Georgetown, SC to Wahoo River

October 22, up early the next morning and off to Georgetown. It’s a cold morning. It read 62 degrees in our bedroom and 49 to 51 outside, depending on whose reading you listened to.

Ealy morning fog

The "guys" bring up the rear.

So beautiful

My captain

Sea Salt

 

This is really not such as bad way to travel. Just think about all the beautiful sights we've seen.

We had a good day and pulled into Georgetown about 9:30. We went past the marina and anchored behind the island by ourselves. Bad Bunny had anchored here one night and said they moved because of the noise. We decided we’d rather be in a noisy place than in a crowded anchorage. We visited Bad Bunny on the way to the marina in our dinghy. They have enjoyed Georgetown and are planning to rent a car and tour an old plantation. Us and Rocking B took a walking tour of the town and had lunch. There are lots of pretty old houses in the town. Back to the boat to watch the debates and then bed. We are leaving in the morning for Dewees Creek north of Charleston.

This a a very unusual looking boat. We have seen it several times in our travels.

This looks expensive.

There's Bad Bunny

Rocking B looks safe and secure.

Our view

This is our anchorage in Georgetown, SC. You can see we are around the bend from the other boats which are at the anchor symbol.



This is the view from our decktop seat at lunch.

Our sunset view.

Heading out the next morning

We got up early and headed off. We planned to travel about 30 miles and anchor. We had another beautiful day on the water. We had some “skinny” water but we just went slow and watched the depth sounder. There was lots of VHF radio discussion about currents, bridges, tides, skinny water, Elliot’s Cut, anchorages and when we would be at certain places at what time. What to do??? So much to think about. So… we decided to go past Charleston and anchor south of there. We decided we were better off going thru the “skinny” water at high tide to cut down on the chances of hitting bottom. The only problem with this was the fact that Rocking B and Sea Salt would have to make the last opening for the Wappoo Bridge. It opens at 3:30 and then not until 6:30, so they went a little faster and made the last opening.


People ferry



Charleston Bridge

Fort Sumter

It's beautiful Charleston, y'all.

 

Looking at Elliot's Cut.

And this was no problem. Thank goodness. The current can be 4kts in this area. It can be very dangerous.

This is Stono River where we anchored.

Sea Salt in Stono River

Laniki, a boat we traveled with today. We realized we had met this man in Marathon. They have a place on Boot Key Harbor and we stopped and talked to him about his boat. Small world.

Another beautiful sunset

We weren’t sure where we would anchor after Elliot’s Cut. We checked out Stono River and decided to stay there. The anchorage book gave it ok reviews. We’ll see how it works. The weather should be calm so we shouldn’t have any problem.

We ate an early dinner then Shay went to Rocking B. Ken had a problem and Shay went over to investigate. That’s ok; I can have some “me time”. I did the kitchen chores, read some, took a shower, washed some clothes, blogged, then read some more.

Sunrise

They are still back there.

These boats may be the same ones that were here last year.

 



Crabber doing his thing.

Birds following our boat

Sea Salt

On the water again the next morning, for a long day to Beaufort, SC. Rocking B stopped at a marina to let someone look at their engines and see if they had parts and knowledge to fix. No parts and no knowledge, so back on the water again. Sea Salt, Escape, and Lanaki, a boat we met on the trip yesterday traveled together today. Lanaki has less draft so they were in front, since we had some shallow water again today. We got to Beaufort and Escape came under the bridge but Lanaki and Sea Salt had to wait a few minutes for the bridge to open.

 

 
We dropped anchor and got settled in. The bridge would open at 4 pm and then not until 6, so we were watching for Rocking B. We saw the bridge start to open at 4, but couldn’t see what boat was coming thru. We were pleased that it was Rocking B. They went to the dock, since they would be working on the boat.  

We and Sea Salt had a restless night, since the wind and current kept things unsettled. We have been watching a tropical depression for the past few days and it looks like its going to change our plans. The guys met on Sea Salt and looked at the weather and decided we’d all be better off at the dock. You know we don’t usually stay at docks, unless it’s our dock at MCYB, but when “Mother Nature” is acting up we do what we have to do. So we moved to the dock the next morning. Not an easy thing for us to do since we had 2 big hunks of cement and a chain on our anchor when we pulled it up. Shay had to do some fancy rope work to get that off so we could get to the dock. We are all at the dock and will be here until Sandy does her thing. We think we will be safe here, since they are predicting about 35 mph winds for us. Shucks, we have been at anchor in winds stronger than that.

