Maggie Rose Cruising South

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Fernandina Beach, FL – Maggie Rose is legal in the Sunshine State, but it wasn’t easy. Maybe it wasn’t even necessary. But rather than chance being hassled by the Florida Marine Police we decided to buy a decal.

The Tuesday after Christmas, I called the Nassau County Courthouse in downtown Fernandina to ask about registration requirements. The clerks seemed to have no idea what I was talking about, so I walked up there, where the clerk gave me a long form that Jo and I had to sign as co-owners. I picked up a brochure, "Facts for Florida Vessel Owners, and Jo got on line and found "Florida Boaters’ Guide: Boating Laws and Responsibilities." Florida recognizes vessel registration from other states, just like motor vehicles. But if your vessel is U.S. Documented in Virginia you might have a problem because Virginia does not register documented boats.

We determined that a Florida registration would be a good idea, even though you may cruise Florida waters without it for up to 90 days. We didn’t want to be under that deadline. So we signed the form and back to the courthouse I went, going through courthouse security once again. Another clerk said I had the wrong form. She gave me a shorter form. Back to the boat I went for Jo’s signature.

After going through security once again, the clerk seemed mystified by part of the form that said "Permanent Florida Address – Mandatory." We didn’t want to buy a house in Florida. All we wanted to do was comply with Florida law and avoid tickets and fines. The clerk, a nice young lady, got on her computer and made a phone call. No problem, she said. In this case, mandatory is not mandatory.

Now here’s another quirky part of Florida law: the one-year registration is effective on the previous birth month of the vessel owner listed first on the documentation. So our Florida decal was already nine months old, expiring this March. But for another ten bucks we added a year, expiring in March 2007. So we’ll still have a valid decal next fall if we do this again.

The weather on the northern tip of Florida has been wonderful, except for some very windy days, stirring white caps on the Amelia River and sloshing over the outer dock . Yesterday and today, New Year’s Eve, there’s a gentle breeze. At mid-afternoon it was 72 degrees and climbing.

Of course, we had planned to be farther south by now to spend New Year’s Eve in Jacksonville or St. Augustine, but the weather and tides did not cooperate. It doesn’t matter. Any place we are is great. So we decided to party on a casino cruise.

We happened to talk with the boarding staff on a large ship based here called "Escapade Casino." They were having a half-price Sucker Special this week – $5, including dinner, and half-price drinks. New Year’s Eve would include entertainment and a champagne toast, and all you care to lose. So Jo and I, and our new friend Sam, decided it would be a hoot to dress up and welcome the new year three miles at sea on a BAB – Big-Ass Boat – with a bunch of other high rollers.

On Friday the weather was just right for a cruise back to the Cumberland Island National Seashore (since the weather forecast had forced us out before Christmas) to spend the day hiking through the forest of ancient live oaks and palms and strolling along the ocean beach looking for shells and driftwood. We also saw three of the 200 to 300 wild horses that roam the island grazing on Spanish moss. The horses, a park ranger said, are descendants of the horses and polo ponies owned by the Carnegies at the turn of the 20^th Century. The ruins of Dungeness, the vast winter estate of the Carnegie family, are impressive. We also saw a lone armadillo ambling along a clearing eating roots or something at ground level. Never seen one in person before. We thought they lived in Texas.

After our return, Sam Elliott, the guy we had over for Christmas dinner, had us over for dinner aboard his 37-foot sailboat. He served poached salmon, topped bread crumbs and spices, which he caught at the local seafood store. He did a great job as chef. By the way, Jo was a little miffed that I didn’t mention the culinary miracle she performed with that canned ham for Christmas.

Today, we met with Richard and Ann, a couple we met in Beaufort, and Carey and Lynne, other Beaufort friends who showed up here last week. We had lunch together downtown. They declined our suggestion to join us aboard the Escapade Casino for New Year’s Eve evening, so we’re having an early celebration aboard Maggie Rose.

We hope to move on St. Augustine and Daytona Beach next week.

Happy New Year!

