OH, No! We are on a Schedule!

 We left Enterprise Creek on Monday, November 28th. After spending 5 days in our secluded little oxbow, it felt great to get moving again. We decided to get an early start and left right at sunrise. It was a beautiful cruise down the Waccamaw river to Georgetown.

This picture does not show much other than my view from the helm. We had some current and wind against us and we were only going 5.3 knots over ground.

As soon as we got to Georgetown, we stopped at the Harborwalk Marina and got Diesel, water and a pump out. We then headed down by the Steel plant and got anchored. Then we got the dinghy down and I went to shore. As I said in my previous entry, Georgetown is notorious for poor holding and it was blowing about 15 to 20 knots. We had pretty decent protection, but we decided to leave Kim with the boat, while I went to shore to do a minor provision run. We were out of a couple of things that I wanted to get and I really needed some exercise. After a 3 mile round trip walk to the Piggly Wiggly, I made it back to the boat and unloaded. We decided to go out to dinner in town. We went to Aunny's. It is a soul food/southern cooking place that was very interesting. We really enjoyed our night out. 

Here is a shot of the waterfront in Georgetown. You can see the wind died off after sundown. It was a very nice and productive visit. 

We were up again the next morning at first light to pull the anchor and get underway. We had those dreaded reservations on Thursday night in Hilton Head. That was still about 140 miles away. I have been wanting to install Starlink on the boat for the last year. I have read all there is to know and when they we offering a free month of service for the RV version between now and the end of the year, I ordered it. Actually Kim, told me to do it. I think she was tired of hearing about it. The problem was how to get it to me. I decided to have it shipped to my son Mark's house. Then I called my friend, who is also named Mark, that lives in Hilton Head and asked if he would mind helping me out. He said, "No Problem". So I had Mark ship it to Mark. That is why we made reservations at Palmetto Bay Marina in Hilton Head. 

This is what it looks like to be underway before sunrise. We were just leaving Georgetown.

There is the famous dock in Buck Hall, SC where this whole sailboat dream started. We passed the same dock on the way north last June. I told the whole story in that entry.

We anchored for the night after a 43.1 nm day, just to the north of Charleston in Whiteside Creek. 

We had a beautiful calm evening.

It doesn't get any better than this. We had a neighbor join us just before sunset. 

The following day was one that I was concerned about. We had a very shallow spot that was about 6 miles in front of us. Then we had to open a bridge that had their first opening of the day at 9 am. Then we had to cross the very busy Charleston Bay, then open another bridge in a cut that is notorious for having super fast current. I was a bit stressed. 

We got out of the anchorage a bit later because we had to time the tides for the first shallow spot. We got there at about an hour after low tide and made it through and never saw less that 6 feet. Then it was on to the bridge. I was now a bit early and had to hover for about 45 minutes, but we got through and just as we headed out into the bay we saw a huge storm front on the horizon. The radar looked bad and we had a decision to make. We decided that we would rather be in open water, so we took off out into the bay. We got hit with 25 knot winds and driving rain. We were totally comfortable in our enclosure. Wow, what a game changer. We motored right through the storm and by the time we made it to the far side of the bay, the rain was slowing and the visibility was much better. I shot some video of the whole thing, which I will try to publish later. 

Then the matter of the second bridge. I called the bridge and they were ready to open in about 10 minutes. That was good because the current was ripping in our favor. Right after the bridge we went through a narrow cut and we hit 9.6 knots over ground. That is the fastest this boat has ever gone (other that when we were sailing in the Gulf Stream). From there on out it was pretty easy. We finished the day in an anchorage called Racoon Island. We had made it 50.6 nm.

Sunrise and a stormy sky

Kim took this shot of Fort Sumter in the middle of the storm in Charleston Bay

Kim getting the anchor down at Racoon Island

It was a nice calm evening

I guess just one more shot

 The following day we had 43 miles to go to get to Hilton Head. We had a few shallow cuts to make it through, but we made them all without going aground. We even got to sail a bit. All in all it was a pretty uneventful day. We made it to Palmetto Bay Marina at about 4 pm and got tied up. It was a great feeling to be where we needed to be and to rest comfortably. 

Well that is about it for this entry, I will write about our time in HHISC in my next entry and let you know how the Starlink system is working.