Week 3 Cruising North ~ Thunderbolt, GA to Beaufort and St Johns, SC

Saturday, 4/23/22 ~ Thunderbolt, GA to Beaufort, SC ~
Today              46.0 miles           6.9 hours           ICW ST Mile: 563.3
Total:           1475.9 miles      312.85 hours

     The T-bolt clamps for the heat exchanger are continuing to hold. Pete replaced them in Daytona, but this time he used some of his Dad’s truck inner tube rubber to pad it and absorb the vibrations. It works!
     We left at 8 and didn’t have to wait for the Causton Bluff bridge as it is the weekend. The north span still doesn’t open completely, but the new bridge is making progress.

White Pelicans

     The temps were in the low 60’s and the breezes from the ESE at maybe 5. However, both the temps and wind climbed during the day. Pete guesstimates the winds increased to about 15 mph out of the East. Since it was off the Atlantic, it felt as if the temps had remained in to 60’s instead of the upper 70’s. 

Savannah River ships passing at ICW

      As we approached the Savannah River, we heard 5 blasts from the outbound tanker. A trawler was about a half mile or so ahead of us happened to be crossing the river. It suddenly and dramatically increased speed. A moment later there was a freighter visibly from behind the small island and he was heading inbound. It was rather remarkable to have both ships cross the ICW at the same time! Just north of the river there are a few skinny spots and a few narrow channels in the ICW. One was no more than 50 foot wide. Pete thinks it is wide enough for an American Cruise Line ship, but it has to be really, really tight!
     Being a weekend, there was a lot of activity on the water today: tour boats, sailing regattas and parasailing. Cool photo ops! We passed Harbortown Marina. Last weekend they hosted The Heritage Golf Classic. The same one as when we docked during the 2011 cruise after returning from the Bahamas. Great memories with great friends!

Haig Point, Harbortown Marina and fun on and over the water! 

Party at home across from Harbortown Marina                Light House at Haig Point

Port Royal - NOT Green 2!

     I guess we never arrived in Beaufort on a nice weekend. There were plenty of boats anchored and rafted on the flats across from the marina. We spent the afternoon in the cockpit enjoying the mild temps and breezes. The waves from the water traffic would periodically rock us significantly as we are on the outside of the dock.
     Being part of the Safe Harbor Family we not only are granted 12 nights/year at other SH Marinas BUT ALSO $0.50 off per gallon of fuel! The only major hiccup is that certain marinas have blackout periods, so we miss out in SC and FL in the fall and we would have missed out in SC and NC if we arrived after May 1.

     John and Anna who had bought a Catalina 470 in the fall as still here and came over to say “hi.” Anna is still working so they are staying out until she is retired. Sailing from here is difficult as it is 3 hours to open waters.
 

   Pete was checking WiFi when he found “Fleet Wing” listed as a network. Bob and Anne Sherer's  (Bob423) Beneteau is at the end of our dock. Pete introduced himself and thanked him for all he does for cruisers. 
     Sometime while we were eating dinner, the AMERICAN GLORY docked right at the Henry C. Chambers Waterfront Park.
     There is a meteor shower tonight, but with all the bugs I decided to pass.

 Sunday, 4/24/22 ~ Beaufort ~ Day 2

 

Beautiful Tug a a 
Cruiser

   Pete made a great breakfast of eggs and hash browns. Afterwards, we cleaned up a couple of things before opening our computers. Pete had about an hour’s worth of work. I spent about 6 hours processing photos and entering the log and photos into the blog. I have discovered that I can make daily notes on my phone. It easy and convenient. Then email it to myself and copy it into the word document. Once it is polished, I copy and paste into the blog.
     It was a beautiful day to read up in the cockpit. We sat out there until the bugs became too demanding.
     Pete order from Jersey Mike’s as they are donating all income today for Charity, and they delivered. While he was waiting, Bailey demanded attention. Pete spoke to a couple who are on the cruise ship and they are enjoying it. They were very surprised that we are doing the same in our sailboat.
    

