Love bugs

 Our very temporary fix worked well apart from a few fumes, so with new confidence we decide to do a better temporary fix ourselves. That way we can continue our journey north. Napa auto parts provide the bandage, exhaust sealant and jubilee clips to effect a pretty good repair.

 George Town is a nice town, it once was rich probably from rice growing, big pleasant elderly houses fill the town centre. Now there is heavy industry on the outskirts, the smell of the paper mill fills the air in the otherwise very nice marina.

 We sail away into clouds of flies everywhere, we are told they are Love Bugs, they appear every May and only have 24 hours in their short life. For bugs that have a lot to do in a short time they seem to sit around a lot, he are a few on Vince and the back of the boat.

Thank god they don't bite!

Luck runs out on Mayday.

 The day started well. Sunshine a fair wind, we knew there was a thunderstorm coming so having learned from yesterday's storm we decide to anchor for lunch and sit out the storm. No storm arrived, lunch was tasty.

 On we went, Vince noticed that one of the exhaust pipe fittings appeared to be lose, we continued as the thing was so corroded it could not be tightened. 

We were at low tide and there was very little water, several times we went aground trying to find a route through the low water.  On one such occasion after a very hard stint of reversing to pull ourselves out of the mud Lizzie spots black smoke billowing from the engine compartment. My first impression was that we were on fire but once the smoke had cleared, and there was a lot to clear, all looked safe. The anchor was dropped and we investigate. It looked like leaking exhaust had filled the engine compartment and starved the engine of air causing the black smoke. Vince's lovely clean engine and the whole of the engine compartment was as black as the ace of spades.

  It was now getting dark and nothing to do but stay put anchored where one shouldn't be, right in the middle of the ICW.

 At about 2am Vince checks depth and realises we have swung round to a very shallow piece of water so we have to reset the anchor in deeper water, all done we now keep a watch for the rest of the night.

 Come morning bits of wire hold the exhaust together as we very gingerly head to George Town to find somebody to fix it.

Church creek to Charleston

Only sixteen miles a quick hop and we would be there. We knew there were thunderstorms forcast and as we motored down river the humidity and gathering clouds didn't look so good. We exchanged a few words with Bob and Diane who we had met in the Bahamas, they were in a boatyard waiting for some spare parts to fix their boat. We didn't stop but rushed on to catch the 11oclock opening of the next bridge. By the time we got though the bridge it was obvious there was a thunder storm coming our way lightening flashed all around as we crossed the cooper river estuary, 30knot winds and rain like stair rods. Lizzie wisely hid below, Vince's boat is built for sun and there is little protection .  It was scary . In a lull we decide moor kinky turtle on the marina fuel pontoon, two goes gets her secure and we retire below, cold, very wet, and relieved. Here is the radar pic of the storm.

Beaufort to anchorage in church creek

Once again our life is controlled by the timing of bridge openings. The first opening of the bridge in Beaufort is 9.00am . Leaving the dock was messy I do hope nobody saw us, the wind pushed us on to the pontoon, one of the fenders popped out and caught on a cleat, it was left behind when the rope broke. Had to do another circuit to go back and pick it up but we made it to the bridge for 9.

I've never seen a wild boar before, we spotted two probably a sow and her piglet. These were both very black they appeared to be grazing by the water but soon scuttled off into the undergrowth as we passed , too quick to get a photo but they were something like this.

  

To Beaufort South Carolina

Augustine at 6.30 in the morning is pretty quiet. We aim to go through the lifting bridge to the ocean when they lift it at 7.30, so there is time for a shower, a shit and all those other things that one does before a long journey. Lizzie takes a little longer than us blokes so she jumps aboard at the last moment before we pull away from the pontoon.

  After the drama of the Ponce de Leon grounding there was a conciderable tension aboard as we gingerly edged out into the Atlantic through the inlet, no need to worry, lots of feet below the keel, all good for an overnight sail 150 miles away to Beaufort South Carolina.

 Vince said he checked the port light, I don't doubt him but when I came on watch there was no port light, we were invisible to all those boats to our west. With lizzie at the helm the guys set about fixing the light,  precariously hanging over the bow in the dark  we determine that the corroded contacts onto the bulb were the problem, a quick rub with emery paper saved the day.

The rest of the night passed without incident, in the morning the fast tide pouring out of the Beaufort River slowed us down, we arrived a little late at 1pm. Beaufort is a pretty town.

Mon Capitan, so sweat.......

Crew

 

ICW to Augustine

From Ponce de Leon we decide to do the 50mile hop to Augustine on the ICW, it made a break from the high seas and there is more to look at, fancy houses, pelicans, speed boats and the chance of seeing a manatee ( which we didn't). It's Saturday and everybody is out in the spring sunshine. 

 The municiple marina sounds a dreary place to stay but it's right in the centre of town and buzzing.

 

Aground again

Canaveral to Ponce de Leon

Ponce de Leon Inlet is a rather fancy name, it used to be called Mosquito Inlet but the locals decided it would do the tourist business no good at all. So now we head for Ponce de Leon , a fairly uneventful trip, the usual sun, little wind and the motor running all the way. The entrance at Ponce de Leon was pretty easy once inside you either turn south or north. The route south is the main channel but there is a well marked channel to the north that would save us a lot of time. I say well marked in fact it was dreadfully marked on my iPad and the paper chart, which we found when the boat came to a shocking halt the rig and mast shuddered and the incoming tidal current pushed us harder on to the shoal. Somehow Vince managed to reverse us off enough to then turn into the current and we scrapped our way back off the shoal. I saw 2.3 feet on the depth, we go aground at 3.9 !   A very nice man from Seatow saw the incident and came over to us with the welcome words  'follow me' !  The actual channel was a good 150 yards to the south. After all the tension we abandoned the anchoring plan and went to a marina . The harbour inlet marina seemed to be the party location for the town, live band, loud music and lots of people.

  Sunset at inlet harbour marina.