Wednesday, May 1, 2013 – Beaufort (Mile 539) to Isle of Palms (Mile 458):

            PHEW! What a day!

            But first – Happy Birthday to Miss Lucy Tickly Whiskers who is 11 years old (maybe today).  Yes, this is her “real” name, which would be written on her birthday invitations if one was so inclined to give a cat a birthday party.  She is, however, officially middle-aged, so maybe she wouldn’t want a birthday party – just some liquid from the tuna fish can.  We are not sure if May 1^st is her actual birthday.  As a matter of fact, it probably isn’t as she was a feral kitten who was born under our neighbor’s porch and rescued from having fallen into a 4’ window well by our neighbor who saved her and her sister.  After I did some mighty powerful convincing, Bob agreed that we should give her a home.  So we are only guessing at her birthday, but May 1^st seemed like a good choice, but we do know she is 11 years old.  She goes by a couple of other names as I have mentioned in previous writings – Missy Mouser, Kitty Cat, and Lucy – and a few other names that are unprintable from time to time.  Even if she doesn’t know it, we do know that she is one very lucky kitty.  So Happy Birthday to the little hairball!

Happy Birthday, Lucy

            So we woke up to a relatively dreary morning, and we weren’t expecting the day to get much better, so we wanted to get going because we think the weather is only going to deteriorate.  As we started mulling around, Bob happened to notice a cruise ship heading north on the waterway to the Town of Beaufort – it was the Grand Mariner from Blount Cruises, which we understand are one of the nicest cruise lines in the U.S.  I felt another little twinge of jealousy of the passengers who were just beginning to have breakfast served to them as I made coffee and cereal.

Grand Mariner

            We are at the Port Royal Landing Marina, which is one of the nicest marinas on the waterway.   It is a family run operation, and the people couldn’t be nicer.  They have a little restaurant next to the office that just serves “bar” food, and last night we walked up there and I had a delicious mahi-mahi sandwich.  I know the menu said “Mahi-mahi”, but I’m not sure that is what you really get anymore, but it didn’t matter, the fish was delicious.  We are at the end of the dock, tied up on the outer face dock, and this is quite a walk up to the office and restaurant.  Bob and I started trying to guess just how long the dock is, and this morning when I walked up to the office to ask them if they would help us with the lines as we left the dock this morning, I asked them how long the dock was.  Well, it is 1000, yes, 1000 feet long!  The dock people use a golf cart to “commute” from the office out to the fuel dock!  We certainly got our exercise walking up and back and then having to negotiate the steep ramps when the tide was out!

1000' long dock

Steep ramp at low tide

            As we leave Beaufort it is cloudy and cool.  I have on warm clothes again.  We think we are possibly in for three days of windy, cold weather although it seems like every weatherman has a different forecast.  No wonder I zone out when I try and listen to the weather.  The shoreline lined with beautiful homes would be gorgeous if it was sunny and warm, but it is lovely anyway.  

            Our first obstacle is the Ladies Island Swing Bridge, but because we are at low tide, we are able to go under the bridge.  However, there is a sailboat ahead of us, and we follow that boat through, but not before the bridge tender decides to close the bridge as we are motoring through.  It was ok, but it is still disconcerting.   A little while later we heard a Coast Guard announcement of the radio that this bridge had broken down later in the day.  I’m so glad we were able to get under it when we did!

            So out of the Beaufort River and into the Coosaw River.  Along about this time Bob and I discussed whether we should anchor out before we got to Charleston or try and go through Charleston and get that passage behind us.   We were making really good time, so we decided to try and make Charleston, but to see how it went as we traveled along.  The Coosaw River passes through St. Helena’s Sound and into the Ashepoo Coosaw Cutoff.  Where do they get these names?

            Bob has timed our passage through all these tricky places so we have the tides and currents, hopefully, in our favor, and so far so good.  The first Ashepoo Coosaw Cutoff takes you into Rock Creek and just a short bit after that you turn left into the cutoff again and right into the Ashepoo River, and from there left into Fenwick Cut…

            …but then…

            HOLY YIKES!!!

            The synchronizer decides to quit working! The synchronizer is the little gizmo that allows you to use the two throttles as one.  Well, when this happens, one throttle for some reason (I know a mechanic could clear this up) decides to go full-speed ahead – in this case the port throttle, and this causes the boat to turn to the right and try to run aground – which in turn causes my eyeballs to fall out of my sockets and then continue to get as big as saucers as I see the marsh coming closer and closer.  The “cut” is very narrow, and you don’t have too much time to make a mistake and correct it.  After jumping around, Bob finally turns the synchronizer off, then pulls the throttles back and puts the boat in neutral.  I don’t know how we kept from charging into the marsh at full speed and being lost forever, but somehow the boat straightened out and I thought everything was going to be ok again, but then…  Bob says, “I just want to make sure the synchronizer is really not working.”

            What – not working?  What do you mean – not working?  And he wants to check this again in this little tiny narrow cut, which is getting narrower and narrower as we go through it.  And I say, “No…no…please don’t check it in here…”   But does he listen to me?  Noooooo…..nope….he pulls out the synchronizer knob, and guess what happens????  Yep, we head for the marsh at full speed!  How did I get talked into doing this trip???  I think he decided then that the synchronizer was definitely not working.  I’m sure I have angered the Sea Gods.

            Meanwhile, the sky is getting grayer and grayer and the gun-metal gray water is starting to get a little choppier.

            This little Fenwick Cut goes into the South Edisto River where Bob decides he has to pass a little blue sailboat.  I just close my eyes to keep them from falling out of my head again, and we get around the little boat without causing too much wake.

            From South Edisto we have to go through Watts Cut, which fortunately presents no problems.  Watts cut goes into North Creek and into the Dawho River.  Now believe it or not, every now and then we get a glint of sunshine on the water.  Now we enter the Wadmalaw River and then into the Stono River.  There are two trawlers ahead of us here, and we notice a rather large tug boat and barge heading down the river toward us.  The first boat ahead of us calls the barge on the radio on Channel 16 (which is the correct hailing channel) to see which side he wants us to pass on, but the barge doesn’t answer him.  The two trawlers ahead of us seem to be traveling together, and the first boat says to the one behind him, “I guess the barge isn’t listening to us.”  Whereupon the barge comes on the radio and gives the trawler a lecture on how to use the radio.  The two of them get into a little “discussion” and they were both wrong, but I think the barge captain was the most inappropriate.  We did our best to stay away from the barge, but we saw 5’ as we tried to hug the outside of the channel. 

Barge as it passed by

            I will be glad to stop for the night.

            We were trying to get to Elliott Cut at slack tide as we have been advised to do, but this wasn’t going to happen, but it was ok, we got through this cut without any trouble at all.

            Next up – Charleston!  And the sun has come out for a little while!  We cross Charleston Harbor without any problems – thankfully, and slide under the Ben Sawyer Bridge and we are now back into the Waterway.  However, by this time the weather is deteriorating again, and the wind is starting to really pick up.  Fortunately, the Isle of Palms Marina is a very short distance, and we get tied up and settled in for the night by 5:30 p.m.  We have traveled 80 miles today – a very long day.

A view of one of Charleston's houses from the water

            I am going to fix seared scallops over spinach and mashed potatoes for dinner, and a very nice glass of white wine.  Yikes!  What a day!

            I have no idea what we are going to do tomorrow!