Day 23 - Beaufort SC to Savannah (Thunderbolt) GA

Border crossing day.

Breakfast joint, Blackstone has prep school banners, including Blair...

...and Foxcroft!

Leaving the Beaufort City Front

October 26

Shoved off at 0930 

We have a short (and windy) float plan of about 50 nm for today to go visit some friends from Chebeague and have dinner at their home (for a nice change) near Savannah.

We first ran down the Beaufort River. Running with the current, we made over 10 knots at only 1700 rpm for several miles, a fuel-saving run. 

Went across Port Royal sound and across the Chechesee River, we made our way in to Skull Creek, just on the north and west side of Hilton Head. Skull Creek empties into the Calibogue, across the front of the May River, where we traveled down into the Calibogue Sound and over into the Cooper River. 

Then through Falls Cut into the Wright River, going north and finally through Fields Cut leading into the Savannah River. Then across the Elba Island Cut into the Wilmington River. Thank the Lord for the Army Corps of Engineers!

Our home for the night is Thunderbolt Marine which is a serious boat yard with a marina. We had a fun, relaxing evening at a lovely home ashore on Skitaway Island.

We have an early departure planned as we'd like to make it to Jekyl Island tomorrow on the inside route.  We'll shove off just after the krispy kreme donuts are delivered!

Day 22 - Oct 25 - Lay Day in Beaufort, SC

We decided to stay in Beaufort for a day and play golf.  But in the meantime, we thought we'd take a look at the overall chart to gain some perspective of how far we have come, to date.

Highlight indicates areas where charts have been downloaded

Pretty far.  Certainly more than halfway to our goal.

Beaufort History

After the local yoga class we had a leisurely breakfast and got ready for a day of golf. 

A friend had arranged for us to play Secession, a very special course right across the harbor from Beaufort. A fun break from boating day after day. 

Arriving at Secession

#18 tee with #17 green behind
(including a bit of hurricane damage)

A fun evening out at a local favorite for dinner, Breakwaters.

Day 21 - Charleston to Beaufort, SC

After a full breakfast aboard, we shoved off from the Charleston City Marina and crossed the Ashley River a short spurt into the ICW and headed west through the Elliott Cut and up the Stono River. The Stono River runs alongside John's Island, home of Kiawah which got hit pretty hard by Matthew. 

But first, we forgot to mention the amusing names of the pump out boats the City Marina deployed, "Bow Movement" and the "Grateful Head".

Pump out boat

Clever

This day offers a ride which traverses rivers, creeks and cuts, winding west, south and even north from time to time. 

Then up the Dawho River over North Creek and into the South Edisto River to run south. 

The goal is to get to Beaufort by mid afternoon so we can explore this historic town. 

60 windy nautical miles

Then through the Fenwick Cut up the Ashepoo River, then a cut over and up Rock Creek, and then one final cut for the day into the Coosaw River leading up to just north of Beaufort, into it's river and down to town. Phew!

More info than you care to know. 

Beaufort is a special place yet we need to explore more.   

A rare "Angel Live Oak"
branches touch earth and rise again

That said, we've already taken a carriage tour and grabbed tons of history. 

The architecture in Beaufort dates back to the 1700's though much was destroyed in 1907 in a great fire.  But the primary reason we get to see these beautiful homes is that Beaufort fell to the Union only six months after the Civil War started and was in possession by the Union the duration of the war. All the citizen's left, thinking they'd be hanged. Historians postulate the if the "scattered" had resisted, the city may well have been burned to the ground by the Union Army.

The Castle

Rice, Indigo, lumber, fishing all drove this economy, in the day. Now military and tourism as well.

The Beaufort Mermaid

One of the great things about boating is you have waterfront property every night!

Day 20, Lay Day in Charleston

Sunday, October 23, 2016
Charleston - Lay day. A well deserved break from the typical six to nine hours of driving a boat into the sun. 

Her resting place.......

Got a lift into the center of town, the French Quarter, and had a great brunch at Rue de Jean. 

We then explored pretty much the entire city on foot. Quite pedestrian friendly, Charleston has such a rich history and interesting and attractive architecture. We started out in the Visitor Center, of all places, and then went to a Fort Sumter exhibit.

We even spent an hour taking a guided tour of the Edmondston-Alston House, almost entirely preserved architecture, art and artifacts from the Antebellum period. Very interesting. 

Day 19 - October 22, 2016 - Georgetown to Charleston, SC

0900 shoved off from Georgetown and decided to go north around the harbor island to check out the paper and steel mills. 

International Paper - at one time the largest paper mil in the world

Industrious Georgetown

We were supposedly in a dredged channel.  Well, as we were navigating around some hurricane debris, the depth finder indicated that we were rapidly losing water under the Lady A. The ability to turn diminished quickly and the depth finder indicated zero  We were running aground but were able to reverse rapidly and pull ourselves off of the muddy bottom. Needless to say, we reversed our direction and went back the way we came-an exciting beginning of the day!

