April-May 2008
Back from the UK and all the fun of the family wedding we rapidly headed north. The weather was very kind to us and we were able to sail offshore from the St Augustine Inlet right up to Brunswick in Georgia as a day sail. Finding a firm anchorage in the estuary proved more difficult and late twilight found us in the Frederica River finally getting the hook into something solid.
Dawn took us offshore again and this time all the way to Port Royal Sound in South Carolina, just south of Beaufort (‘Bewfort’). This was a 90 mile day sail and avoided all the shallows of Georgia with midday low spring tides. This time we anchored in the dark in a narrow creek which we had fortunately frequented in 2006. Chart plotters are wonderful!
We now had just a couple of days to travel to reach Charleston again.

A yellow-crowned night heron hunting in the marshes by Charlston Battery
The same heron standing bolt upright to preen and display
These cute family swings are found on the pier at the up-river end of the Battery in Charleston
This tourist boat in Charleston appears to have bath tub ancestry

Charleston remains a favourite destination for us and the easy vitality of this college city is truly welcoming. We took the opportunity to visit Elaine again and shared a great meal out with her and her boyfriend Jason. We wandered the downtown area as usual and walked out on the Battery.
We were very fortunate to see a Yellow-crowned Night Heron hunting fiddler crabs on the salt marsh. Every so often he rested in a vertical posture just like a penguin. When we checked him out in our bird book the picture shown was in this very posture so we assume it is typical. We had been misled by the name and did not expect to see one hunting during the day. These were easy pickings though!
North once again through South Carolina and into the gorgeous Wacamaw River with all its bird life. We sheltered from adverse weather in Bull Creek which we had discovered last autumn. Sadly we knew that low tide would soon be in the middle of the day again...

The skipper keeping no-see-ums at bay with this special net gear
Angry sunset with thunderstorms and heavy rain in North Carolina

Our friends in Little River were on their way to Hawaii and would miss us this time. How could they prefer a visit there to a visit from us! Aloha and farewell we say!
As we dreaded the tides were now at midday and that was when we would cross the shallow inlets at Shallotte and Lockwoods Folly in North Carolina. We made it through the former with about 6 inches to spare but the latter was not so forgiving. Right at the point where we crossed the inlet channel we grounded firmly in the middle of the ICW channel. For about 50 yards we nosed steadily through the mud and shingle before finally finding some water again. Not the softest area so we suspect the keel will need a little paint in June... North Carolina is in many ways worse than Georgia because the tidal range is smaller.

Angie planning the next wedding with our eldest, Jo

The latest updates to ‘Skipper Bob’ - the ICW guide - gave further dire predictions about depth to the north.

It gave us great pleasure to find the dredger working in the worst area and we relaxed - only to hit the bottom hard again where we were not expecting shallows. Well, you can’t win them all and the next two nightmare areas had been dredged so the balance was positive.
We are now up to Coinjock at the far north of the Carolinas and will take two more short days to get to Norfolk, Virginia and thence to the Chesapeake Bay again. We plan to be lifted in early June before traveling to Colorado and the UK. But first there’s lots of maintenance to do as usual...

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