678 nm N32 26.034 W080 38.957
Today was a fairly short day, only 26 nm. It was a gray and dreary day, not good for photos. But at least it was warm! Our destination was Factory creek, just across from Beaufort, (B-you-fert) SC. (not to be confused with Beaufort (B-oh-fert) NC!
But we needed fuel and a pumpout first, and the Beaufort marina was just south of a drawbridge, while Factory creek was just north of it. I'm sure the bridge tender was confused to hear us requst an opening southbound, and then just a half an hour later, request one northbound! But he never said a word, just opened the bridge on schedule.
Once in Factory Creek, the spot we had previously anchored in was much deeper than before. We don't anchor in anything deeper than about 15 ft (at high tide) down here. That's because the wind and the strong currents do strange things to the boat, causing it to point in different directions, and flip around every 6 hours. If we let out all our chain (50 ft) and any more than about 25 ft of nylon line, we have the possibility of getting our anchor line wrapped around our prop, requiring a swim to clear it! Having done that once two years ago, I now go to great lengths to avoid a repeat!
This makes anchoring down here challenging. We motored on way up Factory creek until it gradually began to get shallow enough, and dropped the hook. Our new spot Is much better than the one from our previous trip, and we had it all to ourselves.
Life is good.
Beaufort SC was one of my favorite towns. I spent several days there. There is a Day dock just west of the Beaufort Marina that is free. It was great. I had a mooring at night and did the day dock during the day. Glad Elliot's cut wasn't a big problem. It was a problem for me every time I went through - even though I thought I had it timed perfectly. Sounds like things are going well - thanks for the updates!!!
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