Beaufort, South Carolina

We arrived here around 10:05 and as we got to the swing bridge 15 minutes late for the 9am bridge we had to wait until 10am for a opening. All the guides we have say that the bridge opens on the hour and half hour, but the bridge tender said that the bridge is on a restricted schedule and now only opens on the hour. This is another port that you have to be careful about when you dock as there can be considerable current if you are not arriving at slack water.  After we mailed some packages,  we met with a good friends brother who lives in the area, and had a great lunch at a local restaurant "Plum". We then walked the town some more and looked at some beautiful houses and churches. The waterfront here is really nice and is definitely worth a visit.

Bumper Boats !

We left Ashley Harborage Marina around 8:15 this morning for the 9:00am Wapoo Creek Bridge. That was too soon as there were at least 15 Sailboats waiting for the bridge in the current. Everyone was circling and backing, trying to keep from being carried too close to the bridge. It only takes about 15 minutes to get to the bridge from the marina, so next time I will leave later and not have to circle for 35 minutes. As we left the bridge it looked like a parade as all 15 sailboats passed the bridge and started the southward migration. We are now at anchor about 15 miles north of Beaufort, SC in a beautiful creek just off of the ICW in 13 ft of water at low tide. We will leave here at first light and hope to be at the Beaufort Town Dock Around 9: 15 am.

As a side note, 100 days 11 hours 11 minutes 19 seconds since we started cruising (2010-7-31 08:00) and Chris still is with me!!

Charleston day two

Cold weather and winds meant a second wonderful day here.We slept in then after doing laundry we rode the marina van into the city.After a walk among the old homes we found lunch at Justines-there was a line aound the building but in 20 minutes we were seated in the cozy restaurant featured on many food channel shows.Gracious southern hospitality and Sunday style cooking like my grandmothers made.My father would never beleive that I chose split pea soup with ham, Mike had pot roast dinner and followed by warm pineapple bread pudding with vanilla glaze and Mike had berry cobbler a la mode.ALL food was wonderful.We arrived back to find Changes had arrived-they are from Grand River yacht club and we have been following each other via blogs.They are very energetic and friendly-nice to finally meet in person.We caught the afternoon van to West Marine and while Mike shopped there I shopped at the grocery store next door.Fully stocked we plan to move on after the bridge opens at 9am and anchor out tonight then Beaufort tommorrow night.   chris

Charleston, SC

We spent all day touring Charleston today, and plan on heading south again tomorrow. We started with a Horse and Carriage tour, and after that we started walking. we saw a lot of great homes and buildings, Did a some window shopping, had lunch and continued sightseeing. I took so many pictures that I put them in a separate slide show. The link is on the left side of the blog about halfway down.

Rain Day

This was the low tide before we reached Isle of Palms yesterday afternoon. Rain and fog today so I decided to stay here at Isle Of Palms and then head over to Charleston South Carolina tommorow and spend a day or two exploring the city. After that we plan on continuing south and anchoring out for a night before we head on to Beaufort.

swamp treck

Tuesday we spent the night in Georgetown,S.C. This town had so many gorgeous restored homes from the 1700`s and 1800`s.The people were very friendly,loads of small shops,antique stores and restaurants on the main street. This town seemed healthier-less closed businesses and you had to go about a mile to find run down area. The only disapointment was the Piggly Wiggly grocery store-after a mile walk it was less than clean and yukky produce-fortunately we are still loaded with groceries.Today we motored in light rain at times through mostly protected wetlands-swamp for many,many miles with many shallow spots and extreme current at one inlet but the current mostly pushed us forward and we are at Isle Of Palms marina outside of Charleston,we missed the last bridge opening by a half hour and cruisers that did make it say Charleston docks are full of cruisers waiting out this rainy weather.Just like Ohio the wind forecast is mostly wrong-supposed to have been 20-25 knots but only had wind and waves the first hour. This marina is very updated with nice restaurant/bar,wifi free,free cable tv,laundry and super showers-yeah. The price was 1.50 per foot with Boat U.S. discount and included a 10 dollar coupon for restaurant-also a marina grocery combo store. 

Sad Day

Last night we enjoyed a wonderful meal at a restaurant with fellow cruisers-Partners in Paradise but when we arrived back at the boat we had a call that fellow dockmate and friend Paul Duncan had passed away suddenly.Paul was the one person at Geneva Marina that you could always count on.When a storm would come up he would leave his cozy boat and check everybody`s lines and sails and could be counted on for a tow or engine ,electronic or fishing advice.Paul loved the Lake and boating and loved his wife Virginia.He had been fighting to change recent insurance changes that threatened smaller-honest-auto body shops.Although he battled illness last year he was full of hopes and dreamed of a great trip similar to ours soon on his power boat.It is such a loss of an honest,moral,fun loving man.Rest in peace Paul.