Isle of Hope to Fernandina Beach -- Day 11

Hilton Head, SC to Savannah, GA -- Day 10 (25 miles)

Morning bike ride to the beach and breakfast at the bakery on Hilton Head. Finally in shorts and t-shirt. 

Departed Hilton Head at 12:15pm, arrive Isle of Hope/Savannah, GA at 1:40pm. Easy day! Goodbye South Carolina, sad to see you go.

Drinks at the Rooftop Bar atop the Bohemian Hotel.

The Olde Pink House

The Mansion at 800 Drayton

Bar along the waterfront and Eagles game.

Beaufort, SC to Hilton Head, SC -- Day 9

An easy day! Knowing that fuel prices are outrageous at Hilton Head, I added 100 gals this morning before departing. Departed Beaufort at 10:45am, arrived Harbortown Yacht Basin on Hilton Head at 11:45am. 30 miles.  Dolphins popped up almost as soon as I left the dock in Beaufort. Always see that as the sign of a good day. Dolphins along the way and lots of dolphins on my arrival. Grabbed lunch at the Bakery at Harbourtown and then had a 2-hour conference call scheduled for the afternoon. 

Top of the lighthouse for sunset. Such a pretty spot.

Beaufort South Carolina -- Day 8 of Trip South

Charleston to Beaufort, SC ("Bu-fort" as opposed to "Bo-fort, NC). Easy 68 mile run on a beautiful day. Have all the back canvas down from moonlight cruise with Lexi last night. Love feeling a little less confined. Planned 10:15am undo lines in Charleston, all lines and fenders in and stowed by 10:30am and run for a 1:00pm (slack tide) arrival at Beaufort. Arrived at Beaufort at 12:45pm. Like a good plan, although I was 15 minutes early. Average speed 30.22mph (ran 35-37 but had a few sailboat slowdowns and a ripping current running against me in Wappoo Creek no wake zone). More dolphins today including a little guy all by himself. There have been a lot of comments about the currents here at the Town Docks so I wanted to arrive at slack tide. I did and it was as easy as could be. Later as the 7-1/2 foot tidal change occurred I could see what all of the fuss was about. The marina sits out in the Beaufort River and it really moves. If your coming here, plan your arrival and departure on the slack. 

The marina is connected to the Beaufort waterfront park which has been beautifully created. Went to lunch at Plums. Fine food, but the best part is the back porch overlooking the park and the river. Plums is also a hot night scene for the younger locals. Want to hear a local band try to play your favorite songs loudly, through a poor sound system? They had heart and a good crowd.  Took a carriage ride tour of the city. Beaufort is the 2nd oldest city in South Carolina and there is a lot of history here. There have also been a number of movie shoots here including Forrest Gump, The Big Chill, Prince of Tides, Forces of Nature, Rules of Engagement, Jungle Book, White Squall, Something to Talk About, The Legend of Bagger Vance, GI Jane, and The Last Dance.

I called Trina (regular ICW cruiser) to see if she had a dinner recommendation for me here. She was in the middle of her nightly sunset celebration in Marathon, FL. She has provided a number of great recommendations along the way. None for here unfortunately. So using every internet resource possible, I ended up choosing a restaurant called Breakwaters. Wow, what a great choice. It's upscale, but my jeans and polo fit in just fine. They pride themselves on their wine list and they have done a magnificent job of choosing. There were so many wonderful sounding menu choices that I ended up getting a sampler plate so that I could try 4 dishes. Everything was perfect. This restaurant is very professionally run, it shows in the service, the choices and the quality of the food. You could drop this restaurant anywhere in the country and it would be a hit.  I spoke with the owner Donna (her husband is one of the two Executive Chefs). They moved here from Atlanta and opened the restaurant 8 years ago. About 80% of the guests are local which says a lot about a restaurant of this scale and about their survival. Her and her husband travel to Savannah a couple of times each month so they gave me some great places to go there. If the chef of a restaurant you love, tells you the place he loves... you have to go. Secret for now.  Donna also told me that their number one competitor in town (in terms of quality & dining) is a restaurant called Saltus River Grill (nice fire pit outside on the river as there). If you've got 2 nights here, make that one of them as well although there are so many choices on the Breakwaters menu you may need to eat a few nights here. My server was named Alison, great service and she is a wine lover as well so when the dinner crowd was gone she sat down with me and made some nice additional recommendations. I tried a few. She filled me in on the local bar and restaurant scene as well as telling me about a lot of great things here I want to use for an episode of the show. Sorry not telling now, it's a show secret. 

