June 14 WE CROSS OUR WAKE, COMPLETE THE GREAT LOOP AND RAISE THE GOLD BURGEE

June 14

Final day of our Great Loop adventure.  Woke up to a nice sunny morning as we hoisted anchor and got moving at 7:30 after a quick cup of coffee and some nice and healthy yogurt and granola.  Slack low tide at the marina was 10:58 and we were determined to hit it exactly.    With John raising and securing the anchor, Martha assumed her duties at the helm taking us out of the anchorage and putting us on a heading upstream.

Leaving Toms Point Creek anchorage behind

Captain, my Captain...

The run up the North Edisto and Wadmalaw Rivers were uneventful.  Tidal marshes, wooded islands, and more and more houses built on the water’s edge with long docks extending through the low-lying marsh lands and sticking out into the water. Outgoing tidal current was surprisingly strong in a few places for the first two hours and we pushed the rpm’s up a bit to stay on time.   Once behind John’s island the water quickly turned to a favorable current as the water was still outgoing but now being pulled out the Stono River. It was time to idle down the rpm’s a bit to keep within that eta window.   Suddenly we were back in familiar waters as the Limehouse Fixed bridge came  into sight, then  came Ross marine where we had the boat bottom painted last year, and finally we started coming around the last corner and saw the Johns island/Stono River bridge and right by it’s side our final destination.

Heading up stream

Docks along the river

Back in civilization as we pass a working yard

St. Johns Yacht Harbor in our sights

Winds were still blowing from the NE at a good 10-15 so we at least didn’t want to add any tidal currents to our final docking maneuvers. There’s a saying regarding docking in a marina – “Sometimes you WATCH the show, and sometimes you ARE the show”.  We knew we would have some spectators waiting to help us celebrate our crossing so definitely did not want to BE the show this time around.  Our approach was sound  going down the fairway, then a quick hard turn to port to get us aligned with the slip, a few blasts with the bow thruster to fine tune our position , finishing up with  reverse engine for a nice  stern  in  portside tie at our  home port of  St. Johns Yacht Harbor Marina here in Charleston, SC.  With cheers from the marina staff and our assembled friends we gave two blasts on the air horn to signal our loop completion.

Heading down the fairway  with fenders deployed and dock lines at the ready

Our “dirt home” friends Shane and Sandy had made the 4-hour trip that morning to be here for our crossing. We had unsuccessfully tried several times to get them aboard during the trip but the timing never worked out.  We finally had them stay with us overnight as the only overnight guests we had the entire trip.  We look forward to spending some time with them over the summer back up on Lake Hartwell.

Shane and Sandy offer a champagne toast to start  the festivities

Russ and Jax on “InQuest” (previously on “Cat and Dogs”) have been special looper friends since our first encounter on the day we left Charleston and grounded. We crossed each other’s wake multiple times over the next few days before formal introductions and the start of a year long journey as boating buddy’s.  We helped celebrate their wake crossing down in Longboat Key,FL and were honored that they made the special effort to be here for ours as they continue their cruising.  As almost always happened during our times traveling together, they would arrive first and get secured and then help grab our dock lines as we came in.   Today was no exception as they arrived in Charleston an hour before us (having to  fight the current as they docked) and were standing ready to grab our dock lines one more time. 

"InQuest" departing to continue their journey  - fair winds and calm seas until we meet again!

Jamie and Trish from “About Time” made the drive up from Jacksonville to help us celebrate.  Another special treat.  Our relationship took a long time to develop despite the fact we met early on at the 2019 spring rendezvous in Norfolk, VA. where we docked alongside each other.  Going through some older pictures we were struck by how often our paths crossed but we always thought of them as being with another group of loopers so never made a special effort to socialize with them.  We later learned from their perspective they kept wondering what they had done so that we didn’t like them.   Once we got all those incorrect perspectives ironed out, we’ve enjoyed our times together and were glad to be in St. Augustine back in April for their wake crossing.

Gene and Paula who are additional “dirt home” friends that now live here on John’s Island were also able to help us celebrate.  They’ve been good friends always making their home here available to us as we were prepping for our journey and giving us sound recommendations for marine services in the area.

With the changing of our white AGLCA “in progress” burgee to the gold “loop completed” burgee we toasted with “little beers” to a successful Great Loop circumnavigation and the new and old friends we are so fortunate to have in our lives.

Showing off that gold burgee

"Little Beers" for everyone!!

