29 October 2020
Depart: Dewees Creek Anchorage 9:23
Arrive: Church Creek Anchorage near Wadmalaw Island 2:40
Distance: 29.4 nm
Conditions: mid-70s, overcast, 25 to 40 mph winds, late afternoon rain
The wind picked up overnight and I could hear it rushing past the boat as I woke this morning. When I poked my head out to get a glimpse of the sunrise, I was shocked to see so much water covering the marshland around us.
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| Sunrise at Dewees Creek Anchorage SC High wind, choppy waters |
Video of the wind and waves ...
When we dropped anchor yesterday, the white ball shown in the picture below was just a short distance away from the marsh grass.
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| Not high tide and so much water! |
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| Water water everywhere! |
We had a bird issue this morning. Because of the high winds and buried marshland, they decided our boat was a safe haven. While getting dressed, I heard pitter patter pitter patter over my head. I looked to see if it was raining. I got a surprise when I saw birds walking around on top of my kayak! I banged on the ceiling and scared them off. They kept coming back. Twice we blew the boat horn to scare them off! That thing is loud and still they returned!
While I was waiting for our horn to power up, I watched the birds moving around on the bow. If I had known that one of them would perform stunts, I would have had the video going. It tried to land next to the windlass and found it very slippery. It skidded down the side like it was on ice skates!
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| Slippery slope beside the windlass! |
Of course with birds comes bird "doo". Plenty of it!
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| Clark "hosing" down the bow of the boat with the salt-water washdown to remove bird doo! |
Clark spent a good ten minutes cleaning off the bow before he started bringing up the anchor.
As per usual, I had the helm while Clark brought up the anchor. Normally, it is a relatively simple matter to keep the boat in deeper water and then start navigating out of the anchorage once the anchor is up. Not today! We had winds gusting up to 30 knots. I could use the charts, but visually, with all the water covering the marshes, I was nervous about finding shallows.
Clark confirmed that I knew where I needed to go to exit the anchorage, and that would have been fine if the boat had not turned as the anchor came up to end up 180 degrees in the wrong direction to head for the ICW! I tried to turn the boat about, but it was not happening fast enough, and we were heading into danger.
Fortunately, Clark rushed up and rescued me and the boat. Using only one engine to make the turn, he said, "You have to 'goose it'!" Once he had me pointed in the right direction, I took over and navigated out of the anchorage. He went back to the bow to finish up the anchor work. Phew! I was shaking for a while after that!
We passed through the Isle of Palms area on today's trip. With the wind continuing to blow at about a gale force level, I was surprised to see golfers out on a golf course bordering the waterway.
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| Is golfing in 25 knot winds considered an extreme sport? |
Three of the four made their shots and took off in their carts. The shot of the fourth must have gone wild because as the others moved on, I could see him still searching the rough for his ball.
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| Nice house in Isle of Palms area |
I saw several references to "Goats" as we passed through this section of the waterway.
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| Dock sign: "HORNE E GOAT" |
Video of the flags whipping in the heavy winds ...
Even though it was on the humid, sticky side today, Clark said we should not open the front panel of the upper helm full enclosure as we crossed Charleston Harbor because we would get salt spray in our faces. As we got near the harbor, we could see a line of demarcation where the protected area stopped and the open area started. Hold onto your hats!
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| Approaching Charleston Harbor - Flag straight out in the wind |
Video of flag as we entered Charleston Harbor ...
We had heavy cloud cover. Clark said, "Take a picture of the spooky bridge!"
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| Not sure it is spooky. It is barely visible. |
In the harbor, the wind was gusting to almost 40 knots. We had wind and current fighting us. At the RPM that would normally give us a speed of 8.5 knots, we saw 5.5 knots only. It was going to be a longer-than-usual trek across the harbor!
Given the way we were rocking and rolling, I am surprised I got any good pictures crossing the harbor. I noticed that very few boats were out on the water today. They must be the sane ones. Even the work boats sat at anchor!
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| Sleek, classic wooden boat "Legend" from Chapel Hill, NC (another crazy one - like us!) |
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| Tug "Carolina Coast" not tugging today |
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| "Carolina" of the Great Lakes Dredge & Dock Company |
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| Dredge Vessel "Jack Newman" |
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| Wooden boat at Charleston Harbor |
Clark came to a slow-speed-no-wake zone. As we were making at best 6 knots, we wondered what our speed would drop to when we reduced RPM. Then we looked at the waves formed by the wind, compared that to our wake, and figured we were not contributing much of anything to the choppy seas! We did slow down. At 1250 RPM we made a whopping great 5 knots or about 6 mph!
