It was another cold day for poor Bob behind the wheel while I could do my “try-to-avoid-the-shoal” navigation from a wind shielded area. The scenery among the rivers and cuts is pretty uninspiring, lots of sea grass, the occasional stand of trees and the water itself is brownish from the mud bottom. Apparently a nickname for the ICW is “the ditch” – it sure has applied the last week or so.
We found a very pretty anchorage on the Crescent River, there were even trees on the shore. It was nice and sunny when we stopped but sadly with the wind, not nearly warm enough to sit in the cockpit to enjoy the scenery. There were two other boats at the anchorage, I like it when we have a bit of company, we are in Georgia after all 🙂 We had a great dinner – BBQd steak – yum.
Bob the BBQ guy.
The temperature in the cabin, as usual, was in the low 60s F, so the little propane heater got used again for a little while.
Bob eventually got a hold of Hinkley’s and the mechanic confirmed the adjustments he’s been doing are correct. Bob is still not overly happy about the drip rate but was reassured that the mechanic thought it was ok.
We left a little before noon, good timing to reach Hell Gate, the shallowest area on the ICW, on a rising tide. It was surprisingly quiet on the river, we saw one other sailboat coming our way and were not passed by a single trawler or motor yacht, maybe because we left later in the day. It turned out to be sunny and quite warm. We had current against us for about an hour before we reached Hell Gate which wasn’t a bad thing as the tide was rising. It’s a 3/4 mile stretch and lowest water we saw was 11.9 feet from the waterline so no problems. It’s a pretty narrow stretch of water so doing it at mid tide sure helped.
We saw a lot of very nice houses, some really big mansions, along the way. Just a reminder there is a lot of money in the US. We wondered whether some of them were permanent or just seasonal homes despite their size. We don’t think this is a seasononal home.
We anchored at Buckhead Creek which is supposed to have lots of dolphins but no sightings so far – to quote Donald Trump – sad !
It was an exciting start to the day but not the kind of excitement we wanted. Bob backed out of our slip, the fellow from the trawler in our old spot was helping. There was very little wind but as Bob put the boat into forward gear and started to move, the current caught and pushed the boat to port. We dinged the anchor of the boat that had been next to us and we’re heading for the dinghy hanging off the back of the trawler. After some creative maneuvering and a boat hook assisted push from the trawler guy, we got out. We emailed the marina that we had dinged the anchor and asked them to let us know what real damage, if any, we had done. We did hear back and the owner of the boat will get back to us. He said he appreciated us contacting the marina about what happened. So we wait to see …….
Finnish Line at dock, Hinkley’s across the river.
Our initial plan was to anchor but the current was giving us such a push that we would have been at the anchorage shortly after 11am. We didn’t want to stop that early so we continued on to our planned stop for tomorrow. We made it by 1:45 pm. We are at a small marina across the river from Hinckley’s Yacht Services, Bob wants them to check out the packing gland -I have no idea – I just know it’s dripping faster than Bob likes. They are no open o weekends so he’ll call them first thing tomorrow.
We had yet another great shrimp dinner. There is a small seafood store, and I’m using the term very loosely, where the local shrimp boats sell their stuff.
The dolphin report – we saw several in the river where we were docked, two went by within a foot of the boat but as always, by the time I got my phone out to take pictures it was too late 🙁
Brrrrrrrrrrrrr – woke up to 47F/8C. It was a bit warmer inside the boat but only around 57F – we are very glad we bought the little propane heater. The water temp is in the low 70s so that helps keep the boat warmer than the outside temp. The winds really picked up part way through the night so the boat was bouncing around a bit even though it was well tied down. The winds were howling on and off with the gusts and there was a slapping halyard out there – not ours – so all in all not a quiet night.
We got more laundry done and Bob installed a new water filter with only minimal swearing. The morning excitement was pulling our boat to the inside dock beside where we were the last two nights. A forty foot trawler was coming in this morning and they had booked it to our spot before we decided to stay for one more night. All went well, Bob and three other guys pulled the boat around the corner while I stood by with a just-in-case fender.
We made use of the courtesy car again this aft and had dinner at the restaurant beside the marina. The winds have calmed down so it should be a much quieter night. We’re off to an anchorage tomorrow.
We got up to sunshine – yea! I did bedding and towel laundry while Bob did maintenance to try to get rid of the white smoke/steam in the exhaust. He thinks he was successful but we won’t know for sure until we’re back on the ICW for a while – but at least revving the engine in neutral, it seemed ok. He had seen a little minnow in the water intake strainer yesterday afternoon, alas it was dead when he did his maintenance this morning. This is the second time we’ve had very small minnows in the strainer.
We walked to town for lunch, it was about a 30 minute walk in lovely sunshine. We walked across the swing bridge we’ll go through when we leave. Beaufort is a lovely town and it was warm enough to have lunch on a patio. Our server was a bit scattered but the foursome at table next to us, especially the young boy, kept me entertained – in a good way.
View from the restaurant patio.
After discussing morning currents with the sailboat behind us, we decided to stay for one more night to take advantage of better currents on Sunday. We then took advantage of the courtesy car to visit the liquor and grocery stores to stock up. We’ve found that quite a few marinas that don’t have stores on the premises or within short walking distance, have courtesy cars – a great service.
