Surprise!! We're HOME!!

Having had enough of the Intracoastal, on Wednesday, September 8th, we headed to sea with plans to stop in Beaufort, SC to visit friends. WOW! What a beautiful day! With flat seas and a slight following swell, we simply could not stop at Beaufort! We called our friends and told them with regret, that we were headed to St. Simons Island. Off St. Simons Island, the seas were even more calm so we kept going with our sights set on Jacksonville. At 6:30 PM we entered the jetties at Mayport. To illustrate just how calm it was (and kids, we do NOT recommend trying this), we fired up the gas grill and smoked 2 slabs of ribs while cruising along. We rewarded ourselves with a wonderful meal of ribs after clearing the St. Johns River jetties at Mayport. As the sun set over the Dames Point Bridge, we knew we would be in our home berth tonight. At 8:05. we arrived at Huckins Yacht Center, sat down, took a deep breath and realized what we had accomplished on our final day: 13 hours on the water and 269 nautical miles travelled!! Needless to say, it was the longest travel day and the most miles travelled in one day during our trip but we were home. We have travelled a total of 4503.5 nautical miles or 5088.95 statute miles since April 15th. In the near future, we will complete our blog with thoughts, observations and statistics that might be helpful to others planning their journey on the Down East Loop.

Georgetown, SC

With higher winds and seas than we prefer, we decided not to venture out into the ocean and resigned ourselves to the slow passage on the ICW, filled with No Wake zones and lots of boats. The first half of the day was just that. However, in the afternoon we entered the glory of the Waccamaw River. Wide open water, lined with mossy cypress trees and marsh, it was a welcome respite. We saw few other boats on the Waccamaw; just natural beauty. At the end of the day, we made a return visit to the Harborwalk Marina in Georgetown and were reminded once again of what a pleasant town this is.

Headed Home

Baltimore's Inner Harbor lived up to its billing as a protected harbor and Hurricane Earl stayed far away so we were able to enjoy the city and as a bonus, a visit from Judi's sister Denise and niece Caitlin.

We are now on the fast track home. We've overnighted at Tidewater Marina in Portsmouth, VA (across the Elizabeth River from Norfolk), Dowry Creek Marina in Belhaven, NC and Sea Path Yacht Club in Wrightsville Beach, NC. The last time we stayed at Dowry Creek they were having a pot-luck supper complete with "beer-butt chicken". We missed it by one day on this visit but still enjoyed sharing shories with other boaters in the marina.

Since this was Labor Day weekend, it was a slow ride in the Intracoastal waterway to Wrightsville Beach. Our slow ride was more than rewarded when we were met at the dock by Gene & Tee Woodbury, long-time friends of Tom Coker. Tom sent us a bottle of Dom Perignon Champagne via Gene and Tee, to celebrate our completion of the Down East Loop -- AWESOME!! After toasting the occasion, Gene and Tee took us on a tour of beautiful Wrightsville Beach and hosted us at dinner at their beachfront club. A wonderful evening!