk with all the people.
             Even in “english" speaking countries you can’t always understand what the locals are         saying.
4. Getting parts for what they cost.
             In some places it would cost $100 to ship a part there and duty of $50 to recive it into the     country.

                                                         Dogs on the beach

                                                     Pigs on Gauna Cay

                                                Another sunset

Next stop the US of A

Exumas to the Abacos

We made the crossing over from Spanish Wells to Lynyard Cay, which is the southern end of the Abacos with good anchorage.  There are other cay’s further south but they are all surrounded by steep cliffs and no beaches with coves that you can tuck into.  It was about 52 miles and it took us over 11 hours because the wind seemed to change direction on the way over and it started coming more from the north which made it so we were going almost directly head on with it blowing around 15-20 knots.  Our cat does not sail very well directly into the wind, which from what I understand most cat’s don’t.   This was probably one of the worse crossings we’ve had so it was a very long day.  The water in the Abacos sure isn’t as nice as the water in the Exumu Cays.  I think the water in the Exumu’s is the prettiest water I’ve ever seen.  It’s so clear and full of beautiful coral, conch, starfish and rays.  I’m glad we got to spend a little time in Spanish Wells, which I thought was on Eleuthera but it’s actually on St. George’s Cay right next to Eleuthera.  We only stayed one night but we at least got to walk around the island and have dinner at Buddah’s, which is an outside bar with a school bus made into a kitchen but the food was pretty good.  The best I’ve had coming out of a school bus. The people in Spanish Wells are some of the nicest people we have run into.
They have quite a few marine parts stores and hardware stores in Spanish Wells, which is a good thing because the transmission cable on the starboard engine busted so we could only go forward with that engine and one of the connectors going into the hot water heater busted but we were able to find both of those on the island.

One good thing about the horrible crossing is Wes caught another Mahi Mahi just as we were heading into the anchorage.  It wasn’t as big as the last one but we at least filled up the freezer again after eating all of the other one at the beach fire.     

Now we are cruising up the inside channel of the Abaco’s heading to Hope Town, which is on Elbow Cay.  The inside channel isn’t as smooth as you would think though.  The wind is still blowing around 16 knots and the islands here are so low the wind just blows right over them into the channel.  

The pier leaving Spanish Wells

One of the beaches in the Exuma's

Another beach in the Exuma's

A fish Wes caught but a bigger fish got to it before he could reel it in

Sorry for posting all the sunsets but they are unbelievable down here-nothing like Colorado's

George Town, Exuma

We are back in George Town which is on Great Exuma.  It's the place where cruisers chicken out from going further South because there isn't really any civilization in the Bahama islands further South until you get to Turks and Caicos.  We actually got here on Tuesday after spending a couple of nights at anchorages on Plana Cay and Acklin Island.  We were able to get the dogs checked in after a couple of issues.  I don't know what I would do without having Amanda back home to help us out getting paperwork faxed and emailed down here. 

When we were on Acklin Island we met three other cruiser boats.  Two from Canada and one who actually lives on Spanish Wells in the Bahamas.  We had a huge bon fire on the beach and Kelsie who is sailing with Chris from Spanish Wells cooked up the rest of Wes's Mahi Mahi.  She also made some potatoes and she cooked it all over the fire.  It was pretty cool and tasted amazing.
 
We'll probably stay here until tomorrow than head a little further North. 

Potatoes Cooking

Left The Dominican Republic

(I actually wrote this post on the 15th but we haven't had any wifi until today 5/19 so hopefully I can catch up on the blog)

We left Puerto Bahia, DR at around 5 pm on Tuesday the 10th and we sailed straight through to the Bahamas. We got to West Plana Cay at around 6 pm Friday so it was a long 3 days. The dogs were very glad to see land. The sail wasn't bad and we had ok wind most of the way. We hit a couple rough spots but for the most part it was pretty calm with the wind coming from the east so it basically pushed us along and we could sail without engines averaging around 5 knots. Hopefully that is our last multi-overnighter. We'll probably work our way to Georgetown over the next couple of days, which is on Great Exuma. There really isn't much on the Acklins, Crooked and Long islands other than some beautiful anchorages. These islands are known as the Bahama Islands south of the Tropic of Cancer.

Wes caught a pretty big Mahi Mahi on the way over. Probably about 40 lbs. It took him a good 30 minutes to reel in and he was pretty exhausted after. So now our freezer is stocked with some real good fish.

It's nice to be back in the Bahamas with gorgeous beaches. The dogs are glad to be back crab hunting. Lexie caught four crabs today so she's getting to be quite the hunter. She even shared one with Max. Maybe cause she felt sorry for him because he hasn't caught any.

Stuck in the DR

We left St. Thomas Friday the 22nd as planned and since the wind was so good we decided to skip Puerto Rico and go straight to the Dominican Republic.  It took us about 2 and a half days because about 50 miles out of the DR the wind completely died.  We pulled into Puerto Bahia Marina Monday morning and got settled in a nice slip.  We stopped here on our way down and really loved the marina.  Then on Monday afternoon Wes started the engines and the port engine would not start.  Yes, again we had a starter go out.  So Wes got on line and ordered the starter from the same place he got the last one, paid extra money to have it fed ex'd down here.  The guy was a little skeptical sending it to the DR but he went ahead and did it.  We really didn't have a choice because there is no place to get it on the island and we weren't going anywhere without it.  I also read stories about it taking weeks and sometimes months to get parts here.  The dock master even said it is a challenge to get parts shipped here.  Well, Wes tracked the package and it got to the fed ex office here in Santa Domingo on Wednesday but it hasn't moved since then and it is now Monday May 2nd and it's still stuck.  Wes has tried calling fed ex and from what we can figure out, it is because customs is holding it up.  You also can't call the local office to and talk to anyone and if you could, they only speak Spanish so it wouldn't do us any good.  He was able to send an email and now we are just waiting for a response. 
We've been here a week and we are getting a little bored here.  We would really like to get to the Bahamas too.  Even though it's a beautiful place, it still gets boring after a week.  Last week we rented a car one day and ran around the island with another cruiser couple that we met here and then we were able to hitch a ride into town yesterday with a couple that has a car.  There isn't a lot right around the marina other than a couple restaurants, a couple pools, and a mini market.  And nothing really in walking distance.  So, I guess we have no choice but to wait for the part.  There are definitely worse places to be stuck though.

Our boat in the marina

The beautiful infinity pool and marina

The bridge to no where in Samana.  They built this and they were going to build a casino on the island but they never built the casino

Down town Samana