Next stop, Hemingway's. This is a tiny local bar that you will only find if you are walking along the waterfront park (backside) of all of the restaurants on the main street. Drinks are cheap. The drink of choice... jello shots for $1. Pick your color. As the bartender said, they ALL taste like vodka. The walls and ceilings are covered in dollar bills. No jello shot for me after 3 glasses of wine at Breakwaters. I settled for a Margarita. I think I've had more to drink in the past 7 days then in the past 7 months. But it's the best way to really get the flavor of a town. I guess I could just put down $5 and ask for water and it would hurt less.

Charleston Summary -- Cruise South Days 6,7

Wednesday & Thursday (Nov 17 & 18) in Charleston. Lots and lots of walking around Charleston. Such a great city.  Dinner at SNOB (Slightly North of Broad) Wednesday night. Ate here 7 years ago when cruising South and loved it. Had a salad with carmalized pear that I have been craving ever since. I looked at their menu on line and it wasn't on there, bummer. Went for dinner and one of the items on the "Specials" menu... field green salad with carmalized pear, pistachios, cranberries and blue cheese (I substitute with goat)... don't know if that was exactly the same, but it satisfied my 7 year old craving perfectly.  As far as the rest of the meal... perfect.  A great Malbec to go with it. I'm not getting in to everything I eat, we each have our own tastes. I'm just going to tell you I am a foodie and this is a great restaurant. Whatever you order there should be wonderful. Mind you, I put quality and taste first. I haven't found any secret great bargains yet, just amazing food. After dinner I had planned to go to the Rooftop Bar but when I got there, the music was over and the place was dead. Ended up at a wine bar called Social. It was a popular place. The bartender poured me large pours of a lot of different wines, trying to find one that suited my taste. A lot of of pours. Not really impressed with any of them but it was nice to taste 6 different wines before my tab even started. Ended up doing a flight but didn't drink much of it. Walked the 2 miles or so back to the marina at midnight.  I have walked miles and miles and miles of Charleston, sometimes in the wrong direction, but enjoyed every minute of it. Such a beautiful town. Every street, I look at the houses and say "I could live there". Seems I could live almost anywhere in Charleston.


Took the 11am daily City Dock van ride to West Marine to get a new Shurhold boat brush pole. Saw mine disappear off the bow of the boat the other day while getting ready to wash the boat. There was a Harris Teeter supermarket there so I did a little provisioning and then pushed my cart full of boat supplies and groceries to the drive in ATM at Bank of America. Looked like a homeless person I'm sure. The courtesy van from the marina picked me back up at 12:30... shopping complete. Thursday afternoon Lexi came over and we did a little cell phone photo shoot. I put the picture of us on Facebook... you should see it in the next issue of Marinalife Magazine. Seriously, they asked me to do something for their Member Musing's column. One of the things I have to get is a new charger for my REAL camera. I have seen so many beautiful things that I wanted to capture and a cell phone just isn't cutting it. Lexi and I took the boat up the Ashley River to the next marina to get gas as a sunset cruise. No gas at the Megadock (City Marina), just diesel. Then off to a wonderful dinner at 39 Rue de Jean. Lexi is in her 2nd year at College of Charleston and I asked her to pick someplace she really wanted to go but hadn't been to yet. She gave me a list of 5, all sounded good but we chose 39 Rue de Jean. French influence. Normally I am scared when a restaurant has so many items on the menu, how can they possibly do them all well. I have to say, I have to say they have done it. Wow, everything was so good.

