South Carolina: Our Third State

Days on Cruise: 15

Today’s distance:  47.9 statute miles

Time Traveled:  6 hrs

Total trip odometer:  449 miles

We woke up to cool temps, around 50, but sunny weather, so after checking the NOAA weather forecast and Windfinder.com, we decided to head north.  Proceeding from Thunderbolt on our way to cross the Savannah River, we passed the Bonaventure Cemetery, made famous in the book “Midnight in the Garden of the Good and Evil”, mentioned in a previous post.

Where the ICW channel intersects with the Savannah River we met an incoming RoRo (roll on, roll off ship) coming in from the sea.  Since she was the “stand on” vessel, we yielded right of way to her. As if we had a choice!

After crossing the Calibogue (pronounced Cal-eh-bo-gee)   Sound, we cruised past Hilton Head Island. Everything we’ve heard about HH says it’s a great stopover. Unfortunately they’re preparing for a major golf event next week after the Augusta Masters golf tournament ends, and we’re told moorage is running $8/foot/night, up from their usual rate of $2.00.  Let’s see:  8 X 42 = too much for tying up to a dock to sleep on our own boat! We’re sure we’re missing a beautiful beach (we saw it from our boat) and lovely (very expensive) restaurants, but we’ll see plenty of each on our 6,000+ mile journey.

As with the ICW in much of Florida and parts of Georgia, South Carolina has its share of “nice” houses.  The style here, as in Georgia, is much more “elegant Southern”, compared to the glitz of Florida.

Near the end of our day we passed Parris Island where many of our nation’s Marines take their basic training.  We’ve read that there are squadrons of F 18 Hornets based nearby and we’re likely to experience flyovers while in Beaufort.

We arrived in Beaufort mid-afternoon, then dropped the anchor in 20 feet of water on a rising tide with about 3 knots of current.  We decided to have a relaxing afternoon on the boat, which would allow us to evaluate the set of our anchor in this changing tide and reversing current.  If all goes well, which we expect it will, we’ll then feel comfortable leaving the boat for the day tomorrow while we explore what is supposed to be a charming southern town.