Friday,
November 14, 2014. Anchor up at 7am,
cloudy, rain overnight, 50 degrees, wind NW 10-15. Low tide.
Hope to make it all the way through the Ben Sawyer Bridge at Charleston
Harbor on the rising tide. 8am – it’s
snowing! Not really, it’s seed pods of some sort, but there are so many of them
it looks like it flurrying! At 8:45am,
we are through the McClellanville stretch that is notoriously shallow. We never saw less than 6.5 feet and it is low
tide. We make it through the Ben Sawyer at 12:45pm and through Charleston
Harbor, where we met up with the MV LOA, a container ship coming up the reach. After talking to the Pilot, we decided to
allow LOA the right of way! At 2pm, we
pass through the Wappo Bridge and into the Stono River. We meet up once again with Silent Running
(Jason Walker). At 4:45pm, we have the
anchor down in Church Creek. It is still
cloudy and 50 degrees and windy. Jason
is rafted alongside and comes to dinner.
He brought the wine and beer. 68SM 55NM today. MM482 Two scheduled
bridges today, made both on time. 32°
42.51’N 080°10.92’W
Saturday,
November 15, 2014. 31 degrees overnight. 40 degrees at 8am. Clear, wind N
at 10-15. Jason is rafted with us and
his engine won’t start. We plug him in
to our boat – we have the generator on – to charge his batteries, and after
some coaxing and full throttle, the Yanmar engine turns over and starts. He does not have glow plugs to pre-warm the
engine, but then we don’t either and out Yanmar starts right up (knock on
wood). The generator engine is a Yanmar
also, but it does have glow plugs – and needs them some times.
We see our first palms and palmettos today, and even
though it is cold we know we are moving in the right direction. At the Ashepoo-Coosaw Canal (Indian river
names) we see porpoises and a pod of them try to push the boat around. Interesting sensation when your boat suddenly
moves sideways!
Just past R186 we are able to shut the engine down
and just sail – making between 5.9 and 6.8 knots over ground. Benny is napping.
At 3pm, we clear Ladies Island Bridge and are tied up
to the dock at Downtown Marine in Beaufort, SC at 3:30pm. Wind has calmed to 5-10 from the NE. Jason on Silent Running is here also. The marine is full. Dean and Susan on Autumn Borne (as well as a
few other boats) are anchored just outside the mooring field to also escape the
mpredicted high winds. Our plan is to sit here for a couple of nights as the
weather is supposed to deteriorate – and we like visiting Beaufort. It is pretty town, with a lovely waterfront.
48SM 38.5NM today. MM 536. One on-request bridge today. 32°25.79’N
080°40.49’W
Sunday,
November 16 – Tuesday, November 18, 2014. We are sitting at the Downtown
Marina waiting on several things. First,
Benny’s Mom is in the hospital. She has
had an irregular heartbeat for a number of years, but she had a “fainting spell”
and my sister (who Mom lives with) called 911.
We are waiting to see how she is doing, and if we have to leave the boat
somewhere and drive to see her, this is as good a place as any to leave the
boat. Mom lives in Diamondhead, MS, not
too far from New Orleans. Second, the
wind has been howling and we probably should not leave even is we wanted to. Third, it is bitter cold, 25 degrees on
Sunday morning and predicted to not get any warmer until mid-week. Nice to be plugged in and able to let the
heat pumps do their thing.
Dean and Susan move on as their anchor drug on the
hard bottom, as did Jason who is only headed 30m miles to Hilton Head.
We give Rhiannon a bath inside and out, do a couple
of boat projects (replace indicator lights in the AC control panel, work on
wiring for the new solar panel), go for walks around town, do laundry, borrow
the courtesy car and take Dean and Susan shopping (they are anchored
nearby). We meet Ilene (with Ilene and
Roger aboard) and have dinner on board along with Dean and Susan on
Saturday. We also met Carolina Girl (Larry
and aboard) and Bad Kitty (a catamaran
with Chuck, Sarah and Freddy (the cutest long haired Dachshund) aboard). Chuck
said we could buy Freddie for $1.50, but Sarah did not seem to go along. They had a deal, Chuck got to buy the boat if
he let Sarah have a dog.
Lisa is working on crocheted blankets for Christmas,
so we have made a couple of Walmart runs in the courtesy car for yarn.
Mom seems to be doing better. The doctors are trying to get her meds
regulated. Hopefully, we will be able to
continue south tomorrow (Wednesday).
