Beaufort to Isle of Hope

1.18.11 Tuesday

I awake at my usual 0500 and start planning the day with a hot cup of coffee but have to change out the gas canister and find it’s the last one, drat.  It’s 45 degrees and overcast with fog on the surface, no wind at all.  I finally shove off at 0930, down the Beaufort River and have a very favorable current, doing over 8.5 knots!  Down past St. Helna Island and across Port Royal Sound where I make the turn past Parris Island, my speed is way down to 5.8 knots.  Passed another snow bird in a pretty big ketch, the ?? Ashley; can’t make out the name completely, visibility still less than a mile.  I’m in the Chechessee River, then turn into Skull Creek where my speed increases a bit and wander down past Hilton Head Island around noon to Calibouge Sound where I’m cruising along at 8 knots.  Leaving Calibogue, I enter the Cooper River, then Ramshorn Creek, the New River, Wright River, Fields Cut and finally the Savannah River for a short run across current into the Wilmington River via the Elba Island Cut.  Sound confusing?  Well yes, but with a chart on the GPS and the route drawn on there, the autopilot driving, it’s not too bad.  Just don’t pay attention for a few minutes and you’re sure to run up on a bank or worse, hit a marker. Some of it is a straight run in open water so you can make lunch or use the head.  OK, done with the Wilmington, bypassing Thunderbolt, and I skid into the Skidaway River and down to the Isle of Hope where I hope to find some butane for my stove.  Anchor at 1625 by the Isle Of Hope marina across from Skidaway Island just off the channel with a half dozen boats on resident moorings.  The full moon rises and lights the calm waters with incandescent reflections of clouds and marsh grasses; nice spot to spend the night.  MM590