Goodbye Georgia

 TRAVEL DAY 23 - Thunderbolt to Beaufort, SC

March 29, 2023

6 Hours/46.1 Miles

    We pushed on up the inland rivers and creeks making up the ICW and traversed out of the great state of Georgia and into South Carolina. The weather was beautiful and the wind was light but the temperature for us Floridians was a little cool at 62 degrees.

Crossing the Savannah River

    We moved up the Wilmington River crossing over the South Channel Savannah River and Savannah River main to see huge container ships steaming into the industrial portions of the city. The river is broad here but we only needed to "crab" across the incoming current to move north through Fields Cut.

Hilton Head Harbor

    We came to Hilton Head Island a little later on in the day. Even though the water temperature was a cool 68 degrees, there were numerous Parasailing boats crisscrossing the waterway. 

Some Rollers and Spray

    As we crossed the Broad River and another large inlet to the Atlantic Ocean, the tide made for a "sporty" sea and we had to keep the windshield wipers going to maintain a clear view. Once again thankful we had a lower helm station that was warm and dry.

    Once across Broad River we rounded the point to Parris Island and every Marine's fond memories of a not so fun summer camp. The water tower says it all "WE MAKE MARINES". 

Parris Island Marine Corp. Training Base

    Passing Port Royal on our port side we motored under a bridge, moved around a few bends and dropped anchor in the outside bend of the river and downtown Beaufort, SC.  Pronounced BEW-FERT and not to be confused with Beaufort, NC pronounced BOW-FERT. There, now you know. 

Pronounced "BEW-FERT"

    We launched the dinghy and tied up at the downtown floating pier and explored. We stopped at Lost Local for some Nachos and fun conversation with the bartender/server.

Lost Local

    And then a walk around the city to view some of the Architecture. Beaufort has a vibrant downtown and so many beautiful and quaint old houses, many that have undergone renovations and many that haven't but hopefully will. 

Old Methodist Church

    Our last stop was a restaurant on the waterfront for dinner and a killer local band! These guys were absolutely fantastic,  Steel Rail Express. We wanted to stay longer but the sun was starting to set and we anted to get back to the boat with a little light left.
 
SRE - Steel Rail Express

    The anchorage was absolutely fantastic and we slept soundly in this quiet well protected bend along with 2 other Loop boats
 
Beaufort Sunset

Thunderbolt, GA to Beaufort, SC



    

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Bottom Line

Image
    H ere in the Crystal River area where we keep our boat, underwater fouling is minimal. This is due to the amount of fresh water we have. Our canal is "brackish" with not alot of salinity and the closer you are to King's Bay and the springs the salinity goes way down. Out to the Gulf and further south, hull bottom fouling becomes worse. Go to the Keys and the Bahamas and it is very aggressive.  Wintertime when the water is cold, the growth is minimal, but when the water warms it is alive with billions of tiny organisms ready to cling to something and start reproducing. Now that our boat is in Tampa Bay and the water temperature is moving into the 70's the growth is accelerating.  How do we combat this? The list of ways is endless but the basic method is to apply Anti-Fouling coatings. Bottom paint. There is a whole science and tons of info about anti-fouling coatings so I won't go into all of it but basically there are 2 types of paint. Hard & Ablative. Bot
Read more

The "REAL" Journey Begins

Image
TRAVEL DAY 1 - Palmetto to Sarasota February 14, 2023 4.2 Hours/31.6 Miles     Today is "really" the day we start of the Great Loop, as opposed to the "Unofficial Start of the Great Loop" . We felt pretty confident that all the preparation and work would pay off . Well, feelings are one thing, realty is another.     We pulled out of our slip and headed for the fuel dock to top off the tanks with a few gallons of diesel and pump out the holding tank. Of course the predicted wind was not what we got, neither was the air temperature, still it was a decent day for a cruise. We're still in our home waters so we basically knew the way. Our destination was Sarasota and a free anchorage. We had planned to pick up an anchor ball at Marina Jack's but it was full. Free anchorages mean more money for food, snacks and drinks!     Beth had planned some routes on her Navionics and Aqua Maps apps and was ready to assume her roll as "navigator", Not sure why but th
Read more

Erie Canal - Part 1

Image
  TRAVEL DAY 69 - Shady Harbor Marina to Waterford July 5, 2023 3.8 Hours/24.7 Miles     Sort of a rough start for this day. The night before, a microburst or something like it roared down the Hudson right at dark. The storm came in so quick and so violent it was unbelievable. In the aftermath, 1/2 of the docks (including the floating dock we were on) broke loose, twisted and pushed together. We were fortunate along with the other boats that we had no damage. Remarkably only a few suffered some scratches. The next morning our boat was trapped between the damaged docks. After the outer boats were moved, the marina staff disconnected and removed the finger dock blocking our way out so we could float our boat back. Once out into the river, we were on our way.  Erie Canal or Champlain Canal?     "Low bridge, everybody down, low bridge, we're coming to a town, and you'll always know your neighbor and you'll always know your pal, if you've ever navigated on the Erie Cana
Read more