Lorenzo & Delois Johnson

We had a really good travel day today.  At approximately 1 PM, we rafted and anchored in South Santee River near Browns Island. 

We ate dinner on C-Life, and a good time was had by all.  Tomorrow, We will travel past Charleston to anchor in Church Creek, about 60 miles from Beaufort, SC.  Wednesday night will be spent at the Port Royal Marina in Beaufort, SC.

The weather has been really good.  No rain, very little wind, and really warm.  We do not need any heat at night. 

Lil David is performing perfectly.  I am now more relaxed, since everything has been proven to be operating properly.

We had a good travel day today.  The first day of a trip is always tense, inactivity on the water makes me feel very vulnerable until the boats systems have all shown that they are working properly.  Tomorrow, we will have a more relaxed day, as our confidence level improves. 

We are getting close to our cast-off date.  We are planning to leave on Sunday, 1-8, to head for Marathon FL.  We will be traveling in the company of Robert and Kay Creech on 3-C’s, and with Louis and Diane on BELALONA.

Lil David is ready to go.  Had Him lifted out of the water on Monday, and inspected and cleaned the running gear.  Found the port propellor had a slightly bent blade, so the spare prop was installed and the bent prop was taken to Wilmington for repairs.  Everything else was in good condition.

We were docked in our slip in Holden Beach by 4 PM, after a leisurely cruise from the anchorage at Brantley Island.  Went to the house and looked at the yard, found some broken pipes from the winter, and had to overcome the urge to get back on the boat and head North.  It is what is, and we will work to make “is” a better thing.

Today does not seem like Sunday.  We had a good travel day today, with no problems or concerns.  We left Charleston around 7:30 AM, and had lots of other travelers on the waterway to keep us company.  We had a few tense moments with shallow water resulting from full moon low tides, but otherwise it was really great.

Butler Island is about 10 miles north of Georgetown, SC.  It is a really great place to anchor for the night.  There are several other boats anchored in the area, but there is lots and lots of room available.

The weather has turned very cool tonight.  We have not had the heat on since the first week of our trip, in the midle of January,  but I may have to use it tonight.  There is a beautiful full moon in a very pretty setting.  We are really enjoying our last night at anchor for  what might be a long time.

We are expecting to be in Holden Beach by mid afternoon tomorrow.  I really hate to see this really enjoyable adventure dome to an end, but such is life.  There will be others.

We left Beaufort at first light this morning.  We looked closely at the tide tables and our travel route for today, and wanted to get through several areas where shallow water is a problem, before low tide.  A tide range of 9 feet is tough to deal with. 

We left some of those low spots deeper than they were before we passed through.  Our timing was not perfect, but it was adequate.  Starrie and Portia are adept at moving mud with the props.

Todays route was very challenging due to the low water levels, large tidal ranges, and sometimes unexpected fast tidal flows.  The tidal current flow in Elliot Cut was over 6 knots.  That can be scary when You are being pushed through a rock lined channel by a 6 knot current.   It is like a runaway train with no brakes.

We arrived in Charleston around 3 PM, so we had time to go downtown for Lois to shop in the Market.  We had dinner at one of our favorite seafood restaurants, and then returned to the boat.  The marina courtesy car provided transportation.  Charleston is hosting sailboat races this weekend.  We were very lucky to find space at a marina.   We might stay another day to allow Lois to shop some more for the Grandson that is due in July, and another benefit is avoiding the sailboat races in the harbor tomorrow.

We are almost home, and that brings both sadness and joy.  Glad to be home with friends and family again, but I sure hate to see this really good time end.  I really like not having anything that I MUST do and not looking at all the things I should do.  This is a really simple and uncomplicated life style.