The guys started working on Rocking B and were please with the progress. We all got cleaned up and went to “Q” a barbeque place for dinner. The next day they worked on the boat again and the girls did some grocery shopping. Margaret fixed shrimp and pasta salad, cucumber and pimento sandwiches; Connie brought chips and crackers; and I had cheese, crackers, and apples for lunch on Escape. Margaret said she wanted to keep the workers happy. I told her it reminded me of working in tobacco and the wife would fix a big lunch for everybody to eat. Ken worked on his boat the next day and he feels lots better about it now. 

We did work on a project while here. Shay saw a mop Richard had so we copied the design. He's cutting Absorbers to make the mop. If you don't know what an Absorber is, you should. They are great for drying things. But... we have to be very careful with them around the water. Yes, if we drop it in the water, we may be setting on dry land!

Connie and Richard invited us to their boat for dinner the next night. When Ken and Margaret went down the steps, Richard was holding Connie by her feet and had her lowered into the bilge of the boat. They had a leak and she was checking it out. Well… the guys went to work and two hours later they were finished and we ate.

Margaret said we should caption this as "there was a bad storm and the guys hid under the bed".

This is the guys working on Sea Salt.

It’s been a little windy and overcast today, but not bad. They have been calling this Sandy thing a storm, a tropical depression, a cyclone, a nor’easter and the latest is a hybrid monster. But, it really is not expected to do much where we are. It is expected to hit in the Chesapeake or more north.

 

So we spent 3 nights here and decided we’d head out. We had to wait until the marina opened so we could pay and then wait for slack tide. So we would be able to ease out of the slip. Shay did it like a pro. Every time he says it makes him nervous, we don’t do it very often. I know we have a slip in MCYB, but its different going into a slip when you know the slip, current, wind and have lines waiting on the dock and pilings for you.

Beautiful skies this morning. So good to see after the stormy skies we've had.

Up and ready to leave October 28^th. We had lots of discussion about when to leave… as you can see from the pictures. We know we will have a windy day and that makes Rocking B very happy.

And they talked...

 

...and talked...

 

 

...and talked.

 

This is Parrish Island Marine base. Richard asked if anyone else thought it looked like a prison. Yeah, it does.

We left about 9:30 with us in the lead. The first part of the trip was easy

Then we got to the open water in Port Royal Sound and it got choppy. We talked about this being the place we decided to do our outside passage last year. Wish it was that calm now. But we’ll see beautiful sunsets and stuff going this way too. Maybe next time.

Richard and Connie

This is Ken doing what he loves. Sailing. Doesn't he look proud?

Shay keeps telling Ken, if he'd get rid of that big stick, he wouln't have to wait for the bridges.

Ditto, for you too, Richard

 Once we got more inland, the water settled down.

We passed by Savannah again….we’ll come back and eat at Paula’s sometime.

Margaret admired this boat as we passed by. Watch out Ken, she may be thinking about moving up to a bigger boat.

This is a beautiful place along the Herb River

 

We anchored in Herb River again. It’s a windy time and we stayed here before in lots of wind, so we feel ok about it. There is plenty of room so we can swing around if we need to. Talking about plenty of room… another catamaran came in and dropped anchor between us and Ken. There was no reason for it since this is a big place with room all along the river. Shay was very nice and explained that we had out a lot of chain and we would swing differently than he would. Thank goodness, he moved to a different place. We stopped here on our first trip when bringing the boat home. We talked about the windy night we spend here then.  After dinner Shay and Ken went to Sea Salt to make another adjustment. They think this will fix the problem. On the way to the anchorage, we passed a catamaran that was going very slow. He said he had problems and when he described them, they were the same as Ken’s problem. So the guys gave him some advice and Ken went by his boat at the anchorage. Hope he can get it fixed without going to a marina.

 

Looking forward at Rocking B and Thunderboat Marina.

Looking back at Sea Salt

This a a picture of a moonrise.

I spent several hours working on the blog tonight. It may not seem like it but it takes a lot of time. I have to think up all this “wordage”. Then I have to go thru all my pictures and find just the right one to go with my words. Then I have to move it all to the blog and make sure everything looks ok. Now, don’t start telling me about all the mistakes I’ve made. I don’t want to know. Just look over them and read on.