"As You Wish" showing off some new bling on the bow

Thanks  to my brother Paul who graciously was the keeper of our daily float plan.  He always humorously responded to my morning and afternoon text messages outlining where we were going that day and when we safely completed the days transit.

And the biggest thanks of all to my wife Martha for supporting and participating in my years long obsession with doing the Great Loop. She made my dream hers and together we made them come true.  The trip wouldn’t have been possible without her by my side, nor would I have wanted to do it without her there.

Journey for June 14

Some stats from our trip:

5852 miles

1 year 1 month and 28 days (includes 2 month unexpected COVID-19 stopover in Jacksonville, FL)

1793 gallons of fuel

$5,138 cost of diesel

819.8  engine hours

116.1 generator hours

150 actual  travel days

Averaged 39 miles per travel day

Averaged 2.187 gallons per hour

Averaged 3.26 statute miles per gallon

Averaged 7.14 statute miles per hour

Average diesel fuel price $2.86 per gallon

Low fuel price $2.055/gal Brunswick Landing on 6/5/2020

High fuel price $3.76/gal Midland, Canada 7/31/2019

Alcohol consumed – way too much !!!

Best craft beer – still trying to find it.

Best quote on the trip – “Bad decisions make great stories”

June 13 Tom Point Creek anchorage

June 13

Today was our last full day of traveling (just a short run tomorrow morning to cross our wake) and it looked like it would be a challenge.   This section of the ICW takes you on a variety of marsh and semi wooded back rivers connected by man-made cuts.  There were 3 narrow cuts that we needed to transit and there are all sorts of warnings about shoaling and shallow water.  They are the Ashepoo-Coosaw cut, Fenwick cut and Watts cut.  The entrance to the first one from the southern end supposedly is the shallowest and was about a 2-1/2 hour cruise from Lady’s Island Marina.   After  consulting all the tide and current charts we decided a 10AM departure from the marina would have us leaving there at slack low water but getting to the first cut  about 3 hours into the incoming tide providing an additional 2-3’ of depth.  Honestly, we never could figure what all the drama is about as the lowest water we saw was 7’ under our 5’ keel.  We simply stayed in the channel with a little maneuvering to stay in the deepest water as shown on our Navionics sonar charts.  We had an interesting armada of center console boats coming out of one cut as we approached.  Must be the weekend!!  No social distancing on those boats as they were all loaded with big groups of people.

Leaving Beaufort we passed this historic home used in  the movies 

"The Big Chill" and "The Great Santini"

A convoy of 20+center consoles heading south

A couple of stragglers coming out of the cut

We were all prepared for a rainy trip as the weather reports were calling for 10 mph winds from the NE and intermittent showers.  Forecasters missed on both accounts.   Winds were blowing a bit stronger most of the day and we never hit any rain showers.  That wind kept the temperatures and humidity at very nice levels which was a pleasant change from the past week.  Late in the trip as we turned north up the Edisto River, we hit a particularly strong stretch of wind that kicked up some waves.  After splitting a decent sized one the wind grabbed some of the water and blew it up very unexpectedly onto us in the flybridge.  We hadn’t had that kind of fun in a while.

Commercial tow on the choppy Edisto River.  

Nothing like the ones we experienced on the river system

We made it to Tom Point Creek around 3:30 and dropped the anchor.  One other boat already here but plenty of room for us.  After chillin’ a bit we had our last dinner on board and then watched another incredible sunset.

The other boat in our anchorage

Martha on the bow capturing those perfect sunset picture

Journey for June 13

June 12 Beaufort, SC

June 12

While I’ve got Garmin chartplotters at both the upper and lower helms, we use a Navionics app on a Samsung pad almost exclusively for our actual route plotting and navigating.   I like the sonar charts feature which do a better job of showing the latest depth contours and the auto route feature is easy to use and usually very accurate.  It’s not infallible and this leg from Isle of Hope to Beaufort was a classic case and why you always need to double check the routes before heading out.  The auto route simply wouldn’t take the ICW route using the Wilmington River and instead showed going the opposite direction down river and out into the ocean.   Then pass the Savannah River entrance and finally coming up the Broad River/Port Royal Sound and into Beaufort. I finally had to reset my programmed boat draft from 5’ to 4’ and then it showed the ICW route.   Weird thing was we left at low tide and never saw less than 8’ under our keel.  The other oddity was traversing Skull Creek behind Hilton Head Island where it suggested taking a shallower creek rather than staying on the deeper ICW.  We just ignored that suggestion.  In any case, after getting all the routing the way we wanted the trip went just fine. A 7-hour travel day so a longer time at the helm than we’ve had in a while.

