Day 6 & 7 Thunderbolt, GA (Savannah) to Beaufort, SC

 

DAY 6  April 22

Started out as a cooler, cloudy day but turned into sunny and beautiful by the afternoon.

This was the first bridge of the day that we encountered . The new bridge is tall and easily passed under. You can see the old bridge in the background, much shorter and one we would have possibly had to wait for.

Some of the sights along the way. A bit industrial. Still drab gray day.

Narrower channel in places so we were closer to the homes.

This gives you an idea of what we see looking through the center window. We have windows all the way around this boat. Loving it!!

The pelicans were feeding near us.

This is the entrance to a marina that has its own lock (between the two pergolas) to get to its docks. 

We were on the back side of Hilton Head Island. No golf balls on this side.

Many marinas along the way.

Skies clearing up.

Last bridge before Safe Harbor Beaufort.

This huge anchor is right in front of the marina. 

The walk ways around the marina have oyster shells in the concrete mix.

DAY 7
April 23

A no travel day which gave us more time to investigate Beaufort. 

Beaufort, pronounced BEW-fert is a quaint old town with many shops, restaurants and ice-cream stores. 

One of the features of cruising in North Florida, all of Georgia and coastal South Carolina is current.  This region has some of the greatest range of tide, from high to low, of the Eastern seaboard, up to 9 feet in Georgia.  All that water has to come in and all that water has to go out and it does this every six hours.  The lovely full moon we have been enjoying makes those tides among the highest and lowest of every month.  Thus, those ebbing and flooding currents can be pretty strong.  And most of the marinas are located in the tidal streams.  All of this can make docking and undocking challenging as you try to maneuver at slow speeds into confined spaces.

The city Marina in Beaufort, SC is one such place.  They have a long dock (called a face dock) that is oriented mostly in line with the current.  There is space for us transients both on the outside of that face dock as well as on the inside (closer to the land) side.  There are two more docks between this long dock and the land, but occupied by permanent resident boats.

We were assigned to the inside of the main dock with a lovely 58 footer in front of us and another Looper boat, "LadyZ", behind us.  When we arrived, it was easy to get in as we were motoring into the ebb tide and Lady Z had not yet arrived. Having done this before, my immediate thoughts were about "How am I going to get out of here?"  Lady Z was departing the next morning, but someone else was due to take her spot.  Getting out around a boat astern is a challenge.

In the morning, the beautiful 58 footer decided to leave a day early and commenced a maneuver to  get out from in front of me and back out of the slipway between our dock and the next dock over.  This was done with no problem whatsoever.  I am happy.

The outbound current I had been motoring into when docking yesterday afternoon had reversed direction with the flood.  Now it was flowing into the docks. After successfully backing out of the slipway into that current, the big boat turned to point back out into the main channel, but underestimated the force of the current, now pushing him sideways.  That got my attention right away as he was pushed firmly back toward the docked boats on the inner piers. There was a resounding CRUNCH as he made contact with one boat. Somehow he got himself clear and got away from the docks.

Being a responsible guy, he made to return to his spot in front of me to clean up the mess.  It was now that I really started paying attention because he had to basically parallel park in front of me.  That didn't go so well with the current pushing him around.  Also, by this time he had exercised his stern thruster so much that the battery was done.  (Thrusters are little propellors that can push the boat sideways.  We only have one in the bow, he had them bow and stern). He ended up bumping into two more boats before getting secured to a third to regroup and sort stuff out.  Providing insurance information to the dockmaster and the other unfortunate participants allowed enough time for the stern thruster battery to get a drink and they had a successful departure about an hour and a half later.

I felt horrible for the guy and his wife, who are really good folks.  It was painful to watch as his beautiful boat, with a cost that I am sure had two commas in the price tag, was in dire straits.

The upshot of this was that I button-holed the dockmaster and negotiated a change of docking to a spot that allowed us to simply untie the lines and the morning current pushed us away from the marina with no fuss or bother! 
(Cheryl's add to this story- "Being the late riser when I can be, I was still in bed through all this and missed it all!)

The oysters are exposed at low tide.

Close-up of the oysters. Very sharp, don't touch!!

Beautiful waterfront.

Swings are placed all along the waterfront.

The oak trees are incredible in Beaufort.

A little bocce ball being played. Lots of people out enjoying the sunny day.

Another indication of low tide, the ramp going DOWN to the dock.

A fisherman was catching blue crabs off the dock.

Got your shoe!!

This is a female blue crab. You can tell because it has "fingernail polish on". The males don't have the red tipped claws. A friendly fisherman shared his knowledge with us.

This is star jasmine, very fragrant.

Crepe Myrtle trees were full of  Spanish Moss. But, we learned that

Spanish Moss is a flowering plant that is neither Spanish, nor a moss. It is a bromeliad, related to the pineapple, that grows hanging from tree branches in a chain-like manner. The plant is particularly fond of live oak and bald cypress trees that grow in the lowlands, swamps and savannas of the south. 

Palmetto Palms, the state tree of South Carolina. During the Revolutionary War, coastal forts were made of palmetto logs. The soft stems would absorb the force of cannon balls and not shatter. Today, the trunks are used in the construction of wharves because the wood is resistant to sea-worm infestations.

Flowers blooming everywhere, so pretty.

Snow Goose 37' looking small next to a 50+' boat.

We could see the swing bridge from where we were docked. It will be the first thing we go under in the morning.

Good night from Beaufort. Great picture Paul.

Thanks to South Carolina Department of Natural Resources for the the technical info on the Spanish Moss and Palmetto Palms.

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