Tuesday, January 15, 2008

Chilly days in South Carolina


Hello all:

Last weekend, we were docked at Thunderbolt Marina in the little town of Thunderbolt GA, east of Savannah.

We continued heading north from there on a gloomy day. However, every day that marina treats visiting cruisers to fresh Krispy Kreme donuts and the Savannah paper, delivered to each boat, and this cheered us up!




Passing Daufuskie Island, and Calibogue Sound... I love the names of places along the Sea Isles, like Rockdedundy... we continued north past Hilton Head and into Port Royal Sound. Here we saw a yellow balloon drifting along. We both rescued the balloon and pre-emptively saved some sea creature from choking on it.







In some places of the world, this wouldn't be considered a large tide rise/fall. Here you can see the Winnie W. parked at a friend's dock near Beaufort SC; we could have fit under the dock at low tide! Our friend says there's an 8-9 foot change in water level with each tide.






We left Cowan Creek, near Port Royal SC, in morning fog. This was a mistake and Doug wished many times we'd stayed put; instead of dissipating, the fog grew thicker until we couldn't see anything! However, using the GPS, depthsounder, and radar, we picked our way up the Beaufort River and to another safe spot to anchor & wait it out. The tide was at full high so there was no current, a situation that was about to change.






This is one of the sea channel buoys; fortunately the river here is wide & deep & easy to navigate. Doug was adamant about stopping because further up, in the narrower channels above the Ladies Island bridge, strong currents would have made safe navigation impossible.

Just when we were about to drop anchor, the fog cleared!





When the fog cleared, it really cleared beautifully. You can see a hint of sunset colors in this artful photo (taken by Kathie) of scenery along the Ogeechee River. There are still natural palm trees at this latitude.








Just south of Charleston, along the Stono River, we saw this wrecked boat.

On this trip, we didn't stop in Charleston. It's a marvelous place to visit, with every attraction; there are several restaurants we love too. But we've been there before (in fact Doug lived there for a few years) and we are in a bit of a hurry. The day was cool & breezy, and we traveled down Charleston Harbor with the tide behind us.





Here is a view looking north past a sea channel buoy, at Patriots Point where the decommissioned aircraft carrier USS Yorktown is docked; you can see the new Ravenel Bridge across the Cooper River.
At the end of the day we stopped at Isle of Palms and met a friend & former student of Kathie's, who introduced us to yet another great restaurant (this one in Mt. Pleasant).

We're only a few days from home, but they promise to be cold... thank goodness for the Winnie W.'s diesel furnace! *We are able to run the diesel furnace along with the diesel engine while we are underway (cruisers reading this will know that this is a very big deal)!*

Best wishes- Doug & Kathie

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Hi Doug & Kathie

Bill & I cruised from Georgian Bay to Florida & return in our then 36' Grand Banks in 1972-3.
Few boats used the Mississippi as a route south in those days.

Thunderbolt Marina was new then, and delivered a half dozen donuts and Savannah newspaper on deck early in the morning to boaters. Mmmmmm!

Great to hear that this tradition still exists.

I enjoy travelling with you through your blog.

You bring back good memories.

We now live in Lion's Head, Ontario on the Bruce Peninsula along the shore of Georgian Bay and spend one month each summer cruising Georgian Bay &/or the North Channel onboard our 32' flybridge sedan Trojan. What a spoiler all this fresh water cruising is!

I miss our trawler which was our home for years. She was the last of the "woodies".

Yes. We had a diesel furnace which was useful on many occasions. I can remember Bill trying to drill through the yakal (sp?) to install the ducting for the furnace. I think that he burned out a hole saw in the process.

Your blog writings and photos are very interesting.
Thanks for your good work keeping it going.

Keep warm.

Ginny