The start of another beautiful day on the water

Leaving Isle of Hope we went upriver and were soon entering into the outer reaches of Savannah.   We passed Thunderbolt Marina which is well known as a storage and repair facility for larger yachts.   They had a nice collection of them tied up in the back area.  Made the 75’ yachts tied up on the outside look rather ho-hum.   Next, we passed the Hinckley of Savannah yard.   Had to snap a picture as we passed by for my brother who is working this summer at their main yard up in Maine.

Megayachts tied up Thunderbolt

75' Marlow Yacht makes me drool.

 But nothing special  at Thunderbolt when compared to the megayachts.

Hinckley  with a custom colored hull at the service yard

Next milestone was crossing the Savannah River.  All our guidebooks mention being very careful here with all the oceangoing tankers and cargo ships going up and down river.  None issue for us – didn’t see a one.  After making it safely across we were out of GA and back in SC and getting ever closer to our home port.

Zipped around Daufuskie Island and across Calibogue Sound headed for Hilton Head.   We could see the classic red and white striped lighthouse that marks Harbor Town Marina off in the distance but kept on going. We stopped there years ago when bringing a boat from SC to Jacksonville. The 30' boat we had at the time was docked behind Greg Norman's big sportfishing boat and looked like it was his tender.  Lots of tourists out enjoying the water zipping around on their rental jet skis or taking parasailing rides.   Back to civilization for sure requiring a keen lookout.

Workboat in a Flotilla of remote control sailboats  as we pass Hilton Head

As we were coming around the northern tip of Hilton Head Island and getting ready to cross Port Royal Sound, we were greeted by a pod of dolphins who were intent on surfing our bow wave.  We must have been going a speed that was just right for them because they stayed with us for quite a while.  At one time we had 4 of them being pushed along on the same side of the bow.  As we approached the open waters of the sound they finally departed. We figured it was a nice “Welcome back to SC” gathering.  

No matter how many times,,,,

they come and play on your bow wave....

we never get tired of watching!

The Port Royal Sound crossing was a little bumpy but nothing uncomfortable.  After being in fully protected waters for so long any waves felt odd.  Checked our Windy app and it was reporting 2’ seas with a 4 second period, so nothing of concern, just a reminder to check ALL the forecasting tools. Winds, rains, temperatures, wave heights, tides, currents, etc.  

After crossing the sound it was a lazy run up the Beaufort River  pass Parris Island (home of the marine training base) to town.  We throttled down a bit to make our arrival at slack low tide.  We had hoped to stop at the Beaufort Marina right in town but they were booked solid.  We’re continuing to find marinas are full as  lots  of boaters who normally would have moved north  by now have simply found a place to stop and are keeping  their boats at rest while awaiting whatever finally happens with COVID-19.  We were able to get a slip for 2 nights across the river at Lady’s Island Marina.  A nice smaller marina that has been very accommodating. Tom, the dockmaster, even knew the reference  to  "The Princess Bride" movie when we hailed him with our boat name.  One of the few places we’ve stayed lately that still has courtesy cars to use.  Clean restrooms, nice boaters lounge, free washers and several restaurants and grocery stores within walking distance.  A little bit of a walk but still very doable to get across the bridge and over into the very charming historic district. 

"As You Wish " settled in her slip at Lady's Island Marina

The Beaufort area has a long history dating back to the 1500’s  with Spanish, French and British all taking turns at claiming ownership.  The town proper was finally established back in the early 1700’s by the British making it the second oldest town in SC behind Charleston.  Low country plantations thrived in the area.  Early during the civil war it was taken and held under Union control and hence was never ransacked and burned by Sherman during his march thereby leaving the large collection of antebellum homes  which still stand  today. 

Sun setting over the town of Beaufort

DAY 2 

Sort of a bust today.  Rain, rain and more rain had us mostly boat bound all day except for a quick trip around town using the courtesy car.  Spent some time planning our final two days  of travel.  We'll anchor out tomorrow and arrive at St. Johns Yacht Harbor around noon on Sunday during slack tide for our official wake crossing. Was able to walk over to a nice bakery this AM before the rain started for some fresh croissants and pastries that were pretty yummy.   Need to come back here another time when we've got better weather and more  time to walk around and explore. The rain ended towards dusk and we got treated to one of the more special sunsets we've seen.  Just as the sun was headed to the horizon it got absorbed by some clouds and we figured the rest of the sunset would be a bust.  But  the colors just kept getting more intense. 

