Heading To Beaufort, SC

Yes, we are moving again. We left Morehead City Yacht Basin at 7:00 am on October 9th. It was a beautiful morning, the water was calm, so we went out the inlet and did an outside passage to Wrightsville Beach.

Leaving Morehead City Yacht Basin

We had been at the Yacht Basin almost 18 months! Too long to be tied to the dock! It was good being able to drive back to see family and friends, but we are ready to travel now.

The waves were not bad when we left, but settled down even more as the trip progressed. We knew there were war games taking place off the coast. We saw at least 6 big warships. We were warned by one to stay at least 2 miles away, the only problem was we didn't know which one was calling us. We had our AIS on, so they knew who we were. But they didn't have theirs on so we didn't know who was who. When Shay took a reading, we were about .5 miles from Warship 7. Thank goodness, we didn't see anyone out on deck with guns. But we did see lots for planes and helicopters.

Warships outside inlet.

This is Warship 7, he's the one that warned us to stay at least 2 miles away.



We got to Masonboro Inlet about 5:00 pm. It was a long day, but going outside meant we could do one long day instead of two days inside. We had a great night anchored near the inlet.

Our anchorage

Wrightsville Beach won't be nearly as much fun this year. Lauren is heading back to Mount Airy for the weekend. We always stop here so we can spent time with her. We won't even put the dinghy in the water, no reason to go ashore.

Water show!

This boat was at a restricted government dock on the Cape Fear River.



We had a short day planned for Friday. We were only going to Cape Fear Inlet on the ICW. We left about 9:00 am. Shay calculated when we should leave to get a push from the current. The only problem is sometimes when you get a push here, you are going against the current further down the river. We passed by several inlets, so we would speed up or slow down depending on tides.

We anchored right off the Cape Fear River near the inlet. If the weather had not been so calm, we would never have stayed there. We were in a very exposed area but had no problems. We had some very big ships going by even into the night but Shay said they couldn't get to us if they tried. We had gone over a sandbar coming in and the big ships couldn't get over it.

Our anchorage

The view from our anchorage off Cape Fear.

Ferry traffic

W planned to leave before sunrise to get the most out of the current. We got up at 5:15 am but it was too dark to leave until about 6:30. We had another good day on the water. We got a push most of the way to Barefoot Marina at Myrtle Beach.

Sunrise as we pass thru Southport.

This boat has been here since our first trip north. It looks worse each time we see it.

You can tell it's a windy day.

Lots of trailers along the waterway. I bet its busy in the summer!

Casino ship heading out-- hold on to your money!

Shay said he had wanted to stay away from marinas this trip, but his brother, Joey and family were at Myrtle Beach and also Richard and Connie on Sea Salt were at the marina. So we stopped. Shay washed the boat and I washed clothes with free water and power. We had a good visit with Sea Salt-- went to a restaurant across the water and picked up a few provisions. There are always things you think of when you don't have a car. Richard and Connie are leaving by car in the morning heading back to Vero Beach. They will come back in about a week and start south with the boat. Their boat has been at Myrtle Beach all summer while they traveled by car. We hope they will be able to catch up with us so we can travel together. We are going to try to travel slower this year, but we say that every time.

This is something you don't see very often after we leave Morehead City. Escape doesn't go to a dock very often.

We didn't get to visit with Joey, but we had seen them last weekend at Emily's wedding. See you Christmas.

It was cool and dreary when we left Myrtle Beach about 8:00 am. We are not going too far again today. We love the Waccamaw River and would like to spend some time here. We have several great anchorages along the way and have not decided where we will stop.

We got to Cow House Creek about 1:00 pm. Wonder how it got that name? Did they keep their cows on the island near the creek? Don't know. We stayed here before with Rocking B and Sea Salt. We went to Wacca Wache Marina and enjoyed music and drinks. Miss you guys!

Our anchorage

Wacca Wache Marina

Looking into Cow House Creek

We checked the weather and some storms are moving across the country and it looks like they will be near us. So we decided to go to Georgetown, SC and stay a few days. That way, if the weather is ok we can go to shore, if not, we will stay on the boat. There was a fire on the waterfront since our last visit and we are curious to see how bad it was. We saw pictures, but sometimes its hard to tell how much damage there is from a picture.

