Leg 48 - Steamboat Anchorage
We had a great two days in Beaufort. The first day, we spent cleaning up ourselves and the boat after our 4 nights out on the hook. It was nice to plug in and get some air conditioning. We took a stroll about town, checking out some stores and ate a late lunch or early dinner (“linner”) at Pannini. We split a Mediterranean salad along with a Mediterranean artisan pizza. Full, we walked to the nearby park and river front promenade where we found a row of bench swings in the shade with a heavenly breeze. Finally we returned to the boat, turning in for the evening. The next day, yesterday, we had a nice breakfast of bacon, eggs and toast to ensure that we had enough energy for our one hour horse drawn buggy ride through the historic district. After more window shopping along Bay Street, we topped off the evening with another wonderful meal at Bull Tavern. As we sat outside waiting for it to open at 5:00, about 20 locals gathered around us. The church bells tolled 5 times, and the owner appeared to open the doors. Most of the locals marched to ‘their’ tables as we checked in to be seated. It was a delicious meal, very artistically presented. Naturally, we had to walk off dinner down along the river. I was on the look out for some ice cream, but settled for a Klondike bar on the boat. This morning we had a simple breakfast of toast, hardboiled eggs and coffee. I filled the water tanks, took out the trash and purchased some ice. It was already warm with very little wind. I removed all the slack dock lines and doubled up the bow and stern lines to get ready for when Sue finished up her chores down below. When she arrived topside, we prepared our departure. The plan was for Sue to pull in the bow line as I released the stern line so the current would simply pull us away from the dock. The plan worked. We then waited in the river for the 10:30 opening of the swing bridge due north. As planned, we had the incoming high tide and reached the Ashepoo Coosaw River cut. This is another area where things will go badly if it is a low tide. I called ahead to a trawler who had just passed us and asked for water depth updates as he motored along well ahead of us. No problems indicated; he saw nothing less than 8 feet. We arrived at our planned anchorage but since the water levels were still good, I decided to go through the Watts Cut as well. We finally chose to anchor out in Steamboat Creek which was the very first anchorage after we left back on February 8. We stuck the anchor on the first try! I had a beer and Susie provided some appetizers as we waited for the temperature to cool down a bit. I jumped in to swim and I was greeted by 4 dolphins who were checking me out from a safe distance. They continued their search for fish in the shallow waters along the shoreline. Tonight, dinner will be pork chops, potatoes, and broccoli, all cooked on the grill to avoid heating up down below. We will have to hang out in the cockpit pretty late to wait for some cooler sleeping weather.
Leg 49 - Bohicket Marina
This will be a short one. It was quite warm last night, but the small fans on the boat made sleep possible. We got up this morning to a wonderful breeze (that was missing last night) in the cockpit where we had breakfast while watching the birds. This anchorage has a group of Wood Storks nesting nearby and they would come to the creek mud flats for stalking their prey. They are large birds (44” tall / 5’ wing span), white with a black featherless head and neck, and black tipped wings in flight. Easy to spot! Eventually, we tore ourselves away form coffee and nature for our 8 mile 90 minute trip to Bohicket Marina on Seabrook Island. We selected this marina in particular in order to visit with our Navy friend, Saida. Chip and Saida graciously invited us to their beach house for dinner tonight. Such a luxury for us! Tomorrow we plan to get up early and ride the tides out of Bohicket Creek and into Charleston. We plan to stay at the downtown Charleston City Docks for 3 days so we can get provisions and explore Historic Charleston. Somehow I need to find the time to plan the next 10 days of our trip. Hopefully the weather will allow us to anchor out in the Waccamaw River and enjoy a nice stopover in Georgetown.
Leg 50 - Charleston City Docks
We were up at 6 am for a 7:30 departure. I wanted to ride the last of the outgoing tide in Bohicket Creek and then ride the incoming tide up the North Edisto River. We had a simple breakfast and while Sue was down below cleaning up I readied the lines. The wind was blowing us onto the dock so I removed the bow line and then backed down on the stern line using it as a spring line. This forced the bow out into the creek enough for the wind to get behind it and push us off the docks. We motored out of the Bohicket Creek into a strong SW wind of 12-20 knots. Once we turned into the North Edisto River we were able to bring out the genoa to give some relief to the engine. I lowered the throttle and we still were going 6-7 knots. That projected to put us into the Charleston Marina right around 1 PM – which is about the time of slack tide which is easier to maneuver in. It was a very pleasant journey as the temperature was in the mid 70’s and partly sunny. There was more traffic then we had experienced before and then we remembered it was the weekend. So, people were out and about enjoying the water ways. We arrived at the Ashley River and wow was the traffic busy. Boats of all sizes and types moving about as though no one else was on the water. We wiggled our way over to the marina and past the large commercial passenger boat and eventually to the fairway between I and J docks. I turned out into the river and backed into the fairway and then backed into the slip. All went well, which was good because there is a brand new sailboat right next to us – the mast hasn’t been put on yet. We plan to be here until Tuesday so that should give us time to provision, see more sights, and plan at least 10 more days of travel.