 |
| Still a little too cold for my liking! |
Finally our part arrived.
About 3 hours later the engine was fixed and we were ready to resume our
trek south…but, as sailing luck would have it, bad weather came in and we had
to wait out two days of high wind before venturing into the Albemarle Sound.
Once we were started again we made excellent
progress. We anchored in most of our usual favorite spots and a few new ones. The engine works great now,
except that we need to keep taking oil out of the fresh water reservoir.
 |
| Anchoring on the Pungo River |
We docked at a marina in Oriental NC to wait out the
huge storm that hit the eastern seaboard on the day before Thanksgiving. Oriental is a bit of a throwback town that is
reminiscent of Mayberry. The people are very friendly and offered us the use of
their bikes or rides in their cars as we made our way around town. We decided
to stay there and chillax for Thanksgiving Day. Although very cold, it was a
beautiful, clear, crisp day. In the morning we wandered about and took some
pictures, and then we watched The Sound of Music and enjoyed our own little turkey dinner. I took the time to reflect on the trip so far and decided I had a lot of reasons to be thankful…not the least of which is the chance to be on another Coyote Adventure…But, most of all I am thankful for our family and friends.
 |
| Our Thanksgiving table |
The rest of our travels down the ICW were relatively
uneventful, with the exception of a few groundings. But, as one of our sailing friends pointed
out…a sailor who says they have never run aground has never left the dock.
 |
| Oriental - a quaint little town |
 |
| Evening on the ICW |
The first one occurred just north of Charleston SC as we
approached the Ben Sawyer swing bridge. There is a notoriously shallow area and
we were travelling at low tide (sometimes that is just out of your
control). Anyway, there was a sailboat
already hard aground and actually leaning at about 30 degrees. We approached
very cautiously hoping we could feel our way through. Didn’t work! We gently touched bottom and
were stuck there for about three hours till the tide came in. We very effectively blocked the rest of the channel
and three more boats opted to wait out the tide rather than navigate around us.
 |
| No way through this channel! |
When we finally floated off we missed the last opening of
the bridge by six minutes! Aargh! After
hovering for two hours we went through the bridge and had to find our way
through Charleston harbor in the dark…a little nerve wracking. But we made it safely to the anchorage and
dropped anchor, which thankfully held immediately; we hit the sack soon after.
 |
| Sunrise in Beaufort |
The next day was the last stretch for the first part of the
journey. We were heading for Beaufort SC where we planned to stay for a visit
with Lynn’s brother and his wife (David and Gini). We decided to take a detour
from the ICW to avoid another shallow area called the Ashepoo Coosaw Cutoff.
Once again we were going to hit it at low tide and didn’t want a repeat of the
previous day. So, instead of turning left in the Ashepoo River, we turned right
and headed for the St. Helena Sound. The
charts showed deep water the whole way and it was just a few extra miles. The plan went perfectly till we reached the
mouth of the river where, without any warning, we hit bottom in water that was
charted at 22 feet!
 |
| Docked in Callawassie |
Lynn is always called to the helm to get us out of sticky situations…which he deftly did in this case once
again. He backed us off and then carefully negotiated the rest of the area that
was at least 10 feet more shallow than it was supposed to be. Once out into the sound we were able to relax
in about 40 feet of water. We were very
happy to pull into the Beaufort marina for the night and enjoyed a nice meal
with some fellow cruisers we had met on the radio that day!
 |
| Another spectacular sunset |
After a short, four-hour ride the following day, we arrived at Callawassie Island where we have been staying for the past week.
David arranged for us to dock Coyote at their pier and we have been enjoying
comfortable, restful nights on shore in their lovely home. We have filled the days with some chores and
some fun. Our friend Chuck arrived yesterday on his boat, Driven, and is now
docked next to us. It is not often that
the community has a big sailboat docked here, let alone two, so I am sure we are
getting a lot of attention.
 |
| Beaufort Carolers |
After we go home for Christmas we will start as soon as
possible to go south to Florida and then to the Bahamas. We are at the point in the journey where we
need to hope for good off-shore cruising weather…so I am keeping my fingers
crossed that we don’t have to wait too long…I’ll keep you posted. Till then, I hope everyone has a wonderful
Christmas and New Year!!
