Well we’ve not posted anything on the blog in a while because we had computer problems. We think a cheap-ass 12 volt power supply converted fried the computer battery charger, which resulted in us both not being able to charge the computer battery and not being able to run on 120 volts. Thus, when the battery ran out we had no more computer. so we had to buy a new computer on which I am typing now. So let me start where I left off and catch you up.
We left Charleston, SC headed for Beaufort, SC. On the way we encountered I single hander we had met early on in the trip and hung around with in Charleston. He was hard aground against a shoal held by the outgoing tide. The tidal flows in this neck of the woods is wicked. The tides them selves are 6 to 8 feet and the flows can be up to 2 kts. Any way he was a goner until the tide turned. We anchored in the deep water and gave him a hand along with a dose of moral support. He had called TowBoatsUS but got a call back from them that they would be about 3 hours since they themselves had run aground (yes it happens to the best of us). Meanwhile the tide had turned and we were able to kedge him off just about sundown. Kedging is merely setting an anchor out in the deep water and using it to drag yourself to it and hopefully off the shoal. We then all three boats, the two that stopped and the aground boat, anchored down stream a bit (south Edisto River N32 34.5320 W080 23.1820) and Terri made the group a pot of pasta and we had a merry party to celebrate our success. It’s the cruising life where strangers help strangers and are immediately friends. The next morning we finished our trip to Beaufort (N32 25.7979 W080 40.4480), where Terri fell in love with the town. Some beautiful old southern architecture and history. The house where they filmed the generational movie “the big chill” is in Beaufort. We hung around for a bit and celebrated some more with the aground crew. We also met up again with some people we met in New Bern at the Southbound Cruisers Rendevous. It is amazing that you may be traveling alone down the ICW but you run into the same people again and friends are made easily (more about this later).
Our next stop was the Cooper River, which is a beautiful isolated creek in the marshes. Let me digress a bit and tell you about the marshes. Going through what is called the low country in South Carolina and Georgia you are meandering through creeks that cut through the marshes. These marshes are comprised of salt resistant grasses that go on for miles, sometimes to the horizon. Dotted in these marshes are the occasional “island” of higher ground where the trees take over. We hove tried to take pictures of this, but they do not do justice to the beauty of these marshes.
Our next stop was an even more beautiful creek in the marshes called Cattle pen Creek (N31 38.8310 W081 10.8279 ), which we shared with 6 other cruisers, but still when the sun when down it was like we were the only people there.
From here it was on to Fort Frederica (N31 13.1499 W081 23.7039 ), a pre-Revolutionary fort designed to stave off the Spanish, who laid claim to this part of the Americas at the time. We spent the night and were going to visit the fort in the morning, but the dinghy dock could not be approached for 2 hours around low tide. Somebody was not thinking!! Had they extended the dock some 30 feet there would be no problem. Well we didn’t get to see Ft Frederica, so we were off to Brunswick Ga since we are in desperate need of a laundry and REAL showers (for me somewhere where I can actually scrub all over without bonking my elbows). We also needed to buy a new computer, which is vital to our communications, bill paying and money management. Buying a new computer is the easy part, setting it up, getting connectivity, recovering email addresses…..the list goes on. We are slowly getting back to where we were pre computer disaster.
From Brunswick we did a short hop to Jekyl Island (N31 02.3299 W081 25.5009) then on to St Marys Georgia (N30 43.0550 W081 32.8719) where we intended on having Thanksgiving dinner with other southbound cruisers. As it turned out there were over 100 boats and about 250 people in attendance. The local town (st Marys) provides the turkeys and ham and the cruisers each bring a pot luck dish. There was stuffing, cranberry sauce, potatoes of all stripes, pies etc. It was a great experience, because each night there was a happy hour with people breaking out the musical instruments and singing along. We met some wonderful people all of whom were trying to convince Terri to make the jump to the Bahamas.
Well enough for now, got to get moving once again. Tune in again.
