Beaufort, SC. Mile 536

Well the current that I complained about in North Carolina was child's play. In South Carolina, there are 7+ foot tidal changes and in Elliott Cut the current can run as fast as 7 knots. If we went through at the wrong time, running Serenity flat out we might be able to stay still.  Here is what a cut looks like, in this case Fennick Cut, after you make it through.

 

The other issue is when an inlet is close to the ICW it tends to wash sediment into the canal and there can be spots with very shallow water or twisty, unexpected paths that you need to follow to make it through. Rumors, Internet advice, and stories you hear in the marinas can be very helpful but also can be overwhelming and if you believe all of them you will never leave whatever port you are in.  For the most part we have done fine by doing moderate planning at night and active navigation with new tech (Navionics and Active Captain) and old school charts. Here is what a real world nav station / auto pilot controller looks like in the middle of a hairy section.

 

We have run most of the major trouble spots, inlets, and cuts with no issues. Elliott Cut was a bit crazy as we ran that within 20 minutes of slack and still had 2 knots of current. The one issue we did have was in Mathews Cut were we wound up running it at low tide and scraped in a few spots and got stuck once but I was able to spin us off and we found another way through. 

We got to Charleston on Monday and stayed at a cool Marina with floating docks - a must for this kind of tide. We docked nicely the first day but then had to move without much notice to another slip and the current was ripping. I could not make a 180 turn and wound up stuck going down the main lane sideways at 2+ knots.  We stayed fairly calm and I was able to back up a bit at the next cross lane and bring the nose around. Fun.

Charleston is a really cool city with lots of history and well preserved buildings.

 

There were blocks of house after house that were very narrow on the street, very deep, very tall, and all with long porches on the same side of the house. We later learned that in the early days of the city, the street front part of property was expensive so everyone got a small amount of street front but very deep lots and then turned their houses sideways. The porches are on the same side because it is hot here and south or west facing porches catch the most consistent breezes.

We took a historical walking tour from a 7th generation Charleston native. It was great with lots of good stories like how the locals decided kind of late to build a fort when the Revolutionary War seemed eminent. The only thing they had to build it with was Palmetto trees and sand.  They only had two sides of the fort done when the British showed up but after the smoke cleared from the big British cannon volleys, to everyone's surprise the fort was still there. The palmetto wood is so springy the cannon balls just bounced off.

After Charleston, we ran a tough stretch with cuts, shallow spots, and bridges. Everything went great except that Linda was awakened early by heavy breathing. Not me - it was these guys playing around the boat in our anchorage first thing in the morning.

 

Today we made it to Beaufort (b-u-fert in SC as opposed to bo-fert in NC). We will not make it to Savannah as it is out of the way but I was happy to see the Spanish moss here! This is a really pretty town.

 

536 in the books. 708 to see.

Quiz: Which one is Serenity? (left, middle, right)