Intense colors after the sun went down

  

Journey for June 11

June 10 Isle of Hope

June 10

Timing todays arrival at Isle at Hope for slack current meant leaving our anchorage at 10AM  for a 1PM arrival.   That meant we could sleep in a bit and after a couple days of fairly early starts we got to enjoy a nice leisurely breakfast of fresh blueberry pancakes.  Not a bad start after a good night at anchor. 

Scenery was split today.  We finished going around the back side of Ossabaw Island with its marshlands, then cut through Hell Gate and worked our way over behind Skidaway Island.   Hell Gate had a terrible reputation for extremely shallow water in a narrow cut. It required transit only during the upper halves of high tide. Not much of an issue right now as it got dredged last year and hasn’t shoaled back in yet. 

Mornings  start off sunny, hot and humid

Starting at Skidaway Island we began seeing more development with houses and docks along the waterfront.   Along with that extra civilization were a few more boats.  Mostly smaller center console fishing boats flying by us with a wave.  We got tied up easily on the outside dock at Isle of Hope and even had time to use their loaner bikes for a ride around the waterfront.  It’s a very cute area  with some older homes on a  bluff overlooking a  sharp bend in the river. We stopped at the entrance to Wormsloe Plantation  which is GA DNR historic site but simply didn’t have enough time or energy to bike the 3 miles in past the gate to the house.

Quite stop at Isle of Hope marina.  

Isle of Hope marina as viewed from the bluff

Entrance Road to Wormsloe Plantation

Our Looper buddies Russ and Jax on “InQuest” have been here for several days waiting for a couple of packages to catch up to them. Worked out good for us.  We always enjoy our time with them and they had scouted out a good restaurant with great Blackened  Grouper Tacos and Shrimp and Grits.   And of course,  we enjoyed a local craft beer with dinner.

Journey for June 10

June 9 Big Tom Creek

June 9

Great night on the hook.  Nice anchorage with plenty of room and a light breeze so we simply swung with the tide as it came in and went out.  Cranked up the generator before bed and  got things nice and cold so we could fall asleep easily.  That kept the temps and humidity inside reasonable all night.  Woke up to sunny skies and hot humid temps.  Already in the 80’s before 7AM and climbing fast. Another day with heat index above 100 degrees.  We got lucky yesterday in that storms were on the horizon but never hit us.   Looks like ideal conditions for some late afternoon storms today so our plan is to move another 35 miles and get anchored by 1PM.

Nice start to the day

Open waters on Sapelo Sound

Other than these big biting flies bothering us again today the trip was very pleasant.  Some people hate this section of the ICW with its miles and miles of winding water through the marshlands, but I rather like it.  Nothing but nature all around. Very peaceful and tranquil.  It was another day where we seemed to have the ICW entirely to ourselves.  The only traffic today was a single powerboat heading south.  Martha took the helm as I raised the anchor and she never gave it up until the anchor was dropped in the new anchorage and the engine was cut off.   She’s taken the helm plenty of times before but never for an entire day run.  She admitted it was pretty tiring doing it for that long, but she did a great job.   That left me standing with a fly swatter in hand terminating any that dared enter the flybridge. I really should have kept count on the death toll – it would have been very impressive.

Marshlands as far as you can see

Making room for the only boat we saw all day

Our route today was continuing around the back side of Sapelo Island, crossing the open waters of Sapela Sound, tucking in behind St. Catherines Island and then crossing St. Catherines Sound and finally running halfway up Ossabow Island to our anchorage at Big Tom Creek.  It’s a little narrower than yesterdays anchorage but still plenty of swing room after putting out an appropriate amount of rode. Light winds and an incoming tide made crossing the open waters of the sounds  a non-issue.

Dolphins  greeting us on the bow

As expected, storms did make their way to us.  Starting about 4PM we got hit with rain, winds, thunder and lightning.  Quite impressive watching it move across the marsh towards us.  Got to admit I’m always a little nervous during a lightning storm when we’re the tallest thing around.  Much prefer having some sailboats with their tall masts around me in that situation.   Things should settle down for the night and we’ll be off to meet up with friends at Isle of Hope tomorrow.

Storms a comin'

Storms passing through

Wind whipped flag

Clouds breaking up in time for the sunset

Eerie look as darkness fell

Things are starting to feel really weird.  After 15 months of traveling we’re just a few days away from crossing our wake.  Lot’s of mixed feelings going on.  

Journey for June 9