Day 13 & 14 - Waiting Out the Weather

Current Position: 32° 45' 54" N 79° 58' 50" W

The poor weather forecaster this last two days!  Every time we looked at the forecast it has changed. Rain, clear, thunderstorms, then strong winds; rain, clear, fewer thunderstorms but still strong winds; rain is over - no more forecast until midnight - HA!  Did we ever get caught!  Overnight the forecast changed every hour or two (yes I wake up that often - checking the anchor, what can I say!) thunderstorms, few thunderstorms, more thunderstorms.  So we hunkered down to wait it out.

To backtrack - We left our anchorage at Steamboat Landing early (7:10)

to travel through a "cut" at "slack tide" later in the morning.  The cut is a narrow human made passage between two rivers and the water can flow very strongly when the tide is changing, making it harder to make any progress if you're heading into the current.  The cut is a popular residential area with some very pretty houses.

 The opening to the "Cut"

 You must choose the proper material to build your retaining wall - NOT brick!

 What a perfect entertaining dock.  Notice the "dummy" sitting on the bulkhead.

 I think this was the prettiest on the cut

As we got closer to Charleston, the banks became more populated:

Some houses larger than others:

Still can't seem to catch a dolphin on camera - my camera must send out warnings when it's on!  Lots of pelicans though.  They love to skim just above the surface of the water.

I think the docks get longer and longer -

These two are encroaching on the "channel" - the portion of the river that has been dredged.

This is the largest private dock I think we've seen:

We arrived at our anchorage along with the rain, thank goodness the heavy rain held off 'til I got the anchor down.  Bob gets to stay in the enclosed fly bridge while I lower the anchor (that's OK - I really don't like steering this behemoth).

The rain cleared, and as I mentioned at the beginning of the post, the forecast stated no more rain until nightfall, so off we went in the dinghy to visit James Island shopping center.  We got our hair cut, picked up a few groceries and had a delightful late lunch/dinner at Cory's Grilled Cheese.  Bob had a grilled Philly Cheesesteak sandwich and I had grilled brie, mozzarella, fig spread, grilled onions, and granny smith apples.  I savored every bite!  The shocker came when we left the hair salon to find the rain POURING down!  Luckily it slowed to a light rain by the time we walked back to the dinghy.  UNLUCKILY, we flunked dinghy docking.  We are always so careful when we anchor our boat to check the tides so we have enough chain out on our anchor.  We weren't so smart on the dinghy and she was half out of the water by the time we got back to her.  We had to lift her off the rocks to get her back in the water.  Between the rain and going wading, we were two soaked sailors by the time we got back to the boat.

All good stories must have a good ending. The actual weather last night?  NO thunderstorms!  The morning was calm and muggy.  The wind did pick up this afternoon but not as strong as predicted.  I am so thankful!!  We dinghied back to James Island this morning (successfully - we do learn from our mistakes) and met with the director of AGLCA (America's Great Loop Cruiser's Association) over coffee (hot chocolate for Bob).  What a wonderful lady.  She does such an awesome job organizing everything and seems to really enjoy it. Can't wait for rendezvous and meeting up with other Loopers! Back to the boat to wait out the wind and plan to leave tomorrow to continue our way north. We may be playing on the beach at the ocean Sunday!

Stay tuned!

Anchored at Wappoo Creek, James Island

Day 12 – A Day of Beauty

Current Position: 32° 36' 12" N 80° 17' 27" W

A calm, beautiful day.  Uneventful except for the beauty in all we saw. 

From the scenery:

 The river behind us

 How many different types of trees can you find.  The diversity is amazing!

 The salt marsh at high tide

To the boats we met:

 A good sized fishing boat

 An interesting tug? water taxi?

A prettysailboat

To the birds flying and diving around us:

 A nest making it difficult to read the day marker

 Laughing Gull 

 Cormorant taking off

 Cormorants keeping watch

 Laughing gull diving for food

Egret looking for lunch

To the interesting hike we took:

A tree on our short hike at Steamboat Landing.  The road we wanted to take to an historic home was chained off and the temperature was well into the 80's with no shade.

