Georgia on my Mind

Well we finally left Charleston on Thursday morning but not before one more great day - we headed over to Patriots Point to the marina where Bart and Ellie keep their boat Dewlap for lunch. We met Bart and Reggie, their adorable Bassett Hound - he is just too funny as he chatted with us in his pseudo growling-pseudo baying voice, rolled over to get his belly scratched, devoured a dog biscuit and really wanted to have lunch with us but I guess the bar/grill frowns on canine company.

Reggie Carries On a Conversation With Norm

We had a great time even without him.

Lunch at the Reef Grille

Vicki had a wasp invade her 2/3 empty beer and so got a full replacement for free - I secretly think when no one was looking, she grabbed one out of the air and threw it in her beer to get a free mug and I have to admit I thought about following her lead when I saw her new full beer emerge, but then deep down my Irish Catholic roots took hold since I know it's a sin to intentionally waste a drop of good beer (and we were drinking Shock Top!! - guess I'll have to go to church!!) As we walked around the grounds of the marina we saw some pretty cool plants (have you ever seen anything like this???)

and wildlife - the egret was hanging out by the shoreline and truly seemed to be walking the catwalk posing for me, first one side, then the other - I've found America's Next Top Model!!


That afternoon Doug, Vicki and I did a little shopping down in the market area - we finally found the Vinturi that we have been looking for since we saw it on River Girl in Rock Hall, MD (more on this later)!! We left Vicki on her way up to King Street to do some more serious shopping while Doug and I attended one last afternoon mass at our favorite church (we are so devout - never miss a day when we are in Charleston!!) Too soon it was time to head back to the boats to get them ready for an early morning departure the next day. Knowing it was likely our last night before we had to separate ways with Tide Hiker, we all congregated on Gypsies for some apps and to do a wine tasting with our new Vinturi to see if it really works.

Wine and Apps on Gypsies in the Palace

What is the Vinturi you might ask - well it is one of the coolest gadgets known to cruising man - it supposedly turns bad wine (ie box wine) into good wine. Now we first learned of this from River Girl who showed us its magic when we were on board for drinks back in the Fall (however we didn't really know how bad the wine they were serving had started out to be - not everyone digs as deep as us!) So we decided it was only fitting to bring out our worst wine and do actual taste tests. Tide Hiker brought the Walmart house brand Oak Leaf shiraz and some boxed Fish Eye chardonnay while we contributed a true 3 for $10 special Oak Crest Merlot. It was by unanimous agreement that we all declared the Vinturi one of the top ten miracles of cruising life!!! You pour the wine through this little funnel with two holes in it which aerates the wine to the perfect degree (now how it can tell that was way beyond our ability to reason that evening or even our curiosity!) All we cared about is the fact that it turned all of the bad wine into much better, smoother tasting nectar of the gods (OK that may be pushing it but it sure did make everything taste better!!!) Never again will we pour a glass of wine on Gypsies that has not seen the Vinturi - some gadgets are well worth the purchase!!

Doug Pours Wine Through the Vinturi

The next morning bright and early we awoke to lots and lots of fog - enough already, we're not in Maine anymore!!! But we headed up the Ashley River into the ICW dodging only one big container ship that came in right near our dock at the Maritime Center. The fog eventually burned off a couple hours later and we had a great cruise to Beaufort, SC - the waterway was unbelievably calm, the cormorants were out in force and we had some fairly weird boat traffic to keep us laughing!!

Beautiful, Calm Waterway

Cormorants on a Green Marker

Very Weird Houseboat

Tide Hiker had planned on anchoring somewhere before Beaufort but it turned out to be such a nice day, they hung with us all the way past Beaufort to the Port Royal Landing Marina.

Tide Hiker Begins the Turnoff into Port Royal Landing Marina

We kept going down the Beaufort River and found a wonderfully calm anchorage in Cowen Creek where we watched a great sunset, just us and one other sailboat.

Beautiful Anchorage in Cowen Creek

Sunset in Cowen Creek

This is a great anchorage if you don't want to go ashore in Beaufort (been there, done that, don't need anymore tee-shirt although I did get a great one at church - "forgiving sins 12 ounces at a time"!!!) and just want to head south since it is fairly protected and is just a short way off the ICW!!

This morning we were socked in by the fog once again (this truly is getting a little old) but we set off anyway since we need to hit several of the tricky, shallow spots along the Georgia ICW today with the tide - Georgia hasn't historically done much to dredge its position of the ICW and we are back in the land of 8-9 foot tides so the difference between hitting a particularly nasty section at high vs low tide can be the difference between a happy day or a truly unpleasant experience!! We passed the anchored sailboat as ghosts in the fog but had a whole contingent of birds following us as we exited out into Port Royal Sound - the fog had started to lift but I think they thought we were a shrimp boat.

Sailboat in the Fog

We just heard from Tide Hiker that they are underway but they are only going a little ways today - we hope to make it down past Hell Gate!! We've already passed into Georgia (yippee another state down) and hope to get to St. Simon the following day to connect with September Song!!

Click here to see our anchorage in Cowen Creek.