Fortunately the rest of the day was uneventful, six hours of navigating down the Intracoastal Waterway, 60 nautical miles.  We first went down the Waccawaw River with the current a few miles, and then into the ditch pretty much for the rest of the day.  Went past Cat Island, Crow, Cedar, Murphy, then just before Charleston Harbor we passed by Pine Island and Isle of Palms.  Quite nice homes all along this part of the waterway.

Isle of Palms

We landed in Charleston Harbor with tons going on this Saturday afternoon:  so much water activity with ferries, tour boats, large sailing yachts and a large small sailboat regatta.  Pretty good wind, too, out of the Northwest.

Charleston Yacht Club race

Arthur Ravenele Jr Bridge

We fueled up at the Charleston City Marina and were given directions to our slip, necessary since this is the largest marina, the most dock frontage, perhaps on the entire eastern seaboard.  It’s so large that the staff gets around in golf carts and many boaters keep bicycles at their slip to ride up the various fingers!

John's next yacht

We have decided to take a lay day here on Sunday to relax and explore the city.  A much needed, and deserved, resting day.

Day 18 - October 21, 2016 -Southport to Georgetown, SC

0730 we left Southport, traveling west, inside, down the ICW for 23.5 NM in intermittent fog, before going out into the Atlantic at Little River Inlet.  

Early morning fog

More remnants of Matthew

Once outside we had a six hour voyage, and set a course for 219 degrees west, to the Winyah Inlet, at the entrance to the Winyah River, which takes you up to Georgetown.

Decent outside, for the first few hours 

The seas built all during the day so by the time we started into  the Inlet we had 6' rollers running from the NE and a 3-5’ chop on top coming from the SW. Sloppy conditions for the last hour or two outside.

Seas building

Then we had to run against a 5 knot current about 10 miles up river.  93 NM in 9h9m! Boat handled it well but not too  much fun.  Long day.  Didn't get in until after five.

Georgetown is very nice.  They have a paper mill that is a bit odiferous when the wind is wrong but otherwise a nice town with a harbor boardwalk, restaurants and shops. 

Paper mill at the head of the harbor

Georgetown history

As mentioned before, we continually have people stopping by to look at the boat and ask questions.  Turns out we missed the Georgetown Wooden Boat Show by just a few days; it was last weekend.  There were a few of the show boats still there and a couple of their owners told us that had we been there a week earlier, we probably would have won “Best in Show”!!  Oh well, there’s always next year.

Heart stopping goodness

Tomorrow we plan to run inside all day about 65nm to Charleston and are planning to spend two nights taking in the town. 

Day 17 - Beaufort to Southport, NC - Westward Ho!

Beaufort to Southport, NC.


So, piracy is a main theme of this town.  Beaufort is where Blackbeard reigned and his ship, Queen Anne's Revenge, is shipwrecked just off the inlet.  

Blackbeard and me

Check it out on Wikipedia or whatever.

Weather permitting, the plan for today was to run outside. Not only does it move the voyage along if the weather is fair, it also makes sense because the ICW has a number unsettled issues remaining from hurricane Matthew. The waters are still high from the storm and we are just coming off a full moon so the tides are running extreme. In fact, tomorrow we have to deal with a bridge that is still unable to open until the waters recede some more.

We lucked out with another beautiful day and left Beaufort after breakfast at 0730. Beaufort Town Docks are so conveniently located to the inlet.  We were in open ocean in no time.

Flat calm outside for once

Outside the inlet we had only 2-4 foot swells at 10-12 second intervals and light winds. We set a course for Masonboro Inlet on the autopilot and started to take watches.  We ran about 5 to 6 hours outside, the first half of a very long day. 

Dolphin watch

Making time

We went back into the ICW through the Masonboro Inlet and proceeded down around Cape Fear to Southport for the evening. 

After going through the inlet, which was exciting in and of itself, (we wished we'd had pics of that). But then again there's a reason why we don't have many pictures of the exciting times -we're dealing with the exciting times! :)


Heading 240 WSW

Nearing the Inlet- Wrightsville Beach

Once we were back in the Intracoastal Waterway, we still had 2-3 hours, depending on current, traffic, etc.  Some tricky spots but relatively easy motoring.  At one point we were running with the current at over 15 knots at only 2300 rpms.

Remnants of Matthe

After fueling up at Southport Marina, (no vacancy) we made our way down to South Harbor Village Marina, quite a nice spot with two restaurants.  Right after showering, as we returned to the boat, a really fun thing occurred. We had visitors from Chebeague!  It turns out Jen (Putnam) and Ian Cummings live down here now and saw our whereabouts on this blog and came by to visit!  We had a beer aboard and made connections.  Fun!

Might try to make Georgetown tomorrow but it's a greater distance than today's of 90+nm. However, there's some talk of rain and increasing winds in the afternoon so we'll play it by ear.