2021: Bull Creek Anchorage SC to Wallburg Creek Anchorage GA to Cumberland Island Anchorage GA

 30 October 2021

Depart: Bull Creek Anchorage SC 8:15

Arrive: Wallburg Creek Anchorage near St. Catherine's Sound, GA 2:45

Distance: 50 nm

Conditions: Sunny, Chill in the air

I had time this morning while I ate breakfast to watch the sunrise. 

The last few miles we traveled in South Carolina were mostly marshland. The sun was shining on the marsh grasses making them glow a golden color.

Before exiting South Carolina, we had to contend with Fields Cut. We stayed well over to the port side and had no issues thankfully.

Pictures taken on Field's Cut in South Carolina. 

Long Dock to Nowhere - no house, nada

Bird Haven near water running off of a huge pipe

Dredging Operation In Progress

After crossing the Savannah River, we found ourselves in Georgia and watching out for dangerous rocks on both sides of the waterway.

Sign says "Danger Rocks" (no kidding!)
on the port side

rocks on the starboard side of the waterway

As we approached Savannah, I wondered if I was seeing deja vu. The bridge in the distance looked like a twin to the one we saw as we approached Charleston, SC.

In the distance I could see a colorful object. As I watched it moved, and I realized it was a container ship heading towards the Savannah River and then presumably out to the ocean.

Evergreen Container Ship looked like it was 
traveling over ground

As we cruised, we could see Savannah off in the distance, but we never came close enough to see much of the city. The next place of interest we passed by was Thunderbolt. The ICW guide says that the name of this place comes from an Indian legend that says that a lightning bolt struck here and opened up a freshwater spring.

Thunderbolt Marina
-- we have been here in the past

Clark saw a "nice looking boat" and asked me to take a picture.

"Shane Winston" fishing boat

Later I saw a boat that I liked - not the boat really - the name!

"Balderdash"

That boat was located at the Isle of Hope Marina. This is another marina we have stopped at in the past. Specifically, we stayed here on "Sea Moss" when we were on the Great Loop and visited Savannah from here.

After passing Isle of Hope, we once again found ourselves in marshland with mudflats as the passing scenery.

Mud flats along the ICW

View at low tide along the ICW in Georgia

We saw lots of trees - dead and alive.

As we passed under the Skidaway Narrows / Diamond Causeway Bridge, we looked at the clearance measurements. The numbers ranged from 57 feet of clearance at highest tide to what appeared to be about 73 feet of clearance as we passed under near low tide.

As we passed by I caught a glimpse of a sign posted on the below picture. I could not read it, but when I looked at Google Maps, I saw we were passing by a portion of the Wormsloe Historic Plantation established circa 1735.

Historic Site Marker on Beach

We did see some homes now and again. 

Sun shining brightly on these homes

We arrived at the Wallburg Creek anchorage that Clark had selected for tonight's target stop mid-afternoon. We had a chance to "chill" for a while - something that has not been a common occurrence on this voyage.

Sunset at Wallburg Creek Anchorage 
near St. Catherine's Sound in Georgia

31 October 2021  -- Happy Halloween

Depart: Wallburg Creek Anchorage 8:15

Arrive: Cumberland Island Anchorage 6:05

Distance: 80 nm

Conditions: Chilly 54 degrees in morning => near 70 later in day

We were up in time to see a sunset, but it never happened. The hazy sky turned a very pale pink, but we saw no sun until much later in the day.

Views today closely resembled marshland scenery we saw yesterday. Traveling at low tide in Georgia is definitely a challenge.

Birds wading in the waterway

More muddy sides

Our timing was particularly bad to find ourselves navigating Little Mud River at low tide. Using the sonar charts, Clark picked a path near the red marker only to see the depths drop rapidly towards zero until the depth finders could read no depth at all. Yikes! We did not bump bottom.

