Port Royal Sound, SC

Tuesday May 9, 2017
N
W

Plan "A" was to get up before dawn and head out into the Atlantic at first light and set a course for Brunswick, GA. Brunswick is about 90 NM and we could do it in daylight.

Plan "B" was to see how the weather was holding, and if OK, change course a few degrees and make our land fall Port Royal in SC, This would be about 160 NM and mean arriving in darkness mid morning.

I like an occasional early morning. For some primitive reason I just like the feel of getting up in the dark and bringing the boat to life - coffee, lights, instruments, engines etc. It just feels like the start of an adventure.

We were up at 6 AM, the anchore was up by 6:30 AM and 15 minutes later we were running directly into the sunrise in the ocean channel. Very pretty but it makes identification of the red or green buoys quite difficult. But all went well and as soon as we were in deep water we turn our noses north, on a heading for the Brunswick channel.

Into the sunrise and the nice flat ocean

One benefit of Brunswick is that we can buy the least expensive fuel on the East Coast at the fishing boat dock. The disadvantage is that we would still be in Georgia and if the weather deteriorated we would have to continue heading north in the wandering ICW. The distance we could cover in 8 hours in the Atlantic would take 2  or 3 days in the ICW

By Noon we were making great progress (we were averaging about 7.5 kts which meant we must have been running on the fringes of the Gulf stream) and the weather forecast was holding for the rest of the day and night. So we adjusted our course 14 degrees and settled in for another 16 hours.

By 8:30 PM all was dark and we were about 15 NM offshore and "all alone on the ocean". Except for a few ships off the St. Johns river we had not seen any traffic. Fortunately the night was perfectly clear and there was a full moon.

This dredge was sitting off the end of the St. Joh'n's channel

Deidre decided that dinner should be a "continuous feast". We still had all sorts of goodies left over from the party and so every hour or so I received hot finger-food treats, consumed with lots of coffee. Tide Hiker was running well. We had a southerly breeze on our stern that probably helped our speed a little.

By 10 PM the southerly started to strengthen a little (as was forecast) and the swells built a bit. Tide Hiker started to "surf" occasionally as the swells rolled under her. The stabilizers keep her from rolling, but the energy is converted into a bit of a "swerve" that kept the auto pilot pretty busy. But still safe and comfortable.

At 10 PM we started to take turns taking a snooze. It was quite comfortable below on the bed. The hum of the engines and the movement of the boat put me to sleep in a few moments. We timed our breaks so that we were both up and awake when we made the entrance to the Port Royal channel at about 2 AM. Its a long (10 miles) marked channel thru the offshore shoals with several places marked "Heavy Swells" and "Tide Rips" so it seems like a good idea to stay in the channel.

As we turned west into the channel the weather was now 1/2 on our beam and tended to slew Tide Hiker around with every large swell. Several times the auto pilot just gave up and we headed off in the wrong direction, and we could hear the stabilizers working hard. The tide was ebbing so we were down to a lousy 5 to 6 kts most of the time. The 10 miles took us the best part of two hours. Fortunately there was no outbound traffic.

Once we were in the estuary the water calmed down and we headed for the spot we had decided to anchor. The tide current in the area can run up to 1.8 kts so I put out all 200' of chain and we set the anchor with both engines. In bed by 4:15 AM. We were now in South Carolina.