Thunderbolt to Windmill Harbour to Lady's Island to Steamboat Creek

Day #525; Loop Miles to Date = 5,844

Spoiler alert...this is gonna be a bit of a short and dull blog post...no pics to share. We've been on the move this week, leaving the Savannah area on Tuesday and making 3 stops in 4 days. And the march will continue tomorrow. Thankfully, the weather has cooperated nicely, although we did spend an extra day at Windmill Harbour allowing the winds to subside before continuing on. And tonight we are at anchor, so no Wi-Fi to carry pictures out with this post. 

Windmill Harbour was a great stop in Hilton Head. We were actually glad to spend an extra night here as it was really peaceful and very nice. The marina actually has it's own lock at its entrance, so all current and tide issues are non-existent once inside the marina. The winds were whipping at 15-20 mph for a couple of days...and this was the perfect hidey hole to wait it out.

Lady's Island Marina in Beaufort, SC is one that we have visited before, and it was a nice stop once again. Some absolutely terrific folks are here...both as resident boaters and marina managers. They have a courtesy car too, so we were able to run a couple of errands with no problem. We could easily have stayed here for a spell, but we decided to continue our trek after a one-night stay.

And then today, we motored 43 miles or so to an anchorage at Steamboat Creek. In this stretch of the ICW there are basically no marinas to choose from, and only a precious few anchorages that are good for dog walking. We have used this anchorage twice before, and it has again not disappointed. Tonight, the winds are completely calm, the night sky is moonless, and the stars indescribably beautiful. It couldn't be a nicer night to be on the hook.

Another feature of this stretch of travel is that there is a combination of sounds/inlets to cross and shallow areas to plan for. Each day, we must assess the tides, and time our travel to ensure that we hit the shallow spots at a time when there is sufficient depth to take the stress out of our day. And, the winds need to cooperate so that we don't hit any of the crossings in the wrong wind conditions. This week treated us well in both regards...fingers crossed that the weather holds for this next week of travel as well.

All for now...thanks for reading...