4/29/11 - 5/3/11   The next day was a long one.  Usually after noon we start looking for an anchorage but that day we couldn't seem to find one that wasn't exposed to waves. Evening came and we found ourselves on the Alligator River which is wide with a relatively straight shoreline.  I anchored on the lee shore but the wind came up and shifted in the night and we woke up on a roller coaster.  The wind was forecast to stay strong so we picked up the anchor and ran ten miles in the chop to a pretty good spot to spend the day.  Another day's run got us to Elizabeth City, NC.  This is a favorite stop for cruisers because there is a free city dock for 48 hours and a tradition of local hospitality including a wine and cheese party at the dock and a rose for the first mate.  We met Larry and Jane on the Bavarian Cream.  They are from Louisiana and they know how to party.  We visited the local museum and had lunch with them at the fish restaurant where the "locals" eat.  Our 48 hours at the city dock ended all too soon but they have no amenities so the plan was to move to Pelican Marina in the same city, do laundry, pump out the holding tanks and recharge the batteries.  Unfortunately after we got there we were informed that the pump-out dock was blocked and the washing machine was broken.  That was unacceptable so we left and started up the Dismal Swamp Canal (actually not so dismal) and found a great anchorage at Goat Island.

4/24/11 - 4/28/11  Easter Sunday evening found us in a well protected military anchorage named Hammock Bay.  As I pulled in there were already several boats at anchor.  The anchorage is not very large but I found a spot that gave us the maximum room.  Before dark, several other boats came in and made it a little tight but acceptable.    Monday morning we went into Moorehead City Marina, NC.  Our friends Shay and Elizabeth Glass on the Great Escape are residents  there and graciously offered their car for re-provisioning and two trips to West Marine.  Also we met Ted and Nancy on the Aloha Friday and later that evening we all went to a local eatery and had all-you-can-eat ribs. I have given permission to Lace to shoot me should I ever again order all-you-can-eat anything.   Two more nights of anchoring at Cedar Creek and Slade Creek and the weather had started to deteriorate.   There were tornadoes raking the southern states and the front was coming our way so we ducked into Dowry Creek Marina on Albermarle Sound.  This is still Lace's favorite marina.  In addition to the regular amenities it has a boat owners lounge where every night at 5:30 everyone in the marina gets together for BYOB happy hour, dinner entree provided by the owner and side dishes brought by the residents.  The weather cleared in the morning so off again!

4/21/11 - 4/23/11  Good Thursday (the one before Good Friday) brought us to Wrightsville Beach, NC. named, I assume, after the local historic celebrities  Orville and Wilbur.  It was a great anchorage!  The nearby inlet to the sea made the water refreshingly clear after the river water we had spent weeks in and I was able to pirate wifi from one of the nearby residences.  It was so pleasant in fact that we decided to spend three nights there.  We are chasing the cool temperatures up the east coast as the spring wanes but it is warm enough to take a brisk swim.  The water tastes saltier than I remember.  Three days is about the limit of how long we can stay at anchor without starting the engines or the generator because of the drain on the batteries.  The refrigerator is the major consumer.  We expect to be underway on Easter Sunday so Lace made us Easter Saturday supper with baked ham, potato salad, corn bread and cake for dessert.  Life is not too bad.

4/18/11  - 4/20/11  We spent two more days and nights working our way through the South Carolina wetlands.  They are beautiful and isolated.  We saw very little civilization with the exception of the occasional fisherman.  One evening we had just anchored in Bull Creek when we saw a fellow cruiser going by flying the Canadian flag.  After learning by radio that they would be anchoring nearby for the evening we invited them over for happy hour.  They tied up alongside the Confetti (known as "rafting up") and we met Tom and Phyllis on board the Cocoon Too.  They were on their way back to Canada after spending the winter in the Bahamas. The next morning we headed north and passed into North Carolina.  The countryside is changing more to tall trees on the shoreline but still buggy.  We spent the night anchored in Shallotte Inlet, NC., a very tight anchorage with shallow water all around.  Even with two anchors set, I was up on deck several times during the night checking them and in the morning one of them was set so hard that I damaged the anchor roller on the bow getting it out of the mud.  We headed up the Cape Fear river to the town of Wilmington and tied up at the city dock.  The next morning we took the tour bus to see the local architecture and ate lunch at the microbrewery (two buck draft).

