November 10-20 to Charleston and Savannah

Heading out the Gerogetown Harbor Channel

We left Hazzard Marine in Georgetown at a reasonable 11:30 and crept our way up the channel until we turned off into the this cutoff in Winyah Bay which is just after the turn into the ICW channel and parallel to the main shipping channel going out to sea.  We found a nice spot to anchor and even though the current was ripping through here, the anchor stuck immediately and we were secured.  In past years we always took the ocean to by pass this troublesome stretch of ICW between Georgetown and Charleston and would anchor here to stage for heading out to sea.  So I guess we know the place pretty well.

It was a peaceful night except for a couple of fishing boats that zipped right by us which rocked us pretty good.  Very strange.

I was up at 5am.  Its really dark out then especially with the cloudy skies.  Foreboding, one could say ...?   I was up at that inhuman hour to check on the weather again before heading out to the ocean.  We've been out there several miles off shore about 10 times, but the last time the forecast was completely inaccurate and we got bounced around pretty good.  We weren't looking to repeat that so I was up early to hear the NOAA weather broadcast and check a few other weather sources.

And sure enough the forecast had changed.  And not for the better with 3-4 foot seas and 15 knot Northeast winds increasing to 20.  Not for us.  We’ll do 2-3 foot seas, but once the swells get into the 3-5 foot range the journey just becomes a rather torturous and we risk having our "stuff" being flung out of cabinets and furniture upended.

Another reason I was up so early was to give us a window to head down the ICW on a rising tide in case the ocean forecast turned badly.  So, since it was high tide anyway and I had woken Mary with the weather radio and plunking on a keyboard we turned our back to the sea and headed into the ICW.  The ICW was conveniently only a quarter of a mile away too.

And right away we hit a shallow stretch of water.  6 feet.  We can pass over that depth but not not at low tide levels which lowers the water level about 4 feet here.  After that though the journey turned rather pleasant with water depths rarely venturing less than 8 feet.  The current which was initially pushing us along flipped and became an opposing current so we had to really power up to even make 7 mph.   It was important to maintain at least that speed so we could get into the Stono River   anchorage before dark. 

Along the ICW ... someone is sure happy

We saw few other boats until we came within a few miles of Charleston.  Otherwise it was pretty much just us.  The landscape here is typical low country with grassy marshes broken up by little creeks.  And many of the creeks are wide enough for bug old tubs like ours to anchor.  Swift current though.  But I’m not real comfortable anchoring in small creeks.  We did enough of that coming down the rivers last year.  We find there is restricted swing room and putting out a second, stern anchor to control the boat swing through the tidal changes is very difficult for us.  So we choose other ,more palatable options.

Coming into Charleston Harbor

Fort Sumter

We popped out into Charleston Harbor and did go by Fort Sumter and The Battery before turning up Wappoo Creek into Elliot Cut and finally the Stono River where we anchored in our usual spot adjacent to St. Johns Yacht Harbor.  We had an early morning again tomorrow so we could make Fields Cut around high tide too.  Never thought tides would be such an influence on our lives years before.

Elliot Cut leading out to the Stono River

For those that asked:  The Intracoastal Waterway is a series of interconnected waterways forming a navigable waterway from Norfolk to Key West.  This is technically known as the Atlantic Intracoastal Water Way or AICW.  There is another intracoastal waterway that runs along the Gulf, the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway or GICW.  We've been on each of them.  They are both essentially just rivers and creeks that are joined together by cuts (dredged channels) creating a continuous waterway along the Gulf coast for one and up the Atlantic seaboard for the other.  In most cases it makes traveling much easier because its shielded from the Gulf and Ocean weather.

Our cluster of  traveling companions all passing us

The next morning we had the anchor up and heading of out of Stono River by 7Am.  We ended up a group of boats that had just run through Elliot Cut.  Its not surprising that clumps of boats tend to cruise together simply because  we are heading in the same direction and have to pass through certain shallow areas at near high tides.

It took about an hour for all of us us to string out the line.  We of course ended up last.  As the last boat passed us, we saw a lady on board out on the bow watching dolphins.  With her dog.   So we were the last boat, with no dolphins and no dog.  Mary was in a tizzy.

We rode the tidal current for about an hour until it became an opposing current slowing us to the point where we could barely make 6 mph.  We did have a time line of making Fenwick cut before 1pm when the tide became low enough to make running the cut a little dicey.

Fenwick Cut.

