Finishing the Loop #3 - South Carolina

Friday 26^th April - Beaufort SC

The engines started at 3am, so I figured we were going down the ICW and I wanted to see that.

Sure enough, shortly after departing Savannah, we turned into the ICW and followed it all the way to Beaufort SC (pronounced Bewfit) - to distinguish from Beaufort NC (pronounced Bowfort). The wind was a gusty NE around 20kts, so it wouldn’t have been pleasant out in the open sea. We went slow through the first canal in the ICW, known as Fields Cut, because that’s where the worst shoaling was, but it was high tide so no issue. Daybreak was at 6.30 as we were approaching Port Royal Sound, after which it was windy up river to Beaufort  

We were docked at the Downtown marina and took the Horse and Buggy tour around the historic part of town. Lots of old “Antebellum” houses and references made about the movie “Forrest Gump”, most of which was filmed there.

At one time properties were taxed on the number of chimneys, so they built chimneys
with more than one flue to get around the tax. This one has 6 flues on 2 chimneys

Then they put a tax on the size of the front porch as defined by the main entry front stairs....

So they built huge porches, but had the stairs to smaller ones as the main entry

These stair go nowhere. TRhe house burned down and the owners were so gutted
they never rebuilt and put a caveat on the property that said the stairs must remain
there in perpetuity...so they did

Back at the ship, it was the “welcome aboard party”, free cocktails and hors d’oeuvres (scallops wrapped in bacon, prawns etc) then the movie “Midnight in the garden of good and evil” – which turned out to be a bit boring and I went to sleep before the end – Frankly I would rather have watched Forrest Gump! (but I had been up since 3am!)

BTW, Beaufort was where we stayed for 2 nights after we had put Loopy Kiwi on the ship in Savannah  and before travelling home back in 2013

Saturday 27^th  - Charleston SC

We departed Beaufort at midnight as a repeat of yesterday, ie via the ICW at high tide, but I decided to forego the spectacle and didn’t get up to see it until 6am. By this time we had wended our way along the ICW and were entering the Wappoo Creek, just short of the Ashley river, on which the Charleston Downtown marina is located. Lots of very posh boats in here

In the morning, we took a cab ride downtown to the city markets, while others took the all day tour of the city (we had visited Charleston back in 2013 and been to some of the places that they were going to). We then found a free shuttle bus that toured round the downtown on three different routes, including one that took us back to the marina, so we used that and were back at the ship in time for lunch with the other 3 people who hadn’t gone on the tour. In the afternoon we watched  the comings and goings of the myriad of boats up and down the river full of youngsters on funning about – but it was Saturday, after all, and quite a good one at that.

Over the river were a couple of yachts that seemed to be parked as victims of the last hurricane surge that came this way

We had a lecture on “the battle of Charleston” from our historian, John, and then an early night as we are going “outside” overnight to get to Georgetown and the Atlantic is expected to be a little rolly for a time.

Sunday 28^th  - Georgetown SC

Which is what it was, until we got out into deeper water and turned North to run with a following sea. Again, we departed at midnight and again, I didn’t get up to watch. At daybreak, we were just entering the channel to Winyah Bay, which is the largest estuary in Sth Carolina and the 3^rd largest in the USA (The Chesapeake being the largest). There were a few Shrimp boats about, one of which trawled across directly in front of us and across the navigation channel, so our skipper had to go round behind him to avoid a collision.

We continued on to Georgetown, 10NM further up the Waccamaw river (these are real names – I am not making them up!). This is a small harbour, barely wide enough to turn around, so that’s what we did on arrival so the captain didn’t have to do it tonight , in the dark, when we leave. Several boats moored nearby made this an interesting exercise.

I said the  harbour was small …..well…so is the town. And, being Sunday, it was also closed! I took a walk up the main street and back down the boardwalk, and was back at the boat within ½ an hour.

We pulled out of Georgetown at 8pm and headed back down the Waccamaw and out to sea again for the overnight run up to the next Port of call, Wilmington, NC.