4/14/11 - 4/16/11  We anchored for the evening in Wapoo Creek.  I set two anchors because of the strong currents that occurred at the tide changes in this area.  On the positive side we did not drag anchor overnight. On the negative side, I left too much slack in the anchor ropes and we awoke with one of them wrapped around one of the props.  Nothing to do but go over the side and untangle.  We brought fins and snorkel and the water temperature was tolerable.  The only bothersome thing was the unseen alligator.  He didn't show up so with Lace's help on deck we got it straightened out and got back on board with all limbs intact.  The weather was turning sour so we headed for the city dock in Charleston, SC.  It was very windy and rough for a couple of days.  This front caused tornadoes in the southern states killing quite a few people. 

4/12/11 - 4/13/11  We anchored out for a two more nights in the South Carolina wetlands and were introduced to the local insects called  "no-see-ums" by some. These are little biting gnats and we discovered that they indeed can be seen but that what is observable must be all jaws.  On the way we came upon a guy paddling in what was little more than a canoe.  He claimed to be doing the "loop" having started in Illinois one year and nine months previous.  Lace gave him a cold cup of blueberry yogurt, a plastic spoon and a good luck and we left him paddling the Pathfinder.  I told Lace that this guy "has grit" or something to that effect.  We made our way to the city dock at Beaufort, South Carolina took the walking tour of historic buildings including a guided tour of the John Verdier House built in 1801.  One can't help but be struck by the tragedy of the civil war.  North or south, white or black, there were no winners .   Later we met Bill and Carol on the Trident, had pre-supper cocktails and hors dourves on the Confetti, upscale supper at a waterside restaurant, then post meal cocktails on the Trident.

4/11/11  Savannah is of course steeped in civil war history and is a deep water seaport.  There are beautiful old buildings framed with cobblestone streets.  We wanted to spend some time there so we arrived at the Savannah City Dock about noon expecting to spend the night.  To check in and pay for dockage we had to walk several blocks to the city offices.  They have a lengthy registration form which we filled out but when we were ready to pay, the clerk discovered that the docks had been reserved for a couple of ships that would arrive later and that we must vacate.  That left us in somewhat of a bind because there weren't any available places to tie up and the next available anchorage was some distance away. We decided maybe we had seen enough of old Savannah and shoved off to find a place to stay for the night.  On the way out, we spotted an eight foot alligator swimming across the Savannah river which of course may answer the age-old question " Why did the alligator cross the river?".

4/7/11 - 4/10/11   The Georgia "lowlands" is miles of almost treeless islands and waterways covered with two foot tall grass.  It would be easy to lose ones way if it weren't for the gps and navigational markers and buoys.  After a couple of nights anchored out we reach Savannah.  Steve and Beth Wingate who live in a suburb have offered to let us stay at the dock behind there home. They had only two days before started their own loop leaving the dock unoccupied.  This was much appreciated because income tax was due in about a week and the necessary paperwork had only recently caught up to us by forwarded mail.  Between Turbo Tax and the Wingate's wifi I got it finished in time.

4/4/11 - 4/6/11  We bid Jacksonville adieu and went to Fernandina Beach Marina.  We walked through the historical district, found some groceries and a fish market.  We are beginning to see the architecture of the civil war era.  There are even some structures left from the 1700's.  It seems that fire was the end of most buildings back then either by accident or intention. It was fortunate that we decided to stay another night because a storm brewed up in the night and made it uncomfortable sleeping at the dock.   It may have been worse at anchor.  We left Fernandina Beach and crossed over into Georgia.  We passed by Jekyll Island which was owned by world's richest families in the 1800's.  The tides are up to a nine foot range here which is a whole new ball game.  Along with tides come the strong currents which make anchoring a real challenge.

3/25/11 - 4/3/11  We needed to "haul out" the boat to change the "zincs" (corrosion prevention) and possibly bottom paint (marine growth prevention ie. barnacles) so we went up the St. Johns river to Sadler Point Marina near Jacksonville. Everything went well - the bottom paint only needed touching up and the zincs were no problem.  Still, all of this took a few days so we slept on the boat while it was out of the water entering and exiting via the ladder at the stern. We had a few other mechanical issues including a fairly severe fuel leak on the port injector pump, an engine that wouldn't start intermittently and an alternator that quit.  Under normal circumstances these problems would not have taken very long but the lack of ground transportation complicates everything.  I borrowed a car for the trip to the injector shop, took a taxi ride to the alternator shop and found out that seniors ride Jacksonville buses for free. Once you get a grasp of the bus routes everything gets easier.  Only one problem remained.  The aft head was acting up so I took it apart and found a half dollar size rubber valve was in need of cleaning.  I took it out on the dock and with a water hose nozzle in one hand and the valve in the other I was going to spray it clean.  The only problem was that the blast was more than expected and valve went flying into the St. Johns river forevermore in the company of fishes.  We were now down to one head (head = marine toilet) in the forward cabin.  The replacement valve was not available locally so, not wanting to wait for one to be shipped in, we were north bound again.