Jack and Jo aboard Maggie Rose

Beaufort, S.C., Sat., Dec. 10 – On Friday, Dec. 9, at 4:15 p.m., Chris Parker, owner of Yacht Services near Hilton Head, S.C., an authorized Westerbeke technician, completed the installation of our new and improved one-size-bigger transmission.

After 17 days in this beautiful Low Country southern city, we feel like we live here. We’re no longer eager to leave, especially since the next two weeks are free. After 12 days, paying for a whole month was much cheaper than paying daily or weekly rates. This eliminated the fiscal pressure of waiting for the transmission. And, except for a few cool nights and mornings, the weather has been Florida-like, with highs in the 60s and 70s. After a front and a rainy day last Thursday, the lows have been in the 40s, the highs in the upper 50s.

Les and Troy, the dock master and assistant at the Downtown Marina, are friendly and accommodating. We have cable TV and nearby wifi. We have met some friendly folks passing through, one couple from Hampton, Va., another from Canada, and others. They come. We chat. We share cocktails and dinners. They go. We walk and explore.

We have become good friends -- like we’ve known them for years -- with Cary and Lynne Cooper of Huntsville, Ala., who keep their Union 36 cutter "Sulidae" on C Dock. They’re getting ready go South at the end of the month. Meanwhile, we have been dining and drinking on each other’s vessels. They have a car here, so they’ve taken us where we need to go. We’re all working on small boat projects that make life easier. We made a major grocery run last week and spent much of the next day stowing stuff in hard-to-reach places.

A few days ago Jo walked to the Chamber of Commerce and collected menus from nearby restaurants. We tried one off the tourist track that featured "Low Country Home Cookin’"

"Belle’s is named after my dog," the owner says on the menu. See, we weren’t weird to name Maggie Rose after our dog. Belle’s has a great lunch buffet for $8, including crunchy fried chicken. Cary and Lynne hadn’t heard of "Belle’s" After checking the menu they decided to try it and we all had the lunch buffet on Friday.

Christmas came to the Low Country last week. They turned Bay Street (the main drag downtown) into a pedestrian mall. It was packed with folks, including many young families pushing strollers and lots of young guys sporting crew cuts or shaved heads. Hey, this is Marine Country. Parris Island. Marine Corps Air Station. Naval hospital.

Dancers danced. Church choirs sang. A Marine Corps jazz band played holiday music. Sidewalk vendors provided us with a dinner of shrimp gravy over rice and a sausage dog. The Christmas tree lighting was held in the marina park. Businesses held open house. Harvey’s Barber Shop served free beer and wine. The line spilled out the door.

Next day, a snow-making machine provided cool entertainment for hundreds of kids, many of whom had never seen snow. This snow sometimes fell in icy chunks, but the kids didn’t care. The line of kids and parents wound around the marina parking lot and down Bay Street. "Have you ever seen snow before?" I asked a boy, about 8 or 9. "I’ve seen snow before," he said. "I want to see it again." Next day, they had a parade with Santa and marching Marines.

We’ll probably move on next week, weather permitting. We had hoped to spend a week before Christmas in Daytona Beach, Fla., visiting Frank and Mary Didot, yacht club friends who moved to Florida a couple of years ago. That isn’t going to. So we’re just going to enjoy a leisurely cruise through Georgia and Florida, smell the roses, time the tides, and arrive in Daytona after New Year’s.

From: John J. Chamberlain
Sent: Wednesday, November 30, 2005 10:00 AM
Subject: Beaufort, SC

BEAUFORT, S.C. We landed at Beaufort Downtown Marina at 10:30 on Thanksgiving morning, intending to stay a day or two and push on South. But we experienced yet another slippage of our new transmission, similar to a car spinning on ice – the more you accelerate, the slower you go! So it was white knuckles crawling through the Ladies Island Swing Bridge, against a strong current and into the nearby marina.

Jo had the makings for turkey, dressing, mashed potatoes and cranberry sauce aboard, but we heard the local Episcopal church puts on a Thanksgiving feast open to the public, asking only for a donation. It was as good as grandma’s house. The tables were set with white table clothes and cloth napkins, china and silver. Families from the nearby Parris Island Marine facility waited on us. The meal was delicious. We had turkey with all the trimmings, pumpkin pie, and pleasant conversations with local residents at our table, who talked about the history of the city and the differences between here and Beaufort, N.C. One difference: here is pronounced "Bu’fort" and to the North it’s "Bo’fort."

