Beaufort to Fernandina

We left Beaufort heading down the ICW. Of course, we have more shallow water in front of us today. We left the mooring field at 7:10 heading to Possum Point.

Our traveling companions

Parrish Island Marines

Looking at Port Royal Sound

No, the buoy is not supposed to be out of the water. But that shows how low the tide was.

Looking toward Savannah, GA. Yes, we just crossed from SC to GA. 

We had no problem going thru Field's Cut, even though we were going thru at low tide. Ramshorn Creek was ok. We crossed the Savannah River with no problem. Sometimes a huge cargo ship can be heading up the river at the same time and cause big wakes. We passed by Elba Island, again no problem.

We got to Possum Point at 3:30 after traveling 8hrs, at 6.6kts for 54nm. Spray and SeaSalt are joining us for dinner tonight. It's good to get together and enjoy a meal and tell boating stories and lies. 

Not much at Possum Point

 

Beautiful sunset

We had stopped at Possum Point to stage for our passage thru Hell Gate. We are only about 4 miles from it and will be going thru with 3' of tide. We have seen lots of birds and dolphins today. It started raining about 12:30 and rained on and off most of the day. 

We got to our anchorage at 4:30 after traveling over 10 hours at 6.6kts for 67nm. It was still drizzling when Shay went down and put the snubber on and we anchored in the rain. We had planned to eat on SeaSalt tonight but decided to have soup on Escape. Too wet to get out.

We don't go fast enough to churn up anything. What are they getting?

No, the crab pots are not usually out of the water. But when there is an 8' tide things change.

Here comes the rain

Our Fernandina River anchorage

More rain

We left at 7:00 heading for Fernandina. Yes, we do have some possible shallow places, but we have and 8' tide so shouldn't be a problem.

Foggy bridge

 

Finally, they stayed around long enough for me to get a picture.

Kingsbay Naval Base

 

We've never seen a sub in the degaussing station before.

Our friendly naval patrol boat. He followed us along for a while, so I got a closeup.

These next few pictures are of the lovely downtown Fernandina waterfront.

These boats have been gathered after the hurricane come thru. Three years ago Fernandina was hit really bad and they are still recovering.

Unusual paint job.

Salty Turtle in Bell's Creek, across from Fernandina.

From our anchorage

We got to Fernandina at about 1pm after traveling almost 6hrs at 6.6kts for 38nm. We are anchored near Vic and Gigi on Salty Turtle. Vic is going to pick us and SeaSalt up and take us to shore for a late lunch. It will be good to see them again. They left Morehead City before we did, so its been a few weeks.

Fernandina in the dark. I thing it's prettier.

We  didn't have any problems in Field's Cut, even though we were going thru at low tide.