On Wednesday, April 13th, we headed off to Beaufort, SC, another beautiful old southern town full of charm. Much to our surprise we passed this mini cruise ship snaking through the ICW. Needless to say, we moved way over.
Dave and Darbi take a break from the flybridge and hang out on the bow for a while. That would mean I was at the helm (aka behind the wheel) and taking pictures at the same time. Thank God for auto pilot! It really is like being in a real life video game.
We arrived safely in Beaufort, SC and walked through the beautiful old town. On the way back to the boat, we spotted a cruise ship like the one we had passed earlier in the day pulling into the marina. We found out that American Cruise Lines runs week long trips up and down the ICW. This ship was going from Jacksonville, FL to Charleston, SC.
Darbi and I taking a break on a wooden swing along the River Walk. Behind us you can see some of the restaurants and shops lining the walk.
Another section of the beautiful River Walk in Beaufort.
After a great evening in Beaufort, Dave & Darbi are walking down the dock to the boat. As you can see, it was another beautiful sunset on the ICW!!
A typical night on the boat after a long day . . . Dave hits the computer and Darbi hits the bed. That's when I work on the next day's travel plans.
On day 14 of our journey, we put Beaufort to our stern and headed for Charleston.
Here's a typical southern plantation looking house along the ICW. Georgia and South Carolina are so different than Florida. And I have to say I was starting to miss the hot Florida weather. The mornings and evenings are cool and the days are just warm. I guess it's preparation for our final destination. We're hoping it's starting to seem like spring back home.
This was a calm beautiful section of the ICW, somewhere in SC. That's one of the strange things about traveling the waterway, many times you really don't know where you are other than statute mile XXX on the nautical chart. You have no idea where you are with respect to "civilization".
And around the bend from "nowhere", we came upon what appeared to be some kind of large shipyard.
So before we left RPM, to get us mentally prepared everyone kept telling us that "something" was going to go wrong . . . it's a boat after all. We heard unfortunate stories of blown engines, running aground, failed fuel systems, etc. Well after almost 2 weeks of cruising "something" did, but "we're so lucky to have Dave!!" (that's a little inside joke). I'll spare you all the gory details, but the starboard engine shut down unexpectedly about 10 miles south of Charleston. Fortunately Dave had suspected a small fuel leak in the port engine a few days earlier, so he and I spent one evening down in the engine compartment diagramming the entire fuel system. Having done that, Dave knew the fix, but unfortunately it involved him siphoning diesel fuel. After about an hour and a half, we were on our way. Hopefully that's our "something" for the entire trip!!
A short while later, we pulled into the Charleston City Marina. Yes, that big blue yacht front and center is a private boat! We were really excited about spending some time in Charleston as the largest racing regatta was here this weekend. Dave wanted to meet with the onsight diesel mechanic the next day, so we had planned to stay Thursday and Friday night.
After a very long day, we grilled steaks and had dinner watching the sunset. We had a perfect spot in the marina, which by the way, Dave did a great job squeezing into. He's really getting good a maneuvering the boat.
And it was another beautiful sunset!!!!
After finding out everything was okay with the engines, we took the shuttle to historic downtown Charleston. Here's Dave and Darbi again patiently waiting for me to come out of the City Market.
Here's Darbi and I in front of the City Market.
Darbi didn't know what to make of the carriage horses, but of course she had to bark at them like she was twice their size!
The weather forecast predicted severe thunderstorms and high winds for Saturday, so obviously we decided to stay put. As I type, the boat's a rockin' and the wind's a blowin! Luckily we only had a light rain this morning, but as you can see the water has been quite rough all day. It's been a very relaxing day. Tomorrow we are off to Georgetown, SC.
No comments:
Post a Comment