Toews ‘r Us — a family sailing adventure

Our first ever boarding by local authorities. As we were coming into Ponce de Leon Inlet, the Sherriff came aboard to ensure our Y-valves were in the correct position, and to ensure we weren’t pumping raw sewage overboard. We weren’t.

I understand there’s a crackdown on marine toilets (marine sanitation devices) recently. I heard a rumor of a friend of a friend being woken up by the local sheriff and having his toilets checked with dye packs. His were in the wrong position and he got a $250 fine.

I don’t understand why it’s so hard to get pumped out around here: go find a marina, dock, pump the tanks yourself, and then back to the anchorage. New Hampshire was so much nicer: Call on the radio, the pumpout boat comes to you and does all the work.

You’d think with a place like Florida with so many boats they’d make better arrangements for this necessary process.
Anyway we’re in compliance, even though it is a pain.

St. Augustine is the oldest city in the new world. They’ve used that time to perfect the art of tourism.

It was nice to visit; we liked the architecture, enjoyed the history, but just couldn’t get past the commercialism. There must be a way to see this town without all the tourist hype, I just wasn’t able to find it.

I think St. Augustine was my biggest disappointment so far.

We wanted to make a quick hop to St. Augustine. We’ve been happy with the outside sailing. Inside the ICW (intercostal Waterway), it’s slow going and confined.

St. Augustine inlet isn’t the best inlet on the coast, but I did some homework and in good weather and daylight it shouldn’t be a problem. So we left Cumberland Island early with a forecast that would zip us down the coast and allow us to enter the inlet fairly easy before sunset.

As is often the case with weather - it’s unpredictable. As we got further the wind grew stronger. As we neared St. John’s River and Jacksonville the wind was a steady 25 knots. Fast sailing weather, but I was nervous about entering the inlet and its shallow water. When did it start breaking all the way across? I wasn’t sure, but I thought it was safer considering the circumstances to enter here in Jacksonville and take the ICW down the rest of the way.

We did and it turned out to be the right decision as I later found out that 25 knots is when you should consider another inlet. It’s when the waves start breaking all the way across and make it dangerous.

There’s an island in Georgia. It’s the state’s largest and southernmost barrier island. Visiting it is like stepping into Jurassic Park. It seems like the land of the lost.

Looking onto the island from the sea was like looking onto any wooded island - it presented itself as an island covered in vegetation, overgrown and thick. Anchored behind the island, we could see the marshes and the tree tops, but that wasn’t a suitable prelude to what it’s really like inside the forest.

Once on the island we could see mighty trunks standing with extended arms reaching up and out. So far out that it seemed necessary for a support to prop them up or a hook to hang from. Adorning the branches was the eerie, yet beautifully exotic Spanish moss. It gently moved with the subtle breeze which made its way through the canopy. Vines grew from the floor below to the canopy above, tempting me to climb up to the world above. I wanted to swing and yell, “aaaahaarrraaaarhaah!” In the shade of the canopy grew saw palmettos pretending to be prehistoric ferns enhancing the jungle ambiance. These tree-bushes created yet another layer in the forest making cover for the smaller animals we could hear move, but rarely see.

The forest is an amazing place, one I’m sure words and pictures cannot properly describe. The isolation provided by the canopy was amazing, we felt hundreds of miles from any civilization.

Leaving the forest we stepped into a range of sand hills - the dunes. When I was a kid we played and played in the dunes for hours. Digging, tunneling, building, jumping, running, rolling. Today the dunes are protected and restricted. Not for play. It seems like the innocence of yesterday has been spoiled. I realize the dunes serve a purpose, but I miss the care free days just the same.

The beach went on for miles. There were few people there; it felt like we were on our own private island. Shells, shells and more shells. We searched for shells and found some great ones. They say after a strong storm, even more and better shells wash up, wait for the heavy wind from the east.

We had a great time sifting through the dredge material that covers the roads. There are hundreds of fossilized shark teeth in this sandy fill. The girls had a great time digging and finding them. I must admit I was thrilled every time I found one as well. It’s exciting to find and pick up these razor-sharp, pointy tools of destruction.

Why is it when one thing goes wrong, everything seems to go wrong? I believe it’s the principle of compound - quandaries - on - the - spot - while - hung - up - in - a - bind - near - a - quagmired - predicament - with - a - dilemma - on - top - and - a - pickle - on - the - side.

While making pancakes this morning, I looked out the window and noticed we were right up on the shore. We didn’t plan to be there, but there we were. “Our anchor dragged.” I told the girls.

There’s a first time for everything. We’ve had great success with our Rocna Anchor. It’s 88 lbs of galvanized steel formed into a nice wedge shape. It’s one of the “new generation” of anchors and has rated extremely high in all the latest anchor tests. It’s attached to the boat with a run of 3/8 chain. This system should be sized to hold us in up to 60 knot winds.

I guess here at Cumberland Island the bottom is just a big too muddy and soupy to be good holding ground.

We motored off the beach and tried to reset the anchor. It wouldn’t reset so we had to pick it back up and re-drop it. While picking it back up the second time, the windlass control seized up in the up position. It dragged the bridle up and into the chain shoot. Once it got jammed it tripped the breaker. The control is still stuck in the up position and we had to manually let the chain out on the last set.

