Friday, June 12, 2020

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




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