Tourist Chronicles: Roll out the Beryl

5/26/12 Saturday Holiday week-ends translates to heavy boat traffic. With that in mind I took a big risk and woke Pam up about 6:30 a.m. so that we could get on the water by 7:30 and hopefully avoid the part time boaters that will surely dot the water by later in the morning. Once I tactfully explained my reasoning we were off and running. The plan worked and by the time we crossed the Savannah River we had only spotted a few fishing boats. Actually I was surprised by the small number of boats we encountered all day. In spite of tropical storm Beryl a couple hundred miles offshore the weather was good although a little breezy by the time afternoon rolled around.
Our travel took us past Hilton Head Island, the Paris Island Marine Base and into Port Royal Landing Marina near Beaufort, SC. (www.portroyallandingmarina.com) By now the wind was kicking up pretty good. We took on fuel before tucking in behind their breakwater to hunker down for the impending blow.

Tourist is at the end of this walkway!

As a precaution I removed anything that could blow over the side or get damaged if the wind got too strong. One item of concern was our cockpit seat cover which has a tendency to lift off the seat when windy, thus exposing it to the elements. Fortunately our deck chairs are fairly heavy so I laid them on the seat to hold the cover in place.

Deck Chairs. Not just for sitting.

Once we had things secured we went up to the marina restaurant for lunch and were forced to sit in the bar due to the crowded seating area. Dang the luck! Lunch turned out to be very good and the bartender extremely efficient keeping us in drinks as well as everyone else in the place all while maintaining a friendly, pleasant attitude.

5/27/12 Sunday The effects of Beryl were evident when we woke up. The wind was howling and the rain was coming down sideways but by noon the rain had stopped and the sun was out, although still windy. The Coast Guard was keeping the VHF filled with tropical storm warnings and notices that the Port of Savannah was going to be closed to commercial vessels over 500 tons. Very little traffic was passing by the marina and only one boat came in during the afternoon and sounded relieved to be in a slip.
The remainder of the day we kept an ear tuned to the weather reports concerning Beryl and were relieved to know that it was going to make landfall south of us sparing us the brunt of the initial storm. Unfortunately once on land it was predicted to turn North and follow the coast back up towards us with less wind but heavy rains.

Not everyone stayed in port.

5/28/12 Monday Memorial Day. Thank you veterans and all of the active duty servicemen and women defending our freedom!

Port Royal Landing gives the third night free if you stay and pay for two. Combine that with the forecast and it didn't take much persuasion to stay another day. At least that's what I thought at 9 a.m. Then the weather got better. The rain stopped and the winds calmed down. Should we stay or should we go?

Pam said if we stay she could do a load or two of laundry and I took that as "we should stay". It proved to be a good choice since the winds picked up again and the rain was still threatening. After all, we're not on a schedule so sit back and relax. It's five o'clock somewhere!

5/29/12 Tuesday The day started with some wind & rain then after we decided to stay another day the rain quit. The forecast however predicted Beryl coming up the coast right over us and when checking out the radar it showed rain all around us. The courtesy car was available so we decided to head into town. Beaufort has done a great job of developing their downtown area with a riverfront park full of flowers and of course the tourist shops and restaurants. Our choice was a spot called Plum. The food was great and reasonable. Only one thing confused me about the place. They apparently have take out restrooms as evidenced by the picture below.

Hmmm?

Our time with the loaner car enabled us to make a stop at Bills Liquor Store to re-supply. Pam quickly named it the best liquor store she's ever been in. Now that's saying something!
By five o'clock the rain started and continued until around mid-night coming down very heavy at times. The last gasp of Beryl passing through.

5/30/12 Wednesday First thing I usually do when I get up is check the weather and today was no exception. After sitting here for 4 days I was climbing the walls. It was time to go. Fortunately the weather forecast was favorable and we got ready to continue our travels. Just as when we arrived, the dock hands were there to assist us as we pulled away from the dock. Port Royal Landing will be on our list of places to stop on the way back.
We traveled up the ICW through South Carolina's low country. Known for the low tide shallow spots along the route we only had one that caused me to pucker up and that was at the south end of the Ashepoo-Coosaw cut-off when the depth alarm went off and was reading only 2'6" of water below the keel. Add another 2' from the keel to the waterline and Tourist only had 6" of water to spare. We made it without a problem other than a change of clothes for me!