After dinner Lexi and I walked back to the marina, stopping at her house so that I could see it and meet her roommate. Such a great place and "Sami" (roommate) is sweet, funny, smiles a lot and a perfect personality fit with Lexi.  We got back to the marina at 8pm for a night cruise of Charleston Harbor. The water was so smooth and the light of the city and the almost-full moon made it possible to see for miles. We headed out for a 2-hour cruise around Charleston Harbor and up the Cooper River. A friend of Lexi's joined us. He's a boater and was eager to see how fast I could run. Conditions were so perfect and no one other than one larger container ship was in the harbor. We ran back down the Cooper River and across the harbor at 45mph. With a little country music as our soundtrack. Couldn't believe that it was the same harbor as the nasty one I came up a couple days ago. Love night boating with the moonlight. Tied up and got a ride from her friend back to the historical district so I could have a little wine and dessert at Kaminsky's. Walked back to the marina. What a perfect afternoon and evening.

Myrtle Beach, SC to Georgetown, SC (scratch that... Charleston, SC) -- Day 5 (100 miles)

Myrtle Beach, SC to Georgetown, SC (scratch that... Charleston, SC).
Tad flew out of Myrtle Beach this morning and so starts the single-handed running. Laundry before departure had me pulling out of Myrtle Beach at 11:45am for an easy 42 mile run to Georgetown. Normally I would have every marina I need booked all the way to Miami weeks before I even left, but I didn't... surprisingly (for those who know me well) I'm just doing it as I go. I went on Marinalife website late last night and booked slip at Harborwalk in Georgetown for tonight. Received email from Marinalife this morning telling me Harborwalk was full. If you're a cruising boater and don't know about Marinalife.com, you should. Check it out. Cruising concierge, discounts at marinas and on fuel... a great resource and great people. I have been a member for most of the past 10 years. Yesha at Marinalife found me an alternate marina in Georgetown but I just wasn't sure I wanted to be anywhere other than Harborwalk. The "Soaker the South Needs" was forecast to hit around 3pm... I headed off certain I would be in long before it hit. Cloudy skies made it easy to pick out marks (no sun in my eyes) and I was able to run quickly. Got to Georgetown at 1:30pm under high winds and ominous clouds. But off to the South the skies looked blue and inviting. I called Yesha and asked her to see if she could get me Charleston City Marina for the next 3 days, and just kept running South. Another 58 miles shouldn't be too bad and I could probably keep running along the edge of the storm without a care. Generally that was true.

The winds were high and the waves nasty on the Wacamaw River and Winyah Bay but I pounded on. I spotted a large, submerged, 8ft log in time to take action and radioed it back the the boats I'd passed earlier. (This part may be too descriptive for some) Normally I carry a couple empty Gatoraide bottles for a long boat delivery, but this was originally planned as only a couple of hours. No Gatorade bottles and no lunch pre-prepared. One of the challenges I found was that the winds (which were blowing 20-25) did not allow me to simply take the boat out of gear and run below for a moment, instead I had to point the boat towards a mark and leave it in gear, making minimal headway, to take a break. Otherwise the boat was quickly blown towards the side of the channel. I picked my spots very carefully through this mostly narrow run. You probably didn't need that bit of info, but it was another of the challenges for the day. About 20 miles past Georgetown, I got a call from Yesha saying that Harborwalk had a cancellation and could fit me. Oh well, I was committed to making it to Charleston and asked her to get me in there for the night. Marinalife took care of everything while I kept running and got me an inside slip at City Dock as I requested. I later found out that City Dock had been turning down people all day... Thank you Yesha!!!

So on I went. Somewhere in the middle of absolutely nowhere (Bulls Bay), my chart on the chartplotter ended it's charts. Humm, no problem, I have the next chart card I need to get me all the way to Florida... so I ran below and grabbed it, stuck it in and had absolutely no detail. Still trying to get to Charleston before the storm, I continued on with the paper charts. At the next no wake zone I called Navionics to find out what had happened. Turns out I needed to run a software update on my Raymarine Chartplotter (which requires downloading the update to my laptop and then writing it to a flash card and loading it to the chartplotter). That wasn't going to happen in those weather conditions. I had been keeping my position up to date on my paper flip charts during the whole run so I switched over and just used them. Running 35, looking at a paper chart, interesting challenge. Then came the rain. Not blinding, just enough to make me laugh at the whole situation. How many different stressers does it take before panic sets in and the person bolts for the surface? (A question for divers.)