Huge building in the distance - must be hotel.

And last but not least:

Our own wake as Bob opened the engines wide open to clean them out.  They did great Jason!

Anchorage by Steamboat Landing, SC.

Day 11 – Beaufort – the 2nd Oldest City in South Carolina

Current Position: 32° 25' 42" N 80° 40' 57" W

Such a nice day! Got a little on the warm side in the high 80’s but we sought shade where we could.  Note to self – DON’T FORGET HATS!

To start at the beginning J - After a quiet night at anchor we had a leisurely breakfast and headed to Beaufort in the dinghy.  We are still adjusting to lowering the dinghy with the motor attached.  It’s not as easy as it was supposed to be, but we got it down and back up when we came back.  We docked at the city dock and walked into town.  There are historic buildings everywhere.  Some buildings have been renovated, some need renovating, a few newer buildings, and a few past their usable life.  But I get ahead of myself.  First – a little history.

Beaufort was started in 1711 and is the second oldest city in South Carolina (Charleston being the oldest). Beaufort (pronounced Byoo-fert – there is also a Beaufort, NC pronounced Bow-fert) was one of the wealthiest cities in the US prior to the Civil War.  Its wealth was from Carolina Gold rice and Cotton.  During the Civil War it was one of the first communities in the Deep South to be occupied by Union forces.  Much of the town was spared physical destruction leaving many beautiful homes for us to enjoy today. The city never recovered its economic wealth after the war and in 1893 it was nearly destroyed in a hurricane which killed 2,000 people and wiped out the town’s main industry of phosphate production.  The final blow was the boll weevil infestation which destroyed the cotton crop and by 1910 Beaufort was one of the poorest communities in the state.  The recovery of the city’s economy is due mostly to the development of nearby Parris Island Marine Base during World Wars I and II.  The development of neighboring Hilton Head (where we were over the weekend J) further helped the economy.  Beaufort is home to several large churches and accompanying cemeteries, the largest being the Anglican Church and the Baptist Church.

 A different angle to set headstones

Many markers had the Confederate Flag.

Bob and I took a beautiful walking tour through the historic district and saw many beautiful homes.  

The William Waterhouse Home built for his wife with lovely wide piazzas (verandas)

 The oldest home in Beaufort.  Notice the air vents to the basement.  The two halves were probably not connected originally as the kitchen was often separate.

 The salt marshes

 We met the gracious owner of this home. He said the water came up to the steps during the last hurricane.

 Dubbed "The Castle" built in 1861 just in time to be turned into a hospital.  Dr. Johnson was one of the few able to reacquire his home after the war and his family owned it until 1981.  It is one of the most photographed homes in America.

 Live Oaks were very popular trees to plant in front of homes.

 Just a pretty house.

The warm temperatures cut our tour shorter than we would have liked so we had a nice lunch and dinghied back to our boat for a quiet afternoon.

 The Good Life at Anchor

It’rained late this afternoon – the rain flattened the water right down!  I’ll take the rain over the wind any day – sounds so nice on the “roof”.

Our excitement for the evening - our first barge sighting!

Anchorage just south of Beaufort, SC city dock.

Day 10 – I Could Have Done Without Today

Current Position: 32° 25' 42" N 80° 40' 57" W

Not a terrible day but I could have done without it, thank you. 

We started out with a quiet morning getting ready to leave the marina.  Sad to go as it was such a nice pretty place.  Bob filled our water tanks, I made sure all the cupboards and doors were secure, we went over to the fuel dock and topped off the fuel tanks and emptied the holding tank.  The docking went very well and then went back through the lock to the river.  Easy peasy! We got underway at 11:40. That’s when things started going sideways. 

