Short End of Summer Trip

Friday, September 29, 2017

Wow, we have not been out on Summer Breeze since "Totality"! Hurricane Irma came to visit and created quite a mess, and we've been on a couple of short road trips. So it has been since August 21. Too long but here we are with 4-5 free days and the promise of cooler and nice weather so we are going south a bit, maybe Beaufort, maybe Hilton Head. We left today at 12:45 pm, 3 hours into high tide. That's our secret to a successful launch without popping any balls!

First I want to show you our latest update to SB. Our friend and neighbor, Hugh Allston made our new hand rail gates. He did a magnificent and beautiful job!

And this is our new "fix" to keeping Bella from peeking too far over the flybridge. That made us nervous! She can still peek but can't slip over. Not "Hugh" approved and still needs some tweaking but it worked.

As we traveled south, there were several rain showers around and a few drops on us but no rain and it made for beautiful skies. 

We anchored at 3:45 in the S Edisto River at Laurel Hill anchorage, as noted on Active Captain. And the dolphins came to check us out. Love it when that happens! (photo above)

The clouds were spectacular and so was the sunset with the surrounding rain showers. And then,a bit of rain came, so we decided to turn on the genny, the a/c and cook dinner inside.  

I did get my Day 29 and a Toogoodoo 365 painting in as we left the creek. It was high tide and this spot is just before the fork in the creek. I love how the water is peeking through the marsh grass and the distant tree lines are seen because of the curves in the creek.

My #stradaeasel set up on the boat.

Saturday, Sept 30

The wind came up about 5 AM, we checked the anchor and all was fine. We got up early (6) to make the Ashepoo Coosaw Cut at a higher tide as it gets pretty low there but after watching the morning weather update, decided to hold off. The low in south Florida is causing some winds, near shore gale warnings and rain showers.... then again after more weather station watching and coffee, we decided to continue on but only to Beaufort.

The clouds were heavy but created a beautiful sunrise!

Along the way, I completed my last painting for the 30 day challenge. As we entered the Ashepoo Coosaw Cut, I quickly sketched the scene and got to it. I had some challenges with a little wind, wakes from other boats, but got it done! #stradaeasel challenge!

We got to Beaufort around 3 pm and anchored just behind the mooring field that is next to the marina. That gave us protection from the winds, a great view of Beaufort and easy access to the dinghy dock!

We had a few projects we had been working on that we wanted to finish. The sunscreens now have new roll up snaps (just like on the Isinglass) and the tie down snaps to be used instead of the ropes. Rosie has a hard time untying (and tying) ropes. Fingers just don't work that well with them. So this little addition to the screens is great! 

And we also have the rope problem on the fenders we use at docks or locks. The fingers don't always work that great when you need them in a hurry. So we made up some straps with soft fleece lining that sits on the teak hand rails with grommets for the ropes and then Bruce found some line adjuster things. So now we just clip the loop in the rope and adjust the length if needed! Yeah!!! (for Rosie's fingers!)

We also worked on our no see-um gnat screens but that's still a work in progress. For another day. 

This is our view in the evening of the marina and city. The winds had picked up as predicted but not so bad. It was already cooler and the gnats are gone for now. 

Sunday, Oct 1

No sunrise picture today as we slept in. Oh well. 

Today our friends, Jeanine and Tim Jones who just moved to Beaufort came out for the afternoon. We picked them up at the dinghy dock and had lunch on Summer Breeze, including home made apple pie (from Jeanine of course!)! Then we went into town, walked around a bit and watched a bit of the 9/11 commemorative ceremony that had been postponed because of Hurricane Irma. Back on the boat later for a quiet evening. Not much of a sunset as the clouds were gone. Swept away by the wind! 

Monday, Oct 2

This was our sunrise Monday morning. The winds had quieted during the night but still a bit breezy. The clouds were still moving fast. 

Leaving Beaufort waterfront area...

Entering the Toogoodoo Creek about 3 in the afternoon. We had to hover around the creek a bit to allow for the tide to rise a bit more before crossing the sandbar. I love this little cottage tucked into the trees. I think it 's going to be a painting soon.

We had an almost perfect docking but not quite. The wind gave us a bit of a challenge in our turn around as it would catch the boat and move us. Wind from one side and tide from the other did not balance each other out! We had to abort the 1st try but made it on the 2nd approach. It was not pretty but it was without incident! Phew! 

We can do this!