 

We’ve had lots of discussion about where to stay tomorrow night. Rocking B and Sea Salt have places they need to be by a certain time so … since the wind is still up, we are thinking about stopping at the Wahoo River. We stayed there on our first trip. They are concerned about the Little Mud River and how much water will be there when we go thru. So they want to go farther to the New Teakettle Creek.

Up and ready to leave at daybreak. It’s cool this morning. The temperature is around 50. So after we took up the anchor, we came back inside to drive. That’s very unusual. We like driving from the flybridge.  

Isle of Hope Marina

We have some wind but ok. There is more discussion about where to stay. Well, we’ll talk about that after we get thru Hell Gate in this wind. Everything you hear about Hell Gate is bad. We didn’t have any trouble the other time we came thru, but this wind today could make it bad.
 

Another  boat coming into Hell Gate. You can see how strong the wind is by the flag.

Water looks pretty rough.

 

I know it doesn’t look like much on the chart, but it can be rough. Well, it was windy and rough, but thank goodness it’s not very long.

 

Whenever we are out in open water we can tell the wind is getting the waves up. It’s been a rough windy day. Margaret and Connie kept talking about other anchorages farther down the ICW. The other boats passed us and we were in a big open body of water near the Wahoo River. We decided to stop at Wahoo River and settle in for the night. The weather doesn’t look like it will improve for a day or two so if we decide to stay put this will be a good place.

 

We called the other boats and told them our plan and we’d see them later. There was one boat already anchored and another in the process, when we got here. Shay picked his spot and we dropped anchor. We settled down to see how the wind and current would move us. We weren’t“laying” the way we thought we would, but we’ll wait. An hour or two later we were closer to the bank then we wanted to be…so we pulled up the anchor and moved. We were more exposed to the wind here, but had plenty of room to swing so that’s good. We miss Rocking B and Sea Salt and hope they find a good place to spend the night. We don’t have good phone reception here, but will try and call them later.

We finally got in touch with family and let them know we were anchored and might not be able to call them since the reception was skimpy. Shay and Ken talked by phone then they decided to try their single sideband radios. All three guys talked for a while. The other boats were at Dublin River, about 20 miles down the ICW. They say it looks like a good anchorage and we hope they will have a good night there. They plan to go to Cumberland Island tomorrow and spend 2 nights there. That’s one of the places Margaret wanted to see on this trip down south. I hope the wind lets up some, since there is not protection from the wind there. We stopped there one night last year and moved the next morning, since they were calling for storms.

 



There were three other boats there the first night.

Looking out over the marsh.

Another beautiful sunset.

And a beautiful moonrise.

Moon reflecting on the water. It's amazing how much you can see by moonlight. Sometimes we don't notice it when we are surrounded by lots of other lights, but here you really notice it.

Shhh, he doesn't know I took this one!

I know, this is the same sunset, I just couldn't pick only one picture. It kept changing.

We watched the weather channel for several hours tonight. Sandy has become a monster storm and is going ashore at New Jersey/New York. They are calling for 80 mph winds and a storm surge of 14 or more feet over the normal levels. They have flooding, power outages, fires, and all kinds of damage from the wind and water. I don’t know what we would have done if it had come ashore in our area.

It was cold on the boat this morning, the temperature in our bedroom was 58 and it was 48 outside with a strong wind blowing. We cranked the generator, turned on the heat pumps and I baked brownies. When the generator is on, Shay says it works better if we put a heavy load on it, so hey brownies! I had fixed meatballs, white sauce, and pasta for dinner last night and had lots of pasta left. So I made pasta salad and put some chicken out to fix later. If it’s too windy and cold to cook on the grill, I’ll fix it in the electric frying pan. I’m getting pretty good at using my electric stuff instead of the stove. I even cook my pasta in the electric frying pan. Hey all you have to do is boil water and the electric frying pan can do that. Of course, Shay had to sample the brownies. I asked if they were ok and he said no, they were good. Remember, he’s easy to please when it comes to cooking. But he does love my mocha brownies. Chocolate and coffee, even I like them and I’m not a coffee person.

Shay talked to Richard on Sea Salt and he said the water was rough today. I’m glad we’re here. We decided to stay here until the wind dies down. We have been keeping an eye on the weather forecast and it looks like the wind will settle down Thursday. So if the weather does what it says, we will head out then.