Windmill Harbour Marina - at a dock

Walking around the area is like being in a well-tended garden

We left Kilkenny at first light this morning, bound for Windmill Harbour Marina. It was a 50 Nm trek but the constraining factor was the 3.8 MLW approach which meant we needed at least 1 foot of tide and preferably more to comfortably enter. With the early start, we actually had 2 foot of tide so we made it easily.

The entry lock. No problem, easy.

A little background. Windmill Harbour Marina is a beautiful development with a large variety of houses, all very well done. They are centered around a marina with a constant water level and no current at all. They accomplish this with an entry lock that matches the water level of the marina with that of the ICW. All this is done without water pumps of any kind. It turns out that high tide is higher than the water level in the marina so at that time, water is let in. When the water level of the marina is higher than the ICW, water is let out when a boat enters the lock.

The extra water needed for the raising of the boats in the lock is drawn from when the ICW tide level is higher than that in the marina - so no pumps are needed, mother nature does all the work. That's about as green as you can get.

The docks are all at the same height - fine since there's no tide inside the marina.

The marina is not well known among ICW travelers. If you belong to BOAT/US, the cost is only $1.80/ft. It is a good place to escape from storms since the surrounding, three-story houses protect you from the wind and there's no wave action in the marina since it is isolated from the ICW.  At some point in the future it may be "discovered"  by those on the ICW but for now, it's rarely visited.

We are off to B&B Seafood on Tuesday and then on to Charleston. Ann hopes to visit the downtown shops which are as good as any city on the east coast.