The weather did not improve today. We had the Scottish mist thing but also at times heavy rain – no pictures taken today. The scenery along the river and canals might have been nice but things just don’t look great in the rain. There wasn’t much traffic on the ICW today, we were passed by a few trawlers and motor yachts but we figured a lot of people stayed put because of the weather. The rain was so heavy at one point that Bob had to turn his face away – he did sneak looks to steer 🙂
I saw a couple of huge mansions with pillars but they were too far away for decent pictures.
We were very happy to arrive at Lady’s Island Marina at 2 pm and were placed on the first face dock on our approach. As we were tying up the boat we heard a “hello” from a dock near us. Two people were waving at us and asked where in Canada we were from – that big maple leaf flag is a bit of a give away 🙂 They said they’d come and meet us in the marina office as we were heading there to register. They were Tanya & David, Tanya’s parents owned the property near the marina. We chatted a bit and then they invited us to dinner !
The rain was really coming down when we set out for their place, so we were decked out with boots and umbrellas in addition to our rain coats. It was a great evening, Tanya made a delicious local shrimp and vegetable boil. She had talked to her mum before we arrived and told her about inviting us. Her mum’s reaction was “they won’t show up”. Tanya is from Sarnia and it turns out Pat probably bought flowers from her shop before she & Klaus moved to Texas – now that is a small world story!
The four of us laughed at the chances we had taken, them inviting us, us accepting.
We had planned to leave at 7:30 this morning but luckily Bob was checking bridge openings and saw that the first swing bridge today, which is only about 4nm away does not open between 7am & 9 am. We ended up following a large tug down the river and as we were in the usual holding pattern before the bridge swung open, this motor catamaran we’d seen before came up beside us and then “budded in” so it was behind the tug going through. There seems to be this unwritten protocol when a bunch of boats are waiting for a bridge swing that you go through in the order you arrived at the holding area.
Following the tug & rude cat through the bridge.
There is no question this Cat was much faster than we were, it had passed us the day before, but I think he was really rude, he would have to wait just a few minutes and then could have passed both us and the tug once he was through.
The tug driver was great. Once we got into a wider area, he called us on VHF – there were three boats behind him – to say this was a good place to pass and that he’d slow down for us to make it easy. Bob said, “I wish slow transport drivers in the passing lane would do the same”.
The weather today was not great, it was overcast when we left and the forecast was for rain in the afternoon. We passed Charleston harbour about an hour after the bridge and saw a lot of boats at anchor and in the marina but with the weather, we were glad we had decided not to stop. We have been to Charleston in our car.
Charleston harbour
There was a Scottish most for most of the day and it did rain for a while.
The most interesting scene of the day was a small sailboatb towing a kayak and another small boat. When we arrived at the anchorage we meandered a fair way down and back the creek before deciding where to throw the hook. I had seen a dolphin when we first pulled into the creek but in this weather I was not going to huddle in the cockpit hoping for another sighting.
We have a short distance to go today, maximum 20nm so there was no need to leave at crack of dawn. This morning Bob changed the boat fuel filters, checked the battery water level and continued his battle with the packing gland.
It was an easy day and my highlight was seeing a dolphin while scanning the water for a submerged log which may or may not have been been visible depending on the tide level.
We passed a large US Coast Guard barge which we later found out works on repairing and if necessary, moving channel markers.
US Coast Guard barge
We got to the Isle of Palms Marina around 12:30 and are on the same dock with two other Catalinas, ones we’ve seen over the last couple of weeks either at a marina or just on the ICW. The good news for Bob, he is seeing a light at the end of the packing gland tunnel.
We we’re going to be going through three problem shoaling areas today so we planned to leave around 8:30 to time going through them at high and mid tide. We went into town for breakfast and then I went to Independent Seafood , close to the marina, to pick up some fresh shrimp. When I got near the building I saw several cats running and then saw “things” flying out the large doorway. I shortly saw one of the cats with a fish in its mouth, those were the flying objects.
The owner told me these were feral cats. He said they try to catch as many as they can and take them to a vet to be neutered to try and reduce the feral population. The cats all looked quite healthy. What a nice guy. I got a pound of really delicious looking shrimp for $ 6 – dinner tonight.
We got through the three tricky areas just fine and turned into our anchorage around 1:30. The creek runs into/out of the Atlantic but it’s a winding creek so we weren’t near open water. Two other boats arrived later in the afternoon, it’s a nice spot. Bob did an oil change, oil filter change and impeller change while I kept busy reading until it was time for dinner. The shrimp were delicious and there was enough for a second meal.
With the time change last night, sunrise was an hour earlier as far as clocks go and we were awake before 6am EST. We were on our way around 6:45.it was a gorgeous misty morning and we saw no other boats for a while.
Taken at 7:03 am
After yesterday’s yahoos it was a quiet day. We were careful in all the spots Hank the meteorologist talked about in his lecture and didn’t run into any shoals, in fact, we didn’t see any really shallow water. We had two swing bridges today, both on request, vs a scheduled opening. No problems at either bridge and the last one was a pretty blue.
Pretty blue swing bridge
We arrived in Georgetown around 2pm. We had hoped to stay here for two nights as it’s supposed to be an interesting historic town but there is a large group of sail boats travelling together who have the whole place booked tomorrow night.
We went for a walk along the main street which is really close to the marina. We discovered that many of the restaurants we’d closed on Sundays or closed early. We consoled ourselves by having an ice cream. We did find a couple of places that looked ok and meanwhile kept walking around. We both agreed that it was ok that we weren’t able to stay a second night.
We went back to the boat for a while and in returning to town for dinner and ended up at a sort of sushi / hibachi restaurant that was really good. We hadn’t noticed it earlier so this was a happy accident.
