Tuesday, November 17th (Day 50 - Start of week 8)
We were up early for the long run to Beaufort. When I called for reservations at Lady's Island Marina for today, I neglected to actually look at how far this section was. I just knew from experience that we could do Charleston to Beaufort in a day.
The problem is, now we are working up and down the South Carolina rivers where the tides are against us half the time and with us the other half. Well... That's actually incorrect. The tides are with us 1/2 the distance and against us the other 1/2. When you factor in time, you see that the sections traveling with the tide and shorter (because you are going faster) and the time spent working against the currents is longer (because you are going slower). Ok. Everybody bored now?
Also, it is usually better to go into a marina in the morning. Then you get most of the first day for the same price. If I had made the reservation for tomorrow, it would have been better all around.
We had the anchor up and were underway at 6:30am. The thing that saved us was winds were 10-12 out of the NE so we could use the jib to help us down the longer sections. Also, high tide was around 10:30am so we had plenty of water through the normal shallow spots. The tide was a little higher than normal at 8 feet. I took this picture near high tide of an ICW channel marker that was pretty low. You can also see the water is up into the grass.
No problems today as we navigated the ICW. Even the Asphoo Cut had plenty of water which is a typical problem area.
Just before 4:30pm I pulled into the creek leading to Lady's Island Marina. I was going really slow because we were at extremely low tide when I felt the boat slow down from the keel on the muddy bottom. Geez! This is the year for me finding the bottom every day? I backed up a little and went more to starboard near the Lady's Island Bridge. I think we still rubbed a little but we were able to keep going and tied up at the marina a few minutes later. When I looked at the tide tables, we were almost a foot below the mean low tide because of the recent new moon.
We had reservations for two nights because we like this marina and the local area. Plus, the temps were going down into the low 40s each night and we would be able to run our central heat at the dock.
After dinner we spent a quiet evening on the boat. I don't even think we took a walk...
Wednesday November 18th (Days 51)
We used the marina loaner car to stock up at Bill's Liquor and Publix. I always tell Laura, "I like to anchor out because we don't spend any money." That was true today - $160 on booze (we really stocked up) and $280 on groceries. Laura did a great job of finding a home for everything.
Mid afternoon we decided to go out for lunch and walked a bit to the Filling Station. They had a menu in the marina office and I saw they offered a fried oyster basket for lunch. I wasn't too impressed with the place when we say nobody was wearing masks, including the bartender. Plus, oysters were out of season (or they didn't have any) so we split a Redfish sandwich with Crab Balls appetizers. It was, "OK."
We decided to stay for an extra day so I stopped by the marina office and paid for Thursday night. It was going to be cold Thursday night too.
We worked a few boat projects and watched some Internet TV since we had Wi-Fi at the marina.
I don't have any pictures for today but I'll give you one from a few days ago on our way to Charleston. The Coast Guard was working on a lighted channel marker and I thought it was funny that the Coastie waved at me from the top of the marker.
Thursday, November 19th (Day 52)
On Thursday, we took a long walk in the morning and ended up back at the Publix mall because I thought I see about getting a haircut. It's been over 2 months so I was due. The last few places I've gotten haircuts were "Appointment Only" but they worked me in. When I walked into Great Clips, I was the only customer. I joked about, "Where is everyone?" and the gals didn't know. Anyway, the haircut was acceptable and reasonably priced. I was happy with it.
Laura and I continued our walk around town and finished 3 miles back at the boat.
In the afternoon I gave the boat a good rinse with the marina water and filled up our water tank.
Just as I was ready to pour a tequila for happy hour, I noticed that our main engine was only 8 hours from requiring an oil change. Tied up at the marina would be a better time to drain all the oil and disable our engine than while at anchor. I ran the engine for a bit (not really enough as it turned out) then started draining the oil. After changing the oil filter and transmission oil, I could see that the engine oil still hadn't completely drained. I had to wait another 1/2 hour to stop draining and fill the engine with clean oil.
It was a typical oil change and I've done about 50 of them since owning this boat. Only problem was I made a much bigger mess and usual and had to clean it all up. Most of it was because my siphon hose to drain the transmission oil came apart when I pulled it out of the transmission. This sprayed transmission fluid around the engine room and workbench area. I short time later I had it all cleaned up - at least what I could find.
Friday, November 20th (Day 53)
Shortly after leaving the marina, we would have to go through the Lady's Island Bridge. This bridge is closed for rush-hour traffic from 6am to 9am. 6am is still dark this time of year so we waited until just before the 9am opening to leave the dock.
No problems leaving and we were at the bridge in plenty of time for their 9am opening.
Now we would have the tidal current against us for the 10 miles to Port Royal Sound. I expected to be doing only 4 to 4.5 knots but the current hadn't built up yet plus the wind helped us. Just two hours later we were in the sound and turned west toward Hilton Head Island.
I thought we might anchor in the Cooper River if we were slowed down by the currents. But we went by there a little after noon so kept going. It was great navigating the southern SC waterway near high tide and I didn't touch bottom today.
Just before 3pm we crossed the Savanna River and entered our 8th state (for this trip) - Georgia. At 4:30pm we dropped anchor just off the ICW about 1 mile before the Isle of Hope marina. It was a quiet night on the hook until the local fishing boats came zooming by in the morning. Pretty sunset.
Saturday, November 21st (Day 54)
I did not set the alarm for this morning and decided we'd just get underway when we woke up. Both of us slept well and were awake just after 7am so got the boat ready and pulled up the anchor just before 8am.
It was a pretty morning - warm and sunny - and the first time in a while I started out with shorts. Just before the Isle of Hope Marina I saw this working barge, tug and crane that all matched. Pretty!
We were traveling just after low tide so the tide would be coming up all morning. Great for us on our trip down the ICW in Georgia. I posted a picture from a few days ago of a channel marker at high tide. Here is an example of low tide. Quite a difference, right?
Once again, I really like running a boat down the Georgia ICW when the tide is up. No worries about finding a shallow spot because the boat is up 6-8 feet from low tide.
The NE wind on our Jib helped us down the slower spots where the tidal currents were against us. This part of the ICW winds up and down from inlet to inlet. Some times you go right next to the ocean then turn back up the next river following the ICW. Today, those close-ocean spots were a little bumpy as we could feel the ocean swell coming in. That's why we were not out there.
The afternoon was a little busier dodging powerboats in both directions but no problems for us. At 3:45 we turned off the ICW and anchored in the Crescent River. The next good anchorage was about 10 miles away so we decided to call it an early day. We put the boat to bed and I've been working on the blog. Pretty sunset here tonight.
Tomorrow we should be in south Georgia then across the Florida border on Monday. We talked about maybe spending Thanksgiving in St. Mary's, Georga this year. They are having their boaters Thanksgiving again which we've really enjoyed in the past. But, we decided to bypass the crowds and not take the chance of catching COVID which seems to get worse every day. We have no problems isolating on the boat and we purchased all the necessary fixin's (including a small frozen turkey) for Thanksgiving with just the two of us.
Please leave a comment on the blog if there is anything you would like more or less details on. I'd appreciate it! Thanks!
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