South to Beaufort SC

Once we arrived in Georgetown we decided to stay for a few days. The anchorage here is in a great location--a crescent of water edged by a forested island on on side and the main street of town on the other. Holding here however is “the pits” and so after half a dozen frustrating failed attempts to set the anchor, we tied up to a mooring ball instead. Once ashore we met up with “Antares”--another sailing couple we had met along the waterway and they invited us to join them for breakfast the following morning. Upon returning to the boat however, we discovered to our dismay, that the charger to our cell phone had broken and the phone itself was almost “out of juice.” We had no idea what to do. We HAD to have a phone. But without a car and no knowledge of the area around Georgetown we were going to be out of luck. We decided to put it all behind us, go to bed and worry about it all tomorrow.

Bright and early the next morning we made our way to the restaurant to meet “Antares” for the promised breakfast. We were surprised to find them there with another couple who were living aboard the 60’ ft boat “Liahona.” When in casual conversation we mentioned our dilemma with the phone charger, they surprised us with “Not a problem. We have our car here in Georgetown and the Verizon dealer is not far away. We’ll take you there, and anywhere else you’d like to go, after breakfast. And they did. We couldn’t believe our good fortune! Afterwards they took us back to their boat for a “tour”. What a vessel!! Talk about a home away from home. We were so grateful to them for helping us out and spending the better half of the day with us that we arranged to take them out for dinner the next night. And the following day we left Georgetown and continued our journey south.

The next stretch of water took us through the lovely meandering streams and river grasses that lie just north of Charleston. It was impossible to make the journey in a single day, but after anchoring in a secluded spot for one night, we were able to make our way into the Charleston Harbour just before noon the next morning. We arrived under sunny skies and spent a leisurely day laundering clothing, bumping into old friends, and just basking in the warm sunshine stretched out on the deck of the boat. And since it was Vince’s 63rd birthday, we celebrated with a delicious shrimp dinner at a local restaurant at the end of a perfectly relaxing day.

The next morning was overcast as we set off for the two day sail to Beaufort. We were dreading this stretch of water as it contains the horrible “Ashepoo Cusaw Cut” where we almost shoaled the boat the last time we passed this way. This cut is very shallow and despite dredging over the summer, we still saw less than 8’ of water as we passed through it. But we did “make it” without incident this time and were very happy to stop for the night knowing we were only a day away from Beaufort. The next morning however found us socked in with fog. 3 other boats were sharing our anchorage and one was foolish enough to leave early before the fog had completely lifted. We met him later in Beaufort and he told us a horrendous tale of encountering a huge barge that came out of the fog headed directly for him--with no warning whatsoever. And he missed being “run down” by mere feet. The same barge later crashed into one of the bridge supports further along the waterway causing more mayhem for boaters. And at the Ashepoo-Cusaw Cut another sailboat lost her way in the fog only to find herself lying sideways on a shoal as the tide was ebbing. It took two tow boats from “Boat US” to finallly drag her off and back into deeper water. We wisely waited until ALL of the fog had burned off before leaving our anchorage at 11:00am. We had experienced the horror show of being trapped in fog last time we came this way and had no desire to repeat the experience. We finally arrived in Beaufort much later than expected but we got there safe and sound and that was all that mattered. We stayed here for 2 days waiting for weather. But it was a real treat because Beaufort SC is such a beautiful place.

This town is also a jumping off port for going out into the Atlantic, by-passing the state of Georgia completely and coming “in” again at Cumberland Sound in northern Florida. On our last trip south we stayed on the ICW right through Georgia, encountering fog, impossibly shallow cuts, and dangerous areas. And after that ordeal, Vince vowed he’d never do it again. Our only other option however was an overnight sail of 24 hours out into the Atlantic---which should only be attempted in good sailing conditions. But weather was looking very “iffy” for an outside sail. The morning we left Beaufort, we STILL hadn’t decided which way to go.