Darien (Free Dock)

Friday October 10, 2014
31 22 045 N
81 26 129 W

Darien is one of our favorite stops when we take the ICW through Georgia. It is a bit off the ICW (8 NM up the Darien River) and it is not an especially pretty place, but the dock is free and the supermarket is only a mile away.

Darien fishing fleet

We are usually here by ourselfs, but last night another trawler arrived about 3 PM - "Queen Anne's Revenge".We helped them dock (which was a good thing as their "admiral" was rather handicapped and could barely throw a line) and they invited us over for a cocktail before dinner. The captain was an ex Navy destroyer captain and they were an interesting couple to chat with.

Saturday October 11, 2014

We helped Queen Anne's Revenge depart at about 8 AM and then headed off to the supermarket. The supermarket was clean and new but with limited selection. We have a little wheel buggy for grocery shopping and I tend to race ahead with the refrigerated products so we get them into the frig ASAP. On the walk back I ran into a guy who turned out to be the mayor. His name was "Bubba" Hodge- no kidding. We had a nice chat and he offered to drive back and give Deidre a lift to the dock.

I learned an interesting story from the Mayor. Some of the shrimp boats are now catching jelly fish. The jellies are "cored, dried and sliced" and exported to Korea. Some Koreans have purchased a couple of the boats and set up the processing facility. Note the name of the boat in the photo below. (I am now searching for a boat called "Bubba Kim")

This afternoon I unloaded a bike and rode over to the "local fort" built by the Scottish settlers in about 1721. It was about a mile away, the road was flat and I was in the shade of the live oak trees.

The guard tower

The barracks

The timbers were all mortised, held together with pegs

It was a hot afternoon in Georgia.

Our two-fisted neighbor

Wahoo River (Anchored)

October 9, 2014
31 35 677 N
81 12 373 W

Our plans for today were dictated by "Hell Gate". This is a narrow and shallow passage in the Ossabaw Sound that we needed to pass through safely. Shame on the Georgia and Federal Governments for not maintaining this passage. We use a "crowd sourced" website for boating information called "Active Captain", and reports in Active Captain indicated that the water in this passage could be as little as 30" inches at low tide. We need a raw minimum of 54" to 57" plus a safety factor. The tidal range in this area is about 9' to 10' so we decided that to be safe we needed at least 50% tide to attempt the passage. (The extra safety factor needed because we would be passing on an ebb tide - the worst time to run aground.)

The tide started to ebb in Savannah at about 10 AM but we decided to leave at 7:30 AM and fight the last of the flood in order to arrive at Hell Gate with plenty of water. We arrived at hell gate right on time and passed through with no less than 6' under our keel - indicating overall depth of about 10.5'. So much for "crowd sourcing"!

Leaving the river front this morning

Our only neighbor in the marsh

We are now anchored - in complete isolation. The marsh stretches out in every direction, with just a few "hammocks" of tree-islands scattered around. The sun is setting, the wind is getting up a bit and whistling thru the boats aerials and insect screens. It is just amazing that in this country of 350 million people that such wild places can still be found, and I love it. We could probably nose our way a bit further into the marsh and no-one could find us for months. A contradiction to all this isolation is that we can still get internet access and satellite TV! The tide is changing and the boat is moving - time to check the plotter.

Savannah (City Docks)

Tuesday, October 7, 2014
32 04 889 N
81 05 361 W

Up early today so we could catch the tide up the Savannah River. Savannah is a busy port and traffic on the river was quite amazing - we passed (or were passed by) 4 huge container ships in one hour period.

Seems to be headed this way!

At the ready

In the USA we drive on the right side

After a bit of confusion we found the City Docks and secured Tide Hiker. We are the only boat on 300' of riverside floating dock. We are in the epicenter of the tourist area, alongside River Road.

Tide Hiker docked on River Road (You can see she is a chick magnet!)

We tidied up the boat and headed ashore. These days when we visit a "large city" we head for the tourist welcome center and take a ride on "Lolly The Trolley".

First on board!

The tour lasted a good couple of hours and we learned all about Savannah. Most of this I forgot immediately, except:

1. "Jingle Bells" was penned here

2. Savannah sees over 12 million tourists per year. Wow!

Back to the boat for lunch and a read.

This giant lady passed by as we were eating lunch

Wednesday October 8, 2014

The big ships passing our door continue to amaze me.

We looked this one up - 108,000 tons!

This morning Deidre headed off to tour a couple of the historical homes, and I headed out to explore the city on my bike. It was another perfect weather day. Throughout the summer and on weekends other times of the year a "tram" provides transport for tourists along River Street. I found it in its shed and immediately recognized it as a Melbourne tram! Back at the boat this afternoon I Google'd it.

"To provide streetcar service a 1930s-era W5-class streetcar (#756), originally from Melbourne, Australia, was purchased by the city for about $207,000 "

We visited our favorite "tea house" for lunch. Very pukka! In the photo if you look closely you can see my pinky finger in the proper position. They even had scones and jam and cream.

