Charleston to Jekyll Island

Nov 10 2010

We left Charleston at 10:00 to make the 10:30 Wappoo Creek bridge opening. We had a rising tide and carried that most of the trip. Most of the trip was uneventful except for the entrance from North Edisto River into Dawho Creek which is shoaling and being the lead boat we had to thread our way carefully through the entrance and follow the buoys and not the chart. But once around the first turn it straightened out and was 4 to 5 meters deep.

We kept up our winding trip until we stopped about 16:30 to anchor below Alligator Island on the South Edisto River for the night. After dinner we sat out and watched the stars on this dark clear night. There were thousands of stars; so bright that you could see their reflections on the calm water on this windless night.

In the morning we got another early start. Our friends on Kajon had hung back with Password that was having transmission trouble. They were a few miles behind us in our twisty-turny route but not that far as the crow flies. Some places you can go for a half hour or more and then look over your shoulder and see boats and bridges that are barely a quarter mile away going in the opposite direction and you know you were just there. At 09:55 we passed mile mark 525 south of Norfolk VA. Our plans were now to be in St Mary’s in time for the American thanksgiving were the cruisers all meet up for a huge potluck hosted by the town. We were motoring to Beaufort SC and as we got close another boat called us to let us know the bridge times had changed and we would not get there in time for the 11:00 opening; so we ended up anchoring above the bridge and having lunch while we waited for the 13:00 opening. After we passed through we anchored just below the marina and put the outboard on the dingy and headed for the dingy dock. We found the showers and headed back to the boat for our bath stuff and went back to take a nice long hot shower for a dollar. We then found a Florida chart book, the only one we didn’t have, that had just arrived and bought that and a few post cards and headed back to the boat to get our laptop. We toured town for a bit and then found an internet café to check emails and update our blog. The sun sets early and by the time we’d had a few coffees and chatted with friends it was getting pretty dark out and the ride back was quite cold.

We left at 06:30 in the morning and followed our friends down the Beaufort River heading for the sea. We were talking about our next destination and decided to try for Savannah Ga. So instead of going out we stayed inside and headed for an anchorage at Herb creek. We stopped at Thunderbolt Marina for fuel before we made our way around to the anchorage at Herb Creek for the night. It was another chilly night and in the morning we had decided to skip Savannah and push on to warmer climes. As we rounded a bend in the river we saw our friends on Mandate at Isle of Hope Marina. After chatting with them we decided to stay there and see Savannah after all and a historic plantation site and are glad we did. Savannah has kept a lot of its early history intact including a street paved with ballast stones from its early days as a colonial and post revolution port and center of commerce for the fledgling nation.

There are town square parks every couple of blocks and lots of sites to see and relax in.

We had four hours on our loaner car and spent most of it touring Savannah after a quick shopping trip to a Wal-Mart we returned the car only a few minutes late. Later on we rode the marina bikes to a plantation and toured the plantation of one of the earliest settlers in Georgia. Later that evening we had dinner with Rob and Sue and planned our next day. At 09:30n we left on a rising tide for our passage through the next sections of Georgia. Our destination that night was the Wahoo River. We are now 590 miles south of Norfolk Va.