Lorenzo & Delois Johnson

Tonight we are docked at Brunswick Landing Marina in Brunswick, Ga.  We were successful in navigating the Little Mud River today.  There were several times that we held our breath as we eased our way through the shallow areas.

Tonight, we all went to the Pizza restaurant for dinner.  The restaurant is 3 to 4 blocks from the marina, so it was an easy walk.  The food was very good, and the company was even better.  Everyone enjoyed the evening.

We were joined by Bonnie and John on BON VOYAGE.  They are heading to the Florida West Coast, and will be traveling with us for a while.  We really enjoyed their company.

Tomorrow, we will cross the St. Marys River into Florida.  We will make a short day and stop somewhere around Fernandina Beach.  We are going to travel for the next two days, since we will have good weather.  Rain and windy weather is forecast for early next week, so we will take a couple of days off when we reach St Augustine.  That is a great place to spend a few days ashore.

Tonight, We are rafted and anchored in Herb River Ga.  It is a beautiful anchorage.  We arrived here today around 1:30 PM, and were anchored and rafted in short order.  We are getting good at manuevering into a rafted configuration with the anchors deployed.

The weather was beautiful today, and we really enjoyed our travels. 

Today was lefftover day, and we gathered all of our leftovers and we all met on C-LIFE for dinner.  It was a really great dinner with lots of fun and good conversation.  We are really enjoying each others company. 

We have had a really great trip thus far.  No problems or failures on any of the boats, and we have avoided all of the navigation pitfalls. 

We have been enjoying lots of good food and good company.  The wine flows freely in the afternoons and good times are had by all.  We are a very compatible group, and we really get along good together.  I am really looking forward to spending the next few months with this group. 

Tomorrow morning, we will transit a very tricky area, Hells Gate and also the Florida Straights.  Stopping here today will allow us to transit that area with a rising tide, so if we hit bottom, the rising tide should free us.  Hopefully, we will make an uneventful transit of these two troublesome areas.

We will probably anchor tomorrow night, and spend the weekend in a marina.  We are debating between Brunswick Ga. and Fernandino Beach, Fl.  Either way, we will take a break and lounge around this weekend. 

We had a rainy travel day today, but it was fairly warm.  We arrived at the marina at around 2 PM, and the wives went shopping.  No onboard cooking today, we will be eating out.

The weather cleared in the early afternoon, and we kicked back and relaxed for a while. 

We are fortunate that the high tides are occuring around noon, so we have good water depths during our travel days.  The tide range is 8 to 9 feet, so this is a serious concern.  Luckily, we are traveling during the period when the tides are rising.

We are having a great time.  The weather has been perfect, and the company has been really great.

We left the anchorage this morning at 0730.  We passed through the Charleston Harbor around noon, and continued traveling South.  Not many boats on the water, but we are spotting lots of eagles and there are a lot of dolphins travelling North.

At 3:30 PM, we rafted and anchored in Church Creek, and prepared dinner.  We gathered on C-Life and ate dinner.  What a meal!!! 

Tomorrow, we will dock for the night at Port Royal Marina in Beaufort, SC.  (they have a courtesy car)  We should arrive there in the early afternoon, and we will go shopping and take a break.  The wives are looking forward to going shopping and eating at a real restaurant for a change.

We had a really good travel day today.  At approximately 1 PM, we rafted and anchored in South Santee River near Browns Island. 

We ate dinner on C-Life, and a good time was had by all.  Tomorrow, We will travel past Charleston to anchor in Church Creek, about 60 miles from Beaufort, SC.  Wednesday night will be spent at the Port Royal Marina in Beaufort, SC.

The weather has been really good.  No rain, very little wind, and really warm.  We do not need any heat at night. 

Lil David is performing perfectly.  I am now more relaxed, since everything has been proven to be operating properly.

We had a good travel day today.  The first day of a trip is always tense, inactivity on the water makes me feel very vulnerable until the boats systems have all shown that they are working properly.  Tomorrow, we will have a more relaxed day, as our confidence level improves. 

We are getting close to our cast-off date.  We are planning to leave on Sunday, 1-8, to head for Marathon FL.  We will be traveling in the company of Robert and Kay Creech on 3-C’s, and with Louis and Diane on BELALONA.

Lil David is ready to go.  Had Him lifted out of the water on Monday, and inspected and cleaned the running gear.  Found the port propellor had a slightly bent blade, so the spare prop was installed and the bent prop was taken to Wilmington for repairs.  Everything else was in good condition.

We were docked in our slip in Holden Beach by 4 PM, after a leisurely cruise from the anchorage at Brantley Island.  Went to the house and looked at the yard, found some broken pipes from the winter, and had to overcome the urge to get back on the boat and head North.  It is what is, and we will work to make “is” a better thing.

Today does not seem like Sunday.  We had a good travel day today, with no problems or concerns.  We left Charleston around 7:30 AM, and had lots of other travelers on the waterway to keep us company.  We had a few tense moments with shallow water resulting from full moon low tides, but otherwise it was really great.

Butler Island is about 10 miles north of Georgetown, SC.  It is a really great place to anchor for the night.  There are several other boats anchored in the area, but there is lots and lots of room available.

The weather has turned very cool tonight.  We have not had the heat on since the first week of our trip, in the midle of January,  but I may have to use it tonight.  There is a beautiful full moon in a very pretty setting.  We are really enjoying our last night at anchor for  what might be a long time.

We are expecting to be in Holden Beach by mid afternoon tomorrow.  I really hate to see this really enjoyable adventure dome to an end, but such is life.  There will be others.

We left Beaufort at first light this morning.  We looked closely at the tide tables and our travel route for today, and wanted to get through several areas where shallow water is a problem, before low tide.  A tide range of 9 feet is tough to deal with. 

We left some of those low spots deeper than they were before we passed through.  Our timing was not perfect, but it was adequate.  Starrie and Portia are adept at moving mud with the props.

Todays route was very challenging due to the low water levels, large tidal ranges, and sometimes unexpected fast tidal flows.  The tidal current flow in Elliot Cut was over 6 knots.  That can be scary when You are being pushed through a rock lined channel by a 6 knot current.   It is like a runaway train with no brakes.

We arrived in Charleston around 3 PM, so we had time to go downtown for Lois to shop in the Market.  We had dinner at one of our favorite seafood restaurants, and then returned to the boat.  The marina courtesy car provided transportation.  Charleston is hosting sailboat races this weekend.  We were very lucky to find space at a marina.   We might stay another day to allow Lois to shop some more for the Grandson that is due in July, and another benefit is avoiding the sailboat races in the harbor tomorrow.

We are almost home, and that brings both sadness and joy.  Glad to be home with friends and family again, but I sure hate to see this really good time end.  I really like not having anything that I MUST do and not looking at all the things I should do.  This is a really simple and uncomplicated life style.