Finally Enjoying the Boat

 We finally got to enjoy our boat a bit over the weekend. We travelled from Ford to Hilton Head Friday and spent the weekend, returning yesterday. It was only a short trip but a great escape for both of us, and we were blessed with terrific weather after what has seemed like a long cold winter. We saw one of my college roommates and his wife briefly Friday night and for dinner outdoors Saturday. They had rented a house in Hilton Head for February to escape the weather in the DC area. It was good to see them both and catch up.

We went for bike rides Saturday and Sunday. It was a 16-mile ride Saturday out to lunch and back, and a shorter ride Sunday that included a mile or two on the beach. All-in-all a perfect getaway.

Going up and back we went offshore between the Ossabaw Sound and Calibogue Sound behind Hilton Head. Friday it was calm and took seven hours. Yesterday, seas were around three feet and the current was against us up the rivers back to Ford. As a result of bouncy seas and the strong current, the trip took nine hours from 8 am until 5 pm.

After all of the many repairs since our ill-fated Bahamas trip a year ago, it is great to be having fun on the boat again.

Heading to North Carolina

 Log 21552

Mosquito Creek off the Ashepoo River

It was raining hard when I awoke at 6:30 yesterday morning at Skull Creek Marina on Hilton Head. The coastal forecast for the area had deteriorated badly overnight, and there were marine warnings posted for severe thunderstorms and possible waterspouts. We had to abandon our plan to run outside to Charleston and instead head up the Intracoastal Waterway. Given that, we didn't leave until around 10 am, planning to arrive at a few shallow spots at high tide.

Help getting through the shallow spots from our new forward-looking Sonar

We passed through Beaufort, SC at noon, survived one shallow area, and arrived at the Ashepoo River at around 3 pm. Rather than turning right to follow the ICW, we turned left up the Ashepoo to Mosquito Creek. We were hoping for dock space at B&B Seafood where they charge a flat $25 a night to dock and where fresh shrimp is available inside. Alas they had no space, and when we anchored nearby our dinghy wouldn't start. So no fresh shrimp for us last night. Our anchorage though was quite nice. There are a few houses nearby, but we were in a very peaceful spot for the night. The Lovely Laura Lee prepared lamb chops and we dined on the back deck overlooking the beautiful marsh at sunset.

Sunset view at dinner on the aft deck

We had departed Thunderbolt in Savannah Tuesday at noon, and the trip to Hilton Head was uneventful except for a wild ride when we went out the Tybee Roads ship channel with a strong thunderstorm ahead, and wind blowing into an outgoing tide. It was pretty rough for about an hour until we turned back in behind Hilton Head. 

Tuesday night we walked from our marina about 3/10's of a mile to the Old Fort Pub Restaurant. It was surprisingly good food served to us outdoors on a deck overlooking the water. A very nice night until around 8:30 when the mosquitoes came out in full force. 

We should be able to easily make it to Charleston today. It is a little foggy this morning with low clouds. It should become partly cloudy by mid-morning. We are bound for Oriental, NC on the Neuse River in what I call the "Inner Banks" area. We have reserved a slip there for a month at River Dunes, which looks like a good place to hang out for a while. We'll keep you posted.

Home Again

The boat is safely back at The Ford Plantation. I had considered taking the ocean route home yesterday because of construction at the Causton Bluff Bridge on the Intracoastal Waterway, but it turned out to not be necessary. I called the bridge tender early in the morning and was told it would be open to boat traffic all day. Besides, winds in the ocean were 15 to 20 knots from the east, blowing against the outgoing tide from the Savannah River, meaning it would be a bumpy ride.

I departed Harbourtown Marina at 9:15 as I had currents to fight, and I wanted to get through an area called Field's Cut before the low tide made it impassable for my six-foot draft boat. As a result, I arrived at Causton Bluff Bridge at around 11:30 am when the tide was nearly low, giving me a bridge clearance of 30 feet so that no opening was necessary. By noon I was in Thunderbolt and by 1 pm I was passing Isle of Hope. I was way ahead of schedule as high enough tide to re-enter Ford's marina would not be until near 7 pm. So I idled and dawdled most of the day, drifting in wide spots while I did little projects on the boat. As it turned out, I still arrived at the Ford marina by 6:15. It was a high tide day and I had no trouble at all getting back into the marina.

There are numerous small projects with the boat, so it will be nice having it a block away for the next month or so. I'll be fiddling around on the boat and Mike Lamson's crew will be finishing some waxing and varnish touch up. I've also got a checklist of items needed for the Bahamas such as charts and guidebooks. Our overall game plan is still to depart south right after Christmas and on to the Bahamas from south Florida. 

Alone on the boat

Our original Hilton Head trip was delayed by terrible weather last Saturday. So we started Sunday afternoon and made it to Isle of Hope, and on to Harbourtown at Hilton Head Monday. After a pleasant Monday evening with dinner at CQ's here, and a relaxed morning yesterday, we left the boat here overnight to get back to The Ford Plantation for a meeting for me and work demands for the Lovely Laura Lee. This afternoon I returned to the boat by myself, and I will take it back to Ford tomorrow, weather, bridges, and boat gremlins permitting.

