Charleston, SC

First thing on the morning of May 8 was devoted to exercising. Jonny took the paddle board out and Lynn did her onboard routine. We soon set out for our next destination - Charleston.  Once again, the weather was outstanding with not an cloud in the sky. We left at dead low tide.  The tides here are not insignificant and can vary up to 5 feet.

We cruised along the Stone River and Elliot Creek. Lots of winding passages required us to always be on the alert. As we neared Charleston we passed many gracious homes lining the waterfront. 

 

Arriving in Charleston at 12:45, we were directed to our spot at Charleston City Marina and passed their mega dock. What an amazing sight! A dock that is over 1500 feet long lined with huge yachts. Two dockhands came out to help us tie up in a running current. As usual, Jonny did an excellent job maneuvering our single-engine Zendo into our assigned space.

The marina provides a free shuttle service into town so we took advantage of that and spent the afternoon strolling around this historic city. We were interested in doing a walking tour but we were too slow to the draw - next time!  

We did, however, visit the Old Exchange and Provost Dungeon, South Carolina’s most historic building.  Here Patriots were imprisoned, the Constitution was ratified and George Washington was entertained. It provided an interesting insight into South Carolina’s history. 

On the advice of our shuttle driver, we stopped for happy hour at a restaurant called Blossom and had dinner at Poogan’s Porch.  Charleston has a plethora of excellent restaurants, many of them quite expensive. We have a couple of favorites from past visits but decided to try a new one. The food was quite good and reasonably priced for this town. 

We decided to walk the two miles back to the boat because we were so full. It was a lovely evening and a very pleasant way to end the day.

Church Creek Anchorage, SC

After a busy morning doing chores, we left Beaufort at 11:15 on Monday, May 7 to make our way towards Charleston.  It was a beautiful day, mostly sunny but with those beautiful fluffy clouds that one sees on low humidity days. We had an uneventful day onboard with Lynn keeping busy with her knitting and Jonny at the helm.

We passed through the Oshepoo-Coosaw Canal that connects two rivers. The canal was heavily silted but there were barges working on dredging it. 

 This area has many interesting names including Snuggedy Swamp, White House Woods and Ball Spit.  We cruised along the Dawho River where we passed some local fisherman. 

We anchored off of the Wadmalaw River on Church Creek, a large scenic spot that we shared with six other boaters.

A lovely sunset was the backdrop to our homey, peasant dinner of cabbage and beans. We decided to eat simply since we had a fabulous dinner the night before and expected to have another in Charleston the following evening!  

Beaufort, SC

Jonny started the day at our Station Creek anchorage on Sunday, May 6 by taking his paddle board out for the first time to explore this isolated and serene anchorage.  

The weather started out cloudy but we had a short cruise and by the time we reached Beaufort, SC the sun had come out.  We arrived at noon at the Downtown Marina of Beaufort.  

We spent the entire afternoon cleaning the boat on the inside (Lynn) and outside (Jon) and did miscellaneous chores including ordering a banner with our boat’s name because when the dinghy is on the davit our boat name is obscured. 

We think the town of Beaufort is the quintessential Southern small town.  It has a lovely waterfront park and beautiful historic homes.  We took a long stroll through town after showering and dressing for dinner walking through the narrow streets lined with charming shops and stately homes.

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Lots of sweet-smelling Confederate jasmine was everywhere including a hedge that lined an entire corner lot. The scent was intoxicating!

We had dinner at our most favorite restaurant from our travels (including our Down East Loop trip). It is called Griffin Market and is owned by an Italian couple who made their way from the Piedmont area of Italy via Washington, D.C. The food is excellent!  Lucky for us, it was Sunday night when they have a prix fixe menu in which every single item offered was just outstanding!  Seated next to us was a couple who purchased two bottles of Italian wine. When Lynn inquired what they bought, we struck up a conversation and realized that we had met them in our travels over the years.  We spent the next hour chatting with them and arranged to meet in Charleston for dinner in two days.

The next morning Lynn used the marina’s laundry facilities while Jonny borrowed the marina’s courtesy car to do some grocery shopping.  We shoved off by 11 a.m. Is it any wonder that Beaufort is one of our favorite stops?

Station’s Creek off the Beaufort River

It was time to leave our very quiet anchorage on Redbird Creek by 8:30.  We needed to reach the potentially “hellish” Hellgate Passage on a rising tide because it is notoriously shallow.  Our destination was an anchorage somewhere south of Beaufort, SC. We made it through the passage unscathed and proceeded on our way. Quite a number of dolphins crossed our path throughout the day but it’s always challenging to snap a photo of them.

