TerBarb North – Part 10

During our stay at Brunswick Landing Marina in Georgia, we had weather that was up and down temperature wise. We also received rain over 2 inches on two different days, along with tornado warnings one of the days. Actually, a tornado did touch down about 30 miles to the south of us and hail was report just north of us. We have a constant 30 mph WSW wind with gusts at 45-50 mph, extra lines were added just in case we needed them. Everyone in the marina is adding extra lines. This was just a couple of days. Most of the time it is quite nice, but who wants to hear about that as this is not exciting. While we were at Brunswick, we were reunited with a couple “RamSea” that we had met in Deltaville, VA when we were making our first trip down to Florida in Oct. 2005. Small world!!! It was nice to catch up with Don and Barbara again and share stories. It gets chilly overnight (45 degrees), but during the day it is in the 65-75 degree range. On one Saturday the towns of Brunswick and St. Simon had a huge yard sale – Peaches to Beaches – both new and used merchandise was on sale. Of course, the farmers were also out selling vegetables and fruit. Yea, good oranges and really fresh string bean, corn on the cob, tomatoes, grapefruits, etc. We had planned to leave Brunswick on Tues. but while it is still warm (75 degrees) the winds are gusting to 30-35 mph out of the SSE. We have white caps in the marina and we are docked approximately 4 miles east of the inlet. This weather continues Wed and Thurs. When you are doing this type of traveling you need to be totally flexible with your time lines. We try not to set a schedule and just “go with the flow or wind”.

On Friday, Mar 21 we are underway at 7:30 in the morning with a beautiful sun just peeking over the horizon. We wind our way on the zigzag course through the Georgia marshes as we head to Kilkenny. In this section of Georgia there are not a lot of marinas – in fact, there are only a few. Kilkenny is almost 8 hours away. The winds begin to pick up as the morning progresses and are out of the E at 15 mph as we cross Buttermilk Sound. We are heading into choppy waters on Sapelo Sound with 2 ½-3 footers on the bow. We have wind blowing in from the ocean and current in running out. St. Catherine Sound is the same, but the waves are down to 2 footers. However, we still have spray on the bridge. We also are stemming current most of the day.

On Saturday, Mar 22 we head for Beaufort, SC Again, the sun is just lifting its head as we clear the dock at Kilkenny. We continue our twist and turn course, which is typical for this section of the ICW as it travels through Georgia. It is a beautiful day and we decide to continue on as we pass Thunderbolt, GA 3 hours later. Next we cross the Savannah River crossing into South Carolina. Calibogue Sound is a little choppy with SW winds @15 mph pushing us along, so we have a following sea for a short time. We fuel up at Hilton Head Harbor Marina as the price is $3.74/gallon. We had called Beaufort Marina for a slip and were told fuel prices are $4.68/gallon. Yes, that no mistake $4.68/gallon. The only problem getting fuel at Hilton Head is the fuel pump is high speed, this means it pumps 22 gallon a minute. We can only crack the nozzle to get fuel. We need to cross Port Royal Sound and the winds are 25 mph out of the SW and again this mean spray on the bridge in the sound and a following sea as we head up the Beaufort River. However, temperatures are in the 80 degree range. We stay at Beaufort on Sunday as it is Easter Sunday. And yes, the Bunny rabbit did visit the boat and left chocolate eggs, peanut butter eggs, and other candy in our baskets. He also left cat food and cat toys for Tiger in his basket. We relaxed most of the day. We walked along the waterfront park and sat on the swings (They have swings like you would have on a front porch.) and listened to live music in the park. We decided to stay another day as the winds are again blowing at 25, gusting to 30 mph. The next leg of our trip will take us across Coosaw Sound and St. Helena Sound and hopefully Charleston Inlet. Neither of these places are a good place to be in this type of wind. Beaufort is a beautiful old town, with older home that have been fixed up to show off their Victorian heritage. Remember, you just can’t keep to a schedule when you are traveling. Sometimes you just need to wait for “Mother Nature” to give you better weather.

On Tuesday, Mar 25 we are underway at 7:30. There is frost warnings along the coast and freeze warnings inland. It is 39 degree as we clear the dock. We are through the Brickyard (usually a very shallow spot) and into Coosaw Sound by 8:30. We have a slight chop in the sound as we are heading into N winds at 10 mph. Again, we twist and turn for a while and then into some very straight sections of the waterway (these are usually man made cuts that connect various rivers.). Yesterday, both NOAA and the Weather Channel predicated 5-10 mph winds for today. They LIED!! The winds are out of the North at 15 mph. We cross Charleston Inlet with a slight chop since we are heading directly into the wind ad the current is running out. Once crossing the inlet it is a little tricky reentering the ICW. It is not marked well and is a little difficult to see. There are not a lot of markers to indicate where to enter, plus there is a side channel leading to Mount Pleasant. Once back in the ICW we notice that a couple of markers are “missing”, and where Green 119 should have been there is only 2 feet of water. We touch bottom (in the channel) but were able to slide through the mud and are back into 6 feet of water. We are tied up at Isle of Palm at 3:45 pm. We had sweatshirts on most of the day as we have been heading into the wind. Once we are tied up we get rid of the sweatshirts and are in shirt sleeves.

