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.

We awoke at 0600 to a beautiful day… 25 knots winds, 59 degrees, and raining… great day to cruise…. NOT! Really thought twice about leaving but looking at the forecast it was not that bad… Gale Force Winds Warning (39 mph) and 50% chance of rain. But it also said winds would be diminishing late afternoon and 10-15 knots after midnight. Typically, I find the forecast of weather comes earlier than predicted… during the night we had some very heavy winds… easily gale force and looking at the radar the rain would soon be stopping… so I made the decision to depart as plan.

We departed at approximately 0745 and the winds did prove to be a challenge for getting away from the dock but we managed to make it and were soon heading north on the ICW again and “Serendipity” departed shortly after us.

The winds did stay fairly strong most of the day… 25 knots with some gusts to 35 knots… but nothing that was causing any major waves… nice heavy chop here and there in more open areas.

The worst part of the whole day was the current… I think it was against for the majority of the day… we slowed to under 4 knots in a few places… for the RPM we should have been doing about 6.8 knots… there were a few… very places where we were assisted with the current pushing over 8 knots… but for a very short time.

The afternoon the winds did settle down slightly to 15-20 knots and the sun came out… sun being out makes the day seem much better.

We had only one area to transit that can be a problem… Little Mud River… and we were arriving about an hour before low tide… we arrived around noon time and I expected to see some real shallow water but I was surprised to not see anything under 6.5 feet at the southern entrance… most of the time it was 8 feet plus.

We had made plans to stop for the night and anchor in Walburg Creek… we decided to try the southern entrance to the creek… several reports of shoaling to 3-4 feet and others that there was 12 feet… so when we arrived I slowed to an idle and crept into the entrance of the creek… the area where it was suppose to be 4 feet per the charts was over 20 feet… I actually did not see anything under 12 feet deep all the way in to the creek… once in the depths dropped off to well over 20 feet for the most part. I had never attempted this southern entrance to the creek before reading about shoaling and the charts reflect 3-4 across the entrance… not the case and will use this route again.

We proceeded up the creek till it turned to the north and then another quarter of mile north and dropped the anchor. First attempt the chain must have fouled on the anchor as it was just not setting… 20 feet of water and 200 feet of chain out and I was dragging slowly back with the current. Retrieved the 200 feet of chain and anchor and made a second attempt… this time she set firmly. “Serendipity” anchored just off our bow about 1000 yards.

We were securely anchored at approximately 1745 at N31°40.537’, W081°08.547’. We traveled for 10 hours covering 55.5 nm averaging 5.6 knots.