2025 May: Winyah Bay SC

 5 May 2025 - Cinco de Mayo
Depart: Shady Bay anchorage south of Charleston, SC 8:05
Arrive: Winyah Bay anchorage in SC 2:55
Distance: 54 nm
Travel Time: ~ 7 hours

Having not bothered taking too many pictures the last couple of days as all I saw was marshland for hours on end, I more than made up for it today as we passed by Charleston, SC and wound our way north on the ICW. We saw marshes galore once more but interspersed were points of interest (at least of interest to me).

Our anchorage last night placed us close to Elliot's Cut, so close in fact that 5 minutes after the anchor was up, we were entering the cut. The current flows swiftly through here. Traveling at the low RPM of just about 1250, we saw a speed of 10 knots! 

Entering Elliot's Cut near Charleston, SC

Cute little "Pocket Trawler"

A short while later we passed by Charleston, SC. We have visited here in the past, and it is a lovely city, but we have places to be ... ! 

Charleston, SC

Looking over at the right side of the bridge (shown below), Clark recalled that we stayed at a marina here in years ago and toured a submarine. How he remembers these things I will never understand! I remember touring a sub. I could not tell you where!

As we motored along, we heard a boater call to a bridge in Charleston. He arrived at the boat at 8:40 and asked the tender if he could get the bridge opened now or if he would have to wait until 9:00. The tender replied that the next opening would be 9:30 unless a tug arrived before that. In response we heard dead silence. He must have been left speechless momentarily as then he said, "Oh. Okay." After that I bet he was praying for a tug to appear!

The next point of interest that we could see in the distance as we left the Charleston area was Fort Sumter - another fort built as a result of the War of 1812 and used during the Civil War.

Had we exited the ICW to the ocean here, we would have gotten a closer look at the fort perhaps. Today, however, we would stay on the ICW.

Further along the ICW, we passed the remains of an old bridge. A railing is in place part way down the old bridge, so it can be used as a fishing pier. 

Although the clouds looked ominous, weather radar showed no indications that we should expect a storm of any kind.

Looking back towards Charleston

Next we came to the Ben Sawyer Bridge, which we fortunately did not need to have opened. 

Ben (not Tom) Sawyer Bridge up ahead

Plenty of clearance for us

Looking up at bridge as we come out from under

If a hurricane is coming and you need the bridge opened, you better skedaddle quickly!

The look of the bridge with the sun shining on it is quite different than the dismal appearance with the sun behind it.

We left the city behind and entered fly territory. 

Egret looking for breakfast

I loved the dark clouds today.

Drain pipe into the ICW

Rock retaining wall

Mud Flats

Another busy egret

More mud flats; more clouds

Low Tide or close to it

We found some fishermen having some fun; otherwise, it was a pretty quiet day on the water for pleasure craft.

On the other hand, we did see some folks working on the waterway. Specifically, we saw a large dredging operation underway.

Oops! Pipe has a leak!

Clark pointed out the huge mound of mud up ahead, and the equipment working hard to move it. He said, "That must be the spoils!" They had a boat in the water performing the dredging operation. The spoils were put on the land where two backhoes and some dump trucks worked to move it away from the water's edge. I was surprised the area did not have a foul odor as we passed by.

Tall mound of Spoils

Backhoe in operation

Looking back at the work site, the height of the spoils looked like they were building a new mountain.

The scenery changes drastically through here from desolate to populated and back again. After leaving the marshes and the dredging operation, we came to dock after dock as we passed through Isle of Palms, SC.

Yay! More long docks to admire!

Dilapidated Dock with one floating boat and one high and dry on shore (no house)

The docks and houses on our port side were situated on Goat Island. The dock below with the pretty turquoise furniture and sign has an owner with a sense of humor. Perhaps his name is "Horne"? 

Sign on Dock reads ... "Horne E. Goat" (made me laugh even though I've seen it before)

With the sun shining brightly, I got some great reflection pictures as we passed through this area.

I find it interesting to see what folks do with their docks. Many add their own touch to make it special for them.

Pots of Flowers on this one Long walk to water them!

Others cannot be bothered to spruce them up - purely functional  purposes!

All it needed was a ladder to get off the boat

Then, there are the ones that get ravaged by a storm and are left to rot.

No house. No boat. No dock.

Still in Isle of Palms, we passed a long section along the ICW with numerous pieces of equipment on site. Clark speculated that they are building a golf course here. After all it is South Carolina!

Equipment - no workers

More equipment - no workers

Ah! Found the workers!  Break time?

Clark shared another memory from times past here. Years ago we stayed at the marina shown below with Jeff and Devon. He still is complaining that we all went to the beach while he stayed on the boat to work on the sump pump!

Marina in Isle of Palms

Did I mention the long docks fascinate me? The only thing more interesting than long docks is a long dock where no house is visible to go with it.

House with a long dock

Next door - long dock, but where's the house??

We saw a few places along the water that looked to have been abandoned long ago.

Just a little overgrown here

Then, there is the structure below that has a framework and a ladder but no sides or roof.

There's a house in there!

It is pretty desolate here. One wonders how folks get to some of these places. By boat only? And, how do they live with the flies?

We passed by a sailboat that looked like it was sailing on the marsh grass. 

Any water over there?

Did a sailboat sink in the marsh grass?

Clark ruined my guessing game by showing me where to find the water. The dock shown in the picture below goes with the very long walkway shown two pictures above across the marshland.

Still in Isle of Palms Charleston SC bridge in background

Below is another example of a house that looks to have no access except via the water. It pretty much guarantees no nosey neighbors.

We did not see much fun boating activity on the water today, but we did pass the guy shown below out enjoying the day. Air temperatures were in the 80s, and the water temperature was said to be 75 degrees on the weather radio.

As we approached McClellanville, we had to watch the water depths closely. The water is "skinny" around here as it had been just north of the Ben Sawyer bridge.

More mud flats

Even the Slow Speed buoy was high and dry.

Slow Speed No Wake Buoy in the mud

The boat below had numerous dive tanks on board.

Clark pointed out a "house" on the water.

I heard squawks and turned to see we had a flock of seagulls after us.

Sorry, we don't have fish!

As I was taking pictures, I noticed a boat coming up from behind. We had not see another boat in ages, so I pointed it out to Clark. Clark haled him on the radio to discuss passing as he would definitely be going by us. 

As they went by, I noticed they had an AGLCA Looper flag on display. They said they started from Mississippi in December and have a long way to go to get back to their starting point.

Looper boat coming up from behind us

Further on, we passed another work site area. What they are working at, I could not tell.

Later, we passed a nice dock with a personal watercraft / jet ski - again, no house could be seen nearby. It appears to only be accessible via boat, but from the water I cannot tell what is behind all those trees - a house maybe?

I got one more picture of docks before we anchored for the night in Winyah Bay. It is a very nice dock standing all by itself. No people. No boats. No house. I wonder who uses it and why.

Clark decided to anchor in Winyah Bay tonight. He remembered we anchored here once in the past and the anchor dragged. However, he just installed a larger anchor and expects better results. One of the main reasons he wanted to anchor out in the open here is to avoid the flies. 

It is quite breezy here and set back from the marshes. Even so, I went out to get pictures of the anchorage and a fly buzzed me! They are more than 1/2 inch in length with teeth to match!

Views from our boat at anchor are shown below. 

Two other boats also appear to be anchored in Winyah Bay for the night. 

Neighbors!