St. Augustine, FL to Beaufort, SC

May 5, 2020 - May 10, 2020

We love St. Augustine and it seemed odd to be leaving after spending only one night  and taking no trips into town.  But our health and safety come before fun.  Our trip on Tuesday turned out to be longer than we expected. Our planned anchorage for the night turned out to be much shallower than indicated on the charts and we went aground.  It was dead low tide so we waited for about 45 minutes and then were able to get going again.  Apparently it was a full moon tide and was almost one foot lower than usual.  We continued on north and grabbed a mooring ball in Fernandina Beach. It was 5:00pm before we were settled.  Fortunately we had some left over pasta and sauce which made for a quick and easy meal. The tidal current in this mooring field was extremely strong and when the current changed during the night the mooring ball kept hitting the bow hull with a loud bump disturbing our sleep.

Since we went farther than expected yesterday our trip to Jekyl Island Marina was shorter than originally planned; which was a good thing as we had some important boat chores to complete (changing the engine oil and emptying the solids container of our composting toilet).  During this process Bob also found a crack in one of the fittings on the hot water tank (it’s always something) and had to replace it.  The restaurant on the marina property was serving take out so we ordered our lunch and ate it on the restaurant porch before we started our chores. I had a delicious shrimp salad salad (kind of like a Cobb salad, but with shrimp salad instead of grilled chicken). We got to take real showers and settled down for the night. 

s/v Rainy Days docked at Jeckyl Island Marina

With a boat neighbor’s help with our lines we left Jekyll Island at 6:30 am.  We had two problem spots to deal with and scheduled the trip around the tides.  We hit Little Mud River at mid tide and falling and made it through nicely. Johnson Creek was the next trouble spot and with the full moon tides it was more shallow than usual with mud flats and sand bars galore.  We went aground briefly but got off  quickly.  When the tide was with us we were doing over eight knots and decided to go all the way to Kilkenny Creek for the night.  We arrived just after five and anchored. 

The mud flats at this point reached almost
to the red channel marker.

We thought our anchor had dug in, but in the morning we were  surprised to see we were right up against the spartina grass and badly aground.  It was almost high tide and Bob worked the boat back and forth until we broke free.  Phew. I was getting ready to call “Tow Boat US”. Our last day in Georgia was complicated by Hell Gate.  We wanted to pass through that area at mid and rising tide so we didn’t leave our anchorage until 8:30 am.  We had time for a great breakfast of egg, cheese, and bacon burritos.  It was my watch when we went through Hell Gate and because it was high tide I sailed through unscathed.  The lowest water I saw was 15 feet, but with a ten foot tidal range it would certainly be a problem at low tide.  We crossed the Savanna River at at 2:00pm and Bob had to fight a strong tide pushing us down river the whole way across.  We anchored in New River in South Carolina and were happy to be done with Georgia.  As we were anchoring the wind picked up quite a bit and was opposed to the tidal current creating a situation where the anchor was under the boat, but we are sure it was well dug in tonight.

Just south of the Savannah River
are many elegant houses.

I haven’t said much about Lola this trip, but she has been a real trooper.  She spends the day in the cockpit with us alternately sleeping and keeping watch.  She dislikes power boats and gives them the evil eye everytime they pass by rocking us with their wake.  She caught her first green head fly while we were in Georgia and managed to swat many of the flies away before they entered the boat. What a great 1st mate!  

Lola is glaring at a noisy motor boat as it wakes our boat.
She has her ears back! Look out!

No dragging of the anchor last night! We left our anchorage at 6:45 and motored about 35 miles.  Both the Calibogue and the Port Royal Sound were rocky due to opposing current and wind, but other than that it was a pleasant trip to Beaufort SC.  Since we needed to buy groceries and do laundry we decided to stay over at the Lady’s Island Marina for two days.  It will be nice to be in one place as this constant moving is getting exhausting.  It’s a lovely marina just across the Beaufort River from downtown.  Publix is in walking distance as well as some sandwich shops and restaurants that are open for take out.  

The sunset on Saturday night was gorgeous!

Mother’s day was busy.  We borrowed the courtesy car from the marina and bought groceries and new line for the fenders (we lost one between the bridge and Lady's

’s Island Marina) at West Marine. After stowing all of the groceries it was time for lunch and I whipped up some comfort food - tomato soup and grilled ham and cheese sandwiches.  Since Lady's Island Marina did not have fuel we opted to transfer the auxiliary tank fuel into the main tank and empty all of our Jerry Jugs of Diesel fuel into the auxiliary tank so we could keep going until our stop at Barefoot landing Marina (three days away).  I heard from all of my children and enjoyed our lengthy phone calls catching up on what’s been happening.  After doing some cleaning, I relaxed for the rest of Mother’s Day.  Tomorrow we resume our trek up the ICW.

Grocery shopping has sure changed!
I'm glad to see so many protections
in place for the employees.

Stay safe and thank you for reading my blog.