Season 2 Home Stretch, #25-45

We rapidly head south from Beaufort, NC down the ICW and then offshore for a two-day passage to Cumberland Island, GA.  We also say a sad goodbye to our buddy boat of 4 months, Quest II (Cam and Denise).   

Beaufort, NC to Cumberland Island, GA

Thursday, October 30 – Wednesday, November 5

375 NM | 431 Miles

More Motoring Down the ICW

Beaufort to Mile Hammock Bay (Camp Lejeune)

Thursday, October 37 NM

Now that the weather was improving, we left Homer Smith Marina in Beaufort, NC and hopped back on the ICW to continue our trek south. Getting out of the marina was easy with mild winds but as soon as we started moving south (or more like west in this section) wind started building and was right on the nose.

Traveling down the ICW

 This particular section of the ICW is narrow with a lot of shallow water.  It takes a fair amount of attention to make sure you don’t drift out of the channel (and run aground).  We ended up anchored at an anchorage at Camp Lejeune again (from our journey north since it is one of very few anchorages on this section of the ICW).  Quest II made it to the anchorage about 30 minutes before we rolled in, and we had a quiet night on the boat (since we really can’t get off the boat here).

This time the anchorage was very full due to our traveling in the bubble of boats trying to head south for the winter. 

Weather Musings

I have been looking at several sources of weather over the past few days to find a good weather window for an offshore passage to Cumberland Island.  It appears there is a good opening for us to leave Wrightsville Beach, NC on Saturday.  The hope is to make a 2-day offshore hop to Georgia.  If the window is short lived, we might only make it to Charleston, SC.  We shall see.   

Mile Hammock Bay to Wrightsville Beach, NC

Friday, October 31 (Final day with Quest II)

36 NM

We left with the sunrise from our anchorage to head to Wrightsville Beach.  It was a pretty uneventful trip except there were a couple of draw bridges that had a lot of traffic so there was uncomfortable jostling with other boats while we were waiting for the bridges to open.  Overall, no issue. 

As a side note while under way up the ICW, I made a big batch of Congee with Asparagus for our offshore passage.   We typically don’t want to cook anything significant when offshore so I tend to pre-make something yummy that can be warmed in the microwave on notice.   I also had some stew in the freezer for the passage so we should be good for meals during our upcoming overnights.

We ended up anchoring almost at the exact spot we anchored a few months ago when we were heading north up the ICW in Wrightsville Beach.  Since the weather window is holding for tomorrow’s departure (November 1) we spent a bit of time getting our boat ready for a two-day offshore passage. 

Final dinner with Cam and Denise

And that brings us to our last night with our friends Cam and Denise (Quest II).  We have been seeing this day coming for a while. We knew they were heading to Charleston while we were going further south. We have been trying to put it out of our mind but now it’s sinking in that our 4-month cruising adventure with them is over. They picked us up in their dinghy for the last time and we went to dinner in town. It’s a rare thing to be able to spend time like that with friends for such a long period on a mutually loved adventure/lifestyle.  We will always treasure this wonderful time, and we do hope to be able to travel together in the future (Maybe Iceland and Scotland?).

Wrightsville Beach, NC to Cumberland Island, GA

Saturday November 1 to Monday November 3

302 NM

 As typical of Utopia we left with the sunrise.  As we were weighing anchor Cam and Denise came out on the deck of Quest II to send us off.  It was a bittersweet send off, and Sondra and I were surprised how emotional it was. We drifted out of the anchorage, waved to Cam and Denise, and glided out of the Masonboro Inlet into the Atlantic Ocean.

Quest II snapped this pic as Utopia was heading off-shore

We motored sailed south in light wind with many other boats that also thought today was a good day to leave. It's always assuring to see boats leaving at the same time as you and going in the same direction.

We made our way down the last little bit of North Carolina coast 'till we got to an area called Frying Pan shoals.  It’s an area that extends about 30 miles out into the Atlantic and it’s a big obstacle for boats wanting to turn west right at the tip of NC.  Luckily, there is a channel about 15 miles offshore that allowed us to cross over the shoal. It was good to see all the other boats taking the same route (so we knew it was viable). 

From there we set a long waypoint to near Georgetown, SC to get back close to land before we turn south and hug the coast.  The day was full of motor sailing since the wind was light, and the seas were calm.  Sondra and I started our night shift at 8 pm with a 3-hr. on watch 3-hr off watch cycle until the morning.  This has worked for us in the past, so we continue to use it. 

Off-shore trip

I had the first watch under moonlight and even though it felt like we were alone in the ocean we could see many boats on AIS within 10 miles of us.  It was reassuring to have them out there.  The motor stayed on throughout the night due to low wind and the fact we wanted to get in earlier Monday due to a possible front coming in the afternoon. 

By sunrise the second day (Nov 2-Sunday), Charleston SC was abeam to starboard of Utopia and we switched to four-hour shifts. The wind was up a bit, so we finally cut off the engine and actually sailed for a few hours. This was the typical through the day where the winds arrived so we would sail and then died prompting us to turn the motor back on.  Normally we would have just sailed slowly but as stated before we wanted to arrive before noon to avoid possible weather (in hindsight this turned out to be a non-issue since said weather never arrived). At sundown we were abeam of Savannah, GA and we could tell we were getting close to our goal.

Another drama free night watch with 3-hr shifts, and as the sun was coming up, we were paralleling Cumberland Island to starboard, therefore within a couple of hours of the St. Mary’s Inlet.  This was the only stress inducing portion of the whole trip.  We knew were going to have adverse current coming into the inlet but with that came confused seas, so it was difficult to keep straight course into the inlet.  Luckly the inlet is very wide, and we were in no danger, but it was just uncomfortable and slow.  We had sail out and full revs on the engine and we were still making only 3 knots.  Normally at that RPM, we would be going at least 7 knots, so that means 4 knots of current against us!!!   

Once through the inlet the current remained but the seas flattened out, and we had the anchor down a little after 11 am, nice and snug behind Cumberland Island.  We buttoned up the boat, had a quick lunch, and then took a two-hour nap.   After that we had our celebratory anchor beer and continued de-passaging the boat (remove jack lines, preventers, etc.).  After an early dinner and show we were in bed around 8 pm.

Rest Days in Cumberland Island

After a long passage we like to not move for a couple of days, so we had plans to stay in Cumberland Island a couple of days to rest and do some hiking around the island.  This is our third time anchored at this location, and we really like Cumberland Island.  It is managed by the National Park Service for a large portion of the island, and the remainder is privately owned with a small number of people living on the island.  Due to the federal government shutdown, there was minimal staff and minimal visitors (since the ferries were not running due to the shutdown). 

Cumberland Island Fun

We pretty much had the island to ourselves on Tuesday except for a few campers.  We packed lunch and went on a 9-mile hike through the woods and along the beach.  It was great to stretch our legs and get a little nature time.  We met a park volunteer and a couple of lady campers and chatted with them but other than that we saw no other people.   We then retired back to the boat and had a quite dinner and another early night.

On the second day at Cumberland Island (Wednesday) we went on an early hike in the morning around the old Carnegie ruins.  We saw lots of horses on our hike (also a few pigs and turkeys) and enjoyed the area on the south side of the island.  We then went back to the boat, had an early lunch, and prepared for a short little 7-mile trip to the south on Utopia back into Florida.  But more on that next week. 

Side Notes:

• One day I will learn to be more patient and wait for favorable current to go through an inlet. Probably not…

• No-see-ums are back in force in Georgia

• We are finally seeing lots of dolphins again as we head south.  They were pretty absent in the Chesapeake and north.

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Post 25-45