Clark put the boat in reverse and backed out past the red marker to give it another try. Looking at online input from other boaters, Clark read that he should give the red marker a wide berth! Even so, we watched the numbers like hawks. At one point we had 6 inches of water below the keel. We breathed a sigh of relief when the depth went back up to 12 inches of water below the keel. 

We traversed this section of the waterway at minimum RPM yielding 4.5 knots. It felt like it took forever to get to the end of this stretch of water. 

After the excitement of Little Mud River, the trip became tedious. Clark can drive the boat for hour after hour, but I get sleepy. Today I decided to lie down on the bench seat and read for a while. Eventually, I gave up on the book and just lay down and listened to the talk radio show that we had playing. 

Periodically Clark would say something about other boats or sights we were passing. At St. Simons Sound, Clark looked for the shipwreck that has been there for years. The boat was cut into pieces and removed section-by-section. The only indication a wrecked ship was here is the structure placed here to help with the removal of the wreck.

Clark called out when we passed Jekyll Island. I did not bother to look but did take that as a sign we were getting close to our destination for the night. 

When we discussed today's travel, we estimated about 8 hours of travel time. Having left this morning's anchorage just after 8 o'clock, I figured we would arrive at our destination around 4:00 or 4:30.

Finally, as it got late into the afternoon, Clark pointed out Cumberland Island off to our port side.

Lighthouse on Cumberland Island

Beach at Cumberland Island

We had waves and rocking in the waters of St. Andrews Sound. Looking at the shoreline of Cumberland Island, I saw not one but two green buoys lying on their sides instead of floating on the water.

Green Buoy beached on Cumberland Island

The chart showed a mess of waterways going every which way. I could make little sense out of where the anchorage was given the picture I was looking at on the chart. Multiple times I asked the equivalent of "Are we there yet?" I kept thinking we had to be close and then being disappointed to see we still had a long way to go. Since I was tired of asking and I am quite certain Clark was tired of hearing my "are we there yet?" questions, I decided to go below and cook dinner to make good use of my time and the electricity generated by the engines while I had it.

We finally pulled into the anchorage a little before 6:00. It had taken a lot longer than the 8 hours we anticipated. Having to crawl through skinny water today for long stretches of time really ate up the minutes. I would definitely prefer to expect 6:00 and arrive early than to expect 4:30 and arrive at 6:00. On the bright side, by the time we pulled into the anchorage, I had dinner ready.

Pulling into the anchorage area, we found a number of boats there before us. Clark counted something like 18 boats including us anchored there. Clark found a spot away from the masses and dropped anchor. By the time he had the "boat put to bed", I had dinner on the table.

Since we had no visible sunrise this morning, I hoped for a show tonight, but it did not happen. We saw nothing worth taking as a sunset picture.

2021: Dewees Creek to Church Creek SC

 28 October 2021

Depart: Dewees Creek Anchorage, SC 7:35

Arrive: Church Creek Anchorage -- near Charleston, SC 11:45

Distance: 29 nm

Conditions: Cloudy, Storm coming in around noon today

"Red sky in the morning, sailor take warning" certainly applied to this morning's sunrise.

Sunrise at Dewees Creek anchorage, SC

We got underway as early as possible to get as far along as possible to anchor before noon. Today offered lots of interesting cloud views as we traveled along the ICW.

Shortly after we left the anchorage, we made a reasonably quick stop at the Isle of Palms Marina to pump out our holding tank. Twenty minutes later we were underway again. 

Ben Sawyer Bridge - we could clear without an
opening; sailboats behind us were not so lucky

More Clouds

Our route today took us by Charleston, South Carolina. 

After passing by the city, we made our way through Elliot Cut to continue on the ICW.

Like every other day, we were part of a parade of boats. As we headed to our target anchorage, we hoped that we would not find it full of other boaters trying to take cover there before the storm hit. Approaching the anchorage, I could see two sailboats in the anchorage because of their tall masts. We saw three boats on AIS traveling ahead of us and worried they would stop at the Church Creek anchorage. Fortunately, all three continued on to places unknown.

