Having cruised more than 4000 miles in 11 months on our trawler, this is a good time to start mentally preparing for the final legs of our Great Loop adventure.
Take a look at this list breaking down the remaining segments we need to traverse to complete our Loop ( as of April 30). Our loop started at the Mackinaw Bridge on June 10, 2016; we were in Charleston, NC on April 20th .
This list shows the remaining 1868 miles in manageable subcategories:
- Charleston to Norfolk Virginia *end of the Atlantic ICW* 473 miles
- Chesapeake Bay: Norfolk VA to C&D Canal 185 miles
- Delaware Bay: C&D Canal to Cape May NJ 60 miles
- Atlantic Ocean: Cape May to Manasquan NJ 100 miles
- Atlantic Ocean: Manasquan NJ to NY.NY. 35 miles
- Hudson River: NY NY to Erie Canal (Waterford NY) 155 miles
- Erie Canal: Waterford to 3 Rivers 160 miles
- Oswego Canal: 3 Rivers NY to Oswego NY 25 miles
- Lake Ontario: Oswego NY to Kingston ON> 50 miles
- Lake Ontario: Kingston to Trenton ON. 60 miles
- Trent Severn Waterway: Trenton ON. To Port Severn 240 miles
- Georgian Bay: Port Severn to Killarney ON 175 miles
- North Channel: Killarney to Drummond 100 miles
- Lake Huron: Drummond to Mackinaw Bridge MI. 50 miles
Remaining miles from Charleston (in April)to finish line at Mackinaw Bridge Lake Michigan (estimated arrival July ): 1868 miles.
If we don’t think ahead, might risk cruising by something important!! Here is a random list of sights to see and things to do. If we don’t cross them all off our list, we just may have to come back for a repeat! Any comments or suggestions welcome!
Things to do, see or stay on the Eastern portion of the Great Loop :
-
- Support local Artists
- Join in summer festivals
- conquer Albemarle and Pamlico sounds
- Light houses Of SC: Roanoke River, Ocracoake, Cape Hatteras, Roanoke Marshes , Currituck light house, Bodie Island light house in Nags Head NC / outer banks.
- Lighthouses of Virginia and the Chesapeake and New Jersey
- Outdoor concerts
- Visit a Maritime museum
- visit historic churches and cemeteries
- Explore , fly a kite on the beach,
- Kitty Hawk and the Wright Brothers
- Revolutionary war sights
- See the Wild Spanish Mustangs on the beach
- Colonial History sights
- tour a ship
- Visit the Statue of Liberty
- Take a horse drawn carriage tour
- Narrow down a New York List: Empire State Bldg, Central park, Metropolitan Museum, Times Square….. Mmmmm…. Just thoughts!
- 911 Memorial in New York
- Visit America’s Culinary Institute in NY
- visit National Parks
- See family along the way
- reconnect with loopers we have met
- I borrowed this next picture from pinterest:
To get things started we left St Johns Yacht Club marina south of Charleston on Monday May 1- timiqng for the slack tide to carry us through the rocky and narrow Elliot Cut. Our hope had been to anchor off the point of Fort Sumter, however the high winds and waves prevented anchoring. Plus it was early and the museum would not be open.
CRUISING BY FORT SUMTER
Location of the first shot of the Civil War
GEORGETOWN, SC
The review of Georgetown as an anchorage warned of muddy bottom and silting for poor holding. We gave it a good try; it took three tries to get a good setting on our anchor. Or so we thought- several hours later we checked our location and could tell the anchor was dragging; the boats and docks appeared much closer!!
in the dark we hear a voice from the city “day Dock” offering a hand with lines moving in to the dock?
The dock was posted as “no overnight stays” but with the storm fast approaching we decided to pull anchor and move to tie up on the free dock. Quickly secured our lines by 11:15 pm, and it started pouring and lightening! Later Dave commented that one engine would not start making docking a bit tricky. Earlier the generator stopped working- Dave will be trouble shooting for a fuel issue.
GEORGETOWN MORNING WALK
Next morning we walked around town and had breakfast with out having to drop our dinghy in the water! Bonus!! The town is smaller than Charleston and Savanah, but proud of its history. Disappointed that both the Rice Museum and Maritime Museum were with in walking distance, but did not open until 11 am.
At the recommendation of a tour guide on the docks, we ate at Thomas Café – Dave ordered the Shrimp and crab omelet with salsa and grits. Notice the vintage ice box, stools and tile floor! This is not shabby chic- just hard working original café!
Cute- one patron left the dog on the bench while she went in for coffee- of course brought out water first!
The weather cleared and made for a great day to head to our next anchorage with the rising tide. There are a few shallow spots in the next few miles and the additional depth of high tide will be a benefit! Head out across Winyah Bay, north on the Waccamaw River, to our anchorage at Enterprise Creek Oxbow. The scenery has changed dramatically- no longer the salt marshes of Georgia; instead we have hard wood trees, grasses and Cyprus trees.
The river water is littered with hyacinths just waiting to bloom. With this change in trees, the osprey, eagles, turtles and other birds are more abundant. 
At night the vultures roosted near our boat. 
We took the dingy out to explore the dark waters- The tanic roots of the Cyprus give a dark color to the water. Great for reflection photos!
It was a very calm night, Clear sky with lots of stars. Also lots of noises in the night- a couple times we shined our powerful spot light into the shore to see if there were eyes shining in the dark. (yes, a few!)
In the morning pulled anchor and had to leave this lovely anchorage. Thanks for taking a few minutes and reading to the end of the post! Hope you enjoyed, and may be planning your own trip along the ICW some day.
Filed under: A year on a boat, Architecture and Gardens, Atlantic ICW, Moon Shadow Log Tagged: Atlantic ICW, Bird Photos, Boating, Georgetown, Great Loop, South Carolina, Things to do, Turtles 
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