Air temp 52, water temp 69, winds NW @ 15-20
60 nautical miles, 627 total miles from Marathon
Here is a pretty sunset picture from Beaufort that Laura took last night.
It was a chilly morning as I released the mooring lines at 6:15am. For the first time on this trip, I had on sweatpants, sweatshirt, socks and sneakers. The reason we were leaving so early is the Lady's Island Bridge (like many ICW bridges) does not open during rush hour mornings and afternoons. This bridge does not open between 6:30am and 9am. So, if we don't get through before 6:30am, we'll have to wait until 9am.
Dean had told me he really didn't want to get up this early so would probably sleep in. But, right after I called the bridge on our VHF radio to let them know we wanted to go through, I heard Dean call them and say he would be joining us. I turned around and they were just motoring out of the mooring field. Nice to have company again!
The current was almost 2 knots pushing us toward the bridge so we turned both boats around, pointing the wrong direction, and motored into the current while waiting. This is much easier than trying to reverse and hold the boats while running backwards. Most sailboats don't like doing this and are difficult to control.
Right at 6:30am the bridge opened and we continued our trip north. Autumn Borne stayed about 1/4 mile behind us all day.
Normally, traveling this part of the ICW, you have the tidal current with you 1/2 of the time and against you 1/2 of the time. (You actually have it against you for a slightly longer time because you're going slower against the current.). But today would be one of our slowest days ever as the tide changes were just right to be against us almost all day. There were only two sections where we had a helping current and this 5 miles from the Lady's Island Bridge to the Coosaw river was one of them. We had about 1 knot of helping current for the next hour.
Once on the Coosaw River, we met the flood tide and slowed to about 4 knots. There was a 20 knot wind on our port quarter so we rolled out 3/4 of our jib which brought us back to over 5 knots. But, the winds on our stern were blowing right into the cockpit. I went downstairs and dug out my foul-weather gear which cut the wind from blowing through my sweatshirt.
During the time when we entered the Ashepoo - Coosaw cutoff and finally turned north on the South Edisto River, the tide had changed and we were fighting the ebb current. The boats slowed to 3 knots as the tides were much higher (and the currents higher) because of the recent full moon. This was to be our formula for the day - very slow motoring against currents.
Here is a video Laura took of us motor-sailing up the North Edisto River.
Normally we would make the 67 ICW miles between Beaufort and Charleston in a 10-11 hour day and anchor before Elliot Cut on the Stono River. Today, we decided to go through Elliot Cut and the Wappoo Creek Bridge to anchor in Charleston Harbor. This would set us up for a long run the Georgetown the next day if we left early again.
It's interesting to me how our scenery changes through this part of South Caroling based on the tides. There is a 8-9 foot tide in this section so, when the tide it up, it feels like you are on top of the world. When it's down, you're in a valley. The full moon tides were very high (and low) today with the low tide being 1 foot below the mean low tide. At one point it seemed we were traveling down a valley made of grass on the sides. Check out the mud flats on the side of the ICW at low tide.
The Wappoo Creek Bridge is also closed during rush hour traffic between 3:30pm and 7pm. I was a little hopeful when we left that we might make the 3:30pm opening. Ha! We barely made it there for 7pm. A tug and barge passed us just before Elliot Cut and I knew the bridge would have to open for them just before 7pm (bridges open anytime for commercial vessels). But, we couldn't keep up with the barge (I know. We are a SLOW sailboat) and we heard the bridge opening on the VHF just as we entered Elliot Cut about 1 mile from the bridge. The current prediction for Elliot Cut said we should have about 1 knot of current against us at this time. This is why they are called "predictions". We had over 3 knots and our boat speed was down to 1.7 knots over ground as we slowly motored through the 1/4 mile cut waiting for the houses on shore to pass us (not really but it seemed like it).
Just before Elliot Cut we were passed by Marguerite, the boat we sailed with off-shore Miami then anchored with in Pelican Cove north of Ft. Lauderdale. They called us on the radio and we had a nice chat about our past few weeks apart. Here they are passing us.
Dean had told me they were going to anchor before the cut but he changed his mind and came with us. A short time later the Wappoo Bridge opened for us and we motored onto Charleston harbor. Rather than anchor by the city marina, we decided to motor south a bit and anchor off the channel closer to shore. Since the winds were supposed to be low tonight, it should be pretty calm.
