4/19-4/24 Brunswick, GA to Beaufort,SC

4/19  A big thank you to Randy and Janet Wallace  from Chattanooga (parked next to us in Brunswick).  Upon Ron's late return from Michigan, they loaned us their car so that we could return the rental truck and pick up some groceries.

4/20  Our departure at 0800 seemed to go well for a few minutes until we realized that our new chart plotter was not working.  Fortunately, we have a computer and a tablet as backups.  The weather is nearly perfect.

Sunbury Crab Company

We made it safely to Sunbury Crab Company before 5 pm. This is a must see place 8.5 miles up a river with no marked channel.  We were here in 2012.

 The marina is run by a family that also runs the restaurant.  We had dinner with a looper couple from Missouri (Jim and Mandy Conley) and the owner of the restaurant gave us preferred seating.

The problem with the chart plotter is resolved..just a loose connection.

4/21  Sunrise in Sunbury just before heading out for an 80+ mile day.

We wanted to get to Hell's Gate (shallow cut) before low tide.  We got there an hour before low tide and the water there was 8 feet deep.  Our draft is 4 feet.  We arrived just after 5 pm in Beaufort, SC.  Instead of going to the Beaufort Marina, we chose Lady's Island Marina across the river.

Lady's Island Marina

Low tide (tides are 8 feet here)

Pumpouts boat.

ST. Peter Church

This turned out to be great.  It has mostly live-a-boards, some of whom have been here for years.  The marina has free laundry (washers free/ dryers $2.00).  They also have a loaner car which you can take any time..no limit on time.  On Mondays, the pump out boat comes by and does free pumpouts.  About 2 miles from here, a marina was destroyed in Hurricane Matthew.  They lost all of their docks and 29 boats were destroyed. Here, they had only minor damage (the boat owners put their boats at anchor during the storm).

4/22-4/24  We caught up on some phone calls, shopping and chores.  On Sunday we attended St. Peter Catholic Church and then went across the river for brunch.  On the walls were posters of movies that have been filmed locally.

4/24  We waited for storms today that never materialized.  However, it is good that we stayed put because Charleston had heavy rain and flooding.  That is our destination tomorrow.