Wanderers : Georgetown to Beaufort

Finally! The wind and rain stopped and we were able to leave Georgetown Monday, 18 Nov. Well... that was the plan until a 55 Azimut pulled in late the night before and blocked our exit. I walked over, talked to the captain to see what their plans were and explained our situation. They had just stopped for the night and wanted to fuel up. He was nice enough to move over to the fuel dock and we were able to get underway. It was a nice travel day even if it started raining shortly after we left. At least there wasn't any wind! We left with two sailboats and another trawler. Once in Winyah Bay, everyone jockeyed for position based on boat speed with us following the trawler (1/2 a knot faster than us) and two sailboats behind us. We turned down a channel which connects the Bay to Jeremy Creek. We were originally going to anchor out about 40 miles from Georgetown. It was such a nice day that we continued south where we had planned on crossing Charleston Harbor and anchoring on the other side. As we were going through Isle of Palms, I learned that three former co-workers were in Charleston on a business trip! We called Charleston Maritime Center to see if they had a slip available and as luck would have it, they did. As luck would NOT have it, we were arriving when the current would be racing at 2 knots. Sharon and I talked it through and talked to the dock master to make sure everyone was aware of our "plan". That proved to be a very beneficial and we had a flawless docking! Whew!

I didn't know I had an island!!!

One of three hundred+ long dredge barge tows!

We connected with Gary, Mike and Rob and went to Henry's for happy hour then 5 Church for dinner. Four of us got the New York Strip for $44 each!!! It was amazing but I was expecting a "Brontosaurus" size steak! As you can see from the picture, it was not.

Me, Rob, Gary and Mike and 5 Church.

New York strip was delicious but that for $44.... note Mike's scallops.
All four of them for $26(?).

The next morning we pulled (hand pulled) our boat (with help from the dock master and our Canadian neighbor) over to pump out. Very much needed as we were close to full! This new holding tank is huge and it took several minutes to pump out.

It was a great day to be underway so we traveled almost eight hours through low marshes and past small towns. We were in several rivers and creeks -- Wappoo Creek, Stono River, Dawho River, Edisto River, Ashepoo Coosa and finally to Brickyard Creek. We passed three tugs towing dredging barges that were hundreds of feet long! Naturally the longest one we passed had FOUR tugs maneuvering it through Watts Cut which is very narrow and prone to shoaling. We stayed as far to the side as we could and luckily, had no problems (in other words, didn't run aground).

It's fun passing boaters that we have met along the way and today we passed friends we met in Myrtle Beach. We anchored in Brickyard Creek and were the only boat there. It was a nice quiet anchorage and we were the only boat there -- PERFECT! Turns out we were next to Marine Corps Air Station Beaufort - Merritt Field with jets screaming all around. Again, PERFECT! We love the sound of freedom! Sharon made shrimp and grits for dinner and we watched a Bond movie.

Sharon getting ready to drop the hook.

Low marshes -- this was our view for miles.

At anchor

Beautiful sunset

The next morning (20 Nov) we took our time and got underway around 1000. The tide had lowered SEVEN feet from the night before. We originally had 13 feet under our keel and woke up to six. Not a problem but quite a drop. We weighed anchor and headed back to the ICW. I saw two sailboats heading south and wanted to get ahead of them. I was watching the depth and all of a sudden our boat heeled way over!!! I managed to run us aground even though the depth transducer said eight feet. Guess it was eight feet amid ship but not 16 feet forward. Luckily our boat is very forgiving to running aground. I let us sit for a few minutes and let the wind and current do it's thing. Put it in reverse and we were back underway. In less than an hour, we caught a mooring ball in Beaufort right downtown.

Beaufort did not disappoint! We 'checked in' to the marina which cost a whopping $20 for the night (mooring ball). We ate lunch at Hemmingway's -- very good! After that we hit the Visitor's Center and did a walking tour. Like so many towns we've visited, Beaufort is full of beautiful historical homes.