Tides and Bridges

We are navigating mostly to tides and bridges. The tides in South Carolina and Georgia range up to 8 feet. The intercoastal running through these states have some trouble area for sail boats because we draw from 4 feet to 6 feet. Our boat draws 5.5 feet ( maybe more with all the water, fuel and all our possessions.). We've heard of spots that have 3 feet of water at low tide. So, we want mid to high tide when we get there. So planning your 50 miles a day might be cut to 40 miles because you would run into the next trouble spot at low tide. Now to make things more interesting you get to factor in a swing bridge or two a day. Some of there listed openings read something like this:  Lady of the Night Bridge.... Closed from 6 am to 9 am and 10 to 2 pm and 4 to 6 pm; open  on the hour otherwise Monday thru Friday   Weekend and holidays open on demand except closed 4pm to 9am.  Ok, I went slightly overboard with the closing hours..but not that far off. So Jon and I have factored in the tides and then we started looking at restrictions on the bridge... Dang.. They re closed from 11 am to 1pm and it's 12pm and we only have two miles to go.  Oh this is gonna mess up our schedule but ok we'll slow down from our whopping 6.4 knots to 1.3 knots(mostly current pushing us). We get up there about half mile away and I call to let him know that we are here for his 1 pm opening.... It's about 12:45 and he opens up. I thought, how nice he opened early for us...then it started to hit me... It's Saturday and they open up when you ask. Oh well who can keep track of days. We traveled 56 miles and set our anchor at dusk in Bull Creek. Thank goodness we didn't have to get up to early as the next trouble spot is Fields Cut and mid to high tide is 10 am to 12 pm.  

         Beaufort, South Carolina 

      Bull creek at dusk

        We woke Sunday to fog

      Jon loving his windlass to pick up all that chain. 

     Missing Aaron as it was his job to clean the anchor.  You have to use the boat hook and buckets of water. Wash down pump is on the growing list of necessities. (Or Aaron has to come back)