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".

Heading South-- MCYB to Georgetown, SC

We had planned to leave at first light, but plans don’t always work out. We are not used to getting up so early, so we were slow. As we were untying our lines, Cassandra went by and wished us a good voyage. Vic and Gigi were standing by to help with our lines if needed. Hopefully, Vic and Gigi will be leaving soon and we’ll see them down the waterway. Vic and Gigi had us over for dinner last night and are very sad that they’re not quite ready to leave now. Galen and Kirsten were on the end of the dock waving as we pulled out. Bye to the crew of Cameron Bennett, see ya next year! We left the marina about 7 am.

It will be a while until we see this bridge again. Next year!

We are in the caravan heading South!

And the shrimpers are heading out too.

We had several transient boats come into the marina last night and we were all heading out this morning. We followed the caravan out the inlet and then they all took off and left us. Yes, I know we are a slow boat and that’s to be expected. But, hey, I know our diesel bill looks a lot better than theirs!

The people on Copeing were at our marina, and went out to eat with us and several other boats. We like to get together and talk about our experiences.

The forecast was for 3” waves at 9 seconds and it was right. We followed the inlet markers out so far and then turned right. Next stop, Wrightsville Beach.

The water looks great!

We saw lots of dolphins playing around us. That’s always a welcome sight. We had a military escort down the shore. We knew they were doing some live shooting at Camp Lejeune and the ICW was being closed for several hours each day. But we hadn’t really thought about the ships. There were at least four maneuvering around out there. They kept warning the boats to stay away. So we did. In the past, they did not show up on AIS, but this year they indicated they were government boats. There have been several accidents involving military boats and other boats, so I guess they have to at least show up on AIS now.

Our military escort

There were hundreds of fish jumping around on the surface of the water. I kept telling Shay we should fish but I don’t think he was ready to clean them. I don’t have a problem with fishing. He gets the reels ready, throws them out, I reel the fish in, he cleans the fish, he grills the fish, and I eat the fish. It’s a win-win for me. I fish and I eat. Yum!

We got to Wrightsville Beach at 5:20. There are a lot of boats near the bridge so we anchored a little farther down. We traveled 11 hours and went about 76 nm at a speed of 6.9 kts in calm, water.

Our trip

Leaving Beaufort Inlet, NC

Wrightsville Beach

We went to shore and met Lauren and her friends and went to Tower 7 for Tex-Mex.   We enjoyed the visit and invited them back to see the boat tomorrow.

We had been told there was going to be a triathlon where we were anchored the next morning. Ok. We were shocked the next morning when we had swimmers, and swimmers and more swimmers coming by out boat! A guy came by and asked us to move our boat over a little and Shay asked him if he really thought it was a good idea to crank our boat and move it with this many people in the water. We stayed where we were. There were over 2500 in the competition. They let so many start then a few minutes later more got in the water and that continued for over an hour. Lauren assured us it was a big thing in Wilmington. When she came to the boat she went by the park where the bikes were parked, she said it was full of bikes. I guess it takes a lot of room to park 2500 bikes.

They were like the Eveready Bunny, They kept swimming and swimming...

...and swimming and swimming.

Lauren, Chris and Joaquin had a good visit on the boat and then we ran some errands around Wilmington. We had planned to spend another night at Wrightsville, but the weather is turning windy so we need to be in a better anchorage for that. We had dinner again and then said our goodbyes at the dingy dock. We’ll see her again at Christmas. Sad mom and dad.

Joaquin liked to steer the boat

Her "attitude" pose

See ya Christmas!

 

Sunrise at Wrightsville Beach

We left the next morning at 7:15 heading for Bird Island, an anchorage at the NC/SC line. We had a push as we left Wrightsville and then were against the current after Snow’s Cut. That’s the way it is. Win some loose some. But we decided there was less current running against us in the Cape Fear River than we expected. That place can be rough if the wind and current are against each other. 

One of the many unusual houses we pass along the way.