In Plymouth, MA, I had to pull the controls apart and clean the contacts. This time it seems that they’re either welded shut or the solenoid is jammed. Hopefully it’s fixable. I’ll take it apart tomorrow and see what’s up.

Latitude: 32°51'06.85"N, Longitude: 79°41'56.62"W
Location: Capers Island, SC, Map It

There’s a great little island with nothing on it, but lots to do and see. It’s just 15 miles north of Charleston, SC. Caper’s Island is convenient from the ICW but can’t be accessed from offshore. At least I wouldn’t try it in a sailboat, or any other cruising boat for the matter.  Capers Island is managed by the SC Department of Natural Resources.Anchorages include Whiteside Creek, Capers Creek and Toomer Creek, we chose Whiteside and went up into the creek a couple of turns and anchored in 9 feet of water at low tide. The anchorage was desolate the first night we were there, but there were six other boats in the creek with us on Saturday night. Watch for shoaling, one of the boats got stuck in the mud on the way out; they tried to cut the inside of the bend on the creek. They motored back off without much problem.

It’s about a mile and a half dinghy ride to Capers from where we were at. At the island, dinghies can be left at a dock or just brought up on the beach on the southwest side of the island along the creek. Watch the tide! Along this channel we saw many dolphins right up close to shore feeding.

If the dock is chosen you’ll be using the paths that go by the swamp and through the woods. DON’T FORGET THE BUG DOPE! There, consider yourself warned. While walking on the eastern side of the swamp in the thick forest the bugs were dense that we needed to reapply every 10-15 minutes. Don’t forget it, you can’t survive without it. Once on the beach we didn’t have any problems with bugs at all.

We didn’t see any, but the swamps are reported to have alligators. I wanted to send Lucy, our dog, in to look for them, but the girls would have none of that.

If birds are your thing, there are plenty to see. Along the swamp are several small observation points where you can sit and watch. If it’s fishing, I saw some people with several Redfish in the creeks, and group of fishermen on the beach with a stringer full of Black Drum. They told us to cast to the stumps first before wading into the water for a further cast.

We had the most fun just playing on Boneyard Beach. It went on for a couple of miles and we only got to see a small portion of it. It’s fun to see what the stumps resemble. It looks like a storm or two has uprooted all these trees and partially buried them in the sand. There are also piles of driftwood up on the shore to look through.

They say you can tell you’re in New Hampshire by all the snowmobiles up on blocks in the front yards.

In South Carolina is it boats in the front yard?

Latitude: 33°15'31.17"N, Longitude: 79°15'12.96"W
Location: Winyah Bay, SC, Map It

We sailed from Cape Fear River, NC on the outside to Winyah bay. We anchored just outside of Estherville Minum Canal in Winyah Bay’s Western Channel. It was A 73 mile day - a long day. Mostly because the wind turned against us in the afternoon - not forcasted.

About an hour before we arrived at Winyah bay, the Coast Guard called on Channel 16 “Please switch to 22 Alpha for a safety advisory regarding Winyah Bay.” We switched. On channel 22A: “Any vessels wishing to transit Winyah bay entrance channel between buoys eight and fifteen, contact Coast Guard Sector Charleston for clearance….” Hey we’re on our way there. I hailed them and got the lowdown. I guess there was a boat that broke up; they gave us the coordinates to where the hull and bow lay. They weren’t in the channel, but it was good to know where not to go. This is one time where switching to channel 22A was worthwhile.

Once we got back onto the Intercoastal Waterway, a minimum of five boats passed us that had passed us two days earlier in the Cape Fear River.

I guess it is faster and easier to go the outside, at least for us. We move pretty fast under sail, but are limited to 6 knots under power with both engines running. And quite often we’ll only run one engine which slows us to around 4 knots.

We must be heading in the right direction - South. Today we had three different birds jump on the boat.

We first noticed a bird plastered to the luff of the mainsail. It was a type of woodpecker. Woodpecker? Yeah a Common Flicker, go figure. The girls thought that he was hurt, I tried to get him but he flew away. I hope he ate his wheaties, We were 12 miles from shore, I have no idea how long he had been stowaway. Maybe it was from the anchorage.

The next two looked similar at first glance, but after getting positive ID from our bird book they were different. The first one, a Savannah Sparrow, just seemed to be resting. It had a hard time finding a spot that was comfortable and out of the wind. It eventually flew off.

The second of these was also restless and kept moving about. All this fluttering around turned out to be the wrong move for the bird. He came to rest on the top of the wind generator. Of course when he took off again he started to fly into the wind. The problem with flying into the wind when you’re looking at the back of the wind generator blades is obvious.

Well, I guess it wasn’t obvious to the bird.

The girls saw the whole thing; Cassidy was beside herself for easily an hour.

Latitude: 33°55'11.09"N, Longitude: 78°02'40.13"W
Location: Dutchman Creek, Southport, NC, Map It

We were anchored in Dutchman Creek. It was an early day and we were in set by early afternoon. The rest of the day we just hung around. I tried fishing, getting some hits but never hooking one.

While I was fishing there was a gentleman checking his nearby crab pots. When he was done he came over to the boat and offered us some crabs. What was I to say? No? I graciously accepted the crabs as I poured them into a 5 gallon bucket (filled to the brim).

We had a great dinner that night, thanks to the vessel Angel Fish and her captain.

Thank You Sir!