Wednesday April 20: South of Charleston

"The Plan" went quite well!

We left Isle of Hope Sunday morning with favorable currents and sunny weather - albeit a bit cooler than we'd like. But the winds have finally died down.

Destination was Beaufort SC so a very manageable 55 miles.

Port Royal Sound - which can be quite nasty as it is a very large body of water - was well behaved :-)

The longer travel days find each of us sometimes napping a bit in the afternoon. More often it's me but occasionally Steve will take a quick nap as well. Works well as we travel along :-)




Lots of areas that are pretty open with an 8 or 9 foot tide, so the shoreline changes as we travel. It was a challenge just finding our way through the maze of waterways north of Savannah.

So many rivers and cutoffs and cut throughs. Let's hear it for the GPS and chart plotter!

It was a very quick stay at Beaufort - Lady's Marina. Nice place and we'll definitely go back there.

Very easy bike ride to just about anything - including a Great Clips! I was really in need of a hair cut!!

The current was going our way early Monday morning so we were up and out by 7 am.





The best part about getting up and just heading out is definitely breakfast on the flybridge!!

Once we are underway, Steve will make some type of sandwich (easier to eat) - usually eggs and seafood or in this case eggs and peameal bacon!! He was cleaning out the freezer and found the last of the peameal that he made in Banana Bay. Nice way to start the morning :-)

It wasn't long after leaving that we crossed over to the South Edisto River, leaving the ICW as we were bound for Jim and Linda's home on Store Creek. It's a very small creek. With lots of shoaling that isn't marked on the chart.

So Jim made this very easy; call when you go through Fenwick cut and I'll meet you.

Sounds like a great plan! How often do you have your own pilot boat through the shallow areas?!!

He met us at the entrance to Pierre Creek on the North Edisto River and we followed in his wake all the way up Store Creek.

As you can see it was just above low time and the mud banks were very visible!

Linda met us at their dock and helped us to get tied up and plugged in.

Their boat, Symmetry, is currently stored in New York awaiting their return.

We first met Jim and Linda in Michigan as we were traveling on the Loop and spent several weeks traveling both on Lake Michigan and the inland rivers.

Wonderful couple - we hope to see them up north this summer.

They live in a beautiful area of South Carolina in a home that overlooks the marshes in this area.

Ever changing as the tide comes and goes twice a day.

This is the first place we ever saw a wood stork. Really huge - and very unique birds.

Steve, Linda and Jim

Lunch at the beach one day. It was a nice day.




It wasn't all play as Steve and Jim knocked off a couple of projects on the list.

Here they were replacing a link on the anchor chain. Also completed: fix a leak in the deck and finish fixing the water pump that we've been having trouble with.

Couldn't have been a better visit - we'll be back :-)