We pulled the anchor this morning at 0730 and we were underway at 0745 with “Serendipity” was directly behind us. Today’s destination planned as Georgetown, SC.

We headed through Elliott’s Cut and had a fairly good current against us slowing us way down. We exited Wappoo Creek and headed out the ICW toward Charleston Harbor. “Serendipity” hailed us on the VHF and said that they were able to get a slip at Ashley Marina and would be departing from us and visiting Charleston today. It was very odd to not have them with us for the rest of the day… but maybe they will catch up to us as we travel north.

Crossing Charleston Harbor we were met with a huge car carrier “Integrity” coming in to Charleston. These ships are gigantic and as it passed in front of it blocked the sun that was rising in the eastern sky... every time I see one it amazes me… they are so big and can move so fast.

I had heard a tug and barge on the VHF hailing the Ben Sawyer Bridge… they were moving north ahead of us… we were maybe 2 miles from the bridge yet but we had the current helping us at this point and moving close to 8 knots.

As we transited the ICW running along side Isle of Palms I could see the tug ahead of us and we were slowly catching up to it. We caught up at Price Creek and I had to slow down or pass the tug and barge. I opted to slow down and follow it until we came to good place to pass as we were moving just slightly faster than the tug and barge before I had slowed down. We came to what looked like a good place to pass and I hailed the tug on the VHF and asked which side he preferred I pass on… he replied either side is fine with him as he was staying in the middle if the channel. I told him I would pass on this port side and increased our speed to overtake the tug… as I got just past the tug and starting to pass the barge the water depth started decreasing rapidly…. 12, 10, 8, 7, 6… Whoa! I backed off and dropped behind the tug and moved to his starboard side and started to overtake him a second time… this attempt I had no problem with depth seeing 15 feet plus… but with this increased depth the tugs speed increased and we were moving at almost the same speed… I increased my speed and slowly worked my way past him… running at higher RPM than I like to I must add… we got past him and he hailed me and asked what speed I was running… with the current on our nose we were doing only 6.6 knots… he said to be sue and let him know if I decreased my speed as I was only a few hundred feet ahead of him… no problem! Soon we were well ahead of him and no longer worried that we were going to be run over by the tug and barge.

Later in the day we had another tug and barge encounter… just before McCellanville we met a tug and barge heading south toward us… As we passed port-to-port I again had the issue of shallow water… this time “Sails” did it’s normal thing and when it came to the shallow water on the starboard side…. she healed over to starboard and headed to port abruptly… directly toward the tug… I slowed to an idle and “Sails” leveled and straightened out… we were just a few feet from the tug… way to close for comfort… then as we passed the stern of the tug it had it’s rudder full to starboard and engines running hard… it’s prop wash started sucking us toward the tug… I hit the throttles and moved away as fast as I could but again it was way too close for comfort as we slipped past the stern of the tug finally in the clear. Other than the tugs there was very little boat traffic… could of done with out seeing either tug today that’s for sure.

We had our normal of current on our nose and also boosting us…. Slowest speed I observed was 4.7 knots and highest 8.4 knots… the current was not a problem… but the water depths were crazy… we passed through several areas seeing less that 6 feet multiple times and it was not even low tide… I don’t think we would have been able to make some of the spots had we been there at dead low tide… don’t know how those tug and barges made it.

We were about an hour away from Georgetown when it started raining… soon we were in a full blown thunder storm… no winds to deal with but lightning and heavy rain all the way into Georgetown. However, we had decided not to stop… Susan wanted to go to Barefoot Landing on Friday night and that’s about 7-8 hours from Georgetown… anyway, we decided to walk the dog in Georgetown and then continue on to Bucksport Marina. Took maybe 30 minutes to go in to Georgetown… walk the dog and return to the ICW.

It was still raining lightly but the storm has passed and we were heading north up the Wacamaw River towards Bucksport. Susan called Bucksport to be sure the restaurant would be open when we arrived around 2030… arriving this late Susan was not cooking dinner… anyway, Bucksport’s restaurant was closing at 2000… we would not make that… I mentioned we could go to Wacca Wache Marina just before Bucksport and that they had a restaurant. Susan gave them a call… marina was closed… we called the restaurant… Hannah Banana's Sunshine Cabana… they were open till 2300… kitchen closing at 2100… not a problem we would be there by 1945.

We arrived to the Wacca Wache Marina and pulled up to outside face dock and were securely docked at 1945. Our location for the night N33°33.735’, W079°05.173’. We traveled for 12 hours covering 79.3 nm averaging 6.6 knots.

We had a very good dinner at Hannah Banana's Sunshine Cabana… and they had live music that was great!

We pulled the anchor this morning at 0715 and headed over to the main Street Dock just south of the Beaufort Downtown and docked for Susan to take Beecha for a quick walk.
Beecha finished with her walk we departed at approximately 0745. “Serendipity” had departed and had 45 minute lead. We had made plans to meet in Charleston for the night.

Today was an awesome day of cruising… sunny and very little wind… a little on the cool side when we left at 54 degrees but it warmed up to about 78 degrees by mid afternoon. Moderate boat traffic… but it seems like the trend is mostly northbound boats.

We had another yo-yo current day with lowest speed I noticed was 4.5 knots and 8.9 knots being the highest. The current was maybe a little more on our bow than helping us but fairly evenly split today.

The winds did pick up a little just before we anchored saw a few 20 knot gusts but steady around 10-12 knots… will make for a nice breeze… and a cool one… low tonight predicted to 61 degrees.

We were securely anchored at approximately 1630 at N32°45.482’, W081°00.603’. We traveled for 8.75 hours covering 55.2 nm averaging 6.3 knots. “Serendipity” anchored just east of us.

We spent a great evening with Norm and Peter from “Serendipity” … they joined us for drinks and dinner aboard “Sails”. I provided shuttle service via our dinghy since it was in the water for taking Beecha to land. We were enjoying it so much we ended up staying up later than we like to when cruising… made getting up today a little tougher… went through all of the snooze alarms my phone allows… so was not up until 0630.

After taking Beecha to land for a quick walk and putting the dinghy back on top of the boat we departed at approximately 0745. “Serendipity” departed just a few minutes before us and was out of sight around the north tip of St. Catherine Island when we finally got the anchor up and underway.

Today “Serendipity” was the leader…. They were running about a mile ahead of us most of the day… we did not catch up until Hell Gate and we passed them there and lead the rest of the day.

This area is one that the current is like a yo-yo… slowest speed being 4.5 knots and highest I saw was 9.5 knots. But it is always nice when the last leg of the day is running with a big boost of speed…. Which we had for the last hour or so… it was not 9.5 knots but 8.0 to 8.5 knots which is very nice.

We arrived to Beaufort and dropped the hook just south or west of the Beaufort Downtown Marina. “Serendipity” anchored just south or west of us. We were securely anchored at approximately 1830 at N32°25.720’, W081°40.685’. We traveled for 10.75 hours covering 72.4 nm averaging 6.7 knots.

Suppose to be 56 degrees here tonight which will be great sleeping weather.