So we left Cow House Creek about 8:00 am and got to Georgetown about 11:30. We had been watching some dark clouds and the radar showed rain coming so instead of going into the anchorage and trying to anchor in the rain and wind, we stayed in the wide channel leading into Georgetown until the storm passed. We got anchored in our lovely spot about 12:30. I'm kidding when I say lovely spot since we anchor in front of Georgetown Steel Mill and near a paper mill. Not the best scenery, but we have plenty of room to put out lots of chain so we feel safe and secure back here.

Our anchorage

Georgetown Steele Mill.

After the fire.

A view of Escape from the waterfront.

We stayed on the boat that first day but went to shore on Tuesday. We walked around town and we surprised that the damage was not more. It looks like maybe 3 or 4 businesses were burned down. Like I said, we thought it was more.

Yes, Margaret and Connie. We went to Kudzu Bakery and got twice baked cookies in your honor. The Wooden Boat Show is this weekend. Entrants have 4 hour to build a wooden boat and then race it across the anchorage. There will be vendors, food, and crafts. Sounds like fun, but we're not sure if we will stay or not. There will be a lot of boats at the docks, so our anchorage may get full.

We decided to leave Georgetown and make a short trip to a new anchorage on South Santee River. We left about 1 pm, after at least 30 minutes of cleaning the muck off our anchor. It's always a mess when we bring it up at this anchorage. We got to the anchorage about 4 pm. We had been following a sailboat for a while and of course it pulled into the anchorage in front of us. We asked them if they had stayed here before and they were new too. There was plenty of room for us both so we settled down. We had a calm peaceful night at this place. We will stay here again.

Our anchorage

Our neighbors

Sunset

Our next trip will take us through some "skinny water". Starting north of Charleston then down thru the Ashepoo/Coosaw Rivers. We have to time our trip so we make sure we are on rising tides. There are several places we CAN NOT go thru at low tide. Shay wants to take a picture standing in the middle of the ICW and sent it to the person in charge of dredging the ICW. So he looked up tides and calculated times and estimated currents. Overall all the trip was good. As I said we had some "skinny water" in some places but we made it thru without bumping bottom! That's always good.

Large freighter crossing the harbor

 

This little boat was zipping around the harbor.

Pretty houses along the Charleston waterfront

Coast Guard Station Charleston Harbor

Big expensive, ugly brown boat!

Margaret, this is the bridge that stopped Rocking B for several hours. Do you remember?

Elliot's Cut. We have heard a lot of bad stuff about this cut. We have never had a problem.

Our anchorage

Our view

We had planned to make it a two day trip, but after doing our calculations, Shay decided we'd make a long day since that would give us better water depths in some areas. So we left South Santee early in the morning and got to Beaufort about 4 pm.


Boatyard along the ICW

Got Crabs?

Unusual looking tree

We had planned to take a mooring ball but they don't really have any set up for a boat our size so we anchored. That's ok, it saves us money! The mooring balls are new since we were here last. They have gotten rid of the old derelict boats and the mooring/anchorage looks nice.

We  met Salty Turtle, Vic and Gigi, for dinner at a local bar named the Filling Station. On certain nights they have dinner specials and tonight is steak, corn and baked potato for $10.00. The steak was huge and it was all delicious! Thanks for the invite, Vic and Gigi. They are at a marina on Lady's Island and are coming to our anchorage in the morning.

Everyone at their station!

Just a little more!

Salty Turtle settled in.

Our view

 Our new neighbors "dropped in" about 8:30. We have several chores on our list today but hope to go ashore with them later. Shay wants to work on leveling the stabilizer sensor, move some fuel, fix a light in the lazarrette, and work on and move some routes. By the time we got all that done, it was after lunch so we just stayed on the boat and ate leftovers. We did have yogurt with Vic and Gigi just before dark.

Another beautiful day in Beaufort, SC. We spent a lazy morning on the boat, then went to shore to have lunch with Vic and Gigi. Walked around town then back to the boat then over to Salty Turtle for one last visit. They are leaving in the morning. We looked at the weather and it looks great so we decided to stay for a while. That will give Sea Salt another day to catch up with us. They left Barefoot Marina today, Sunday.

Lunch at Luther's

Showing off our Old Guard Gear shirts. We bought these from the guys at MCYB.

GiGi and I enjoying the waterfront!

Escape

Our beautiful sunset!

Salty Turtle

Salty Turtle left Monday morning. It was great being able to spend time with them. Hope to see you again soon! We took a last trip to town to walk around then back to the boat and put up the dinghy.

We will probably head to Bull Creek tomorrow. That will put us closer to Savannah. Our "plan" is to go to Savannah for a few days. We have never been there and have heard lots of good things about the city.