Into South Carolina

Livin on the road my friend, was gonna keep you free and clean.

Now you wear your skin like iron, your breath's hard as kerosene. -Pancho and Lefty, by Townes Van Zandt


Plenty of extra time this morning since we had to wait until about 7:30 for the tide to turn and start coming in. With the Savannah River in sight from our anchorage, we headed through the Elba Island Cut and forded the mighty Savannah with heads swinging side to side to check for approaching freighters. All was quiet and still without another boat in sight as we entered the Fields Cut north of the river and into South Carolina. Star was standing up on the bow with Chief on a leash, since he hadn't done his morning...duty before leaving and was acting restless. Beep,beep,beep!!! The depth sounder yelled at me. Our 10 feet of water had dropped to 7, and then back up to 8. I just had time to clear the alarm on the screen of the chartplotter when Beep,beep,beep!!!Bam! We came to a sudden lurching stop and Star & Chief surged forward into the bow rail. It finally happened, we had run aground.

We were only travelling 6mph, so this isn't like crashing in a car, but it's still heart pumping adrenaline action. Luckily, it was just a thin ridge of mud across the channel, and our momentum pushed us right through it, still continuing on at 1 mph with the engine in neutral as we watched the depth increase again. We had 1.8 feet of tide above low at the time, so it was a definite 4 foot spot.

We continued on unperturbed and passed beautiful Hilton Head Island where as we expected the normally relentless horseflies succumbed to the will of the wealthy, who simply would not tolerate a biting fly on their island. The dark clouds began to gather over our shoulder as we sailed out into the Port Royal Sound. With full jib out and Smokey the Engine running hard, we just skirted the edge of one thunderstorm and turned up the Beaufort River only to run smack into another. Just a little rain and no major winds as we passed Paris Island, the roots to many a Jarhead's fond memories. With the sky brightening and the dense haze of a spring shower still in the air, we pulled up to the fuel dock of the Downtown Marina here in Beaufort, SC. We're still trying to sort out how long we will stay here. We only want to spend about 10 days and then get moving again, but they have a ridiculous pricing structure here. The weekly dockage rate is $1.45 a foot per night. The monthly rate is $15 a foot. So 10 nights at the weekly rate costs the same as one month. For the same price, we'll use their services and courtesy car for a month.

Dinner after arriving was an Indian Treat, courtesy of Sono and Andy in Gainesville, of Chicken Malabar with a side of white rice. Mmmmm!

The sweet smell of the South, of camellias and azaleas, clings to Beaufort's ancient and historic buildings. Around America, Walter Cronkite