When we turned into the anchorage, we found the two sailboats we could see from afar plus one power boat. We easily found a spot and dropped anchor at 11:45. The storm was predicted to arrive at noon. Shortly after we had the anchor down, the rain started. What timing!

When there was a break in the rain, I snuck out to grab a couple of pictures of the anchorage. 

As the day wore on, more boats came into the anchorage. By evening, we had 4 sailboats and one other powerboat with us in the anchorage. Then, just before 6 o'clock, a large power boat came rushing into the anchorage - a little too fast in my opinion. Clark watched the boat anchor near one of the sailboats. Right after that boat got anchored, the rain storm picked up its force. I guess that is why the boater was in such a rush.

We have stayed in this anchorage before - most notably when "Home Too" traveled the ICW with us to Florida. Their anchor got entangled with their prop here, and Clark dove under their boat to free them in 40-degree weather. Brrr!

Reference: https://cmosboating.blogspot.com/2019/11/2019-anchor-woes-on-way-to-georgia.html

Fortunately, even though we had strong winds and a lot of rain, we had no anchor line issues.

29 October 2021

Depart: Church Creek anchorage 8:35

Arrive: Bull Creek anchorage in SC 5:30

Distance: 68 nm

Conditions: Sunny, windy, waves in the anchorage

Sunrise in the Church Creek anchorage

Waves in the anchorage

Today's travel ranged from wind gusts to 32 knots with white caps on the ICW to crawling through various "cuts" at slow speed while watching the depth finder. Thank goodness for Bob423 on those sections of the trip. 

Watt's Cut offered a stressful ride as we saw the depth numbers drop below the 6-feet-of-water level multiple times. We require 4 feet of water. When the numbers on the gauge start to read below 2 feet on the instruments, we get extra careful. As we watched the sailboat behind us, we wondered if the boat was "bumping" bottom. If they had a 6' keel, they would be bumping for sure.

After exiting Watt's Cut, we saw a sailboat at the side of the waterway that was tipped. It looked like the boat had been anchored, and the anchor dragged. As we continued on, a Towboat US passed us heading in the direction of the sailboat.

A while later, we passed through Fenwick Cut with no issues as it was short and showed no less than 8 feet of water throughout. We used the route provided by Bob423 here as well as through the Ashepoo-Coosaw land cut.

Clark decided we should pick up fuel today. He called four marinas to get prices on diesel fuel. The first was $3.29 with a 10 cents per gallon discount for over 100 gallons of fuel. The second was over $4, so they got crossed off the list fast. The next had suffered damage to their fuel dock and were not pumping. The last one he called had the best price at $3.18 but was out of the way and indicated we might have problems with low depths.  

We decided to stop at Port Royal Landing in Beaufort to get the fuel. The pump here was not super speedy but no where near as slow as our last fill up. We arrived at 2:00 here and departed at 2:30. We only took on 226 gallons of fuel so that helped reduce the amount of time spent at this stop.

As we wove our way through the cuts, we were well protected from the wind. However, crossing the 5 miles of the Port Royal Sound, we had a rough ride as we once again saw wind gusts of up to 30 knots causing wave action galore. Clark said the wind was coming from the west meaning we had a lot of "fetch" allowing the waves to build.

Looking at an ICW travel guide, Clark and I examined three anchorages as options for tonight. I wanted to pick the earliest one, but for all good reasons, Clark selected the one the furthest away. He said we would get in at 5:30 and we did. We had a bit of time after we dropped anchor to take a couple of buckets and wash some salt off the windows. With all of today's spray, it was getting impossible to see out of the boat.

We had another great sunset tonight.

As I stepped into the cockpit to take the sunset picture, a tour boat passed by. I guess they were on a sunset cruise.

Sunset Cruise on Bull Creek 

2021: Wrightsville Beach NC to Isle of Palms SC

 26 October 2021

Depart: Wrightsville Beach, NC 7:25

Arrive: Enterprise Oxbow anchorage, Waccamaw River, SC 6:05

Distance: 80 nm

Conditions: Humid, high 60's

We got up this morning at 7:15, pulled in the anchor, and were underway 10 minutes later. Clark wanted to catch a favorable current on the Cape Fear River. 

