April 8-9, 2021 Off shore St Augustine to Beaufort SC

 Thursday, April 8, 2021. Day 123.

At 1:30pm, we entered the ocean from the St. Augustine inlet, and cruised about 9 miles offshore on our way to Beaufort, South Carolina.

The day time offshore was OK, not necessarily fun, but OK. I was able to edit my blog for about an hour without any motion sickness. Off shore segments are long and to me, rather boring, but they have a purpose. Ocean passages eliminate several long days of intense steering in narrow ICW channels which is very wearing on the captain ( I’m not crazy about them either ). So, the ocean it was.

I was patched and “wristed”, and, actually was able to sleep well between my watches. On this trip, unfortunately, Captain Roland did not sleep very much or very well. He had to make a couple of course adjustments during my watch (I hated to awaken him, but no real choice), to avoid freighters, especially near Savannah (which had been the case going south so no surprise ). When I was on watch through the day and night, I listen to books and played solitaire on the phone and checked the radar and our speed and a few other dials. I was sorry to miss both the sunset and sunrise, both on Roland's watch, but happy to get some sleep.

Captains note: this is one of my favorite sunset photos. it has not been altered or enhanced at all, this was the actual colors, was amazing..

The crossing was calm (for the ocean); the wind maybe 10 to 15 knots

Friday, April 9, 2021. Day 124.

When I awakened, we were in Port Royal Sound on the way to Port Royal Island which is surrounded by the Broad River and the Coosa River. Beaufort is on the Beaufort River which winds through the penninsula. At 10:18am, we were back on the ICW. It was interesting in the morning to pass Hilton Head, and Parris Island. I’ve never been to Hilton Head nor Parris Island, (unlikely I will ever go to Parris Island).

It was not easy getting a slip in Beaufort but we did manage to get one at Safety Harbor in Port Royal. We had preferred the Beaufort marina but they were booked solid until September 2021!

Kadey Krogen owners have a group of current and former boaters who volunteer to be harbor hosts. They offer to help with information and, in some cases, even transportation in their areas. They invite Kadey Krogen owners and other boaters to reach out to them when the boaters are visiting their location. I reached out to the Harbor Hosts in Beaufort, South Carolina and in Charleston, South Carolina. This was the first time I tried reaching out to a Harbor Host and I didn’t know what to expect for sure. Vicki and Mac, from Beaufort responded and we discussed getting together. Mac has been fully vaccinated and Vicki was getting her second vaccination in a couple of days. We all agreed to wear masks and to keep the windows open in the car. They had a giant four person pick up truck.

We docked at Port Royal Marina at 11:45am and I was thrilled that the overnight was behind us. I showered and dressed and went for a walk and hoped to have lunch at the marina restaurant “Mark 244”. We heard they were serving soft shells, and we love soft shell crabs. The area in which the marina and the restaurant are located it is very cute; small neat homes, beautiful foliage, very cool but casual and accessible and very natural. When we approached Marker 244, we were told it was an hour wait and by the way they were out of soft shells. We made a reservation for 6pm (they said they were getting another three crates of soft shells for dinner) and we went back to the boat and had leftovers for lunch.

The restaurant was obviously a lunch place, there was an hour wait an it was packed at lunch. At dinner, not so much. We were one of the few occupied tables and learned that they serve soft shells, one way only: fried and on a bun – we had waited all this time for a sandwich! It was however the biggest soft shell Roland had ever seen. We had our traditional rose wine (the prices, interestingly enough, are high for a glass but quite reasonable for the whole bottle), so of course, we drank the whole bottle.

Dinner was a bit early so we walked to the supermarket about a mile away and bought a few things back to the boat. I confirmed arrangements for tomorrow with Vicki and Mac. They offered to pick us up at 9:30am to go to the local farmers market, take us to a supermarket or other stores for any provisioning and then, to tour Beaufort. They had recently sold their Kadey Krogen 39, “Confetti“, and bought a house. Keeping in touch with the Kadey Krogen family was important to them, and they knew our PO's (prior owners), and our boat. All of us were looking forward to Saturday, and our first Harbor Host experience.