Port Royal - Beaufort, April 5

We pulled anchor at 9:30 this morning and arrived at Beaufort City Marina at 10:30. We took on more fuel (109.8 gallons) and were tied up at our dock by about 11:15.

The forecast called for rain starting about noon, so we took a walk before doing anything else. The marina is in downtown historic Beaufort so we didn't have far to go.

Here is main street.

Truly a laid back atmosphere, the owner's cat is sleeping on the store steps.

They actually serve fried green tomatoes!

We found a little cafe for lunch, not Kathleen's. Darrell had Marilyn's Shrimp and Sausage Gumbo, which he really liked. Beth had a Pimento Cheese Sandwich, which she was told is a southern favorite. It was made with cheddar cheese, pimento and hot sauce on white bread. It was pretty good.

Darrell is sitting on chair made of welded scrap parts - for sale at an art store.

The marina had a courtesy car which we used to go to the grocery store.

It started raining about 3:00.

Moon River - Port Royal, April 4

We had thunderstorms during the night and woke up today to heavy fog. Beth took a couple pictures, of the sun trying to burn through and a boat which was anchored near us.

We realized we were within a couple miles of Isle of Hope Marina, which is pretty close to Savannah, so we called to see if we could get a slip there for tonight. They were full so after checking charts and weather forecasts we decided to skip a Savannah stop and go to Beaufort. We will anchor tonight, then get to Beaufort early tomorrow.

Darrell did a little maintenance this morning, then we got underway about 10:30. The weather today is much nicer, warm with little wind.

The ICW was very narrow. At times, especially with low tide, it seemed to be no more than a creek. It was also extremely shallow at times. Can you tell by the picture it was low tide?

We got into South Carolina waters at 1:15. We went past Hilton Head. This is the Hilton Head Marina.

We also passed Parris Island, the USMC training center. Note the water tower. It says 1-800-Marines. We also met, and were passed, by some large passenger ferrys. They don’t slow down for pleasure boats and we really rocked at times.

We anchored at Port Royal at 5:45. Beaufort is only a few miles away.

Fuzzy and St. Augustine

Fuzzy was excited. He went on his first outing with Nana and Papa and their friends Bob and Margaret.

He went to see the city of St. Augustine, which is the oldest city in Florida. It is also the oldest city in the country!

Fuzzy also saw the Castillo de San Marcos, which had been a real fort a long time ago. It was built by Spain many years ago and protected the city of St. Augustine from pirates and other enemies.

Fuzzy got to sit on a real cannon. He really had a nice time and is looking forward to more trips.

Darien River - Moon River, April 3

Slept in a little and got underway about 8:15. The day was totally different than yesterday. Overcast and cold. We are so happy we had the flybridge fully enclosed.

About 5 miles into our day we got to Sepelo Sound and later St. Catherines Sound. The wind was blowing about 20-25 mph and it became quite rough. We were taking spray up on the flybridge and were pretty uncomfortable for a couple of hours.

Most of our trip today was past uninhabited, marshy land with very little traffic. We did come across these fishermen checking their crab pots.

We went past Blackbeard Island. The island was named for Edward Teach, who was better known as the pirate “Blackbeard”. Legend has it that pirate booty is buried on this island, however no treasure has ever been found.



The birds are following us again. Now we are wondering if they are just drafting and getting a free ride.

Anchored about 5 p.m. at Moon River, which is pretty close to Savannah.

Amelia Island - Darien River, April 2

It was a clear, calm and beautiful day. We got underway at 7:45. We went up the Amelia River and had a favorable current for a while. We were traveling at 8.6 mph and got up to 9.2! Then it was back to reality, down as far as 5.1 mph. It did continue to go up and down, depending on the current.

We hit the waters of Georgia about 9:45 a.m. We passed this Railroad Trestle bridge, which remains open unless a train is coming.

We went by Cumberland Island, which is the home of wild horses. (You'll have to click on this to enlarge it)

This is a Navy Degaussing Station. It demagnetizes ships, making them less susceptible to mines.

We passed by Jekyll Island and St. Simons. We do have to pay attention to the tides. Jekyll Creek was down about 5 feet. You could see the boats sitting on the bottom and mud all the way to the shoreline that is normally covered with water.

Notice all the birds following us. We think they were looking for fish scraps. They followed us for several miles before giving up.

We anchored at 5:30 at Darien River. Long Day

St. Augustine - Amelia Island, April 1

We left Comachee Cove Yacht Harbor, St. Augustine about 8:30 today. The first part of our trip was through barren, marshy looking areas. There was a lot of boat traffic today. We were passed by quite a few boats. We were going faster than 2 sailboats we passed!

We then were in the Tolomato River where there were newer homes and every home had a dock. Some of the homes were beautiful, some for sale and the occasional very run-down and neglected property.















All of the bridges have protective barriers around the bridge pilings, just in case. Here is a picture of what happens when a boat hits the barrier. Better that than the piling!!


Notice how long the dock is. That's how far out it has to be to have any kind of water depth.




We anchored about 3:45 by Amelia Island. We will get to Georgia tomorrow.

More of St. Augustine, April 1

The slide show above is what we had planned to put in the blog yesterday. Unfortunately, Beth had "operator" issues and had to get in touch with Greg to find out what she was doing wrong. Here are more pictures of our time in St. Augustine.