Honey Queen Adventures

We pulled out of Wappoo Creek Anchorage in Charleston this morning and negotiated the Charleston Harbor. Though not too precarious, the channel markers were difficult to pick up in the expanse. Didn’t help that our virtually brand new binoculars have fogged up, making spotting the channel markers quite challenging.  A return trip to the next available West Marine is in my near future.

We watched 2 bridge openings from behind us as sailboats needed them to pass through. Our 22′ clearance with the antennas down gets us through some of the lower bridges without requesting openings.

Our 2 pm arrival in Awendaw Creek  allowed our first afternoon of just chillin’ out in the sunshine. Though pretty breezy, the sun was warm and kind. We listened to Ed Sheeran and James Taylor, looked at the distant lighthouse at Cape Romain, and watched another gorgeous sunset. This anchorage makes us feel like we are the only people on the face of the earth. But we still can sneak a peak at Wheel and Jeopardy with our little TV. Got to monitor how many million James will win.

A little weather is forecasted for Friday so we plan to get close to a marina Thursday evening, anchor out, and then check in Friday morning, giving us safety and comfort from the elements, not to mention a shower large enough to accommodate the opportunity to bend over and pick up the dropped bar of soap as needed.

Rising early today, well rested, we watched and listened to the creatures around us. Fish jumping, sea gulls cawing back and forth just made us all the more grateful to be out of the rat race and soaking up serenity of the moment. Of course, South Carolina sand gnats have the same fangs as do those from Georgia, so we stayed nestled in the salon until the sun was well up.

A third straight glorious beautiful day allowed us to press a little further than we had planned. We arrive in Charleston about 3 pm and had thought we would anchor in front of the city Marina. However, after feeling like I was going to be mooring in the median of the intersection of I-95 & I-16, I told Amanda this was not my idea of a vacation. We backtracked a mile or so to an anchorage called an oxbow, which is basically a small body of water separated from the ICW by a small island. We’re looking out our boat windows at gorgeous homes, just South of downtown Charleston, with the rumble of vehicles crossing a bridge in the background.

We ate seafood at the Charleston Crabshack, who had a dinghy dock on the ICW. Good food and a nice little ride in our 9′ raft, a boat I am much more comfortable and experienced handling than our 36,000 pound beast, the Honey Queen. All is good and we are still pinching ourselves that we are getting to have this experience at this point in our lives.

Left Skull Creek, eyelids dragging, but I did remember to pull up the anchor, so the boat did fine. We traveled about 17 miles to Beaufort’s City Marina. Had our first experience tying to a mooring ball. There were no pictures and non witnesses, thankfully, as we didn’t exactly tackle that one with gracefulness. We lunched at the Blackstone Cafe and enjoyed the best fries, which weren’t fried, but baked. Very crispy and grease-less. Awesome.

Covered another 20 miles after lunch and anchored at Rock Creek. The cut was narrow and shallow at low tide, but we neither saw or heard from anyone one passing by until 8 or so the next morning. We were dead tired and were in bed by 9 pm, sleeping like a college freshman who just finished rush. Amanda did wake me up about midnight to witness the almost full moon rising up over the marsh in a ball of fire that took our breath away. A nice reminder that our God never slumbers, nor sleeps. But having that peace of mind, I quickly continued mine.

We got away from Savannah a little later than we intended, after enjoying a wonderful Easter Service at our home church, Compassion Christian and having lunch with Clint, Mali, and Stella. They brought us to Morningstar Marina for the official send off.

Our progress was a little delayed at Fields Cut just after getting into South Carolina because we saw 2 boats sitting on shoals at low tide. After watching for an hour, dead low tide was on us, so I made the decision to attempt to creep by them, since water was only going to be rising, right? As we approached, even with my rookie navigator eyes, I saw they had approached the markers from the wrong side. We slipped by them (by maybe 30 feet) and never touched bottom. Got lucky. Hopefully, we didn’t use all that up on the first day.