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



    

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