You can monitor my trip at the link: Second Winds Progress Live
We awoke to a cold
misty day. The current in the marina was
flowing quite strongly so departure was not an immediate option. I was backed into my slip with the current
coming towards my stern. The problem was
that just across the alley were a number of other boats and to pull out under
power, I would need to get up to a speed faster than the current before I would
have steerage. And by the time I could steer, I would be crashing into the
other boats. So we waited.
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| We are seeing dolphins almost every day |
When the current was
down to about 1 knot, I decided to make a run for it. We cast off our lines, powered forward and as
I was leaving the alleyway, I skimmed past the last boat with less than 1 foot
of clearance between my stern rail and his anchor. Whoooo Haaaaa!
Out in the Waterway, we
had traveled about a mile when I went to have a drink of coffee. I realized that I had left my wonderful
stainless steel coffee mug sitting on the dock where I had been helping another
boater off. So, back to the marina where
I recovered my lost mug.
The first few miles of
the trip were cold. The cloudy misty
atmosphere into which we were heading was quite uncomfortable. I had finally broken out my down
jacket and
had put on my long johns so except for my face, I was warm. We finally turned south which placed the wind
at our back. We were also running with a
fairly swift tide so the effects of the wind were minimal. We were traveling down the wide expansive
Beaufort River at over 6 knots.
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| A large dredge at the entrance to Skull Creek |
From the Beaufort
River, we swung northwest into Port Royal Sound and the Chechessee River. There, the tides were heading in our face and
our speed immediately dropped down to about 2 knots. We traveled about 2 miles in that current
until we were able to turn west
into Skull Creek which forms the west bank of
Hilton Head Island.
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| The entrance to the lock at Windmill Harbor |
Skull Creek is a
winding shallow river that meanders past small islands and salt flats. At one point, Dwight was piloting the boat
and I was resting on the v-berth when I head the motor idle down. I got up to see that we had come up behind a
large cruising catamaran. Dwight was not sure that there was enough room
between the big boat and a lateral channel marker. I took over the helm, powered up, and
squeezed between the boat and the marker. I immediately turned to
starboard to
assure that I wasn’t in the boats way and ran aground solidly! I didn’t look ahead at the chart and the next
markers and missed the fact that there was a large shoal just past the point
where I had passed the cat. Running
aground for us is not a big problem. I
reached over and hit the switch to raise the keel and we were again on our way.
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| Sweet Pea heading into the lock |
About a mile down the
river, we came to the entrance of our destination marina. This high end place has built a set of lock
that captures high tides and impounds the waters to make a calm harbor. We pulled into the narrow lock where they had
vertical fenders that extended from the top of the lock chamber to below the
water line. The lock hands also threw a
mooring line to us. We were coming in at
low tide so the lock raised us up about 6 feet.
We then motored out into our assigned slip. There was not
current or not with which we
would have to contend.
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| The beautiful South Carolina Yacht Club |
Later, at around 4:30
we headed to the very exclusive home of one of the residents of the gated
community for a pizza party. This fellow
and his wife are volunteers for the marina and they gave us a wonderful
welcoming party. The view from their
beautiful home is a 270 degree panorama of the salt marshes and Waterway. The home and setting were amazing.
We socialized with
these wonderful folks until about 8:00 at which time we walked the ¾ miles back
to the boats. I showered in the fancy
shower house before heading to bed at 9:00.
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