s/v Moosetracks: Florida, Georgia, South Carolina

We had prepared before leaving the US by registering with the Customs and Boarder Patrol for a Local Boater program. This was a bit of work to show up at their office with all our paperwork but it pre-clears you for fast entry on return. We logged onto the internet before leaving Green Turtle to file our return float plan, found it harder than we liked as somehow Liz’s birthday got the wrong month and I had to call the CBP to get it corrected (They use your birthday as part of your login so it had to be corrected). Once the float plan is filed all we did was call them on arrival in Fernandina Beach and they took our Float Plan number and in 3 minutes had cleared us in and gave us our reference number to prove it if required. So here we sit nicely tucked up on our mooring ball and all ready for our US adventure.

Fernandina marina

Being back in the US, it feels very different already. We are in Fernandina Beach, FL, which is a small vacation town on Amelia Island, compared to the Bahamas it’s a major metropolis. The main street has more shops, restaurants and bars than everywhere but Nassau in the Bahamas. There is a shopping mall with Walmart and Winn Dixie just a few miles from town. This was a great help as we needed a few things and wanted to run on the bikes as well so off we went to stock some essentials from the dollar store! It was a lovely cycle through tree lined streets with nice period homes aligning them and all so clean and tidy. We also managed to visit a few bars with Gregg and Jo before parting ways, they also introduced us to 3 couples who arrived a day later and will work the Annapolis boat show with them. Before leaving however we had to have a splurge. We made use of the showers at the marina, our first on shore shower in nearly 5 months. It was so decadent to just relax under the faucet and rinse away as much as you like!

Saturday market

Biking to shops

Lovely homes on the route

Our next stop is Cumberland Island, GA, which is mostly a State and State Park with several properties, wide open beaches and huge forest areas to walk around a visit. They had the special allure of wild horses as well and since Liz is a horse rider of old she wanted to see them. So on our first day off we went in search of the horses and the ruins of Dungeness mansion the stately home on the south end of the island. We found both and they were delightful. We walked the circular route coming back along the beach on a windy day. It was totally different from a Bahamas beach somehow not near as romantic and the water nowhere near as blue. The next day Liz insisted we use our $4/person weekly park fee by walking to Plum Orchard mansion, home of Thomas Carnegie on the north end, the property was handed over with many items intact to the park service in 1972. So we took a packed lunch and set off up the trail. Well I guess we over estimated our enthusiasm, it was 7 miles to the mansion and the route back was more like 8. We got to the mansion and unfortunately they did not open, so what a trek just to see the outside! We were a bit fortunate and got a ride on the way back to save us a couple of miles walking as it was that was a long day with 6 of hours walking. http://www.nps.gov/cuis

Dungeness entrance

Dungeness ruins

Wild horses and fouls

More wild horses

Nice driveway

Plum Orchard mansion

Nice to relax even though it was closed

Returning on the forest trail

Well it was time to start thinking about restocking Moosetracks for the US as we are here for 5-6 months. We had met a fantastic couple in the Exumas and Georgetown called Walter and Gwen who when we contacted them on arrival had just missed us at Cumberland Island. They invited us to Georgetown, SC, where they were staying for 2 weeks and they offered to run us to the stores. Now an offer of a ride is never passed up for a provision run, you can imagine how much space 5 months grocery shopping takes let alone doing it in one shop!

We took an over night trip offshore to get there from Cumberland Island leaving St Mary’s inlet and entering Winyah Bay inlet and travelling up river. Our timing was right and we hit both tides perfectly, more blind luck on the arrival as it depends so much on the boat speed. We even put up the asymetric spinnaker for a while when the winds got light just to see how it sets close reaching.

Asymetric Spinnaker

Georgetown is another small town on the waterfront, once a very significant port on this coast for rice production it now has very little industry and caters to tourists and sport fishing to make up. As soon as we dropped anchor a welcome boat showed up with maps and flyers for local attractions, now that’s a first and very nice thing to have. We loved the place immediately. We enjoyed the Saturday farmers market and the fresh shrimp sold straight from the boat docks. Walter and Gwen lent us their truck and we did the two trolley shopping run in Walmart and got virtually everything we needed to put us back to fully provisioned! We even walked to the local t-mobile store and found the elusive SIM card for our mobile hot spot. So Georgetown had everything we needed and much more to enchant us with, we thoroughly enjoyed our stop here and especially the hospitality of Walter and Gwen.

First of two grocery runs in dinghy

Now we have to stow it!

As usual al good things have to come to an end, the local west marine store didn’t have all we needed and Walter told us of a huge store in Wrightsville beach, so that would be our next port of call. We had a night at the marina with Walter and Gwen to thank them for their hospitality and we made plans for our next offshore trip. On memorial day before we left, we walked the beautiful tree lined streets downtown and in the historic district that boasts many houses over 100 years old and some over 200, being built as early as 1740! We spent time wandering the streets just admiring the properties they are so wonderful. www.seaportgeorgetown.com

Then the next day we staged by anchoring down river nearer the sea so we could catch the 2am tide and make our way to Cape Fear Inlet. When we got up there was not a breath of air and the river was totally flat but it belied a 2-3 knot ebbing current. We raised and washed our anchor and headed out the river for 6 miles, it was easy navigation given it is a major Class A inlet and fully marked for commercial traffic. We did find one buoy not lit but it was evident on radar and we made it out with no issues. The first few hours we had a good sail as the wind outside built to 10-12 knots and moose tracks made 7 knots plus on a beam reach. However forecasts are just that and no guarantee's come with them, the wind died as the sun rose and we motor sailed most of the day until late afternoon when we could sail again. We made Cape Fear Inlet on an ebbing tide, it was hard work making the 6 miles up river against the 3.5 knot current but motor sailing we made 3-4 knots. So here we are anchored in the Cape Fear river waiting the tide to continue on to Wrightsville beach today.