#beaufortbound

6/29/16 Kristi writes:

Yesterday we left Georgia waters behind and made it into South Carolina, still traveling along the ICW. We’ve lost track of how many dolphins we’ve seen on this trip, and yesterday we had record sightings, with one even breaching out of the water repeatedly just ahead of us! 

After covering 32 miles in 7 hours yesterday, we nestled in to a remote anchorage right off the ICW, just southwest of Hilton Head Island. This anchorage marked 200 miles since we started in Jacksonville. As of today it’s been 1 week that we’ve been making way, and it’s pretty exciting to see how far we’ve come. 

Last night we sat through a wild thunderstorm. We closed all the hatches as the storm rolled in and zipped ourselves into the cockpit for an awesome lightning show. I haven’t seen a storm like that since living in Kansas. This was a little different than watching from inside the garage like my family used to do. This storm had lightning striking in every direction around us and I couldn’t help but squeal when they got a little close! Not to worry too much though, Brad and I did our research and read that if the boat did get struck by lightning, the most damage it would do is kill the electronics (not us). The best way to avoid this would be to anchor, turn off the boat (both of which we did) and disconnect all electronics. Good to know. 

Today we made it to Cowen Creek, a tributary just north of the Port Royal Sound. Another storm started building as we came into the anchorage. Thankfully we got everything secured before the storm came through. It’s currently passing over us while we stay hunkered down in the salon, enjoying a late lunch. It’s cooled off enough with this rain that we’ve decided to make tonight’s dinner out of fresh baked bread and the “Traveler’s Stew” MRE given to us by Mom & Dad Marquart. Yum! 

Tomorrow morning we will have a short, 8 mile ride up the river to reach the Downtown Marina of Beaufort, SC. After several days of free anchorages and “roughing it,” we are excited to pick up a mooring for the shared cost of $20/night, which includes use of AC showers & laundry facilities (woohoo!), complimentary wifi (saves on cellular data usage) and gated entry (very safe) right “in the heart of one of South Carolina’s oldest and most beautiful cities.” It’s time to get off the boat, stretch our legs, and hopefully find some good local seafood. It’s shrimping season here in the south, so I am on a mission. 🍤

While sitting comfortably in Beaufort, we plan to wait for a weather window so we can take a break from the meandering rivers of the ICW and finally get to sailing up the Atlantic east coast! We are all itching to let these sails out and we’ve heard that the Port Royal Sound outside of Beaufort is our ticket…so stay tuned!