Fenwick Cut joins the the south fork of the Edisto River and Ashepoo River.  Once through the Cut we always take the Ashepoo down to Saint Helena Sound and then up the Coosaw River.  Its 4 miles further but is free from any shoal areas where as following the normal ICW route through the Ashepoo-Coosaw cutoff can be difficult at anything less than high tide.  So we elect to take the south branch of the Ashepoo down to St. Helena Sound and then up the Coosaw river.   It’s a 4 mile detour but the it's easy, stress free cruising.

The entire day was cool.  It was only 50 when we left in the morning and really didn't warm up all day except when the sun popped out briefly in the afternoon.

Anchoring in Bull River (Wimbee Creek in the distance)

We made the turn into the Bull River and decided to just anchor near the mouth instead of running up the river a  mile or so to Wimbee Creek.  My gut was thinking, "anchoring in the nice protected creek".   But I wasn't listening so we anchored right at the mouth of the Bull River which will make an easy exit tomorrow morning.  Should be a peaceful night.  Tomorrow is Hilton Head and the May River anchorage.  And then possibly Thunderbolt Marine to fix this vexing fuel leak in the high pressure fuel pump.  Not sure what we’re going to do just yet.  A decision for tomorrow.

If only I would learn to listen to my gut.…  Bull River is where we stayed the night and it turned really bouncy and uncomfortable overnight with the gusty winds and waves created from the north winds which blew right down the river to where we anchored.  But through all that bouncing we didn't drag an inch.  100 feet of chain and a snubber held us pretty well even though the snubber slipped off the chain sometime during the night.

As we brought up the chain this morning it began slipping badly on the anchor windlass gypsy.  So much so, I was worried we wouldn't get it back up.  But it jumped and slipped and finally came after a few minutes and we manage to leave at 8am and wound our way through to Beaufort,SC.

Purely Pleasure

As we approached Beaufort we were politely passed by this interesting power boat.  He slowed down so we did have to contend with what turned out to be a huge wake which we saw when he throttle up well past us.  

Beaufort and the parade right before we passed under the bridge

It is Veterans Day and we learned there was a parade scheduled in mid morning which was going to close the bridge for an extra hour.   Luckily, Lady's Island Bridge has a vertical clearance of  33 feet so we were able to thread our way through an assortment of waiting sailboats and under the bridge without any delay.  We even saw remnants of the parade as it made its way along the shore.

It turn into a really nice, warm and sunny day as we slid past Hilton Head Island and Port Royal Sound.  We followed the ICW past Daufuskie Island and then into New River.  We had decided to just bypass the May River and get further down towards Savannah since the weather so nice.  

Entering New River

The entrance to New River is interesting.  Its a wide river mouth and lies directly in front of Marshside Mamas Restaurant and a free dock.  We had to go almost past the the river entrance before turning back in and then up the river.  We anchored about a half mile up where the mud wasn't so sticky.   We were joined by a few sailboats  but they anchored down further towards the mouth.  And for the third time now, we didn't take the dinghy to Marshside Mamas for dinner.   

Just as we finished securing the anchor Thunderbolt Marine finally called me back at 5pm and we made arrangements to stay there and have a mechanic assess the fuel pump.  Its leaking pretty good now so we need to have it repaired.  A new high pressure pump costs … well, very much.  Hopefully its just a gasket!  And we also have to have an assessment of the gypsy and anchor chain.

Thats Savannah there in the distance

The anchorage is calm, and quiet, and as the sun went down we could see the lights of the Port of Savannah of in the distance.   And tomorrow we don't have to rise at the crack of dawn but can leave at a more reasonable 10am!   The troublesome Fields Cut is 4.5 miles away and high tide is at noon. And after the Cut, Thunderbolt marine is 10 miles away, another 1.5 hours since the tide will have started to flow out which can cut our speed by 2-3 mph.  But we’ll be tied up and relaxing by 3pm tomorrow. 

Approaching Thunderbolt Marine

We left at a leisurely 10 am and made it through Fields Cut with no problems and continued on to Thunderbolt Marine where we were tied up on the face dock of the Marina.

Thunderbolt is a little municipality bordering Savannah.  Very small town.  There is Savannah State University and Savannah is about a 10 minute drive.  I think the largest enterprise is Thunderbolt Marina ans a few other marinas within  few miles.   Its a nice quiet place.

And the Marina offers free Krispy Kremes to each boat if they so desire.  4 (or actually 6 I'm told) are delivered to each boat every morning before 7am.  We'll see.