Being a holiday weekend, we couldn’t call Engines I in Portsmouth about our transmission (still under warrantee) until Monday, Nov. 28. We hope to get this resolved by the end of the week. So Jo and I are living aboard, just like we intend to be here for many days. There are worse places to be than Beaufort, S.C. Downtown is right next to the marina. There are many shops and restaurants. A courtesy car is available for trips to a grocery store.

Beaufort, 566 nautical miles (651 highway miles) from home, is similar to Charleston in charm and beauty, but smaller and more convenient for walking downtown, and very friendly. The day after Thanksgiving was like a Norman Rockwell painting, a string of traffic crawling and people strolling along Bay Street. The old homes are gorgeous, with wrap-around verandas on first and second stories, big old trees draped with Spanish moss. Yesterday, we happened to run into Paul and Susan (and Miki, their Jack Russell terrier), whom we met in Elizabeth city and again at Barefoot Landing where we rafted up to their vessel "Slow Dancing." We had bloody Marys aboard Maggie Rose and had dinner with them Monday night a Paninis, a good downtown restaurant..

In our last communication, we were holed up at anchor in Tom Point Creek waiting for gale-force winds to subside. After three nights, we weighed anchor on Wed., Nov. 23, at 8 a.m. We chose to leave an hour after low tide to get through some notoriously tricky spots on a rising tide. It was sunny, but still windy and brisk. Using advice from the Waterway Guide, Skipper Bob and other cruisers, we managed to wend our way through the Dawho River and the Ashapoo Coosaw Cutoff without finding the bottom. The Corps of Engineers has stopped maintaining the ICW in southern SC and GA because of lack of funds. We can’t understand why a safe inland passage for marine traffic isn’t part of Homeland Security!

We thought we might get to sail the wide expanse of the Coosaw River. We are going south, after all, and the winds were 15 plus knots from the west, a perfect beam reach. But no-oo! The river runs East-West, so the wind was on the nose as we motored 10 miles to round Brickyard Point. As slow as we were, Maggie Rose was overtaking "Pendragon," a Canadian sailing vessel we had chatted with by radio in Tom Point Creek. So our scheme to follow them and let them find the bottom in Brickyard Creek was foiled. Turned out this was their first time, too, and they were having problems with an engine vibration. We told them to stay in touch if they needed help.

We entered Brickyard Creek, which turned out to be much simpler than the electronic black hole on our chart plotter showed. The chart plotter showed us going through marsh, where reality was a narrow but well-marked channel.

Radio traffic indicated the Downtown Marina was booked for the holidays. They said they’d get back to us. Approaching the swing bridge, we still hadn’t heard anything, so we elected to anchor in Factory Creek, within sight of the bridge and marina. Anchor was set by 2:30 p.m. We watched pelicans dive for their dinners as we enjoyed our sundowners.

On Thanksgiving morning, our stern was almost in the marsh grass, but we still had adequate water and never hit bottom. We radioed the marina and were told to come on, they had a place for us. So off we went at 10:30 a.m., with the transmission slipping at cruising rpm’s. I’m sure the bridge tender wondered why we were going through like a geriatric snail.

This is a nice marina, with a friendly staff. The waterfront park is undergoing extensive renovations, so everything is torn up. Tides here are about seven feet, and the current is fast coming and going. The weather has been down right Florida like, in the 80s and 70s and high 60s. Had some showers and heavy cloud cover, but very pleasant.

The guy at Engines I said they concluded we needed yet another transmission, one size larger than standard. The new trans that came with the engine was replaced last June. He’s trying to find a suitable mechanic in this area.

We have wifi access at a café near the docks so would like to hear how everyone else is doing while we wait for the transmission. Also, if we ever get underway again, we expect to lay over in Daytona to visit our friends Frank & Mary Didot who have graciously agreed to collect and hold mail for us. Their address is 2300 North Atlantic Ave., Apt #902, Daytona Beach, FL 32118.