St Johns Yacht Harbor Marina

32°45′12″ N 80°0′46″

We left the marina at 7:00am this morning & are headed to Georgetown, SC. This will be a fairly long run – about 66 nm.

There was a big lightning storm last night followed by strong winds & a steady rain. It was good to be tied up to a dock.

It’s a nice day today with scattered clouds & little or no rain forecast.

Just a few minutes after we cast off we went through a very narrow channel called “Elliott’s Cut”

The current was very strong but thankfully there was lots of water under our keel.

The homes on each bank through the cut were very impressive.

We have now travelled about 271 nm since leaving Jacksonville FL. Other than the high temperatures & humidity it’s been a great trip. I hope the rest of it goes as well as it has to this point.

Here’s a photo of a page from the Waterway Guide we are referring to frequently along the way. It shows several of the places we have stopped at so far.

Cheers!

N 32° 25.149 W 080° 39.475

Friday morning we moved from the Beaufort City Marina to Lady’s Island Marina, which is just on the other side of the highway bridge – a 15 minute journey for us.

Friday was a provisioning day. Early in the morning we borrowed a courtesy car from the marina & drove to a local grocery store to stock up on fresh food, bottled water & many other necessities. We could only have the car for an hour so it was a “speed shopping” expedition.

Chris & I divided the grocery list in half, grabbed a couple of shopping carts & scooted up & down the aisles. 45 minutes later – mission accomplished!

We loaded the groceries onto the boat & headed for the other marina so we could tie up there by noon.

My buddy George picked us up at 1:00pm in his car & the shopping continued. West Marine, Lowes, Wal Mart , a local hardware store, a butcher shop & finally Publix….. whew, that was a marathon! There’s hardly any room left on the boat!

Back to the boat to drop off all the stuff we acquired & then off to George’s house for dinner.

About 3 years ago George & his wife Sandy built a new home just a few miles away from the marina we were docked at.

While en route to his house George gave us a “windshield” tour of Beaufort & area. He called it a windshield tour because it was too hot to get out of the air conditioned car to walk around. No argument from the passengers on that strategy.

All the older streets are lined with huge oak trees with lots of Spanish Moss hanging down from their branches.

George & Sandy’s home is in a golf course community. Not far from their home are several fresh water ponds that the golf courses use for drainage & for irrigating the fairways & greens. The pond in the photo above was a popular spot for birds to hang out. Another pond a few hundred yards away had 2 alligators sunning on the banks. Each one was about 6 feet long. George told me that there are gators as big as 11-12 feet in the ponds. No swimming there for sure!

George & Sandy cooked us a fantastic steak dinner supported by beautiful air conditioning, G&Ts, wine & great conversation.

It was wonderful to catch up with George & to finally meet Sandy – I’ve only known & worked with George for about 14 years! We also got to meet Sandy’s dad, Ken who is 99 years young!

George & I collaborated on a lot of projects over the years & had a lot of fun while doing it. That’s the way it should be.

We are now both retired & wondering why we didn’t do this 20 years sooner. I think that it might have had something to do with needing a steady income until the nest egg was big enough. 😉

I’ve often told people that I don’t miss the work but I do miss spending time & working with people like George.

It was great visiting with George & Sandy but now it’s time to continue our journey north. Next stop – Charleston!

Cheers everyone!

32°25′49″ N 80°40′19″ W

(photo below of the public walk along the downtown waterfront in Beaufort)

Yesterday we travelled from Thunderbolt, GA to Beaufort, SC. The trip took us about 7 hours & we passed Hilton Head Island on the route.

(photo below of properties & boating at Hilton Head)

There were lots of people out on jet skis & sailing dinghies so we had to pay close attention to the “fun hour” traffic.

George, a friend & former work colleague of mine at CH2M lives in Beaufort so I simply had to take the opportunity to make Beaufort a port of call on our journey north & have a visit with him. We had dinner last night in a very nice restaurant & today George has kindly offered to drive us around the city so we can pick up more groceries & other supplies for the boat. After that we will have dinner at George’s place.

The downtown & waterfront area public park area in Beaufort are exceptionally well done. Lots of interesting shops & restaurants within a 5 minute walk from the marina.

The heat wave continues & the forecast for today is that it’s going to be another scorcher!

Cheers!

32°1′27″ N 81°2′52″ W

(Thunderbolt Marina)

Today the boat stayed docked in Thunderbolt while Chris & I went by taxi to Savannah to tour the city.

We started the morning early with fueling up the boat, pumping out the waste holding tank & filling the fresh water holding tanks. That will allow us to get an early start tomorrow morning for our trip to Beaufort, SC.

I filled up the diesel fuel tanks in Jacksonville & with the tanks now topped up again here in Thunderbolt I was able to calculate the rate of fuel consumption so far. It works out to be about 1.5 Imperial Gallons per hour travelled (or about 5 miles per Imperial gallon) which is very economical for a boat of this size.

I will continue to track my fuel usage to double check the accuracy of my calculations. This is important information for me to have because the boat does not have any fuel gauges so I have to make sure that I don’t run out. The boat has a range of several hundred miles between fill ups so as long as I get fuel every 3 to 5 days I will be ok.

When we arrived in Savannah we took a hop on hop off trolley tour. It was very interesting & the driver had tons of interesting facts & trivia about the city & its history.

About 3/4 through the route we hopped off the trolley in the market area & found a good place to eat a late breakfast/early lunch.

The temperature was brutally hot today with a peak of 35 C that felt like 45 C with the humidex.

Even the tourist carriage horses were finding it too hot today. We were happy to see their tenders giving them shade & lots of water to drink in between tours.

Savannah is a very interesting and attractive city. I wish we could have had more time to walk around the squares but it was simply too hot. Time to head back to the boat.

We got back to the marina just in time to see a mega yacht coming into the boatyard.

This beauty makes my boat look tiny & it is now docked beside an even bigger mega yacht that is at least twice as big as this one.

After the “boat show sail past” Chris BBQ’d an excellent dinner of swordfish steak plus kebab skewers with shrimp, onion & zucchini.

When dinner was done I went up to the marina office/guest facilities area to shower & do my laundry. I met a couple of crew members from the mega yachts who were sitting out on the patio having a chat. (See photo below).

Rachel is originally from New Zealand & works on the yacht in the photo above. Derek is originally from South Africa & works on the other ship docked beside hers. (Photo below)

Talk about a small world – Rachel & Derek met 5 years ago while working an assignment on the same mega yacht. Then they went their separate ways. They met again today at a restaurant here in Thunderbolt – with neither of them having any idea that they were in the same port at the same time. Needless to say, they have a lot of catching up to do!

Rachel’s ship leaves tomorrow for the Mediterranean & Derek’s ship is getting ready to cruise the American Atlantic coastline for the summer. Safe travels to you both!

Tomorrow we continue north on our journey up the ICW to places where mega yachts cannot follow.

Cheers everyone!

I meant to start my previous post with a Happy Independence Day wish to all of my American friends.

It’s not midnight yet & there are fireworks going off all around the marina.

Happiness, good health, peace & prosperity to all of you & your families.

Wally