Ft. Sumter in the AM and Awendaw Creek in the PM

Twas a smart move to hold off until today to take a tour of the harbor and visit Fort Sumter. The weather was much better and we enjoyed to the trip out and back with the running commentary almost as much as seeing the fort. Its significance to our country's history is great and we learned more than we did back in school about the sequence of events that lead up to the Civil War.

The trip out was aboard a mock paddle wheeler which was packed full of visitors (Easter weekend and all) that set us free to roam for an hour before returning to Charleston. The little 10 inch mortar launcher is the type of canon that fired the first shot on that fateful day, April 12, 1861. The other canons pictured are ones that were added when the fort was refortified during the Spanish American War in 1898. I was particularly fond of the flag that was raised at the end of the war. 35 stars - because two new states had been added to the US during the period of the war. The official US flag must have only rows and columns nowadays, as the uniform flag code was adopted in 1912.

As we prepared to leave Ft. Sumter we watched Sheet Music (a fellow ICW traveler) anchor and dinghy into the Fort (we preferred the ferry). The other shots are from our departure through the busy weekend Charleston Harbor.

The courtesy van from the Marina whisked us back to the marina by noon and we prepared to depart. Another look at "Buoyweather"(Dan's favorite site) had us reconsidering our decision to do an overnight to Bald Head Island. Instead we opted to head up the ICW looking for a place to anchor before it got dark. We dropped the hook in Awendaw Creek behind the Cape Romain National Wildlife Refuge at 6:45 pm after a pleasant afternoon of motorsailing. Quite a change from the bustling Charleston harbor! ~~~(\_~~~M&D

A peaceful change from Charleston's MegaDock here in Awendaw Creek. We are less than half a mile from the Atlantic here with only marshes separating us from the big O.

Hilton Head-B&B-Charleston

It did take us two days to meander through the creeks, rivers and canals of the South Carolina marshlands to get to Charleston. The days were sunny and the temperatures were warmer than we liked whenever the wind was directly behind us. We discussed several possible anchorages but decided we would head back up Mosquito Creek to B&B Seafood to tie up at their less than glamorous docks! It turns out it isn't shrimp season yet so the Billy B was sitting idle and the shop was closed, but we called and reached someone who said it would be OK to tie up and maybe he'd be able to find us some frozen shrimp. We ended up buying their next to last 5 lb. bag of frozen shrimp and feasted instead on lobster from Andiamo's freezer (they had bought it in Marsh Harbor, in the Abacos). We ate below because the name of the creek is very apt and the bugs were biting. In fact we found our decks darkened with masses of bugs as we headed off Wednesday morning.

As we rounded the bend by marker number 177 we marveled that every time we go past it, it is low tide and it's high and dry! A major part of the two day trip to Charleston looked like this - - - just not always with so much mud showing.

The closer we got to Charleston, the lusher things became. The Trumpy that passed us was such a lovely lady. We tied up right opposite the large dark hulled power boat at the Charleston City Marina - home of the megadock - a quarter mile long. It is QUITE a hike to the bathrooms and showers!

We pulled in around a little before three and kept our eyes peeled as the skies began to get darker and darker. We were glad to be tied up when the storm hit. We had hail (a new experience - being aboard in a hail storm) and thunder and lightning along with buckets of rain. The winds were not as bad as some storms we've experienced, but strong enough. We were still hearing wind and rain as we went to sleep last night.

Today, Earth day, Good Friday was supposed to be adventure around Charleston day, but the storms were still around so we headed into town, visited our favorite kitchen store (who would have thought), had a delicious lunch at S.N.O.B. (Slightly North Of Broad) and ended our tour at Harris Teeters. Luckily the courtesy van from the Marina came and got us before the next downpour and we were back aboard at 2:30 (instead of taking the harbor tour to Fort Sumter as originally planned!) We decided a dinner of hors d'oeuvres would be a good idea - and we did still have 5 lbs of shrimp to eat! So between showers we bounced back and forth between boats, cooking, cooling, peeling and then eating lots of shrimp (and a few other goodies too.) Hopefully we can see Ft. Sumter in the morning before shoving off for points north. ~~~(\_~~~M&D

Overnight to Harbour Town Marina on Hilton Head, SC

Out one inlet (St. Mary's Inlet) and in another (Tybee Roads) - this is all we saw of Georgia.

