Long Creek to Beaufort, SC

It's COLD. 45 degrees outside and 65 inside the boat. Not what we wanted. Let's get "souther". We turned on the generator and the heat. We'll get it toasty in a little while.

We are heading to Long Creek today. That's an anchorage north of the Ben Sawyer Bridge, which is north of Charleston, SC. It's in a pretty spot right off the ICW. We know the water can be skinny near the bridge so we'll go thru tomorrow morning.

We left Georgetown at 8:00 and got to our anchorage at 3:30. We traveled 7.5 hours at 6.2 kts and went about 47nm. Well, it did warm up some during the day and we did take off some of our layers of clothes. I started off with 3 layers and ended up with 2. At 10:30, it was 59 degrees.

Miss Ella, the floating swing bridge on the Estherville Minim Creek Canal south of Georgetown.

Shay said this must be "the fishing place to be" with all the boats, trailers, and people there. 

This house is more hidden every time we come by.

We had dinner on SeaSalt tonight. We had "ham junk" and cornbread. That's black-eyed peas with ham in them. It was delicious. Thanks SeaSalt.

We left Long Creek at 7:30. We had a beautiful morning to travel.

We had debated going inside vs. outside. We knew we would have skinny water inside, so we choose outside. SeaSalt had to leave the anchorage later than us because they had to have the Ben Sawyer Bridge open for them and the hours were restricted early in the morning. We are short enough that we can go under without an opening. When they got close to the bridge, the water was too shallow for them and they had to wait for over an hour for the tide to rise. 

Fort Sumter 

Sullivan's Island Lighthouse

Morris Island Lighthouse

We went down the ICW to the Charleston Harbor and went outside to St. Helena.

We headed out the inlet for a day trip to St Helena Inlet north of Beaufort, SC. The water was fairly calm. There was a swell of about 3feet every 8 seconds, but it was not bad at all. Not the calmest, but not the worst we been in.

 I put this picture in for the shrimp boat, you know I like them and to show you the rock jetty heading out Charleston Harbor. You've got to stay away from those rocks. It's a nice wide inlet, so it shouldn't be a problem.

We met this military catamaran, Spearhead, in the inlet. It was 95' wide and 338' long. We've seen lots of military boats, but never a catamaran before. It was very smooth in the water and made very little wake.

The trip outside was very good. We had no problems coming in St. Helena Inlet and headed down the Coosaw River to our anchorage at Sam's Point. It's a very wide place in the river and we'll head toward shore and spent the night. We stayed here last year with SeaSalt and Southern Star. I sent Jo and Robbie a message telling them we were traveling the same route as we traveled last year and we missed having them with us. She responded they missed us too. They had already sold their boat when we were with them and the other owners took over shortly after we left them. We met the boat last year leaving Mile Hammock anchorage just south of Morehead City. They were not familiar with the ICW in that area and tagged along with us to Brunswick, Ga. They were a great couple from Australia and we enjoyed showing them some "southern hospitality".

We got to the anchorage at 5:15 after traveling almost 10 hours, at  6.9kts, and going about 68nm. We went faster than normal because we wanted to get into the inlet with slack tide and also we got a little push on the outside.

We did have a beautiful sunset.

And SeaSalt did catch us.

Beautiful sunrise as we left the anchorage.

We have a short day since we're only 12 miles from Beaufort. Up and leaving at 7:35 to try and get some push from the incoming tide. We had a good trip saw dolphins on our way down. We've seen lots of dolphins on this trip, both inside and outside. They just don't stay with us long enough to get pictures or video.

We got to Beaufort at 9:30 after a 2 hour trip at 6.0kts, traveling 12nm. Since we had a very short day, we went slow to make up for some of our other fast speeds. Ha-Ha. Well, we have gone faster this year than some other times. We anchored between the marina and bridge. It seems to be "our" spot. We've never seen anyone else here.

We went for a long walk around Beaufort and visited the Beaufort National Cemetery. We went there last year and I wanted to go back again. It's amazing and I'm not a cemetery person. It's a huge place it's 29 acres. We had a great lunch and then back to the boat. The weather is predicted to be windy with gusts up to 30mph tomorrow. We'll see how that turns out.

While we were on shore, we noticed a sailboat anchoring near us. He didn't know how to properly anchor. He was still moving backward when he dropped his anchor and didn't put out much chain. Of course, we were concerned. Maybe he'll leave tomorrow morning before the wind gets up.

Its never a good thing to hear bumps in the night, but especially when you're anchored out and nothing is near you. About 6am the next morning we hear a big thud and the boat shakes. We both jump up and run outside. The idiot sailboat had bumped us. There was very little wind blowing so that didn't cause the problem. He cranked up and moved away after telling us he was staying here until tomorrow. Since it was dark, we couldn't tell if there was any damage. Of course, we are wide awake so I worked on my blog and Shay started looking at the weather for today.

In a little while, I notice the boat is gone. Right now, we're not sure if he just went to the marina or another anchor spot. We'll look later. Being in a boat is just like driving in a car. You do the best you can do and you have no control over the other guys. He left the marina and it's a good thing our boat isn't damaged. 

This is our trip so far, MCYB to Beaufort, SC.

We had a very windy day on Sunday so we decided we'd stay on the boat. I worked on the blog and Shay did research on boat stuff. We also had a NYPD Blue marathon. We've  decided we'll go to shore tomorrow and get a few groceries so we can leave the next morning.

It's supposed to get cold tonight. We ran the generator a while last night to warm the boat up and had our electric blanket on low all night so we were fine this morning. But when we got up it was cold in the boat. It's 40 degrees outside. Turned on the generator again to warm the boat and baked muffins as an added treat. 

We are going outside on an overnight trip starting tomorrow morning, so we got our ditch bag and life jackets out and made sure things were ready. We'll probably drive inside tomorrow night since its going to be cold again. 

We took a long walk across the bridge to get a few groceries with SeaSalt. Shay and I had a DQ blizzard treat. Don't worry I walked off most of the calories. 

We'll be leaving about 8 in the morning so we can get a push from the outgoing tide. Our planned trip is to leave the Port Royal Inlet and turn right heading to St. Augustine. That will mean we avoid the shallow water of GA. The trip will take us approximately 27 hours. We've checked the weather and the seas should be good and we will have a "fullish" moon, as FFF called it.

Escape says "Bye Beaufort, SC till next time".