Monday, 23 November 2015: Still in Beaufort

     We stayed an extra day in Beaufort to take care of a couple mailing issues, to wait for a letter from Maine, and to watch The Patriots play on Monday night.

Tuesday, 24 November 2015: on to Georgia

      On Tuesday Morning we awoke to continued chilly and windy conditions, a “Norther” as we will probably get used to.

Last week shorts and bare feet, this week layers and wool head sock.

     We had our breakfast then a quick run to the free day dock for a shower, then off down the Beaufort River to meet and bid farewell to our new friends Perry and Nancy. We made a quick stop at their marina, picked up the last of our mail that had arrived Monday afternoon, and set off once again to the South. The Dukes had made our stop-over very enjoyable with their company and borrowed vehicle. We hope to return the favor sometime.

     A snake could have laid out a straighter path down the last of South Carolina and into Georgia, but all the curves make it all the more interesting. We had slowed our pace as we were low on fuel and I had in mind a lower than average fuel depot in Brunswick. Another note on the area is that we are back amongst the tides, 7 feet or so in this area, and oh don't these rivers run! We will be going along about 5 ½ knots, then down to 3.6 for a spell, then back up to 8 for a while. If you are sailing all day, I don't know how you could plan and make all the passes with a fair tide. We just took our licks as they came.

     We toasted our arrival to Georgia as we crossed the Savannah River a couple hours from Beaufort, we were met by a lone fellow in an old Tartan 27. We had crossed paths a few times since Oriental and had named him, Tagu, (Tartan Guy). He fell into our wake and kept right up with us.

     We decided to anchor up in the lee of a little marsh island in the Moon River. Tagu turned right behind us and anchored nearby. Three of us masted boats spent a quiet nite at anchor here.

Sunset in Moon River. 

     Tommie is getting bolder and bolder every day. She used to hide all the time we were underway, only coming out when the engine went to idle and the anchor chain was going down. Now she is up and about several times during our underway day, sits in the cockpit, demands a back-rub, the usual things a cat demands, and did I mention food?

Wednesday, 25 November 2015: Snaking along...

      Up and away after breakfast, we the third of three underway, with Tagu a few miles ahead. We twisted and turned our way along, raised the jib as the following wind was too much to be wasted. It did require many gybes during the day to accommodate our many courses. It was brisk going and we did manage to scatter our Revere-Ware across the galley sole at one point.

     We picked a spot for anchoring at about four, New Teakettle Creek, and just as we approached the anchorage we caught up with Tartan Guy. He was still ahead of us when we turned in and anchored, but he turned around and came back to anchor near us once again. We spent a very windy night protected only by a low salt marsh, out of the waves, but clearly not out of the wind. The strong current held us at right angles to the 20 knot wind all night, giving us a slight angle of heal. Interesting, but not enough to be uncomfortable.

Sunset in Old Teakettle Creek.

     It seems funny, but as we are headed south, slowly, we get to see many powerboats, as they are coming by us all the time, most very respectfully I will add, as we slow right down to bare steerage so they can come by with a small or reduced wake. Very few have upset us. We don't seem to see the sailboats, as they are either ahead or back, only seeing them in harbor.

Thursday, 26 November 2015 Thanksgiving Day

Morning on the marsh.

     We were off and running right after breakfast as the current was changing in our favor to start the day. We were about 15 minutes behind Tagu, but found him tacking back and forth just outside the anchorage. After he and I exchanged hand signals it was clear that he didn't know which route to take, so he once again fell in behind us.

     To be fair, most of the ICW can be run visually, as the next marker is usually in sight, and if you have a draft of 3-4 feet it is pretty easy to stay in floating water. At this particular juncture, there was a junction which was a ways off, with a neatly camouflaged marker, and a 140 degree turn. I am going to say that Tartan Guy has no charts, going on guts and following deeper vessels. At least he stopped when he was confused, as the water is so murky one would never see a sand bar coming up ahead.

     Of note today we saw several rookeries of heron and egret, one tree looked like it was covered with white and pink heron ornaments. Kathy pointed it out to me and I looked right at it and didn't know at first what I was looking at. Quite a sight.

     Our day went quite well, by luck catching mostly fair currents thru the maze and right down by Jekyll Island to the mouth of the Brunswick River where we were making 9 knots over the bottom and feeling quite good, then as we turned to go up into Brunswick we were socked with a 2 knot foul current and down to 3.8 knots for the last hour of the day. Just about then we were treated to a nice rainbow, and associated rain of course.

     We finally made our way up the East River to anchor close to both fuel dock and marina, both of which we hope to make good use of tomorrow.

     Kathy put out a Thanksgiving Feast of baked chicken with onions and garlic, mashed potatoes, gravy and corn, all topped off with Boat Baked Apple Pie. I will say I thought she had set the bar pretty high with the lunch she served me, peanut butter and bacon and banana sandwiches, but she did manage to out-do herself. I ate so much I can hardly move, except to hunt and peck these keys. But that's the way it is supposed to be on Thanksgiving, isn't it?

Our apple pies are about 4" big, but they do the trick.

Happy Thanksgiving!