We had a good travel day today and covered 88 miles in order to reach a good stopping place.  We are docked at Lady’s Island Marina, in Beaufort, SC.  This is a really beautiful and convenient place to stop.  The 9 foot tides are to be accounted for and plan accordingly, but overall it is a great stop.  The marina has a good restaurant on the premises.  Within three blocks walking distance:

1. Publix grocery store

2. Walgreens Drug Store

3. Ice cream store (Dairy Queen)

3. ABC store, and many other stores that boaters like to visit.  The best of all is that You pass the Dairy Queen going and coming when You go to the Publix or Walgreen.

We have put this stop high on our list of places to visit again.  The town is very pretty with lots of big live oaks and really beautiful old houses. 

Overall, a very good day for us.

Tonight we are anchored in one of our favorite places, Kilkenny Creek.  We are about 35 miles from the SC/Ga border, so we have traveled almost across the state of Ga. today.  We travelled 98 miles today.  We left the Cumberland anchorage at 7AM, and dropped anchor in Kilkenny Creek at 6 PM.  No rest today for Portia and Starrie.

We now have the most challenging portion of the trip behind us.  The Georgia ICW is challenging due to shallow water, extreme tides and resultant tidal currents, and the many many narrow and twisting channels.  We looked at everything (tide times at different locations, expected weather, etc.) yesterday and decided not to go to St Marys for the shrimp diner, since that would make us an hour later arriving at a key destination.  It all worked out perfectly, and we had a great travel day with high tides when and where we needed it.  We covered the same distance today that required two travel days when we were heading South in January.  The stress level was much lower, because we did not have to slow and search for deeper water. 

Tomorrow, we will travel to somewhere around Hilton Head, SC and spend the night there. 

The cooler weather has been really appreciated.  It makes anchoring a lot more enjoyable.

We are anchored at Cumberland Island, Ga.  We are in Ga.  but just barely.  We had a good trip today; no mishaps and no problems. 

We shopped on the internet for fuel, but the best we could get was $3.97/gal.   Took on 453 gal, but now all tanks are full.

We are anchored near Cumberland Island.  We are anchored near the Rangers Station and the dinghy dock.  We were happy when we spotted a herd of the wild horses that inhibit this island as they came to the beach.

There are 12 other boats anchored here for the night.  It is quite a sight to see the boats sitting at anchor, approximately 200 yards separating them, and glowing from their anchor lights and the sparce moonlight.  We sat on the bow for quite  a long time enjoying the view and the absolute quite.  A glass of good wine makes it enjoyable enough to make You wonder should You really be planning to give this up, even for a short time.  If I could have this and the grandkids with me too, I know what the answer would be.

 We are enjopying the cooler weather as we travel North.  The 90+ degree days were beginning to lose their charm.  The water temperatures were in the mid 80’s, so at night the boat was sitting in a large body of warm water.  I do not like to leave the generator running while we sleep, so we depended on electric fans to keep us comfortable while we slept.  No problem when we spend the night in a Marina.

Tomorrow, we will travel to Killkenny creek and anchor there.  It is one of our favorite places to stop, and this will be the third time we have have spent the night there.  It will be a long day to reach KillKenny Creek.

Thursday should find us in South Carolina.  We are pushing ahead a little bit, looking forward to spending the weekend in Charleston.  We should arrive in Charleston on Friday evening.   We are expecting my oldest brother and His wife to join us there for the remainder of the trip home, and Lois and I are really looking forward to having them onboard, even though it is for just a few days..

We are in St Augustine Fl tonight.  Arrived rather late (5:30PM) due to the manatee zones requiring us to run at basically idle speed.   Traveled 82 miles today.

We are going to relax tonight and get an early start tomorrow morning.  The call of home gets louder as we get closer.  We are hoping to stop and fuel and then continue on into Georgia.   

Georgia is approximately 64 miles away.  We will have to anchor or travel extra miles to find a marina in that area.   That area is near the Kings Bay Submarine  Base, and lots of restrictions apply.

The boat is running very good.  Portia and Starrie seem to sense that we are going home, and they are really getting the job done.  We are having a very good trip.