Banjos In the Distance (and That's Only Part of it!)

 

 

We departed Sisters Creek at dawn on Tuesday, May 20.  In spite of the old adage about sailors and red skys, all was fine.  We had flat water, some helpful currents and an easy day...except for the heat and humidity!  Early departure is helping with that, we get going before the sun is at full power and stop before the worst of the afternoon wears us down.  Typically, we get to our destinations between 2-3 pm.  

This day we traveled to Wally's Leg (don't ask, other than it's in Georgia, I've no idea where it was!  Happy to say goodbye to florida and hoping for a break in the heat...unfortunately, not yet.  Astrid cooked lemon pepper chicken with roasted veggies and a rice/quinoa blend.  It was delicious!

 

Wednesday 5/21 we left Wally's Leg and headed for Delegal Marina in Delegal Creek (still Georgia).  Very nice marina staff - I had inadvertantly reserved (via dockwa) slip for 5/20 instead of 5/21 on tuesday.  They sent me a message tuesday at almost 5 saying that the dock would not be manned after 5 but I could just pull up for the night at the fuel dock when I arrived!  I sent a message back that I had screwed up, was currently up some creek (with a paddle) and had meant to reserve for next evening.  No problem for them, they shifted the reservation.  The marina loaned us a golf cart to go to publix for provisions.  I'm not a great golf cart driver but I didn't tip it over or hit anything, so, all good!  Heat still oppressive during the day but in the evening wind started coming from north and was quite cool.  We didn't even bother running AC even though plugged in!  Picture above was sunset at Delegal Creek.

Thursday 5/22 we headed out about 6:15 for Beaufort ('bufert'), SC.  Pulled up a mooring in harbor with wicked current.  Weather was fantastic - low temps, no humidity!  We took dinghy to dock to pay for the mooring (overpriced at $40) and had some concern that the full battery would not get us back to the boat against the current!  We made it fine, went towards shore a bit to get out of the worst of the current.  We were joined at Happy Hour by Denise and Rick Hesson on "Ne'se", whom Kathie and I had met on the trip south in the fall.  Had a lovely time comparing notes on activities over the winter.  Hoping we'll be able to rendezvous again in the Chesapeake.

Friday 5/23 We headed out on a short trip to my favorite anchorage on the trip south - Fenwick Cut (West).  It was very close to Beaufort, but we left early for favorable current.  Ended up anchoring at about 10:00 am.  As beautiful as remembered but this time around infested (as apparently is all of Georgia and SC) with nasty yellow flies.  Miserable, I holed up in the boat all day!  We had originally planned to stay 3 nights and just be lazy but the flies changed that plan! Anchoring early in the day also resulted in lots of boats zipping by throwing nasty wakes.  Astrid fired up the grill and we feasted on steak, potatoes, corn on the cob and aspargus.  Nice feast!  Happily left the following morning.

 

Saturday 5/24 we left Fenwick Cut (pictured) for an anchorage at ICW Mile Marker 450 (a bit north of Charleston Harbor.  Made good time, thanks to favorable currents and weather was quite cool - we even had to add an additional layer of clothing!  All was going 'swimmingly' until we reached Elliott Cut.  From the get-go every powerboat owner in SC was out on the water because of the holiday weekend, so travel was not what I would call peaceful.  At Elliott Cut (which leads to Charleston harbor) the already wicked current gets squirrely and with little boats everywhere staying on course was quite a task.  We managed to stay in control and got through the 2 bridges and then were dumped into the harbor.  Chaos!  Boats going every which way - big ones and little ones, sail, power, pleasure and working boats!  About half way across we were going against the current so slowing down.  Once across the harbor we entered Sullivan's Island Narrows (with about 100 other boats) and instantly were in a 'slow - no wake' zone that trapped us for several miles.  Stopped to top of fuel and water at Isle of Palms marina then moved on to our anchorage.  It was a lovely place, no specific features to describe...it's all flats there.  There was just a little pulloff at MM 450.  Anchor set easily and we were done for the day.  Flies showed up about this time so I just stayed inside again!  I decided we needed to make some room in the fridge so dinner was a salad with leftover chicken and steak.  Not fancy but it hit the spot and used up leftovers.

 

Sunday 5/25  Today was a horse of a different color.  Fortunately, not hot, but rain threatened all morning and by noon the rain started.  Not a hard rain, so we stayed up top but it was pretty miserable.  To make matters worse, we were hard against current virtually all day, so didn't make our anchorage until 3:30.  The only positive was that because of the weather, there was very little boat traffic to bother us.  Aside from being wet and a bit cold, everything held together until we neared the anchorage.  Just a couple of miles away we started to see logs floating around so the 'rivier' became something of an obstacle course.  We pulled into the anchorage and started the usual process.  Wouldn't you know, chaos ensued.  The anchorage was deeper than most (20'+) so we used more rode than usual.  Somehow, there was a twist in the rope, resulting in a jam in the windlass.  Sigh.  Fortunately, the anchor appeared to have set so Astrid and I set to figuring out how to resolve.  The manual (if you can call it that...how about the 'pamphlet'?) showed a picture of the windlass and it looked fairly simple to get apart.  It wasn't quite as easy as hoped but we managed to take it apart without breaking or losing anything, cleared the line and put it back together.  All seems to work well at this point, hopefully we won't experience that again!  Once we were settled (and after our happy hour beverages) I cooked up a pot of thai chicken in red curry sauce with some rice.  Perfectly adequate dinner with enough leftover for another meal!  We are definitely in the back country here (hence the banjo reference)...but in spite of the visual similarity to Deliverance set, I'm sure we'll be fine!

Thanks for catching up with us...will post another update next week!