Cruising with the flo(w)...
06 December 2010 | Beaufort, SC
Flo is our faithful flamingo who has logged almost eight thousand nautical miles with us...Here she is admiring our nice anchorage just outside Beaufort, SC.
Today was a long day of riding the tidal flows as we worked our way through numerous land cuts that provide links between tidal rivers. Generally, the rivers run perpendicular to the coast so the ICW tends to follow one for a few twists and then cuts over to the next. One consequence of this is that, as the tides flood and ebb up and down the rivers we find ourselves alternately racing along with a favorable current for a while, and then going through a cut into another river where we fight our way against the current for a while. With the new moon having been just yesterday, the tides are particularly large and the currents particularly strong so the effect was quite dramatic as our speed varied from four to nine knots...
Tonight we are anchored just outside Beaufort (pronounced BEW-fert to distinguish it from BOW-fert in North Carolina). We managed to cover the 65 miles to get here before dark but not in time to catch the bridge opening at 4pm...The bridge doesn't open between 4 and 6pm (and its quite dark by six) so, although we can see downtown Beaufort across the way, we won't get to explore it until we pass through the bridge tomorrow morning.