Georgetown, SC - Charleston, SC - Beaufort, SC

After leaving Georgetown, we travelled down the ICW surrounded by marsh grass (cordgrass I'm told is the correct name) to find a bridge stuck in the closed position just north of Charleston. So we could not go to the Charleston marina where we planned to meet our family for the weekend. Bummer. Plan B quickly surfaced and we found a nice marina in suburban Charleston on our side of the broken bridge where we could stay Friday through Sunday morning. We spent the weekend visiting "the kids"; to us that means Dana & Steve; Mark, Christi and Owen. Photo above. They had to drive a little further to our "new" marina, but it was closer to the beach so some benefits could be claimed. Steve found great restaurants. After 2 days of eating at places he recommended for lunch, dinner & breakfast, Diane and I had celery and crackers for dinner Sunday night. We still have distended stomachs. To much good food but a good job by Steve as tour guide. After leaving Isle of Palms we crossed Charleston Harbor in a strong easterly against an ebb tide that threw up a sea of white caps sparkling in the afternoon sun. After an exciting transit of Elliot Cut where we only made 2.0 knots headway against a 3.5 knot current Diane found a great anchorage for the night. The past 2 days have been a motoring trip through creeks, rivers and land cuts as we proceed southward. Since leaving Charleston, we have travelled up the Stono River, through a land cut then down the North River, up the Dawho River, through North Creek and the Watts Cut into the South Edisto River upstream to the Fenwick Cut into the Ashepoo River upstream then through the Ashepoo-Coosaw Cut into the Coosaw River upstream to Brickyard Creek downstream into the Beaufort River to..........where else....Beaufort. Actually Port Royal Marina just next door to Beaufort. Each of these creeks, rivers and cuts has a scenic personality of its own; much like the personality and techniques of commercial fishermen we see along the way. Some fish for crab with trot lines, others with wire baskets (crab pots) on lines with floats to mark their location. Some shrimp boats are 80' long vessels with large crews fishing the rivers as they go ocean bound, others are converted 18' runabouts with crews of one that fish the creeks and sloughs. We saw two bald eagles yesterday. Last night we were anchored in one of the most beautiful spots of our whole trip. Photo above. Can you just imagine sitting in one of those two white lawn chairs overlooking the marsh, live oak trees, water and sunset? We saw our first live oak trees with spanish moss just below Charleston. Gone are the tall pines and cypress for now. Tonight in Beaufort we borrowed a marina pick up truck and ran to the grocery store to restock with fresh veggies for the next few days. It feels like we are close to home even though we still have over 700 miles to go. The trip home is rushing by too fast. We plan to slow down once we get to FL. We've kind of rushed the trip home so far due to concern about being caught on the coast with a tropical depression or hurricane approaching. Our new most favorite phrase is from the NOAA weather reports and National Hurricane Center saying "tropical storm development is not likely in the next 48 hours". We have been very lucky so far this summer and hope we continue the same good fortune for the remaining few weeks of hurricane season. We hope to be in Jacksonville in about a week. Then it's time for car shuffle, errands, boat maintenance and a chance to spend some time with Mark, Christi & Owen....maybe even catch a football game on TV and visit with their friends (that we consider our friends too). Isn't it nice to be friends with you childrens' friends? Then, after we've caught our breath, it will be off toward Miami, the Keys and up the Gulf coast. The map link shows our progress since leaving the Outer Banks of NC.