Century Club: Tom Dean

Started at mile 348 of the ICW on the 15 and had stops along the way.

October 15 headed out of Southport towards S.C. Stayed at the Grand Dunes Marina in Myrtle Beach SC the evening of the 15th - met up with another Pearson 35!

Traveled down to an anchorage in Duck Creek on the 16th- very nice anchorage - very calm!

On the 17th came into the Charleston area, but didn't make one of the bridges because of extreme low tides, so anchored in Inlet creek so we could make the next mornings opening for the Ben Sawyer Bridge.

On the 18th we made our way into Charleston, and back into the Stono River where we had a slip at the St. John's Yacht Harbor for a few days to visit with our daughter.  We went sailing with her on the 19th, 20th, and 21st.

On the 24th we headed out, but we decided to slow down and enjoy things a bit more since we had lots of time before needing to be in Daytona.  We overnighted on the hook in Bass Creek.

On the 25th we headed down to Beaufort SC where we stayed at the Lady's Island Marina.  Provisioned and walked over to Beaufortt.

On Sunday the 27th, we headed out looking to get to Savannah. We made good time and took a slip at the Thunderbolt Marina where we stayed a day and borrowed the courtesy car to head into Savannah for a bit. 

On 10/29 we headed out and anchored at the mouth of Dead Creek

On October 30th we arrived at Blackbeards Island where we anchored in Blackbeard Creek. We went exploring down the back creeks and unto Blackbeards Island - now a national wildlife preserve on October 31st.

November 1st we started our first leg to Jekyll Island - we had reservations for a slip on the 2nd, so we stopped and anchored on the southern end of the Frederica River.

November 2nd - we travelled to Jekyll Island where we stayed until the morning of the 5th.

November 5th - Traveled to Cumberland National Seahore - had a rough time going through St. Andrew’s sound - should have taken the western (alternate) route. We did take the dinghy in to the island on one day to walk to the beach and see the sights (11/7)

On 11/8 we headed over to St. Mary’s where we got a slip at the intercoastal marina - which seems to be pretty new.

On Sunday 11/10 we headed over to Fernandino Beach where we picked up a mooring ball for a few days

Began our trip south from Lankford Bay Marina to warmer areas.  Not sure our final destination area - could be the keys, could be the Bahamas... but we tossed off the dock lines and headed off.  First stop Herring Bay - but wind changed direction and it was much stronger than forecast (NWS didn't get it right... again), so we picked up the anchor at midnight on Sunday and headed down to Mill Creek in Solomons. 

Monday, we headed south and anchored in Dividing Creek, where we stayed an extra day because of bad weather.

Wednesday we left Dividing Creek and sailed down to Chisman Creek off the York river.  Nice little anchorage - much bigger than it seemed on the charts - but a long way in and a longer way out.  At least wasn't going in the wrong direction!

Thursday we left Chisman Creek and headed for our first marina of the trip - Tidewater Yacht Marina at Mile 0 in Portsmouth.

Friday we took off down the ICW.  Didn't pull out until 8pm because we knew we had to wait for the first bridge opening at 8:30 - which was held up a while because of Amtrak (the RR bridge is right on the other side of the Gilmerton Bridge and the Gilmerton bridge won't open until the RR bridge opens. Continued heading down, got to the Great Bridge Lock just as it was opening for traffic - so we went right in. Looked at a few possible anchorages for the evening - but all looked sketchy - so we tied up at Coinjack Marina.

Left Coinjock at 8am on Saturday morning headed down the ICW and into the Alligator river where we anchored right before the Alligator/Pongo river canal. Lovely anchorage, lovely sunset, no alligators!

Pulled anchor on Sunday at 7am to head down the canal into the Pongo river - short day as we stayed in the basin outside of Belhaven.

Left Belhaven early Monday morning, headed down the Pongo, crossed the Pamlico and into the Neuse river - which on Monday was calm.  Got the sail up a bit which was nice both on the Pongo and Neuse as well as some stretches along the Albemarle Sound and Pongo rivers.  Was planning to go into Oriental, but the wind was going to start coming out of the NE and rather strongly and Oriental looked a bit exposed, so opted for the South River.

Tuesday morning, October 8, we left the South River.... had a bit of a rough go of it coming out of the south river and around the rather large slough. The NWS called it a "moderate chop" with winds 10-15.  Actually, winds were 15-20 with gusts over 25, seas 2 foot +.  In the Chesapeake - this would have at least been a SCA if not a bit more, but here - only "moderate chop" - interesting. Finally turned going downwind got some sail up and headed for the canal down to Beaufort/Morehead City, where we got a slip at Beaufort Docks (very affordable!!)

Now, waiting for Milton to pass as we plan to go out and around down to Wrightsville Beach - a 12 hour passage outside.

Figured the first mate needed to know how to both raise and lower the main - just in case - so we took off out of the slip and headed into Langford creek to practice. With the boat on autopilot (and trying to avoid some of the crabbers) I demonstrated both the raise and lower the main - with proper flaking.... and then gave her a chance. She got it up pretty quickly and did well to avoid the lazy jacks, but coming down was an issue, so we turned around and I demonstrated again - with the boat on autopilot. She did fine the second time - flaking it pretty well!. It was a short outing, there was no wind to speak of, but a necessary one...just in case I am ever knocked off the boat and she has to rescue me!

Had spent the past few days working on making sunscreens for the cockpit and changing over the batteries from lead acid to lifepo4 batteries - and I needed to get out and sail.  Wind was out of the E-NE at 10 knots with sunny skies.  When we pulled out of the slip at 2:45 it was 82 degrees and the barometer was at 30.22.  Got the sails up after entering Langford Creek and sailed all the way down the Chester towards Eastern Neck Island.  Saw lots of other sailboats coming our way - some were staying at our home marina - Lankford Bay marina. Turned around about 3:45 and headed back on a beam reach (as we had sailed down) and we were back in the slip by 4:45.  Then I popped over to help a friend who was installing  new stantions on his Hunter Legend 40.5!