• ·         Bob’s instructions for the day did not print all the way so I took the helm so he could start up the generator to run the printer. 
• ·         Lunch time, so I went below to make sandwiches.  OH NO!  When we had the water off to empty the holding tank, I’d turned on the galley faucet, realized there was no water and didn’t manage to turn it off L.  To top it off, I always leave the sink plugged to gather water throughout the day.  I use that water to wash dishes after dinner.  Water, water, everywhere!  Bob offered to come help but I knew I could handle it.  Lunch was just delayed.  It took every towel we own, but I got the floor and counters fairly dried out.  The problem was the cupboards under the counter were also flooded and slowly draining back onto my “dry” floor.  Good planning saved all our food in those cabinets as I had sealed everything with my FoodSaver or had it in water proof containers.
• ·         The wind was stronger than anticipated, but not bad.  We were hit by one STRONG wake from a catamaran that actually threw a rooster tail!  We were really rocking.
• ·         Coming into our planned anchorage, we realized the hard way that it had shoaled in.  Bob was watching our depth so as soon as we started to ground, he threw it in reverse and successfully got us off.  We chose another anchorage but grounded again getting out of the first one.  He successfully got us off that one too.  I wasn’t even nervous!  He handled it so well.

We anchored in a fairly open area and a bit choppy, but lots of other boats around.  It made me feel so much better when the people that came in after us took longer to set their anchor than we did.  We have towels hanging everywhere on the boat.  I fixed an easy dinner of French toast and sausage as I’m worn out.  Didn’t even get pictures today!  So sorry.

We will keep the boat here tomorrow and take the dinghy into town (Beaufort, SC) and play tourist.

We will persevere!

PS = the wind has died down = good ending to a rough day.

Anchorage just south of Beaufort, SC city dock.

Day 8 & 9 - LAND!

Current Position: 32° 12' 56" N 80° 46' 47" W

What a wonderful two days!  We had a late start yesterday because the our reservation at the marina wasn't until 2 PM and we didn't want to get here too early.  We had a nice smooth transit down Harbor River which seems to have more branches than I have fingers! 

Paris Island

 We went past Paris Island which is a Marine Training base, then crossed the inlet to the ocean to get to Hilton Head. 

Hilton Head

 This was a MUCH smoother crossing than the once at Charleston.  So  smooth - this guy was paddle boarding!

The current was with us so we traveled quickly and still got to the marina 1/2 early.  No problem, they were ready to bring us in.  This marina is an enclosed marina, which means you must go through a lock to enter and exit.

This is the lock - it's actually straight but the panorama curves it :)

It's a beautiful area, with gorgeous homes surrounding the marina. 

Many of the homes are multiplexes but each unit has its own unique design.

The homes are architecturally interesting with beautiful landscaping

An enclosed marina means there are no currents or tides to make docking more difficult.  Perfect for docking novices like ourselves :) .  The docks are "fixed" (not floating) because there is no tide to compensate for, so our dock is taller than what we had in Southport.  We can step on and off the boat without the stepstool!  SOOOO nice! 

Here you can see how we step right off our boat.  That is the yacht club behind us.

I barbecued some sausages for dinner and made a salad from my little garden on the fly bridge.

My fly bridge garden.

Sleeping was so nice not worrying about the anchor.  Having shore power means getting everything charged - toothbrushes, Kindles, camera batteries; then doing laundry, laundry, and more laundry.  

Today our friends from Appling, GA came to visit us.  They were so sweet to drive 3 hours to reconnect.  We met in Japan nearly 40 years ago and met again 25 years ago in Hawaii.  We had such a wonderful visit catching up with our families and lives.  We hope to see them somewhere on the loop as they travel on land.  Thanks for the fresh eggs (from their own chickens - jealous Elizabeth?) and the wonderful pear and apple jelly!  They will really be enjoyed.

Carol & John Raley

The weather has been terrific - a little on the warm side compared to what we've had but we'll have to adjust because we will have more!  The only down side of the warm weather is the bugs!!!  The no-see-ums eat me alive.  I made a bug spray with essential oils but it is short lived.  Bob just has to stand near me and they don't bother him! 

Tomorrow we will head back north only take it a little slower than coming south.  We will anchor out tomorrow night near Beaufort so we can dinghy over to the town to sightsee on Tuesday before heading on north on Wednesday.  This will hopefully be more a style of travel we'll experience on our way around "The Loop".

More adventures to come....

Docked at Windmill Harbour Marina, Hilton Head Marina, SC