Norfolk to Georgetown

We always looked at the ICW as an "easy way out". Days on end of constant motoring seemed like a special kind of torture to us, but sometimes it just makes more sense to stay inside if your boat is masts are short enough to clear the dozens of bridges along the way. We decided we'd do any last minute remaining prep work at Beaufort, NC and try to jump off from there to Charleston, SC before heading on to Florida. Norfolk technically is mile zero of this waterway, and Beaufort would be about 200 miles on from there. The ICW is dredged to 12 feet, so it's deep enough for the mix of pleasure boats and commercial traffic that often transits it to make time while avoiding bad weather offshore. So, we became one of the thousands of other cruising boats to take "the ditch" south.

In some ways it's not unlike an interstate highway for boats. You can see everything from tugs pushing barges to junky sailboats to megayachts going north or south along the way, and there are small towns and outposts that exist mostly because of the waterway's traffic. Some of these places gain quite a reputation as a popular way station, others are less often visited. We usually prefer to anchor somewhere off the side of the "road" to save the dockage fees. At least through the Carolinas, there are plenty of deep enough spots to spend a night resting and getting ready for the next day's leg. The distance between good anchorages usually dictates how far you'll go, but it's good to have a short-medium-long set of options in case you have engine trouble or if you're feeling energetic and decide to go on. There's not much sailing to do, the channels are narrow and it'd be a chore to tack and gybe your way through most parts. We made no port calls on this trip until Beaufort, so the pictures are mostly of the interesting mangrove scenery and us trying to keep warm.

Along the way, we began to notice the engine bilge filling with water and eventually traced the leak to the raw water cooling pump. This is the pump that pulls seawater in and circulates it through a heat exchanger, and every day we'd have to vacuum the salt water out. We searched for anyone willing to help us rebuild the water pump and replace the leaking seals, but there's a bit of a boating craze going on and most shops outright refused to take the business. The one that could was an hour away in a car we didn't have, so for the sake of time we ordered a whole new pump with plans to rebuild the old one later for a spare. The pump arrived at beaufort and it went in without a hitch. While we were working, some fellow club members making the trip down from NYC to Florida texted to say they'd be coming in shortly. I joked: "don't go aground on the shoal near the entrance" and a few minutes later I learned I must have jinxed them. I went out on Dingus to meet them and help as SeaTow pulled them off the bar and into to the marina and we had a laugh about it later that night.

Escaping from Beaufort was a little harder than we'd thought. We didn't have a particularly good weather window to sail for days, but our marina reservation was done, so we took off again down the ICW intending to jump to Charleston. This run was aborted when another weather window turned out not to be, and we motored all the way down to Georgetown SC, with a stop in Carolina Beach and the magnificent Fat Pelican bar. About the only thing consistent about the weather was that winter cold was fast approaching. My parents again payed a visit and brought a miniature thanksgiving dinner, which we had on board at one of the marinas. While this was going on, we tracked a big northerly blow that was taking shape. The conditions looked like they'd be rough, but rough in the right direction and eventually stabilizing down to a steady 15 knots. It was probably the only chance we'd have to sail to the Florida coast for a week or two, so we decided to strap in and hang on for the ride. No small part of that decision was based on the fact that right after the system would come <40 degree temps. That was all the motivation we needed to set sail for Jacksonville.

-Shiloh Crew