TEXAS RANGER: Moving South Oct 10--25

   After great times in Solomons, MD and Deltaville, VA, it is time to flee the soon-to-be-too-cold northern climes for sunny (they say) Florida. The weather has been "fair", but pretty rough offshore, so we have chosen to keep moving each day via the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway. Unlike the Texas ICW which is pretty well maintained and used daily by lots of commercial traffic, the Atlantic ICW is more of a recreational boating venue, and therefore has more difficulty commanding scarce dollars allocated for dredging. This means that in many places one can only travel during a part of the day before and after high tide, and then must wait until the following day to move farther.
   The first days were spent traveling to Norfolk, VA, a favorite anchorage in a creek near Belhaven, NC, and to Morehead City, NC, the home of dear friends who lived in Corpus Christi 35 years ago. We had a wonderful dinner and visit with them, and then moved on (mostly offshore) through Wrightsville Beach, NC to Southport, NC. We have spent many days in Southport over the years, and the dockmaster still remembers us and places us in "our slip". The next two stops were at a small marina south Myrtle Beach, SC and Georgetown, SC. After threading our way through several shallow spots, we passed through Charleston, SC and anchored in Church Creek 10 miles south of there. The following day found us in Beaufort, SC, a neat old Southern town. We then moved to Isle of Hope, GA, slightly south of Savannah near Skidaway Island. This positioned us for a high tide arrival at Hell Gate, one of the Georgia trouble spots, and a mid-tide arrival at another. We made it to St. Simons, GA (near Brunswick), where the dockmaster appeared at the boat at 0645 the following morning with muffins and a newspaper! Most of our travels were more or less in tandem with another Krogen whose owner single-hands it, and though we weren't at the same spot every night, we did enjoy several dinners together and developing a special friendship. He turned upriver in Jacksonville toward the marina where his boat will spend the winter, and we anchored for the evening. In Florida the tidal range is 2 1/2-4 feet rather than the 8-9 feet in Georgia and South Carolina. Arrival timing at low-water spots is still important, but not to the degree of the last two weeks.
   Traversing the Florida ICW is always interesting, and though we are ahead of the bulk of the southward migration, a number of "fast" boats, many of which are new boats on their way from the Annapolis boat show to the Fort Lauderdale boat show, passed us along the way. Some are courteous and slow down to lessen their wake; others just speed on by. After anchoring up the St. John River south of Jacksonville, we traveled south through St. Augustine, and stayed at Marineland. The following evening was spent at New Smyrna Beach, a small but friendly municipal marina. This was a shorter run than we would have preferred, but there is a NASA railroad bridge which is closed from 0800--1200 and 1300--1600 every day, and so we needed a stop close enough to it (30 miles) to make the noon opening. That we did, and encountered a lot of the fast boats that had passed us waiting, as they were unaware of the closed hours. That evening with a cold front passing we stopped at a small marina at Eau Gallie, just north of Melbourne. The final day to Fort Pierce was windy, but clearing and getting cooler. Perhaps winter is coming, and we have been wise to move south! By moving consistently each day, we have covered almost 1000 nautical miles in the last 17 days. It is time to do some maintenance chores on the boat, but also time for some rest!