Deidre's two houses:

Wright River (Anchored)

Monday October 6, 2014
32 05 889 N
80 56 387 W

Took it easy this morning as we were waiting for the tide to take us down the Beaufort River. Only expecting a short 35 NM day, planning to anchor in the Wright River tonight.  The anchorage is only be about 10 NM from Savannah, and we will catch the end of the flood tide to ride up the Savannah river in the morning. The weather was perfect all day and we expected a calm night.

Arrived at the anchorage at about 3:30 PM and dropped anchor, but we could not make it set so repeated the process. Second time was a charm - or so it seemed. There was a lot of current and it would change a couple of times while we were there so the anchor needed to be well set. Quiet night, not even a crab boat.

Beaufort - Mooring Ball

Friday October 3, 2014
32 25 801 N
80 40 584 W

The diesel mechanic turned up right on time at about 9:30 AM. Nice old guy. He load tested the starting battery and immediately concluded that it was the problem. The voltage was OK, but it failed under load. We removed the battery, loaded it into his truck, and he was back in about 15 minutes with the replacement. By 10:30 AM the new battery was in place and he was gone. It was that simple. I was pleased with the service but somewhat bummed about the old battery - it was only 18 months old but was only guaranteed for 12 months!

The DeFevers, Tide Hiker in the middle

So we disconnected from the dock and headed across the river to the City Marina where we took a mooring ball. This weekend is "Shrimp Festival" in Beaufort and we planned to dinghy into town to partake in the festivities. But the weather did not co-operate so we spent a pleasant afternoon on the boat in the rain. Tomorrow is another day.

Saturday October 4, 2014

Beaufort, SC is an attractive and historical town. The area has a long history of being contested by the Indians, the Spanish, the French, the British as well as being involved in the war of Independence and the Civil war. It is located about 15 miles inland up the Beaufort River from the Atlantic that made it a natural port. In the 1700's and the 1800's the slave based rice and cotton industries made plenty of fortunes and this is still evidenced by the bounty of mansions still standing.

View of the marina and the "Shrimp Festival" on shore

The weather Saturday morning was bright and clear so we launched the dink and headed to town. The dink motor is starting OK, but does not want to idle, and needs a good run would help "clear its throat". We made it to the dinghy dock OK.

There was a good crowd at the fair on the waterfront and the adjacent Main Street was bustling with a real holiday atmosphere. Deidre has a bunch of Xmas presents to buy so treated all the stalls as a buying opportunity. There was lots of "Carnival food" available but we opted for an outside restaurant on Main Street for lunch. Shrimp of course. We bought a newspaper and headed back to Tide Hiker.

Sunday October 5, 2014

Another perfect morning. We headed into shore for breakfast, and a Sunday paper, my favorite reading & eating activity. (Although the news on the front page did not help much.) After breakfast we headed off for a walking tour around the shaded streets. Many of the streets are lined with very old and huge Live Oaks which in turn are draped with Spanish Moss. Really very delightful.

So many houses ...

At the dinghy dock

Live Oak overhanging the street

Lady Island Marina, Beaufort, SC

Thursday October 2, 2014
32 25 183 N
80 39 461 W

The port engine did not want to start again this morning. The engine only needs about 1 rotation to fire, but this morning it would only crank about 1/2 a turn. I do not think it is the battery. Each engine has a dedicated 4D battery with 1,050 cranking amps. I  had previously checked the battery and it seemed fine - 12.8 V at rest - and it is less than 2 years old. We have the ability to push a button and "jump" both starting batteries, and that started the engine. But not "enthusiastically". So once we got underway I made some calls and decided to stop at this marina in Beaufort and hire a diesel mechanic to look at the system. We are now secure at the marina and the mechanic will be here in the morning.

Other than the issue with the port engine, the day was pretty perfect. We arrived at the marina to find another DeFever and another arrived an hour or so later - a mini rendezvous. There is a group headed to a local restaurant for "pork chop night" but Deidre has been cooking spaghetti sauce in the crock pot all day so we are staying put. There is a good exchange library here, so I am off to get some new reading material.

A fleet of DeFevers (Tide Hiker in the middle)

Toogoodoo Creek

October 1, 2014

32 39 678 N

80 16 416 W

We delayed our departure until 11 AM to catch the tide. We only planned a 35 NM day so there was no rush. It was a beautiful calm and sunny morning, and stayed that way for most of the day. Our target was Toogoodoo Creek and we arrived about 4 PM and the anchor was set by 4:30 PM. It is a very peaceful and isolated spot deep in the marsh. Tide Hiker ran well, there were only a couple of minor issues that I can sort out. Deidre made roast chicken dinner and TV reception was pretty good. When we went to bed we could hear the dolphins feeding around us in the dark. Tomorrow we head for Beaufort, SC where we will stay a few days on a ball and enjoy the town. We have 15 days to make it to Florida so "What's the hurry?"

Elliot Cut

This is a photo of "Elliot Cut" and in our mind represents the spot where we "leave" Charleston.

Bald eagle