Category: Georgia

We’re BACK! First week in the ICW!

by markperil@gmail.com on May 9, 2015 in Boating Life, Destinations, Florida, Georgia, ICW, Passage, Sunny days, Sunsets • 1 Comment

On the road again! We love being back. We loved being “gone” too, but being back has its perks. Full fridge (including BEER, the most expensive commodity in the Bahamas allegedly), calm water, cell phone service and familiar scenery. We are making great time up the coast, flying through Florida, Georgia and part of South Carolina already. Loving doing the ICW better this time – warm weather, local knowledge, and a few more months of boating experience are making this trip up way more fun than our route down. Here are some road-trippin highlights so far:

Slightly less beardish

On the road again (this time, red to PORT)

le journal

CUMBERLAND ISLAND 2: The Found World

Still one of our favourite places

Sunrise…sunset

#streetstyle in Beaufort, SC

Happy hours and free BBQ? Southern Hospitality!

Beautiful Beaufort, SC (“Bew-fort”)

Forrest Gump celebrity spottings.

Schwing bridge / full moon

Rough winter for this guy

Fort Matanzas, Florida. The black and white makes it look kind of epic…but it was about the size of a garage.

BBQ in the Georgia marshlands (Wally’s leg, GA)

Beers in Beaufort, SC

Navigation. “Easy in. Weird current vs wind but quite scenic (for FLA)” – anchorage reviews by CL

Love dees manatees

The land of 1000 bridges

Wow – wasn’t expecting to wear this guy again. Frig!

This guy gets us every time. Hard to tell whose hair it might have been…

Classic ICW anchorage morning on the Herb River, GA

Cumberland Island

by markperil@gmail.com on December 11, 2014 in Destinations, Georgia, ICW, OpTrop, Sunny days • 0 Comments

Look, if you have the opportunity to check out Cumberland Island – do it. I can’t believed I lived in ATL for as long as I did, and never made it out. The island is only accessible by ferry, there are no cars allowed except for the few private land owners who were grandfathered in (the whole island is basically a natural park)…the beach is pristine, the campsites are well maintained, they have bikes to rent, and wild horses to admire. We loved it, and stayed a second day to make sure we got the full experience. Sigh. we just kept telling ourselves that there would be more beaches in Florida and beyond…

Thinking of Opa while beach combing. He loved the beach and I will always think of him when I see seashells

Of course Mark went swimming

Swimming in December

Jekyll Island (& Mr. Hyde)

by markperil@gmail.com on December 10, 2014 in Destinations, Georgia, ICW, Sunny days • 0 Comments

Today, we had an ideal cruising day – the type where you sleep in a bit, and still get to your destination by noon. In this case, we were headed to Jekyll Island, Georgia. This island piqued our interest, with tales of riches during it’s former years as a private refuge for the extremely wealthy (think Rockefeller, Vanderbilt, etc.). Back in the late 1800s/early 1900s, they built massive cottages with 22+ bedrooms, which interestingly did not feature kitchens as the families all ate at the communal private yacht club dining hall. Who knew?! We were keen to check it out…

It took us over an hour to get the dinghy unpacked/pumped up/organized and OF COURSE, the outboard wouldn’t start (since we’ve barely used it this fall). After a quick call to pops, we deduced that it was probably bad fuel (thanks Wally! haha), and I siphoned out the old to make room for the new. BOOM! She fired up almost instantly.

Once we got ashore, we basically said “Screw the mansions, let’s go to the beach!”. So we did. And it was spectacular. It’s easy to forget that we are so close to the ocean as we travel through marshes and narrow rivers in the ICW just inland, so to see the wide expanse of the Atlantic again was a refreshing break, and beautiful reminder of where we are headed in the (hopefully) not so distant future.

Wild WIlly n’ Tara

Caitie loves marine mammals

“Stop looking at me swan”

Jurassic Park II: The Lost World

Gettin’ beach ready

Horseshoe crab (deceased) – prehistoric animal!

I’M HAVING A GREAT TIME!

ME TOO!

Lowcountry Living

by markperil@gmail.com on December 9, 2014 in Georgia, ICW, Passage, Sitting at anchor • 0 Comments

This section of the ICW can be boiled down to 3 main themes:

1) Fog

2) Marsh

3) Wilderness

We’ve been a little MIA from the internet, because we’ve been a little MIA from society the past week since returning to the boat. We are transiting one of the more desolate sections of the ICW, with few (and far between) towns, and even fewer boats on the water. To add to the feeling, we’ve had some crazy Bermuda-triangle style fog white-outs, including one that came in so fast that we we were able to tick something off our bucket list: spontaneously anchor in a non designated anchorage (because it was too risky to keep going).

It’s been great though! We’ve continued our “Phase Two” ethos, we still have a stocked library and pantry (after our thanksgiving haul), and have been enjoying shorter transit days in the quiet of the marshland.

Jurassic Park

Haven’t seen one yet, but not for lack of looking!

Seagrass birdsnest

View to the left

View to the right

Misty morning

Best visibility we had all day

Mark hit a wall the other day with our “high output” alternator, as it was not delivering adequate charge to our NEW batteries. It took a couple days of testing and tinkering (with a few cruisersforum.com posts), but he re-did the wiring and managed to solve the problem! Small victories.

Spaghetti!

Boat maintenance is 80% fitting into small spaces.

“I don’t think so, Tim”.

Big Sky, Georgia.

Our next few days should include a peek at Jekyll Island (home of Rockefeller mansions), Cumberland Island (wild horses!) and then F.L.A.! BIKINIS! (or at least, fewer sweatpants).

P.S. Thanks Pat for the beersocks!

I wish we could brew on the boat!

Georgia on my mind

by markperil@gmail.com on December 5, 2014 in Georgia, Sunsets • 1 Comment

We are happy. Phase 2 so far, has been a smash success.

Without a schedule, we are free to do as we please. The weather is good, and we realize how much that helps.

So what if it has been incredibly foggy in the morning for the past few days (can’t see 500 feet ahead of the boat)…”Let’s have another coffee and leave in a coupla hours. The sun should burn it off. Can I make you some eggs?”

Here’s to hitting our stride