2024 Heading South

  We enjoyed a couple of relaxing days off Noname Harbor. The upscale neighborhood boasts a variety of shops and restaurants, and even offers a free electric shuttle service called Freebee. For Thanksgiving dinner, we enjoyed a turkey special at a local Italian restaurant. On November 29th, after a quick run to the supermarket, Greg discovered mooring balls were available in Marathon. We promptly pulled anchor and set sail for the overnight trip. The passage was busy with numerous boats fishing and diving, even far offshore in depths of 100 feet. We had to remain vigilant to avoid collisions. During the night, the wind picked up, allowing us to sail without the engine. As dawn broke, we anchored just off Marathon and, after contacting the City Marina, proceeded to the mooring field to pick up a tether. This will be Greg’s home base for at least a month. (November 30th: 90 nautical miles traveled)

The offshore distance from Lake Worth to Biscayne Bay is approximately 70 miles. This meant that even departing at 6:00 am, we would likely arrive just as the sun was setting. We pulled anchor at 6:00 am and maintained a speed of around 6 knots, arriving just outside Noname Harbor at sunset. While this anchorage is typically exposed, the wind had dropped to less than 5 knots, and with minimal wave action, we enjoyed a peaceful night at anchor. 11/27 70 nmiles

                                                                     After a night in Fort Pierce, we set off early to cover the 60 miles to Lake Worth in a single day. With light winds, we motored, motor-sailed, and trolled a fishing line in 30-40 feet of water. Along the way, we were lucky enough to witness a humpback whale breaching! We arrived just before dark and found a suitable anchorage near Phil Foster Park, where we plan to snorkel tomorrow.

We caught the 8:30 bridge opening and started motor sailing South. The East wind was on the beam and we were able to cut the motor for a while and enjoy sailing.  This was a single over night sail. We arrived at Forte Pierce inlet around 2:00 pm with a strong flooding tide. We found a nice anchorage very close to the inlet for a quick departure tomorrow. 11/24 164 nmiles

  We enjoyed the city of St. Augustine, especially daily showers. That is included in the mooring ball fee and they have washers and dryers as well. My friend Skip had been delayed in Savannah, so we got to meet up with him and his wife Louise for dinner. There was much to explore and we did make the most of our time there checking out the Forte, beach, and Sailor’s Exchange a huge used sailing equipment shop.  The weather had started to settle down so it was time to head back out for Forte Pierce. 11/18-11/23

  I am not going to include my land adventures in this blog. I will be taking many days exploring the towns along the way but if I include writing about those trips I am afraid I will never get the sea travel completed. So we knew the best current situation in the Winyah River would be later in the afternoon so we fueled up and left Georgetown for an Anchorage next the inlet. We timed it right and had no problem heading thru this bumpy inlet. The wind was 5-10kt from the North, not enough to sail so we motored. There was a bit of a swell but nothing too bad. The two night trip was uneventful. We did have a group of dolphins playing tag with us more of the way. We arrived at St Augustine inlet a bit early and killed sometime as our mooring ball would not be ready til 11:00. We made the 11:00 bridge opening and fueled up at the marina. Luck was with us as we were assign the #1 mooring ball, the closest to the dinghy dock. Greg got the dinghy in the water and we started to explore the...

We had a peaceful night at the anchorage. A very favorable current pushed us toward Georgetown so we arrived there early Afternoon. It was a super low tide and the depth sounder was reading much lower than Aquamaps. After plowing in the mud we opted to stay closer to the entrance even though the charted water was deep further up to channel. The town of Georgetown is a great tourist destination and we would enjoy the next several days checking out the town.  26 nmiles

  We had hoped for an outside trip to Charleston but the weather didn’t agree so we trudged down the ICW. This was going to be a challenging leg with shallow water, strong currents and bridges.  This is Lockley Folly. Not only is there a thin strip of deep water but the current is strong and complicated due to an inlet nearby. We made it thru but it wasn’t easy.  After several similar sites we made it to the rock pile where there is a canal cut thru Myrtle beach. By the end of the day we were out of civilization and it the cypress marsh. We found a nice bypass off the ICW around Oatbed Island on the Waccamaw River which we shared with a few other boaters. 60 nmiles

  After a lay day at Wrightsville Beach we pulled anchor and headed to Southport. The ICW is a little shallow along the first part of the way but once we hit the Cape Fear River it was an easy trip. We were not certain where we would be for the night but hope one of the free docks at the Provision Company would be open. We were lucky! The two place were open and we docked there a little after noon, giving us plenty of time to explore the town. The deal is that you must eat a meal at the restaurant and it was a nice causal dinner and we were able to refill our water tanks. Unfortunately the weather was not going to cooperate for an offshore trip tomorrow. This means an e xtremely challenging trip down the ICW. Day 10  25 nmiles