 Tonight’s sunset was worth all the bites from the No-see-ums!

 

 

Monday, 4/25/22 ~ Beaufort ~ Day 3
 

   We were startled awake around 2:30 am. I thought it sounded like another boat hit us. Pete must have been in a deep sleep, because he said it was fish…probably large fish bouncing between the dock and hull. I still checked up above, but there appeared to be no boats out of place. I didn’t get to sleep until after 5. In the morning, when I returned from the bath house, fellow dock mates were talking on the dock. When I said “hello” I was asked if I heard anything strange last night. The gentleman on boat behind us on the face dock reported that he got banged and found part of a dock floating behind his boat. He tied it to the dock. It was a rather large pilings. They had to be about 5-6 feet long and each log was a good 12 inches thick!
     The cruise ship left quietly very early this morning, probably at first light. Their next stop will be Hilton Head.
     Pete and George put in a pretty full day. I took advantage of the gorgeous day and walked around Old Town again. There are always new things to notice, architecture, iron works, flowers, welcoming entryways, etc.

 

 
Different view of waiting for Ladies Island Bridge

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
There were just too many favorites to make decisions as to which to include.

Now I know why the blog takes so long to post!

 
      Once back, I made lunch, read for a short while then took a nap. Having such a poor night’s sleep and wonderful fresh air did its thing!

Tuesday, 4/26/22 ~ Beaufort ~ Day 4

     Bailey woke us at 7, whimpering. Her left rear leg must really be sore as she wouldn’t put weight on it and preferred to lay down. We finally got her up and massaged the area. Pete was able to take her for a walk - a very slow walk. The walk helped and she was able to use the leg.
     After breakfast, Pete put in a couple of work hours before changing the impeller on the fuel pump. He was going to do an oil change, but it has only been 65 instead of 100 hours between changes. He’ll do it once the engine makes it closer to 100 hours. I worked on weeding and processing photos as well as catching up on the blog. I forgot to include miles & travel times for our travel days. At some point I will insert that information. I have all those numbers on our daily log.

High tide verses low tide at the Marina - roughly about 8 foot!

Thank heavens we don't have more than about 2.5 foot in the Chesapeake!

 

    Pete had a light workday. Since we were free for part of the afternoon, we walked over and got ice cream at Kilwin’s. Enjoyed our Sundays on the bench outside the shop and people watched. As we returned to the marina, we counted 4 tour busses in the parking lot. No wonder there were so many people in town on a weekday.
     Reading in the cockpit was great until Pete had to call into his meeting, and I started making the meatloaf for dinner.

     The winds had kicked up during the afternoon- definitely 15+ mph from the SSE. There were some showers and thunderstorms in the forecast that passed through with the front in the evening.

Wednesday, 4/27/22 ~ Beaufort to St John’s, SC ~

Today:           63.0 miles           10.3 hours           ICW ST Mile: 472.6
Total:           1538.9 miles     323.15 hours

     Up and out at 6:30. No problem with the bridge as we were before 7am.
     Temps in the high 60’s, overcast, slight showers and wind increasing to 18-20 with gusts to 24. It made crossing the Combahee River a little more “sporty.” It’s a wide and exposed to the inlet. With the current with us, we were making 8.1 mph AGAINST the winds. Of course, once we crossed the mouth, we fought the current. We had less than 5 under the keel when we passed R 184, the southern end of Asheepoo Cutoff. It was the start of the falling tide. With 8-foot tidal range, we probably couldn’t pass through this area at low. The winds lessened and the clouds cleared. The current remained strong, sometimes with us, other times against us. The Watts Cutoff was about close to dead low tide. As long as we stayed on Bob’s tract, we initially had 5 foot under the keel, but it dropped to about 2 foot.

Commercial Traffic & business on the ICW

     While underway, Pete got a call from Ken just confirming our appointment for the toilet replacement for tomorrow. It is going to be wonderful to have a working toilet on board again!
     We docked around 4:15 and Steve was there to catch our lines.
     Pete finished up a project while I prepped dinner.