At 8pm we dropped anchor in Charleston Harbor. Laura had made Chili during the day which she re-heated for our late dinner. I think we watched one show on TV before hitting the sack around 9:30pm.
Our boat averages 5.5 knots when motoring. Today we had traveled 60 nautical miles in 13.5 hours for an average of 4.4 knots. Like I said, our slowest day ever....
Friday, May 8th
Air temp 58, water temp 68, winds calm
57 nautical miles today, 684 total miles from Marathon
I had the alarm set for 5:10am but did my normal thing of waking up just before it went off at 5:05am. My early wake-up was helped by the several fishing boats that went out between 4:30am and 5am. They rocked us pretty good. We were both a little sluggish from getting up early two days in a row but got ourselves and the boat ready for the daily cruise. At 5:45am we had the anchor up and were underway across the harbor at 4.5 knots. Yep. The tide was against us again right from the start.
This always seems to be the case and it cracks me up. There was one other boat traveling across the huge Charleston Harbor at 6am and it was a tug pulling a barge on a collision course with us. I watched him on our RADAR and tracked his AIS signals which showed we would pass 1,000 feet in front of him if neither of us changed course or speed. He did speed up a little but we were able to safely pass in front. Here he is coming right at us! I didn't even have to zoom in.
We were up early because of another bridge schedule. The Ben Sawyer Bridge is closed for traffic between 7am and 9am. Plus, the low tide today was at 3:45pm. If we went through this bridge after 9am, that would put us near low tide at some of the problem spots near McClellanville. That's why we were up at 5am - to make this bridge before 7am.
Our schedule worked fine and we were able to go through the bridge at 6:45am. Now we were free of bridges for a few days until Myrtle Beach area.
Wow! What a difference a day makes. This area has several inlets to the ocean so the tidal currents are not so bad and seem to change every 1/2 hour. Even with the low winds in the morning, the boat ran between 5 and 6 knots no problem. Good deal. I thought we were having problems like dragging a crap trap with us yesterday.
Here we are motor-sailing with the full jib down the ICW toward McClellanville before the winds really picked up.
One of the reasons we hustled to be in Georgetown today was the winds this evening and night were supposed to blow up to 30 knots. Rather than be up in the night watching our anchor, we decided to head to a marina tonight - our first one since Marathon.
The best laid plans.... Overnight the forecast had changed and the big winds were coming in this afternoon. In fact, by 11am we had 15-20 knot winds. But, today they were helping us so I rolled out most of our jib and we zoomed along over 6 knots most of the day. By 2pm the winds were so high I rolled in the jib completely because it wasn't happy with the wind moving from one side of our stern to the other. By 3pm we ran out onto Winyah Bay and turned north to Georgetown. Our destination was only 5 miles away. But, we now had the river ebb current against us at almost 2 knots. I was able to roll out 1/2 of the jib to help us in the winds that were now gusting over 30 knots. Here is a video Laura took on this part of the trip. We only had about 1/2 the jib out but the boat is still moving around a lot. Sorry for all the wind noise. It was really honking!
As we entered the protected Georgetown Harbor, the winds calmed down and we were able to dock at Harbortown Marina by 4:15pm with no problems. I was concerned that the high winds would make docking at the marina dangerous so was ready to head back out to the river and anchor if I had to. But, no worries and we were tied up quickly safe and sound. Today we traveled 57 miles (only 3 less than yesterday) and it took us 3 hours less.
After tying up the boat and settling in, Laura took a hot shower while I walked down to Independent Seafood only about 1/4 mile away. I remembered from our last time here they had some great shrimp. I was not disappointed and purchased 3 pounds of jumbo shrimp for $30. Back at the boat Laura steamed 10 of them for a shrimp cocktail appetizer while it was my turn in the shower. Fresh shrimp right off the boat. Excellent!
Dinner of pan-seared Grouper was right in-line with the shrimp appetizer. We had a few glasses of wine in the cockpit and relaxed before helping a late arrival to dock across from us. We had seen this boat a few days ago on the Stono River and talked a bit with Mike and Kathy on Happy Trails. They were doing the Great Loop and were very worried about the NYS Canals opening late (or not opening at all). When we said we were from the Hudson River, they asked if we knew a marina they might stay at to wait for the canals to open. Heck yes! Come see us at Catskill Marina! We chatted for a while then it got chilly so we went downstairs to warm up.
