We don’t seem to have had a minute to sit down and write to you since we entered the Intracoastal Waterway at Lake Worth. Although we haven’t been operating locks as per the Crinan Canal, we seem to have been concentrating the whole time in reading the shallows and looking out for the next marker on the route.

We mentioned that the wildlife on the intracoastal was a marvel to watch. We have been privileged to see the ospreys growing up (as we move)! About half of the markers on the ICW have osprey nests on them. They are an endangered species, mostly due to the DDT, which made the shells thinner and depleted the population until the 1970’s. Fortunately the use of DDT is now banned and the birds are making a come back. We have been watching a parent making forays for fish, and catching them, whilst the mate sits on the eggs. We have been woken up at 0530 by the chicks begging for food with their plaintiff mews, and we have watched the first flight of the young hesitantly leaving the nests and flying behind their mother to learn to wheel and swoop and then soar on the wind. We watched one young bird trying to take its first fish, and although he missed it we were relieved he didn’t fall in the water after his clumsy attempt.

We have managed to do a fair amount of motor sailing up the ICW with a South Easterly sea breeze helping us on our way. Unfortunately the weather turned against us at Norfolk, which is the top of the ICW and the bottom of the Chesapeake. It rained for four days and blew a cold wind from the North. We tried to put the heater on but to no avail! We haven’t used it for a year, and even taking it apart and cleaning all the connections produced no results. Do you know of any good Webasto dealers on the East coast of America? We have a feeling we may need it again before the end of this year!

The intracoastal waterway runs over a thousand miles all the way from Miami to Norfolk in Virginia inside a large sand dune with houses on it, mostly, but sometimes across sounds or estuaries 5 miles wide in Georgia, with lots of marshes. When the ICW comes to South Carolina it starts to join smaller river estuaries in amongst wooded islands (still with marshes!) and the feeling is of isolation.

On occasions we met tugs pulling half a mile of barges with dredging machinery and a couple of small boats on board. There was also an attendant tug to push the back of the train round the corners. Once we had to skirt round a ‘pusher tug’, about the same size as the old London river tugs, pushing an enormous barge possibly 250 feet long. It was full of scrap metal and had stuck on a shoal. The ICW has many outlets to the sea, which one sometimes catches a glimpse of, between dunes or houses. It is therefore tidal in some parts, although it never ranges more than a foot, but it has a current of as much as 3 knots on spring tides. The tug would probably have been able to float off the sandbank at the next high tide. Fortunately we did not get stuck on that occasion; he showed us where the sandbank was!

We passed a firing range, which can sometimes hold a boat up for two hours if the lights flash and they are firing. We didn’t have to stop but we did duck when the jets came over. There were three personnel carriers on the side of the waterway, which looked like they had previously been targets; at least there were large craters round about them. Americans are generally proud of their War of Independence from Britain (or England as they call it), which occurred in the 1780’s. The southern states of Georgia, North and South Carolina and Virginia also expound the Civil War as a major part of their history, and like to tell of union atrocities to their people, and to their graveyards. Most of them still like to have the association with the pirate Black Beard as well. There is a Black Beard pub round nearly every corner!

Were you aware that “Gone with the wind” was the biggest box office hit ever (when adjusted for inflation)? The “Sound of Music” is third! Although the men do not seem to go around saying “ Frankly my dear I don’t give a damn” the accents in South Carolina could be straight out of the film. The Spanish moss, which hangs from all the local oak trees is real too, and Will just thought it was to give the film atmosphere!

We went on a horse and carriage ride at Beaufort in South Carolina, pronounced like beautiful, although about 150 miles North, in North Carolina, they pronounce it bowfort for their town of the same name. They are both named after an ancestor of the Duke. Everything in America has its individual slant, even thought they are proud of their British (and particularly Celtic) ancestry. The houses in Beaufort, SC, were charming and we were told how the buildings were spared during the Civil War in 1861 because all the towns people had fled by the time the union army arrived. The army then commandeered some of the houses for hospitals, and others were used by the returning populous to entertain the officers of the opposition! We were also told, as we clip clopped round the streets, of a hurricane in the 1880’s, which raised the water level 15 feet. There were boats apparently tied to the first floor balconies, a true water based community. The houses were evocative of a very bygone age. All shiplap and shingles! We must have another look at ‘ Gone with the Wind’.

Beaufort, SC, is just up the river from Moon River, and of course we all started singing as we passed by its outlet into the larger river we were sailing on! For your information it is not a mile wide, and it has marshes on either bank. One bank also has houses on it set amongst trees, and they have their own jetties attached, with the ubiquitous speedboat either tied up, or in a hoist. We even saw some yachts in hoists, adjacent to the jetties. The ultimate in dry sailing.