It’s not easy to calculate when to travel. Yes, you can look at tide and current charts until you can’t see. But just because the tide is slack, doesn’t mean the water is always still.

Fishing at one of the inlets along the way

This ship was at an ammunitions depot along the Cape Fear River. There was a patrol boat keeping boats away from the area and danger signs posted. Keep away!

Barge and tugboat tango

Ferry boat in the Cape Fear

Oak Island Lighthouse

Lauren loves to eat at this place in Southport

There are lots of sad boats along the way. This one has been here for several years

Campers and trailers, redneck living!

Little River Swing Bridge. We haven't seen one of these in a while. We came north on the outside this spring, so I guess its been a year. There are not very many swing bridges left along the ICW.

 
 

The "Rockpile" is an area of the ICW that has been cut out of rock. it runs from mile marker 347-365. It is very narrow and if the tide is up, you can't see the rocks. Do not go out of the channel in the "Rockpile".

 

Vortex. 

We decided to keep going on down to Barefoot Marina so we had longer day than we originally planned. We got to the marina at 4:50, traveled 9.5 hours, at 6.5kts for a total distance of 61nm. Our friends on SeaSalt, Richard and Connie kept their boat here all summer and it’s good to see them again. We’ll be traveling south with them now.

Our trip

We enjoyed our time at Barefoot. We went for several good long walks, ate some great food, visited with SeaSalt. They borrowed a car and we did more provisioning. I keep adding more and more food. We can’t go out to eat anymore for a long time!
We stayed at this marina because they had predicted some strong winds and storms for the area. The wind didn’t get as high as they thought but we did have heavy rain, thunder and lightning. There was a tornado watch close by but we were ok.

We left heading for Georgetown on 10-24. Happy Birthday Daddy! Left later than we usually do, at 9:25. Leaving later made the bridge height better for SeaSalt’s mast. We are traveling in some of our favorite water.  The Waccamaw River is a beautiful old river with trees growing right up to the water and lots of birds and some gaters.

We had called around to find the best diesel price and we were heading toward the two lowest places. Osprey and Bucksport. Since Bucksport is right on the side of the river, we went there. I was cooking a meatloaf and the folks on the dock wanted to know what smelled so good. Sorry, it’s not done so no samples.

We are lower on fuel than we usually are so we bought 630 gallons at $2.39. There was cheaper fuel available, but we went outside from Morehead and not down the ICW, so we missed it.

We got to Georgetown at 5:20 traveled 46nm, at 6.4kts, for a little over 7 hours. We passed by the marinas and waterfront anchorages to hide in our usual spot. If Shay keeps telling people about it, it will get full.

We had several long walks around Georgetown, went boutique shopping, and enjoyed the pretty scenery. We all had dinner on Escape one night. My ICW meatloaf, stir fry Brussel sprouts, corn and salad.

We got to meet the people that bought Richard and Connie’s previous boat, a DeFever 49. We have heard Izzy R mentioned on the VHF, but never met them till now. I asked Connie if it made her sad to see that boat. She said no and I’m sure its because the boat they have now is great.

We had lots of talks about tide, currents, and water depth for the next stretch of water. It can be tricky. We have several areas that we can’t go thru at low tide. No way, not enough water. So we have to try and have as little current against us with enough tide to get thru. That means that we can’t always leave in the early morning like we prefer.

So Shay and I made a chart of tricky places, miles to get there, times and tides and decided we’d leave the anchorage about 8. This anchorage is one of the muckiest places we’ve seen. The chain is covered in slime and mud and the anchor brings up a big ball. We allow 30 minutes to get the anchor up, since he washes it as it comes up.

It was 45 degrees this  morning. We had left our inverter on and ran our electric blanket all night and it felt great until we got up and it was 55 degrees in the boat! Most boats are not designed for cold weather.

So we put on lots of layers of clothes, socks and gloves and got started bringing up the dirty anchor.  It wasn’t as bad as sometimes, it only took about 20 minutes washing time.  We left the anchorage about 8:00. So off to try and miss all the shallow spots along the way. Wish us luck!