Saturday, April 9th
Air temp 52, water temp 64, (it's getting chilly!) winds NW @ 15-20
14 nautical miles, 698 total miles from Marathon
We slept in a bit (compared to the past few days) and got up around 8am. I had filled up our water tank, washed down the boat (first time since Marathon) and put the hose away last evening so it was easy to get the boat ready for cruising. By 8:30am we motored out of Georgetown Harbor on a windy, chilly morning.
Looking back, we didn't even take a walk around town. I had walked to the seafood market yesterday but Laura's longest walk was to the trash can. This is why I like to stay at marinas for more than 1 night. We need time to relax a bit.
Today the winds were right on our nose which always slows down the boat but didn't feel as cold as 2 days ago because we were protected with our clear canvas. Even with the tidal current helping us up the Waccamaw River, we had problems staying over 5 knots when we should have been doing 6 to 7. I didn't think we could make North Myrtle Beach today with the slow start so mentioned to Laura about maybe stopping early and anchoring off the river. She immediately said, "Sure!" so we looked for a new place to stay. Dean texted me about maybe staying at Thoroughfare Creek which I had seen on the charts but never stayed. After reading some of the anchorage reviews on Active Captain, it looked pretty good. A few hours later we had the anchor down about a mile from the river in a beautiful creek.
Here is a picture from our anchorage. Way over to the right you can see Autumn Borne. They came in a few hours after us. Dean and Sue had anchored in Winyah Bay just off the ICW last night and slept in this morning.
After lunch we decided to take a dinghy ride. I really wanted to get off the boat because of all the locals with their LOUD, huge outboards zooming around the boat were driving me a little crazy. Laura and I loaded up the dink and motored up the creek against the current. I always like to start in the up-current direction since it would be much easier to row back if we had problems. Laura had a great time with her favorite pastime - turtle watch. We saw lots of turtles sunning themselves on branches but couldn't get a good picture because they were very skittish. Laura took this video which is cute.
Here is a video I took of us zooming up the river in the dinghy. This makes our sailboat look really slow...
On the way back, I thought it would be a good idea to have Laura take her first dinghy driving lesson. There wasn't anything around to hit so it was pretty safe (I'm gonna get a punch for that one...). I stopped the boat and turned off the motor so she could see what starting it was like.
Our new Tohastu 20hp is a 4-stroke with fuel injection. It's a little hard to pull plus you have to pull fairly hard in order for it to start. Since it was already warmed up, I figured it wouldn't be too bad. Laura did alright once she figured out how hard she had to pull. Even I have to use both hands most of the time. She started it on the 3rd pull then fell back into the dinghy. How I wish I had been taking a video. Laura said, "I didn't think it was going to start and you told me to pull hard!".
Once underway she quickly got the hang of driving and eventually had us up on plane zooming down the river. I had to get a picture.
After our ride, we beached the dinghy next to the sand dunes and walked up to the park. Some of the reviews for this anchorage stated there were nice walking trails. This is from the top of the dune with our dinghy and boat in the background. You can see the locals partying over to the right.
At the top of the dune was a sign showing the 2 mile walking trail around Sandy Island Preserve.
Along the trail Laura spotted this weird bush / tree. We eventually figured out this was a baby pine. We called it an "Afro Pine". I hope that's politically correct. Afro is OK, right?
The only bad part of being here is the local guys with their huge, no muffler engines on tiny boats. I'm talking 80 and 90HP outboards on 17 foot fishing boats. They are hanging out at the sand dune (which is fine) but every once in a while one of them gets in his boat and zooms around the 3 anchor sailboats. I can't think of any reason for this other than to piss us off so we won't anchor here. But, what's the problem? We're not playing loud music or bothering anyone. We're sitting on our boat most of the day enjoying the scenery.
Tomorrow we plan on heading up to North Myrtle Beach and maybe staying a couple nights at Myrtle Beach Yacht Club. It's one of our favorite places so it will be nice to spend a couple days ashore.
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