Our only issue coming up here was the Causton Bluff Bridge near Thunderbolt. It is a drawbridge between Thunderbolt and the Savannah River that we can normally go under without a bridge opening except at high tide. The bridge is under construction to be replaced by a high fixed bridge and was closed Monday to all boat traffic because the construction crews were lifting the massive concrete spans for the new higher bridge. We were informed by a marine patrol officer on duty in his boat there that it would be closed all day to traffic. However, he ventured that we could probably pass under one of the side spans not normally used by traffic. He said the depth there was 11 feet (we need six feet) and that the span was 25 feet above the water (we need 23 feet). So we tried it, with Laura Lee standing atop the dinghy on the upper deck and me driving at a pace of about 1/10 of a knot, fully prepared to stop dead if need be. As the man said, we cleared it by about two feet and went on our way.

So if the bridge is open to boat traffic tomorrow, I will be fine getting home. Otherwise, I will need to consider taking the outside route in the ocean from Hilton Head down to the Ossabaw Sound. I called the number listed for the bridge tender tonight and was told "I'm not sure. You'll have to check back first thing in the morning." Bridge tenders are not the most talkative people, but he was polite and really had no information. I do not want to go that route and be stuck, requiring me to turn around and backtrack to a different route, or spend the night anchored in the waterway. 

The forecast for the ocean route tomorrow is "NE winds 10 to 15 kt with gusts to 20 kt. Seas 2 to 3 ft." Acceptable on this boat if not ideal.

I'll let you know how it turns out.

Home at The Ford Plantation

After a long journey, and many repairs in many boatyards, Division Belle is finally docked just a block from our home at The Ford Plantation. We left Hilton Head just after noon today, timed to arrive at Ford close to high tide this evening. Unfortunately, that meant a departure near low tide at Hilton Head. So, rather than risk shallow water at low tide in the Intracoastal Waterway, we went out the Calibogue Sound channel at the south end of Hilton Head and joined the Savannah ship channel to come up the Savannah River and join the waterway later in the day. While it was a rough day out in the ocean, we only had a mild chop going out a couple of miles and back inland via the Savannah ship channel. Our timing worked perfectly, and we arrived at Ford at 8 pm. High tide here was at approximately 8:30, so we had good deep water and the current behind us all the way home.

The trip covered 55 nautical miles which took eight hours, at an average of about 6.875 knots. It's a slow boat, but an extremely comfortable one. It was a great weekend and a great day, but we are very, very tired tonight. Next steps are to get the boat cleaned up after seven weeks in a boatyard, get the varnish redone, and make plans to start enjoying it this summer.

A word about tides, boat draft, and boat speed is in order here. The difference between high and low tide in this area is normally about six feet. Our boat has a six-foot draft. The tide not only affects where we can go at certain times, but also what kinds of currents will be helping or hurting our progress. With the current behind us, our eight-knot boat sometimes travels at up to 10 or 11 knots. We planned for today working backwards from a high tide at Ford at around 8:30 pm this evening. This meant we wanted to start coming upriver on the Little Ogeechee at around 6-ish, with the tide helping our progress and giving us plenty of deep water through the sometimes treacherously shallow low country waterways. This schedule dictated leaving Harbour Town Marina at around noon, at dead low tide. Given that, it made little sense to start out immediately joining the ICW through a shallow area named "Field's Cut" at low tide. Thus, we headed out to sea from the south end of Hilton Head, turned up the usually 50-foot-deep ship channel with the current behind us, and rejoined the waterway at around 3 pm, or mid-tide. The plan worked beautifully, and we arrived on schedule and unscathed by shallow waters and opposing currents.

It is good to be home. As with all boats, there is always much work to be done. But what could be more fun?

Underway Again

After seven weeks in the boatyard, we finally got underway again Friday afternoon. Rather than taking the boat directly to The Ford Plantation, we opted to make a quick run 17 miles north to Hilton Head, where we have spent a quiet weekend at the Harbour Town Yacht Basin. We are directly across from the 18th hole of the Harbour Town Golf Links where they are already constructing the stands for the RBC Heritage tournament that begins here in two weeks.

The boat was quite dirty, as happens in boatyards, so I spent most of Saturday just getting the first layer of grunge off until we can get it back home for a real cleanup. 

We would love to go outside in the Atlantic for most of the trip home today, but alas, the weather doesn't appear to be cooperating. It's not going to be awful, but a cold front passes through during the day, kicking up wind and perhaps some squalls. Going south on the waterway is also a bit challenging because of the timing of tides. An arrival at Ford for the best tides late this afternoon has us crossing some shallow areas up here at low tides. We are thinking we can leave here at about about 1 pm, an hour after low tide, and have rising water as we make our way south. We hope to arrive home around sunset and close to high tide at Ford. 

It's been a great weekend.