On Wednesday, Mar 26 we are underway at 8:30 under sunny skies with light winds. They are out of the SW at 5-10 mph. Most of today’s journey is within the narrow confines of the waterway. We see an eagle in the tree tops and dolphins are traveling with us on and off all day. This stretch has a lot of un-navigable streams that cut over to the ocean and all of a sudden you get pushed sideways as you pass each one of them. The last hour of the day is in Winyah Bay, which has a moderate chop with SW winds at 15-20 mph The South and North Santee River crossings were calm. We are tied up at Hazzard Marina in Georgetown. We got our bikes down to ride into town. However, we had to chain them up in town and walk through town. Street parking in town is “pull in parking” and “parking along the curb”. Too dangerous to ride the bikes. We did ride over to the little league fields and park.

On Thursday, March 27 we are on our way to Dock Holiday Marina. We will be staying at this marina for a month while we go home to take care of some business (Uncle Sam), etc. Today is also two of our grandson’s birthday. Happy Birthday Justin. Happy Birthday Seth. We are back into Winyah Bay heading north as we re-join the ICW again into mostly a narrow channel, stemming current for awhile in the Waccamaw River. We pick up a slight curre3nt about 1 ½ hours out. We see goats roaming free in the woods just south of Osprey Marina where we fuel up. (We really didn’t need fuel, but with Boat US discount, fuel is only $3.13. This is the least expensive we have seen fuel since October of last year.) We also saw a couple of eagles and turtles. While we didn’t cover as many miles today as we have been racking up, but because of so many “Slow Speed, No Wake” areas along this stretch it was almost a 7 hour day for the 57.7 miles. Today is sunny (78 degrees) with SW winds at 20-25 mph, gusting to 30 mph. However, for the most part they wind is behind us – pushing us along. Plus since we are in an enclosed area – no sounds – it is a pleasant ride

Bob continues the never ending job of cleaning off the salt. We have received spray on the bridge quite a few days in a row and today is the first time we have had the time to really clean. Salt is everywhere, even on the inside of the windows in the cabin. They are dredging the marina so we are not in our friend’s slip. However the marina directed us to another slip. Our friend had made arrangements with the marina for us to have a slip. We like this marina as there is a food store, drug store, bank, Home Depot, Lowe’s, and quite a few other stores within walking (biking) distance. Usually, a 2 block walk. We picked up our rental car on Saturday to go home.

HOME

We are back at the marina on Tuesday, April 8^th. We left NJ on Monday morning and stopped in Fayetteville, NC to see Bob’s brother (Butch). Since we still have the rental car we did Tangiers’s Outlet Stores for some shopping, and then on to Barefoot Landing (a great place to walk around) stopping for ice cream as it is very warm today. We did some food shopping on Thursday to re-stock the freezer and cabinets. We also went over to the ocean and watched para sailing. There are a lot of people on the beach and some of the kids and adults are actually swimming in the ocean. Temperatures are in the 80’s today and tomorrow is suppose to be warmer. However, the temperature is supposed to drop after the rain we are expecting over the weekend.

Well, this should bring you up to date. Don’t know when I will be able to write again. Trying to remember who and where WIFI is along our route home. Hope you are all well and hope warm weather is on your horizons.

Well, we were not able to send the above message, so I decided to add to it before we sent it off.

Bob’s brother, Butch, came down to stay and to travel north with us for a couple of days. In the mean time Teri and Ron came for a long weekend. They have friends who have a condo here in Myrtle Beach so they will be staying there. We spent the day down on the boardwalk by the beach and the Bowery (this is were the group Alabama got it start) walking around town. We then went over to Broadway on the Beach – a shopping, bar, restaurant area for the rest of the day. Then it was off to Murrells Inlet to “Drunken Jacks for drinks and dinner. Great Food!! Then walked along the boardwalk – along the back side of the bars. Sunday, we went to Grand Dunes for lunch at their Tiki Bar, which is located right on the ICW. We got to watch the boats cruise past us, instead of us doing the cruising. We had a great visit.

Monday, April 21 and we are off and cruising again. We clear the dock at 7:30 am , have a slight wait at the Little River Swing Bridge. There is one boat in front of us and one boat is coming up (as fast as he can) to make the opening. Our next bridge is the Sunset Beach Pontoon Bridge. When we arrive at 5 minutes before the hour (only opens on the hour) there are already 12 boats waiting and 3 behind us. Of course some are sailboats and once through the bridge all of the power boats slowly pass the sailboats, so there is a lot of chatter on the VHF regarding passing. We arrive at Southport Marina 5 hours later. It is sunny, temperatures in the 70 degree range and NNE winds at 5-10 mph. We went to the Provision Fish Co. for dinner. We have been here before and the food is excellent and the service is different. You place your order at the counter, find your table and get your own drinks and when the waiter has your food on his tray he yells out your name. After eating you go back to the counter to pay for your meal. The food is really good!! It sprinkles rain later in the evening. The weather channel said it is pouring rain north of us and hopefully it will be gone by tomorrow. Only time will tell – sometimes the weatherman gets it right!!

Talk with you all later.