Thursday, 4/28/22 ~ St John’s ~ Day 2

   We were up early. The bathroom needed to be emptied -- everything that is stored in the baskets under the sink as well as the closet behind the head. Pete took the doors off both cabinets, plus the bathroom door. He turned on the AC and set up a fan and spotlight. We also made sure to remove all the rugs and the new cushions from the salon. We don’t want any issues from leaking when the old head is taken off the boat! We were ready by 8:30, but Eric never showed until 1:30.
 

   I took Bailey with me as I did the laundry. It was a good excuse to be off the boat. Plus, it was the perfect opportunity to wash the rugs. There are 4 washers and 4 dryers- AND only a $1/ machine!
     
     Before doing laundry, I stopped by the office. The marina has been bought. Plans include more docks for the boat club, an upscale restaurant on south side of the property, a paved parking lot and dog park at the top of the docks. The pool is open and the snack bar by the pool is being reworked and reopened. The office has been remodeled and the marina will be getting their liquor license. They are selling sandwiches, snacks and specialized crab and shrimp dips. Once they have the liquor license, they will sell wine and wine slushies. All I needed was quarters for the laundry and to reserve the car for tomorrow afternoon.
     Laundry was done by 1. Pete had just grabbed the scooter to bring me lunch, when he saw us walking down the dock.
     Skip, from Harbor Master Inc., showed up around 1:30. Bailey and I stayed in the cockpit while he worked. There were numerous trips for additional supplies and a second type of toilet (to see which fit and adapted better to the current hookups.) By 4:30, Ken joined Skip and after checking things, it was decided that one part needed to be adjusted before installation to avoid leaking that has occurred about 3 weeks after installation on other recent Dometic unit installations. So . . .one more day.

Friday, 4/29/22 ~  St John's ~ Day 3

    I spoke with our friends from I-Dock, Fort Pierce, Lynne and Dan, MV ENDLESS LOVE. They keep the boat at Isle of Palms. We had tried to get together for dinner expecting to get dockage on Saturday at Isle of Palms. We have been on their wait list since Wednesday, but there are still no openings. Then we tried to get together tonight, but they had a conflict. When I told her that we would be spending an extra day, she had already given away the reservations for dinner. What we didn’t know is that this is Charleston’s Race Week.

 

   Pete spoke with the marina asking for an extra day unsure if the head would be completed. Then spoke with Georgetown to move our reservation from Saturday to Sunday.

     When I headed up to the bathrooms, I stopped to watch the turtles drifting with the currents. There had to be 50+ turtles popping to the surface over the 20 minutes or so that I had seen. Who knows how many more I didn’t see. With it being mating and nesting season, that might explain why there was such a high concentration. Diamondback Terrapins, Common Musk and possibly Eastern Mud Turtles.

      We did a brief prep for Skip’s return, had breakfast, dog fed and walked and water ready by 8:30 am. Unfortunately, he had an emergency call and only returned around 2:30. Thankfully, an hour and a half later, we were back in business. We had to wait for the final reveal, which took place about 4:15
     I had the car reserved for 4-6 so that I could grocery shop. By the time the paperwork was completed, I was on the road around 4:40. The marina has a new car! It only has 115 miles and temp plates on her. I opted to use the Harris Teeter closest to the marina. It is small and doesn’t have the selection of the larger stores. When I returned at 6:05, Steve hadn’t locked the door yet so I returned the keys in person.

     While I was shopping, Pete scrubbed the bathroom and put everything back. He couldn’t find items for the head closet. I moved them back earlier in the day into the shower. In fairness to Pete, they were all now in white bags that blended with the shower.
      Once things were loaded on board, unpacked and put away, I heated up the 2 PF Chang’s frozen dinners. I thought it would be a treat as well as a good dinner. I couldn’t finish mine. It was way too spicy. After a lot of water, a spoon of sugar, then 2 scoops of ice cream, my mouth no longer burned, and my lips were no longer tingling!
     We watched the season’s ending episode of Bridgerton and chilled.

~ ~ ~ /) ~ ~  K & P