  

I had to call the engine guys at Performance Power Systems since the marina didn't have any Cummins experienced mechanics where as Performance Power was Cummins certified. 

Thats us on the left

Colleen from Performance Power, had me fill out a form she emailed me and I sent it back within 5 minutes.  That precipitated a call from Dave who was the operations guy there.  He was politely honest in saying they really didn't have anyone available for at least a week or to.  Bad news for us.  But after we talked awhile about the problem he thought maybe he could spring one of the mechanic this coming Wednesday.

We originally weren't planning on staying here that long but I thought if we had to wait for a mechanic why not have the boat yard take care of the windlass gypsy issue too.

The marina guys finally got around to looking at the windlass the next day and concluded we definitely need a new gypsy but I figured we might as well replace the old rusted chain too.  So they ordered new chain and a gypsy Friday afternoon with anticipated delivery by Wednesday.  Yeah!   Not so much yeah! on the cost though.  Yikes!

I called Dave back at Performance Power and he said he still might be able to get someone out here by Wednesday, the same day the gypsy and chain were slated to arrive..  So if that does work out I suspect we wont be leaving here until the following week.  

Tubbys

Mary and I walked to Tubbys Restaurant a few blocks from the marina.  Eclectic, and the food was ok.

The marina is gated so we have to use a code to gain entry.  Senior memory being what it is, I  photographed the brochure where they print the codes so I have it on my phone.
 

Magically, every morning they show up

And a box of  Krispy Kremes is delivered to our boat every morning and left by the wing door.  And by noon I take an empty box to the re-cycling bin.   I actually don't eat them but there is a sizable feral cat population here so maybe they're consuming them?  Hmmm... its  a mystery.

Meanwhile I took to riding my bike to the Bi-Lo and Kroger grocery stores.  And Home Depot for various odds and ends.  At Home Depot I was trying to buy some replacement faucet cartridges to replace ones that have begun to leak.  But of course they didn't have any in stock.  Foiled again.  

I was suspicious at first but there really is a liquor store there

I also found a curious cardboard sign indicating a liquor store on one of the back roads I used to ride to Home Depot.  Turns out it really was a liquor store.  So I bought a bottle of rum!

I did replace the dinette compact fluorescent lights with LED strip lights attached in the light fixture itself so we can reuse the fixture.  The lights are much brighter now and use about a tenth of the power.  Just have to do the other 13 lights now.

I met some interesting people here who stayed for a day or two here before moving on.  Most are heading south.  No surprise there.  And most were older couples too!  Seniors on the move!

Blue Moon

The boat yard here services Mega Yachts.   Several were here including sailing vessel Tamsen, motor vessels Blue Moon (another Blue Moon link), Triton, Rice Quarters,  My Trust Fund and Copasetic.  These boats are simply huge, especially Blue Moon at almost 200 feet.  But now days 200 feet is considered a ho-hum in the yachting circles I don't circulate in.  

I would take several walks every day right along the dock and get close looks at them.   Copasetic and Tamsen where up on the hard (out of the water).  Out of the water they looked even more gigantic.  The crews seemed to be mostly British or Australian. Nice people but they sure worked alot polishing this and waxing that.

Mega yachts

Its interesting how they get these big yachts out of the water and up on land.   There is a platform in the boat yard facing the basin which is raised and  lowered by 8 sync'd winches.  The platform has rails on which little flatbed cars are rolled. The boat is situated on these cars when the platform has lowered into the water.  Divers go in and under the boat to place large wooded shims against the hull and the little rail cars so the boats will come out of the water straight.  A titling 100 tom yacht isn't a good thing.

Lift platform is to the left.  Blue boxes are the platform hoists

 Once the divers have everything aligned, the hoists bring up the platform with the boat on it.  The little rail car holding the yacht is then pulled over to another platform which is also on rails and from there they can move the boat to 4 different areas.  are pushed on to a another rail platform which leads to other areas with rails in the concrete.  I'm hoping too see that before we leave.  One of the crew from Tamsen told me they were preparing to leave at the end of the week or earlier.  They're headed to Alaska by way of the Panama Canal. 

Savannah State University campus

Mary and I took a walk to Savannah State college which is about 6 blocks from the Marina.  Nice place.  And seemingly expansive grounds right on the marshlands.  Its also where the Bus stop is located if we decide to take the bus into Savannah.

