Headin' North

On Sunday, May 15th, we left Jekyll Harbor Marina at 7:00 a.m. and motored 61.2 nautical miles, arriving at Kilkenny Marina at 5:45.  We decided not to anchor because the spring tides around the full moon were ten feet, with low tide at minus one foot, for an eleven foot tidal spread.  Kilkenny marina has a voracious noseum population, so a/c in a closed up boat was a good idea too!  Today we fought against the current most of the time and managed to squeeze through the notoriously shallow Little Mud River at low tide.  Sometimes it is great to be in a catamaran.

Monday morning we left the dock at 7:10 and were off to Hilton Harbor Marina, arriving at 3:40 after clocking a 50.4 nautical mile day.  Fortunately, the predicted rains held off til later.  We stopped here to meet former Grand River Sailing Club friends from home, Al and Barb Breninger, whom we have known for many years.

The Breningers now live in South Carolina, and they drove us to a fine restaurant on Hilton Head Island where we enjoyed a fabulous seafood special complete with pecan pie for dessert.  We had a wonderful time, and were happy to have fit them into our hectic traveling schedule. 

Tuesday was a short day as we traveled only 19 miles to Beaufort.  We docked at the Ladies Island Marina so that we could change the oil in our Westerbeke engine.

The marina is located among the beautiful marshes of South Carolina, with interesting homes nestled against the tidal grasses.

A meticulously maintained 1936 Trumpy motor yacht shared the marina with us.

On Wednesday the 18th, we were off the dock by seven for a 42 nautical mile trip through the marshlands, enjoying the scenery and keeping the swarming green eyed fles at bay by hiding in our screen enclosure.  The biting flies are why there on no photos of the ICW marshes while we are underway.  We anchored in Church Creek, a few hours south of Charleston, by 3:00 and enjoyed a quiet night on the hook.

As you can see, we enjoyed a fabulous sunset here.

We exited Church Creek at 6:45 the next morning.  We motored right past Charleston, and ended the day anchored in Minim Creek at by 5:30, for a total day's travel of 63.3 nautical miles.  We received a lot of help from favorable tides, and closed the boat up after an excellent anchor set.  Minim Creek is the bugiest place we have stopped, with a wide variety of biting and nonbiting insects. 

We awoke to fog on Friday, May 20th, which slowed us down a little.  The decks were littered with the bodies of dead insects.  Fortunately, the biters were not out as Sue raised the anchor at 7:35.  We enjoyed the luxury of a favorable current the entire day today, bypassing Georgetown as we pushed north.  We motored through my favorite section of the ICW, the Cypress Swamps of the Waccamaw River.

After 37.1 nautical miles we stopped at Osprey Marina, located in the forest of the Waccamaw River.

We docked here to catch up on our laundry and do some boat chores like changing fuel filters.  We also discovered that the oil fill cap had popped off, and it took some time to locate it and secure it on the engine. Tomorrow we will cruise out of this incredibly beautiful forest and travel through Myrtle Beach on our way to our next state, North Carolina.  You can keep up with our travels by clicking on the Spot GPS link in the blue box on this page for a daily update of our whereabouts.