Days 293 through 291:

Off we go to Hilton Head Island on Calibogue Sound. We decide to stay at the Hilton Head Harbor Marina instead of the well-known Harbour Town with its red-and-white striped lighthouse, because it is seven miles further down (I mean up) the line. They put us on the inside of the fuel dock which is right off the ICW. There is lots of current but okay protection from wakes from the big float alone.

The next day it is really blowing out of the NE (25+) so we decide to be cautious and not to try to cross Port Royal Sound to Beaufort. We move a few miles up the island to Skull Creek Marina to wait for (hopefully) a little less wind tomorrow AM.

Sure enough the wind is down, so we have an easy trip across Port Royal Sound around Parris Island and up the river to Beaufort, one of our favorite towns of the entire trip. They put us on the inside of the face dock but it should be fine as the current will carry us out in the AM. I jump in a rental car and head off to points south to find S a new Seiko watchband as his has broken. Can't live without a watch! Grab a quick dinner on the waterfront and turn in early as we want to get an early start.

They are setting up this beautiful waterfront for a huge Gullah festival here this weekend. It will be a zoo here for the next few days. Glad to be moving North. Most of the slaves brought to the Carolina plantations were captured from the Rice Coast of Africa, where rice had been grown for centuries. The slaves brought their language--now evolved into Gullah, a Creole dialect combining English with West African languages--their music, and their craft of coiled decorative sweetgrass baskets made of grass, pine or palmetto fronds.

Next is a long slow trip up the river around Beaufort as we have 2 knots of current against us all the way at practically dead low tide. We get to our familiar "B & B Seafood" (where we stayed on the way down) on Mosquito Creek in Green Pond, SC. Tie up next to the Bobbie B shrimp boat and spend a quiet night in this rural but pretty place. Needless to say, our screens are on.

Off to Charleston! We power the whole way and go through Elliott Cut, a very narrow channel with a brutal 2-6 knot current. It is the weekend and there are a ton of pleasure boats zooming around before the cut and after in Charleston Harbor as well. Jet skis, boats dragging kids behind on floats, it's nutty. Really our least favorite passage, bordering on dangerous.

S is really getting some mileage out of his Red Sox hat. The houses along this narrow cut are right on the water. We are powering by a house with a family on its dock, and a nice guy looks at the boat and S and calls to us "Go Sox!" :)

Charleston is having a two-week long festival so there is no room at the city marina in town and we are across the harbor at the Charleston Harbor Resort & Marina. We spend two days here, ferrying in to the city which we so love. You can walk around Charleston forever and discover delights. It is even prettier now that the Spring is here!

But press on we must, and Monday AM we are off to McClellanville, a small fishing community from the 1700's on Jeremy Creek. This area inland is the Francis Marion National Forest Recreation Area, miles of very shallow ICW and marshes. Alligators everywhere. And the greenheads!!! I swat and swat and swat.

The next day it's on to Georgetown where we have arranged for Katannah to be hauled at Hazzard Marine to have the bottom powerwashed. We are REALLY feeling dirty as there is considerable growth on the bottom. What a huge difference to get that done! I taxi to a food store for some things as S is supervising the haul out.

Off up Winyah Bay and into the wild Waccamaw River on up to North Myrtle Beach the next day.

It's hard to imagine the Waccamaw River as a major center of anything never mind commerce. Yet it was once an important shipping center for the area's huge plantations. Large boats docked at wooden wharves along these shores to pick up plantation produce. The stone ballast of the empty ships was exchanged for the weight of rice sacks. By the 1800's the banks of the Waccamaw were lined at low tide with small round ballast stones called "Belgian rocks", brought from Europe and then discarded. Rocks aong the Waccamaw were gathered to pave the cobblestone streets of Charleston. I LOVE these interesting details....

We pull over at a face dock at the Barefoot Landing Marina and head into air conditioning for some lunch. It is starting to get really hot here.

This afternoon we watch a pretty big alligator stalk us and the other boats lined up here. Just swims back and forth, back and forth, looking at us. The dockhand tells S that sometimes these gators get up onto the dock to sun themselves. Great. I am not sure I like hearing that. Mercifully he stays put and doesn't need sunning but is right next to us the next AM giving us the stare. Time to move on....quickly.

We are done with South Carolina!