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

June 8 New Teakettle Creek

June 8

Back on the water today after spending the weekend in Brunswick. Decent downtown trying hard to revitalize.  Overall, they’re making decent progress.  Some nice restaurants, shops, etc.  High end rum distillery downtown (too pricey for me, plus I’m not a big rum drinker) and getting ready to open a craft brewery.   Their first “First Friday” after Covid -19 was this weekend.  Sort of a short event – just 4pm-8pm.  But a couple live bands playing, and street blocked off to allow restaurants to set up additional tables outside - appropriately spaced of course.  The primary reason for stopping here for the weekend was 2-fold.  1 – the weather forecast was lousy with rain every day. 2- we wanted to get a rental car and use this as a base for moving Martha’s car from Jacksonville up to   St. John’s Yacht Harbor in Charleston.   Getting the rental car was a bit of a chore as Enterprise is not “picking you up” as advertised during the pandemic.  So we had to ride the loaner bikes from Brunswick Landing Marina to get there. It’s nice that they offer these loaner bikes - but honestly, they look like they bought them for $5 from Goodwill and slapped a new coat of paint on them.  Nobody’s gonna steal these baby’s!! Thankfully, Enterprise gave us a Nissan Rouge mini SUV and with the back seats folded the bikes fit in to take back to the marina.   Also good news after visiting St. John’s Yacht Harbor is they say they will either have a spot or make a spot for us when we arrive.  YEAH!!! 

Leaving Brunswick in our wake

We left fairly early today to catch some favorable currents.  Incoming tide was against us as we left Brunswick at 7:45 but our primary objective was catching the Little Mud River at high tide. Our friends Russ and Jax on “InQuest” had warned us that they came through on a low tide and with their 3.5’ draft had touched bottom a few times.  So we were determined to catch this stretch during the flood tide around 11:30. Leaving Brunswick we passed by the Golden Star car carrier that ran aground last year after having an engine room fire while leaving the harbor.  Pilot purposely ran it aground rather than potentially blocking the main channel.  It’s sitting on it’s side and in the process of being cut into sections and barged off for disposal.   All the cars destroyed on it.  Thankfully, no environmental damage and all fuel has been removed.  

Car carrier "Golden Star"  hard aground on it's side

Passed by this unnamed island in the marshes  with these cattle grazing.

We decided rather than pushing for a long travel day to just stop at New Teakettle Creek and anchor.  It was a 38 mile run. We dropped anchor in the marshes and have the whole place to ourselves.  Extremely peaceful. In fact, the only other boat we saw all day was a sailboat going south.  

Our only companions for the day - this sailboat going south

Expansive views east and west would be ideal for sunrise and sunsets but we’re stuck in cloud cover and can see rain storms and hear thunder rumbling in the distance . Luckily, no real rain on us so far.  I’ll note that this isn’t the ideal time to be heading north through GA.   “Feels like” temperatures were over 100 degrees thanks to temps and humidity.  A year ago we were in upstate NY and enjoying their seasonal 70’s!!  Also, we had to make a game of seeing who could kill the most big green flys swarming the flybridge.  At least they’re slow and easily killed.  Also, made us think a pilothouse on the next  boat  might not be so bad.

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Marsh views from our anchorage

Clouds break  up on the horizon as the sun sets

Journey for June 8

June 5 Brunswick Landing Marina

June 5

Super short cruise around the back side of Jekyll Island and up the Brunswick River  to Brunswick Landing Marina.   We'll stay here for the weekend.  Picking  up a rental car and will move Martha's car from Jacksonville up to Beaufort and stage it up there. 

Jekyll Island Club from the water

Marshlands around the island

Brunswick seems to have a nice older downtown  that is being redeveloped  with  shops and restaurants.  Even drove by a new brewery  - just not sure it's open yet.   Today is "First Friday" and  it's their first one since  opening things up after  Covid-19.  I guess we'll go walk around a bit and see how it is.  We are in desperate need of reprovisioning so will need to find somewhere  to eat out tonight.  Weather has been overcast all day but at least no rain.  Temperature is OK and I'm even catching a nice little breeze back here on the sundeck while writing.

Under the bridge and Brunswick is up the first creek  on the right

Shrimpers lined up at the docks -  hoping  that means good fresh local seafood

Journey for June 5

June 4 Jekyll Island

June 4

The weather prognosticators are showing almost identical forecasts every day for the next 2 weeks.  Rain, showers, isolated thunderstorms, etc. All starting today.  No real surprise then that about the time we were getting up we started hearing the pitter patter of rain. After spending a few days at anchor we were ready  to get moving and even though we considered just staying put for another day we ultimately  saw weather radar showing a break around 9:30.  We had planned on leaving at 9 AM as the high tide started retreating.  It would give us some travel time going against the tide and some going with it but most importantly it placed us at our destination of Jekyll Island pretty close to slack current.  There’s about an 8’ tidal swing here so lots of water pushes through these creeks and rivers and all that moving water can make docking problematic for us.  For the balance of our trip to Charleston we’ll be paying extra close attention to the tides and planning our travel times around them.  Several sections of the ICW through GA and SC are known trouble spots at low tide for a boat like ours with a deeper draft. We need to be sure and hit them on a rising tide.

Rainy day start looking out the flybridge

Despite raising anchor in the rain wearing foul weather gear the weather mostly broke not too long after starting and we enjoyed the rest of our trip under cloudy and calm conditions.  Following along the back side of Cumberland Island there is a cutoff for the Kings Bay Navy Base.   Home to the navy’s Trident II nuclear submarine fleet.   Pretty evident as you approach it by the constant parade of small navy intercept boats. Never bothered us – just kept an eye on us and made sure we kept on moving.

Navy patrolling at Kings Bay

We made great time coming around the northern end of Cumberland (even saw a few horses walking the beach) and out into the St Andrews Sound.  The current literally dragging us along at 9+ knots.  Then a quick turn back in after getting past the entry shoals and speeds dropped to under 5 knots as we plodded along heading against the current.

Horses on Cumberland Island Beach

Cumberland Island Lighthouse

Jekyll Island is a nice little stop.  The marina is a bit small but very accommodating.  Nice showers, pool, hot tub, free loaner bikes, even a loaner golf cart for a quick run to the shopping area.  Restaurant on the waterfront just steps away overlooking the marina.  The Jekyll Island Club was a private gilded age winter hunting club for the Morgans, Pulitzers, Rockefellers, Goodyears, etc. who built “cottages” on their private island.  Many of their houses are still standing and part of the historic district.

Jekyll Island Club

Cottage now restored with 10 guestrooms

Cottage waiting to be restored

We’re tied up on the outside of a long dock running parallel to shore.  Directly across the dock from us is a sailboat named “True Love”.  We thought it only fitting.  “As You Wish” is named after a quote from the film Princess Bride.  One of our favorite scenes in the movie is when Billy Crystal as the medicine man  “Miracle Max”  brings Wesley back from the dead (well, mostly  dead – not the same as completely dead). Max uses a bellows to fill Wesley’s lungs with air then asks him what he has that’s worth living for.  As he pushes down on his lungs Wesley expels the words of his noble cause - “true love”.  

Despite that 80% chance of rain all day, we only got one short afternoon shower and then   the clouds broke up and we even got a little sunshine late in the day.  Held out to give us a good sunset too!

Journey for June 4