I could certainly understand why the sailboats we saw today were mostly at anchor. (We saw one catamaran braving the seas.)
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| S/V "Lola Moo" at anchor - not a good travel day against the current |
As we left Charleston proper, we saw what looked to be a rather big boat being hauled out at a boat ramp. On closer look, it looked like (or close to) a derelict. As I took pictures from our boat, I saw a man on shore taking a video of the action. Several men worked together to get it out of the water and applauded when it made it out.
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| Big boat for trailering |
On our trip today, we saw new docks and docks under construction as well as house repair in progress.
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| Brand new fixed dock over crappy bulkheading |
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| Sign on house says "Slow to No Wake" House appears to be hanging over the crappy bulkhead |
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| Another house being worked on ... New Deck in Progress |
Hungry? Order Online and pickup at dock!
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| Charleston Crab House - dock and go |
As we neared Elliot's Cut, Clark repeatedly told me it is "Franklin's Favorite Spot" on the waterway.
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| Elliot's Cut ahead |
We got to Elliot's Cut at a very bad time in regards to current. Before we got there, Clark said it might be comparable to "shooting the rapids" backwards. We did not have rapids, but we did have 4 to 5 knots of current against us. Clark pushed up the RPM to 1700, and we progressed at 4 knots through the cut.
As we passed a launch ramp, we saw two kayakers coming out for some fun. Clark's like, "Can he do it?? Can he fight the current??" Nope! After about two minutes they turned around and went back in. Not today!
Approaching the end of Elliot's Cut, Clark said, "I wonder if we'll shoot out the other end when we lose the opposing current"? Given that comment, I watched the gauge to see our speed. It picked up gradually not exponentially. Phooey!
After Elliot's Cut, it was a little less crazy, but we still had wind gusting over 25 knots!
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| Red Ranger Tug "Cricket" It's so tiny to be a tug! Almost as small as the boat beside it. |
The birds had a hard time of it today. Once again, I wished I was quick on the video button to capture a pelican trying to fish for his breakfast in the heavy winds. Normally, they glide ever-so-gracefully just skimming over the top of the water. This poor fellow could not glide. Every time he tried the wind got him, and he had to flap like crazy to regain control. The seagulls were smarter. They just bobbed in the water in clumps.
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| Very small sampling of the very unhappy seagulls taking off due to our boat heading directly for them on the water. |
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| Pretty view along the waterway |
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| Not-so-pretty view on the waterway (mud flats at low tide) |
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| More of nature's landscaping |
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| These trees look ready to fall into the water |
Even as he said we would go on to Church Creek, he was busily surveying every anchorage opportunity on Stono River. Then, we passed Ross Marine, and he had a new idea. He decided to call them to see if they could straighten our anchor. If yes, then we would stay there tonight.
He called at 12:30, and of course, the one in the know was out to lunch and would be back at 1 o'clock. We decided to hang out for half an hour and call back. Now then, where to drop anchor on the Stono River? We found a protected place to reduce the wind and then Clark saw that this area was not to be used due to underwater cabling. Look again!
As we moved along the channel, we noticed a spot where the wind dropped way off, so we pulled over to just outside the channel and dropped our anchor there. With the current and wind direction, we had no concerns of swinging into the channel. We ate our lunch and then called the marina back a little after one. "No can do!", he said. So we pulled up our anchor and continued on to Church Creek. On the bright side, it was a pleasant little stop to break up the day.
Unfortunately, the time we spent anchored in Stono River meant we arrived at Church Creek at the same time as the predicted rain. I donned my raincoat and stood at the bow to assist in the anchoring process. By the time I came back inside, I hung up my wet shorts to dry, and my shoes were so wet that I practically had to wring out my socks! Not sure my shoes will be dry enough to wear tomorrow.
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| Picture of rain hitting the water |
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| View of sailboat anchored in Church Creek |
Towards the end of getting the anchor set, I heard thunder rumbling nearby. Seriously! We got to the anchorage at the worst possible time. No rain before we got there, poured while we anchored, stopped raining 30 minutes later!
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| Same sailboat about a half hour later |
The rain continued on / off / on / off through the remainder of the afternoon.
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| Not raining at the moment - just wait a minute |
I've been watching the radar here locally to see where Hurricane Zeta was headed. i feared you would be running into wind & rain. Now we're expecting 2 cool fronts to make its way down to FL. WIll be nice to have cooler weather for a time. Fall has finally arrived, shut off the A/C and open the windows. Yeah!
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