Bob and Martha on Field Trip rolled in here today so we'll have someone to travel  south with in a few days when the gypsy and chain are installed.   The forecast is calling for temps to drop below 30 degrees over the next few nights.  Glad we are tied up at a marina with power instead of being anchored somewhere.  

Well it did hit 26 degrees last night.  We had all 4 heaters going so weren't too terribly uncomfortable.  Glad we didn't have to try and start these poor engines though!

During the day we all (Bob, Martha, Mary and I) took a taxi to downtown Savannah and were dropped off at the Savannah Visitor Center.  After Mary and Martha interrogated one of the visitor center hosts we decided to take the free Express shuttles to Forsyth Park.  Its a large park with this massive fountain.

Statue in one of the little squares

From there we walked down Bull street.  Old stately homes with large trees creating a canopy.  And every few blocks was another small green square or park.  Most had a statue commemorating a local hero.  There are 24 of these squares in the Savannah Historic District.   

Mary, Bob and Martha at Six Pence Pub

But, it was so windy and cold we had to cut the initial walk short and stop in an english pub, Six Pence Pub,  to warm up and eat.  We've never been in a proper english pub before.  It was very good although I committed a high treason by consuming a Michelob Ultra and not one of the many more hearty varieties they were offering.

Another Square

River Street Market along the river front

Another Square

After satiating ourselves we continued on Bull street to the waterfront walk when Mary decided we'd had enough cold weather fun.  So we once again boarded a DOT exxpress shuttle and made it back to the Visitor Center where Bob called for a cab.  Jack, the cab driver was rather free with his history but entertaining non the less as he took us the long way back to the marina.  It was only $5 a head or $20 each way.  I think we'll head back there tomorrow since the wind will diminished quite a bit although the temps will remain in the low 50's.

When we returned to the boats Kevin our project manager form the marina talked to me about the chain and gypsy saying they expected it to be there Wednesday.  So we decided to tentatively stay until Friday hoping we'd have a mechanic on site by then.

Later that afternoon Bob and I took a stroll through the boat yard again marveling at all the huge mega yachts.  The large sail boat, Tamsen which had been set to leave this week, has been delayed so we'll miss that operation.  Oh well.

The next day Bob and I walked over to River Supply a marine supply store a few blocks from the marina.   When we returned, Josh, the superb dock master told me we had to move our boat off the transient dock and inot the yacht basin where all the huge yachts wer located.  This was to facilitate the loading of the 200 feet of chain which weighs a considerable amount.

Our new dock in with the mega yachts

So, sandwiched between two boats we let the lines go except the bow line which was led to a cleat on the dock mid way between our bow and the stern.  The line held us and I was able to use it and the current to gently ease the stern out into the river.  And then we headed over to the interior dock.

Is there really a difference between a chain and a necklace?

The chain arrived in a large barrel.  Over 200 feet.  And as expensive as a new diamond necklace.

Old chain finally out!

They had to lift down to the dock with a front end loader.  After that they got they new gypsy installed and loaded up the new chain in a few hours although we had much difficulty running the old chain out of the chain locker and off the boat into their floating platform.  It was me, finally, banging on the old rusted chain that had seemly welded itself into many knots which prevented it from feeding up through the chain access hole.  I finally took to beating it with a hammer to loosen the knots and that that allowed us to get it all out.  What a mess!. 

Laying the new chain out to measure and mark it

It took only a few minutes to mark the new chain with wire ties every 25 feet and feed it back into the

boat.  It looks great.  Hope it works great too.  I wont divulge the cost.  Gives me shivers.

Bob had cajoled a courtesy car from the marina while we were occupied with the installing the new chain and as they returned form the grocery story asked if he still had time to run me to CVS to get Mary’s prescriptions.  

The original order was sent to Beaufort,NC.  Why?  You tell me.  To make it even more memorable we had to pay for the drugs out of pocket since they declared the prescriptions were already filled and sitting in a post office 400 miles away.  Wonderful surprise that was.  Meanwhile Mary was on the phone with them having a “pleasant” conversation about certain inadequacies in their ordering procedures. 

We made it to CVS and back before the car had to be returned.  And then we all decided to leave the following morning instead of staying around at Thunderbolt.  The urge to go south is strong amongst us.  

The mechanics never called so I don't think we missed anything.  I'll just have to keep an eye on the fuel leak as we make our way to Huckins Marine in Jacksonville.

So it will be an early departure tomorrow morning so we'll be running through Hells Gate near a high tide.   It was nice sleeping late these past few days even if it was 30 degrees.