All we saw in between the inlets was one sunset, one moonrise (too rolly to get any photos) and one sunrise and one moonset.

Andiamo is close astern as Dan caught the moon still high in the sky after sunrise.

Luckily the marina had slips available for us as we arrived at 8:45 am. The overnight trip was one of the easiest we've experienced. We left at 5 pm and had a nice beam reach in winds generally around 10 knots until well into the night. We averaged close to 6.5 knots most of the time, and then got a good boost from the incoming tide as we entered the Tybee Roads. The moon was brilliant and a welcome companion throughout the night. We did alter course for about an hour off of Brunswick, Georgia to avoid a cargo ship that ended up coming to almost a complete stop in front of us as she waited for the pilot to arrive. We slipped by her stern less than half a mile away, but as she was making 2.3 knots we weren't bothered by any great wake!

After tying up and receiving our welcome packet (which includes a bottle of wine) we headed around the circular marina to the showers - located next to the decorative lighthouse. Several shops dotted the area by the lighthouse, but we did our shopping yesterday! We hadn't realized when we arrived that this week is the big PGA tournament here and crowds of golf fans are all over the place!

Our walk over to the showers took us past the elegant condos that surround the marina, this one festooned with the plaid of the Heritage Tournament. We explored the watersports area of the resort and found the full moon had brought all sorts of horseshoe crabs to the beach to mate. All clean and refreshed we walked out toward the 18th green and found the 19th hole just in time to have our 11z's beer!

My first look at this big rig had me puzzled until I went around the "stern" and realized it was a travelling sports bar! I assume it will be set up when thing really get underway with the golf tournament.

We enjoyed walking around and seeing all the activity even though the real action doesn't start until Thursday. Today people were wearing tags that said "Practice Rounds". The 18th hole looks out on Calibogue Sound and Daufuskie Island AND the ICW.

Tomorrow we'll skip all the hoop-la here and mosey on toward Charleston. It should take two days (on the inside.) ~~~(\_~~~M&D

Touring Fernandina Beach

The longest part of our walk was exiting the dock!

We were all the way at the end of the facing pier. We started on our adventure expecting to explore all the interesting historic sites of the area, but found that the shops held much more interest. Of course that sent the guys wandering back toward the boats before we ladies were done finding unique and artsy "stuff". We met up with the non-shoppers at Brett's Waterway Cafe for our big meal of the day and enjoyed sitting out on their deck watching the harbor as we ate.

We noticed that Brunelle was

nestled right underneath the

stacks of the paper mill.

Made Dan feel right at home.

Very well restored and maintained center city in Fernandina.

The afternoon was spent resting and readying the boat for the overnight trip outside from here to Hilton Head, SC. We will be heading out St. Mary's Inlet which is on the FL/GA border and come in the Tybee Roads on the GA/SC border. Once again we are avoiding the winding shallows that make up the ICW throughout Georgia. ~~~(\_~~~M&D

St. Augustine to Fernandina Beach

Our 8 o'clock departure from Camachee Cove Yacht Harbor put us right into the incoming tide as we headed up the ICW, so we got a boost half the way to Jacksonville. We then picked up the outgoing tide as we headed on toward Jacksonville, once again getting a lift. The only problem came as we neared our destination of Fernandina Beach at dead low tide (on a full moon) and found lots of spots right in the middle of the channel that were less than 7 feet! We managed to avoid hitting, but Andiamo had to back off twice after running aground. The winds were from the northern quadrant all day, so we had no chance to sail and we had to keep adding layers of clothes!

Dan and I had a contest to see who could

take a better picture of us lined up along

up along the dock at the marina. He won!

We made it to Fernandina Beach around 4 pm and found that all the moorings were full, so we tied up at the Fernandina Beach Municipal Marina for the night. It seems that we are right in the middle of the big northern migration of all us snowbirds. Weather permitting we will leave here tomorrow afternoon for an overnight trip on the outside to Hilton Head. We plan to explore ashore tomorrow. ~~~(\_~~~M&D

Not a lot of new scenery on the 60 mile trip north up the ICW, but we did get a kick out of these fish chairs along the way.