Before we left the anchorage, I got a couple of morning pictures. 

Sunrise at Wrightsville Beach anchorage

 Sun shining on the buildings of Wrightsville Beach

We have been this route multiple times. Some sights, no matter they have been seen before, are quite interesting. 

Interesting shape for a house / roof.
Nice color too.

Clark's attempt to catch the current in the Cape Fear River did not play out as hoped. We had a good push on Snow's Cut, but when we reached the Cape Fear River, the current was already turning against us. We dropped from 9.4 knots to 8.4 as we made the turn into the river.

Travels today took us down the lovely Waccamaw River. 

Miles of tree-lined waterway

On our first attempt at anchoring, Clark chose a spot just before an oxbow in the river. We dropped anchor twice but decided that we did not have sufficient swing room in the tight space available. We pulled up our anchor to move to the oxbow. We could see on AIS that one boat was already anchored in the oxbow. 

When we got to the oxbow, however, we saw not one, but two boats. Clark decided to try the other end of the oxbow. Unfortunately, there were already three boats anchored here. We decided to go back to the first spot we chose and try to figure a way to make it work. 

However, as we passed by the first entrance to the oxbow, we decided that compared to other options, we had room right at the mouth of the oxbow to drop anchor and still keep our stern out of the main channel of the Waccamaw River. 

As we readied ourselves to drop anchor, the folks on the sailboat in front of us, "Freyja", told us not to worry as the wind direction would keep us pointing at their stern all night long. Finally, after 30 minutes of looking and then settling in at anchor, we were set for the night.

Black star shows where we anchored 
at the entrance to the oxbow

As I prepared dinner, Clark kept an eye on the anchor line. Although unexpected, the boat swung around towards "Freyja". Deciding we were too close to the sailboat for comfort, Clark pulled in some of the anchor line. He continued to watch the anchor line and reported to me that we were spinning in a full 360 degrees as he watched. Then, as he continued to watch, it spun another 180 degrees. He decided that the wind and the current were taking precedence depending on where the boat was sitting in the oxbow / river resulting in us being pushed around in a circle. Eventually, it settled down for the night.

Sunset on Waccamaw River

Other boats in the oxbow anchorage

Watching the boat spin in circles at anchor was not Clark's only activity for the night. The gremlin decided to cause more "mechanical" mischief and give Clark grief.

As we dropped anchor for the nth time, an overheat alarm sounded for the starboard engine. Clark shut down that engine, and we finished anchoring on just the port engine. Given the overheat issue we had on the port engine last year near St. Augustine, Clark's first thought was that the starboard-side water pump may have failed. 

He checked to be sure that the pump was operative.  It was. Then he disconnected a hose to be sure we had good water flow to the engine. Everything checked out fine as saltwater poured out of the hose. After spending more time than he wanted in the extremely hot engine room, Clark decided that the idling we had done while searching for an anchor spot had most likely generated the overheat condition. 

27 October 2021

Depart: Waccamaw River anchorage 7:40

Arrive: Dewees Creek anchorage #3 near Isle of Palms, SC 4:10

Distance: 69 nm

Conditions: 45 degrees this morning; bright and sunny day with a chill in the air

Trees blocked our view of today's sunrise. As we did yesterday, we left shortly after jumping out of bed to continue our travels on the ICW.

As we started on our way down the Waccamaw River, we spied a morning mist on the water.

Sun reflecting on the trees along the river made them very picturesque.

Trees growing in the river.

We stopped earlier today than usual. I took the opportunity to vacuum the boat and clean the heads. The boat desperately needed a good cleaning. After that, I got to relax for a while before preparing dinner. The fresh veggies I picked up in Beaufort, NC were a tasty addition to the meal.

Sunset at the Dewees Creek anchorage in SC