  The trip from Beaufort to Mason Boro inlet is 70 miles. It is a day trip in the summer with 12 hour plus day but we are now lucky to have 11 hours of daylight. Entering a small inlet at night is tricky...leaving a larger inlet at night is much easier so we planned a 3:00am departure. Getting out to ocean required slow and careful attention from Greg and he did great . Once out away from shore it was a cake walk. There was not enough wind so we had to motor and we had a 4 ft swell on the quarter. That gave us constant motion but a fairly comfortable ride. We arrived at the Masonboro inlet at 3:00 as planned and quickly made our way the Wrightsville beach anchorage. There were many cruisers anchored all over but we picked a spot just across from the water tower. With the anchor down we decided it was time to unwind from the day and wait til tomorrow to dinghy into Wrightsville Beach.  72 nmiles

  Gale Creek to Beaufort, NC   We started off early motoring out into Bay River heading toward the Neuse. After Greg went below to start work, the wind picked up and the I pulled out the head sail. With just the headsail we were sailing 5 kts so I continue with headsail alone. I had to head up so that required starting the motor to maintain course. A pod of friendly dolphin decided to play tag with us. They even stuck around long enough for Greg to come up and take some pictures. Entering Adams Creek required furling the headsail and we motored the rest of the way to Beaufort. Beaufort was filled with cruiser anchored everywhere. We motored up Taylors Creek passing many anchored boats until we found our spot.  We explored the town and had dinner with Jon, our soon to be new crew member. He had commitments til Thursday so our trip to Masonboro Inlet would wait til 3:00 am Friday.  So there will be no Thursday blog as it will be a lay day but we did have visitors to ou...

  Alligator-Pungo River Canal to Gale Creek We got started around 7:30 with Greg at the helm again. He got to the start of the canal before heading below to work. This canal is 21 miles long, narrow and has lots traffic. The faster boats try to keep their speed down when passing to minimize wake, some better than others. The banks of the canal are a forested wetland. We saw eagles at two different times and many other birds as well. After completing the canal, we entered the Pungo River. It was breezy and not as restricted as the canal so we were able to sail. I enjoy a nice sail until the course changed putting the wind right on the nose. As we left the Pungo River we were able to sail once again in the Pamlico Sound. We stopped for gas at a fisherman’s dock. Along with fuel, Greg picked up some fresh shrimp. We had a delicious shrimp dinner that evening.  After a short ride down from our gas stop, we dropped anchor in Gale Creek. We quickly got in the cabin and closed the bo...

  Coinjock to Alligator-Pungo Canal After a good night sleep we set out to cross the Albemarle Sound. Fortunately most of the large sport fisherman boats had already left sparing us those annoying wakes. The night was a bit chilly but it started to warm up quickly. Greg took the helm to begin as he would later be working most of the day.  The motoring trip out to the Albemarle was uneventful but as we entered the Albemarle Sound will had a nice bream reach wind of around 15 kts. Greg helped set the sail and the motor was shutoff. Greg had to return to work as I joyfully sailed through a 2-2 1/2ft chop.  The wind started to drop and I had to negotiate the Alligator River swing bridge so we douse the sail and started to motor again. By this time Greg was on lunch break so he  took the helm to play chick with the bridge operator. He wanted us 300 yards away from the bridge before starting to open it, but there was wind blowing us towards the bridge. We eventual were clo...

  Day 2…..Locks of Luck The night at the lock was peaceful and we caught the 8:00 bridge opening. The plan was for a late lunch at Coinjock and then continue on 12 more miles to an anchorage just before the Albemarle. It didn’t go as planned . About 3 miles from Coinjock Greg drifted slightly to the edge of the channel according to his Garmin chart plotter and we ran aground. The plotter still show us in the channel but the depth was like 3.5 ft. Grey Fox draws 6ft. I got my IPad out and checked Aqua Map which shows high detailed depth from Army Corp of Engineer surveys. Yes, sure enough the water was shallow.  Understand we did not see this view until we were aground. All future travels this app will be running. We tried raising the sails and motoring but no luck. Greg had Tow Boat insurance so after getting no where for an hour, he call and they were there in less than an hour. The guy with a 300Hp outboard had no trouble dragging us the 10 ft over to the channel. The 2 hour...

Grey Fox Is Heading South Again! Hello Everyone!  This blog is being written to share my 2024 journey South on the sailboat Grey Fox with friends and other interested persons. Grey Fox is a 38ft Alajeula cutter which I sold in 2021 to my friend Greg. I had owned her since 2012 and had previously spent 3 winters in the Bahamas on her. She was a wonderful boat but as I got older (now 70) I found she just too much for me to handle. My friend Greg had let me know if I ever wanted to sell her that he was interested. So when I was ready so was Greg and he is now the happy new owner of Grey Fox. He has taken wonderful care of her with upgrades to many of her aging systems. Greg figured out a way to work onboard and decide to make the big trip South for the winter. Fortunately for me he needed an experienced crew person so I signed on to help with the trip. My plan is to help him on his trip for the next 6 weeks. I am a rather poor writer so this blog will be a bit of an expanded boat log....