Wednesday, November
19, 2014. We are off the dock in Beaufort
at 8:15am. It is cold – 31 degrees,
clear, wind North at 5. At 10:30am, we are passing Hilton Head and we get
passed by October Moon, who we had met in Vero Beach last spring. They continue on and we will probably see
them again before the trip is over. We
hear from Autumn Borne. They are waiting in the Cooper River for warmer weather. 11:30am 42 degrees, no wind, seas flat, Calibogue
Sound, lots of porpoise pods. 2:30pm
Causton Bluff Bridge. 3:00pm Bad Kitty
stops at Thunderbolt Marina, we continue on the Isle of Hope (another 8 miles). Sunny, no wind, 50 degrees. 4:30pm we are at the dock at Isle of
Hope. We met the folks on Celebrity
(Nordic Tug 37). Silent Running is here
along with at least three other boats.
Dinner on board tonight. 54SM
44NM today. MM 590. 31°58.79’W
081°03.36’W
Thursday,
November 20, 2014. Off the dock at
7:15am. Clear and cold 26°, no wind. It is the same temperature here as it is at
home in Meredith, NH. Brrrrrr. 7:40pm Skidaway Narrows swing bridge was
replaced over a year ago and there is still work going on to remove the old
bridge abutments. We read an article
that is took a year longer than p[lanned to complete the bridge because when
they set the center span in place it did not fit. It took 6 months to come up with the money to
fix the problem and of course the engineers were pointing fingers at the prefabricators
and the prefabricators pointed fingers at the construction company.
Mile Marker 600 on the ICW at 8:30am. We passed through Hell Gate 2 hours after
high tide and never saw less than 8 feet of water. We try to put up the main sail and it turns
into a struggle. The lines are snarled
and then the sail is jammed in the mast at two different places. The main furls
(rolls up) into the mast. I don’t
remember if this is something we did or if the yard in Oxford did this when
they installed a new main halyard. We
finally get the sail out and are sailing nicely. As we pass through Creighton Narrows, a
shrimp boat is trying to pass us with his booms out to dry his trawls and
nets. Interesting, because with his
booms lowered, he extends from one shore to the other. Once past the “Narrows” he passes us easily
and then proceeds up an unnamed creek that the chart says only has one foot of
water. About ½ mile up the creek, you
can see several other shrimp boats at a dock.
This is what they call “local knowledge”, because without it, you would
never venture up that creek. Most shrimp
boats draw 5 or 6 feet of water (at least).
We passed Creighton Narrows at mid tide and never saw less than 11 feet
of water.
At 3:15pm, we have the anchor down in New Teakettle
Creek. 60 degrees and sunny, wind W @ 5-10.
Jason (Silent Running) has
dropped off all the fixins for tacos this morning before we left Isle of Hope
and Lisa is working on dinner as Jason pulls alongside to raft up. Nice dinner and early to bed. I talked to my sister Liz and Mom is still
have issues with an irregular heartbeat.
She is 89 and this could be serious.
We plan to leave the boast in Brunswick, GA tomorrow and rent a car and
drive over to Mississippi. 57SM 46NM today.
MM 647
30°27.57’N 081°18.12’W
Friday,
November 21, 2014. We cast off
Silent Runner at 7:15am and our anchor was up at 7:30am. The anchor is nice and clean. 46 degrees and no wind (a virtual heat
wave). There are three trawlers in front
of us and 2 sail boats behind this morning.
A sailboat named Paper Bird is ahead of us and is giving us information
on depths through Buttermilk Sound and the Little Mud River – both notorious
shallow areas. Along the way we see a
spit of land where the trees are covered with white birds – can’t tell what
they are at this distance. We make it
through the shallow areas without touching bottom and the day is a jewel, light
NE wind at 8, sunny, 65 degrees.
At 1:00pm we are tied up to Dock 9 at Brunswick
Landing Marina. You may remember that
this is where we had repairs done last year when we ran up on Jekyll’s Jetty.
We gave Rhiannon a bath and began packing for the
trip to Benny’s sister’s. We picked up
the rental car at 4pm. Earl and Kathy on Seeker are here. We met them last year in Marathon and they
are friends of Dean and Sue. They invite
us to dinner aboard Seeker (shrimp and wine).
Very nice evening. 41SM 33NM today.
No opening bridges. MM682. We averaged 7.6 MPH today. 31° 09.35’N
081°29.98’W
Mom came home from the hospital today and we will see
her when we get there tomorrow.
Saturday, November 22, 2014. We leave the boat at 8am for the drive to
Diamondhead, MS. At 5pm, we pull into my
sister’s driveway. Liz’s husband has a
nice dinner prepared and Mom is up and about, although very tired as she did
not rest today. Great to see her! 561SM
449NM today. 30°22.80’N 089° 22.08’W
We will probably stay through Thanksgiving and leave
to head back to the boat early Friday morning.
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