2024 April: South Carolina at low tide

 25 April 2024
Depart: Ocella Creek anchorage, South Carolina 8:10
Arrive: Minim Creek anchorage, SC 5:45
Distance: ~ 74 nm
Conditions: sunny, low tide on ICW, 3’ under keel at McClellanville, SC

 Today we traveled 30 nautical miles on the ocean before joining the ICW at Charleston, South Carolina around 11:45. Unlike yesterday when we saw almost no boat traffic on the ocean, today we saw several trawlers with nets out fishing.

Birds sitting on rigging waiting for fish

Birds diving into the water simultaneously

Boat on left clearly has his net out trawling

When we travel past Charleston on the ICW, we cannot see Fort Sumter. Coming in the inlet today, we got a pretty good view.

On the Ocean approaching Charleston, SC

Fort Sumter up ahead

As close as we got to the fort

Coast Guard Cutter coming out at the inlet

We only saw Charleston from a distance as we turned to head north on the ICW.

Views of Charleston, SC ..

The views are quite different on the ICW in South Carolina at low tide versus high tide. Today, we had the low-tide scenery for our trip north. Although I was unable to catch the incidents in pictures, I spied two alligators swimming across the ICW today. I also managed to catch sight of an eagle. The picture of the eagle turned out blurry, but I was thrilled to catch sight of one!

Our views today included lots of mud.

Marshes at low tide

Dock sitting on ground

Muddy marshes

Boat and dock sitting on the ground
unusable at low tide

Same property with second dock
also sitting in the mud

I noticed on a few docks a variety of attempts to keep the birds away. A couple had fake coyotes and some had fake owls.

Fake coyote on dock

Fake owls on this dock

We passed by lots of properties along the ICW. One was under construction. Interestingly, the dock was completed in advance of the house being ready to be occupied. I am always in awe of the length of the docks in South Carolina.

House under construction along the ICW in SC

We saw little traffic. At one point, however, we saw a barge coming our direction. The captain of the "Captain KG" barge called us on the VHF radio to discuss passing us as a curve was approaching as we came towards each other. He wanted us out of the way before we got there. He told Clark to come ahead as quickly as he could. After the curve, as we passed by him, we could not believe what we saw – a veritable train coming our way consisting of the barge in front followed by many feet of pipes and two additional boats helping to guide the pipe down the waterway. Clearly this was a soon-to-be dredging operation getting set up. Since it was around 5:30, they must have been on overtime to get the equipment in position.

Captain KG and dredging "train"

As we traveled, we passed through rustic areas as well as developed areas. I noticed a couple of interesting looking trees along the way. 

Marshes

Of course we had the typical "hungry seagulls" experience on the ICW.

We traveled a total of 44 nautical miles on the ICW from Charleston to Minim Creek anchorage. After 9 hours of travel, we were more than ready to drop anchor for the night. At the end of the day, we basically dropped anchor in the middle of nowhere.

Sunset at Minim Creek anchorage

26 April 2024
Depart: Minim Creek anchorage, South Carolina 8:25
Arrive: Bird Island anchorage near Little River Inlet, North Carolina 5:15
Distance: ~ 70 nm
Conditions: rough on the ocean, overcast skies early / sunny later in day

 We hoped to cut a day off our travel home by traveling on the outside today. Clark said we could expect waves of 4’ to 5’ coming from the east. After some discussion, we decided to go for it. However, as we made our way towards the ocean, Clark saw a fishing boat coming the opposite direction and called him on the VHF radio. The boater said he was coming in because the waves were of the 5’ to 7’ height definition with a 6 second period. He advised against going out there, so we made a U-turn and aimed for the more scenic ICW route for today’s travel.

 We saw very little today that we have not seen before. I had little enthusiasm for running around with the camera. Clark saw a smiley face with sunglasses he liked.

We saw a pocket trawler that looked like a toy boat on the ICW.

Pocket Trawler

As we approached the South Carolina – North Carolina border, we could see a nice-looking trawler sitting high and dry on the Calabash River. 

For years we passed a wrecked trawler at the border. Year after year we saw it deteriorate more and more. This red-hulled boat was so good looking. I hope they are able to get it afloat at an extra high tide. It would be a shame to see it slowly broken apart over time like the other one wrecked from a hurricane years ago.

Today, same as yesterday, we were navigating the ICW at low tide. When we arrived at the anchorage, we were at dead low with a 5-foot tide change.

Don't get on the wrong side of this green!

Boats anchored at Bird Island Anchorage

We had some interesting clouds tonight and Clark took the sunset pictures.