Glad We Departed

North Edisto River, SC
N 32 37.124 W 080 16.027

We debated leaving Beaufort today. The winds were forecast to be from the north until tomorrow. We had thought to take a short 10 mile ride south to Port Royal sound and go out to sea from there on Thursday. Anyhow, we got tired of sitting in the same place, nice as it was. We left about 0900 and headed north on the ICW.

Boy what a nice choice that was. This section of the ICW really is beautiful. The salt marshes are extensive and exquisite in their beauty. During the day we saw cranes and pelicans and dolphin and deer and an alligator. I understand now why cruisers speak highly of this region.

We took a side trip up Mosquito Creek to find a place called B&B Seafood. It turned out to be a trashy looking trailer with a little dock and a very big shrimp boat tied up. However, their price for diesel fuel is $0.30 less than anyone else's, and they have fresh fish and shrimp for sale. Libby bought us 1.5 pounds of shrimp for supper. I would rate B&B as a very charming stop.

Tonight, we're going to anchor on Steamboat Creek. We are only about 5 miles from the mouth of the North Edisto River, where we can go directly out to sea tomorrow. The forecast calls for 72 hours of southerly winds at 15 knots starting late Thursday. That should be just perfect.

I can recommend another book. It is called "Inlet Chart Book: Southeastern United States." Before having this book, we were super conservative on choosing inlets to the ocean. It would be the worst possible nightmare to run aground at an inlet where waves and currents are most treacherous. To make things worse, the chart books usually blank out the information exactly at the inlets because things shift and the charts become out of date. We chose only the "class A" inlets, which means those
good enough for the Queen Mary. Now, having this book, we find that there are perhaps 3 times that many inlets that we can use safely.