We passed many beautiful areas just south of Savannah where lovely homes on lushly landscaped lots with very long docks lined the waterfront. A particularly picturesque area was adjacent to the Isle of Hope Marina.  

As we cruised east of Savannah, we went by the childhood home of our good friend, Lange King.  The white pillared home sits a large lot on a bluff overlooking the river and has a genteel Southern charm.  The setting is reminiscent of a Pat Conroy novel.  Later that evening we toasted Harry King, a unique character, who we had met several times over the years.

The landscape along this route is very subtle and evocative with windswept grasses and occasional hammocks of taller trees.  The waterway undulates with many S turns requiring attentive navigation.

We chose a delightful anchorage about two hours south of Beaufort called Station’s Creek off of the Beaufort River. We were the only vessel anchored here and we were surrounded on all sides by this pristine landscape.

Upon arriving, Jonny took the dinghy out for a spin and got a little exercise by rowing back.  

After our toast to Harry, we had dinner on the aft deck accompanied by Georgio who decided to venture out on deck.

 Tomorrow, Beaufort, SC!

Redbird Creek Anchorage, GA

Jonny started the day, on Friday, May 4, swabbing the dew that accumulated on the decks at our anchorage.

Afterwards, he was able to finally raise and secure our new dinghy on the davit system that we’ve had and never used for several years.

Our day included a beautiful low country cruise on a clear and temperate day with no humidity. Passing miles of marshlands, we saw dolphins, jumping fish and lots of bird life.  We made our way up the notorious Mud River, one of the shallowest passages on the ICW. The only signs of civilization were a few fisherman and the very occasional boat that passed by. 

We traveled all day leaving at 8 a.m. and arriving at our anchorage at 4.  We found an isolated spot off of the Ogeechee River on Redbird Creek. Lynn tried her hand at setting the anchor but it was too challenging due to opposing winds and currents which didn’t allow the anchor line to tighten easily. So Jonny took over and Lynn will keep working on this skill,

After a nice relaxing nap and reading session, we had cocktails and nibbles on the fly bridge followed by leftovers for dinner on the aft deck. By this time, the sun had set and tiny gnats were beginning to appear and it was time to retire to the saloon.

Brunswick, GA

We got a leisurely start at 10 am on Thursday, May 3 after Jonny did some engine maintenance and Lynn did her 10 minute rigorous boat work-out. We followed a sinuous route crossing the border into Georgia. (It literally took us 9 days to go from Miami Beach to the Florida/Georgia line)! We cruised through Cumberland, St. Catherine and St. Simon Sounds on a mostly sunny day with light winds and very little boat traffic. 

Our goal was to reach Two Way Fish Camp, a remote backwater in Brunswick, GA which had the cheapest fuel prices around and a great, casual seafood restaurant. We fueled up at their very funky marina (hoping against hope that their fuel was clean).  We stayed tied up at the fuel dock and went over to the popular restaurant where we feasted on a huge shared meal of shrimp, scallops, oysters, fish and crab legs. Yum!

From there we moved Zendo over to a lovely and very quiet anchorage, the same area where we stayed when we were on our Down East cruise three years ago.

Fernadina Beach, FL

We had planned to leave Jax Beach early on Tues., May 1 bound for a Cumberland Island anchorage but we were considerably delayed.  We had to call in a plumber to fix some holding tank problems and that, of course, took longer than expected.  We also were preparing to tow the dinghy, affixing its registration numbers and trying out our recently repaired outboard. 

Jonny and John Bragg, the very competent plumber whose company is Royal Flush, had to run out to West Marine for parts.  When they returned, John kindly lent Lynn his truck to go to the grocery store.  In the meantime, Natalie came by to return our laundry which she had insisted upon doing for us after Georgia peed on the bathroom rug! Thanks Natalie - such service!

We didn’t shove off until after 2 pm.  Traveling north from Jacksonville takes us through beautiful, peaceful marshlands, a landscape that we find find to be very tranquil. A number of dolphins frolicked along the way.

It was too late to make it to Cumberland Island so instead we chose an anchorage in Fernadina Beach with a nice view of the colorful downtown area and a more industrial view of the local pulp factory.  

Lynn had been cooking a one pot chicken dinner in her new SmartPot which we had for dinner - thanks to Cathy Tisdale’s generous birthday gift to us. Afterwards, we spent the evening as we often do, planning the next day’s trip and updating the blog.