We tied up in Thunderbolt next to the city of Savannah at the Hinkley Marina. Hinkley build beautiful yachts and motor launches and there were some pretty examples there. In Savannah we took a trolley bus ride (without the top arms!) around the town. Most of the time our guide talked about the settings of a film called “The Garden of Good and Evil”. We had never heard of it but nodded wisely. If you want to see in detail the grand Victorian houses of Savannah set out in elegant squares and boulevards then watch the film! We intend to some time. There was a horrendous thunderstorm during our tour and we had to lower the plastic sheeting at the sides of the ‘trolley’ to prevent the rain soaking us. As we said, the weather has not been great.

We had been delighted to find semi civilisation in Savannah, with a phone shop and a wireless Internet café. Susan spent happy hours at the café, whilst Margaret and Will went to “Piggly Wiggly” supermarket. A remarkable name for a rather well stocked shop. We have later learned that there is a chain of such stores equally well stocked, and with a discount card! The phone shop was owned by T-mobile and their cards have since turned out to be unreliable. We were also told that their coverage was states wide, which is completely untrue, so please accept our apologies if you have not received an answer to a text message. We probably haven’t received it! We have become friends with an American sailor who is a little more vehement about T-mobile. We find the people here very frank with their opinions, about almost everything. They are usually well informed and refreshingly forthright and hold a good conversation. One American did tell Will, however, that he thought the British spoke as if they had a mouthful of glue. When Will replied that Americans spoke as if their teeth we glued together the conversation suddenly improved. Most of the natives here don’t think the British have straw growing out of our ears, even though Lord Cornwallis let us down badly in the War of Independence. The French helped the Americans to win that war, especially at sea (a fact almost everybody has forgotten)! Will thinks he would have liked to have joined the Americans though, with their respect for engineering and liberty, and the truth generally. Possibly in any era! Too late now!

We were entertained to a wine and cheese party when we entered Virginia, at Elizabeth city close to the mouth of the Dismal Swamp Canal, (once owned by George Washington). At Elizabeth city they have a free marina and welcome visiting boaters. Every evening the Rose Buddies, as they call themselves, hold a party from 5-6:30, and provide wine and cheese, and a rose for the ladies. Two men started this twenty-two years ago and they are now famous nation wide for their hospitality. One still survives, assisted by friends, and Frank has reached the age of 92. He is transported in a donated golf buggy with Rose buddies written on the front. It is a great way to get to know other boaters on the ICW and we met some charming people there.

When in Elizabeth City we found a cinema to watch the latest Star Wars movie. This was no ordinary cinema! At the start of the film we were shown to our table, where we ordered lunch by telephone. The food arrived during the adverts and was enjoyed whilst watching Star Wars. The best way to watch a film!

Unfortunately they don’t dredge the dismal canal anymore so the limiting depth is 6 foot. It is supposed to be an historic civil engineering landmark but regrettably we didn’t see it, having to find another way round to Norfolk because of our seven foot draft.

Whilst anchored at Portsmouth, opposite Norfolk, we went to the Virginia sports hall of fame. Low and behold one of the recipients of an accolade was Ricky Rudd, a famous Virginian Sports Car driver. He even looks like a Rudd!

Norfolk (between the Northern and Southern states) is a Naval town at the junction of Chesapeake Bay and the southern 1400 mile long Intracoastal Waterway, and it also has an excellent deep-water outlet to the sea. It was near here that Britain surrendered at the end of the War of Independence, and it was very close to here where the USS Monitor fought in the Civil War with the CSS Virginia in the first ever battle of the “iron clads”, 1862. The CSS Virginia was conceived and built in Norfolk and prior to fighting the Monitor had completely destroyed the rest of the northern navy, all beautiful wooden frigates! The passing of an era. We saw fragments from both Monitor and Virginia and the armour plating was impressive. No wonder their fight was a draw. Both ships are sunk nearby. Scuttled. There was a new Schooner, “Virginia”, which we passed on our way out of Norfolk on the way to Chesapeak Bay. Helicopters were taking photos of it since it is not often that a new 120 foot schooner is constructed. It is to stay in the area for the next year but it may come to Europe next year.

We have had to motor up the Potomac (shallow and very wide) to Washington, from Norfolk. The countryside has been beautiful when the shallow water has let us get close enough to see it. We have seen deer at the water’s edge, otters swimming, turtles sunbathing and bald eagles flying overhead.

Two secure and pretty creeks for anchorages on the way, and about five hundred yachts out for a Saturday regatta in Chesapeake Bay. The bay, which is really a very large estuary with huge rivers flowing into it even has its own free yachting monthly newspaper. Useful for the tides, such as they are.

Washington will be the subject of our next letter, but suffice to say, we are still recovering from being struck by lighting last week as we motored to the anchorage in the middle of the night.( no damage except for the anemometer). Perhaps a fitting welcome to George Bush’s seat of power. As we said the weather is not all sun and white puffy clouds!

We enclose some of Susan’s snaps; Will thinks they are getting better.

Love Atlantia.