We depart Beaufort, NC shortly before noon on Christmas Eve. We had hemmed and hawed about our plans and where to spend the holidays, and decide to head on to our next state. It’s rainy and foggy as we motor down the AICW. There is very little wind which makes it easy to spot several dolphins throughout the drive. We arrive at our anchorage in Mile Hammock Bay in the afternoon and watch Cape Fear to get in the mood for one of our upcoming destinations. 😀
We spend Christmas Day continuing to motorsail down the AICW. Neither of us are particularly fond of holiday music, but for some reason we both agree that it wouldn’t be appropriate to listen to anything else and end up kind of getting into it… Rushing to the Surf City Bridge opening, we hail the bridge tender to alert him we are almost in sight. “Keep on bringing it!”, he responds. We arrive at Southport to anchor for the night, and after a bit of cautiously creeping around the cramped harbor, we find a spot near the entrance.
The next day we motor down the AICW and cross the state line into South Carolina! We stop in at Bucksport Marina in Conway, SC, for the night, which is right off the waterway. The owner is very friendly and brings us bowls of chili shortly after we tie up.
From Conway, we head down to Georgetown, SC where we drop a hook for two nights. Upon entering the harbor we are greeted not only by the stench of the nearby paper mill but another Creekmore 45 hull! We also make some new friends in the library — another young boating couple (KT & Denis); we meet for drinks and talk cruising.
The next day we head out early to Charleston. The bottom of Charleston Harbor is allegedly very fouled, and we heard plenty of stories about people having to cut their anchor lines because their anchors got snagged up on debris from wrecks on the sea floor. We don’t want to risk that so we anchor for the night at Patriot’s Point, a bit away from downtown. We continue the next day to St. John’s Yacht Harbor on the Stono River.
Sunset while anchored at Patriot’s Point, Charleston.