An hour later it dawned on me as I went through Isle of Palms that Joe Armand had told me about the Navionics chart app for my phone and I used it to run up Charleston Harbor. Thank you Joe! Got in to City Marina in Charleston at 4:30pm. So my easy day turned in to a 100 mile (exactly) run. Georgetown will have to wait for another time.

Went out for some Charleston bbq and Lexi came to meet me. So great to see her. Haven't seen her since last April. Tomorrow she's giving me a tour around Charleston and coming over to walk the mile of megayachts at the marina. Worth the longer day to get to spend some extra time with her. By the way, for you Haven Harbour friends, I got to see Dave & Jackie of Haven Charters tonight. They are on their way to Key West with their boat. Jackie's mom & dad brought it to Charleston while Dave & Jackie finished up the charter season. They drove down in a rental car to meet up with their boat and just got here a few hours before I arrived. Jackie saw me pulling in to the marina (Dave and I had talked last week so I knew they might be here). They hope to head out and run offshore for a couple of days down to St. Augustine before heading on to Key West. Always nice to see people you know along the way South. I'm taking a couple of days here in Charleston before continuing South on Friday.

It was 70 degrees at 10pm, and the "soaker" has yet to turn in to much of anything but high winds.

Southport, NC to Myrtle Beach SC -- Day 4 (50 miles)

A relatively easy day. 9:45am departure, 1:45pm arrival in Myrtle Beach at the Marina at Grand Dunes. Far enough down Myrtle Beach to be past all of the no wake zones. The Sunset Beach pontoon bridge was reportedly no longer in service so I wouldn't have to factor it in the schedule... not true... it's still operational in terms of openings until about Christmas. They are dismantling it presently. Had to wait 45 minutes for the next opening. Ironically, I checked email while floating there waiting and there was an update email from Waterway Guide. It said "just heard this morning that the Sunset Beach Pontoon Bridge is still on hourly opening schedule"... had to laugh. I emailed back and said "yes it is, and I'm stuck waiting for it". 

Among the notable features of Myrtle Beach is a 3-mile long stretch known as the "Rock Pile". The channel is narrow and cut through the large boulders at points so you can see the tops of the rocks just a foot outside the channel.  This is not an area where you want to meet someone large coming the other way.  Most large vessels make a "Securite" announcement before entering the Rock Pile form the North or South so that other vessels know.  For me, the 3 miles takes less than 5 minutes to transit but for a sailboat or trawler traveling 6 knots, this can be a 1/2 hour of anxiety. Today, the water level was so high that you couldn't see the tops of the boulders. I think I prefer seeing them, to knowing they are there just below the surface.  A little video of the run through the Rock Pile.

 

A lot of people go outside (ocean) to skip Myrtle Beach because of the long slow passage, but in the end, it was nice to slow down the pace a little after the past 3 days. Marina at Grand Dunes is a nice marina with a secluded basin off the ICW channel and out of the passing wakes. They greet you with a bottle of wine and offer a special price on a dinner for two at the Ruths Chris restaurant on site. After washing down the boat, we took advantage of the dinner special and some prime beef. After dinner an $18 cab ride took us to Broadway on the Boardwalk, a massive complex of shopping, dining and entertainment. It was off season and late so many of the businesses were closed but I imagine this is a very busy place in season.  We found a bar and watched the first half of the Eagles blow-out of the Redskins. Tad flies out of Myrtle Beach in the morning so I'm single-handed from here. He's done a great job, has taken a ton of photos on his cell phone and even managed to start a new song. It's been nice having someone help me through the past 530 miles. More dolphins today. 

Tad shot this video with his cell phone during the first 5 days and 530 miles of the trip South (including the bay). He edited it on some free software and did a great job with the music as well. You get a little feel for running 35 mph in the 3-4 footers coming down the Chesapeake but that was just the beginning... they grew and grew. No video of those 8 footers, just holding on. Thanks Tad, nice job!