2025 November: Reflections on the water

 5 November 2025

Depart: Stono River anchorage near Charleston, SC 7:00

Arrive: Bull Island anchorage near Hilton Head, SC 4:45

Distance: ~ 76 nm

I dragged myself out of bed, got dressed, and immediately went to check on the status of the sunrise. What I found was the big, bright moon setting!

 

Looking in the opposite direction, I saw the sun just starting to come out from behind the trees and brush.

Every morning we wake up to dew-covered panels on our full enclosure. We have to do some gymnastics to wipe away enough moisture to see where we are going.

Clark reaching the far side that I can't get to very easily.

Our regime is that Clark is on the bow bringing up the anchor in the morning while I am at the helm. As I anticipated the start of our journey, I heard "Captain Rob" call to say he was approaching Elliot Cut and would be there in 10 minutes. I was anxious to get going so I would not encounter this tow pushing a fuel barge as we made our way to the ICW. However, as we came out of the anchorage, there he was coming towards us. We had plenty of room, so it turned out not to be a big deal to pass port-to-port.

"Captain Rob" pushing a fuel barge

 One of the things I do not get to see when we are on the ocean is reflections in the water. I went a bit crazy with the camera this morning. The opportunities to capture reflections were endless.

Green Marker 45

Seeing double!

Backhoe Reflection

Reflection distorted by our wake

Clark noted that the red marker shown below looked to be closer to shore than the dock next to it.

After all the great reflections, we passed by a section of marshland where the houses and the boats are set back from the ICW with marshes in between.

I would guess they are well protected from wakes back in there, but the insects must be something else indeed.

The folks shown below were "fishing" off their boat at the edge of the marshes. Crabbing perhaps?

This country side is literally "for the birds". The picture below shows and egret convention going on.

Birds birds birds!

Almost every marker had a cormorant perched on it. 

The fenders of a bridge were busy with birds as well.

A few flew off as we passed by. Most just ignore the boat traffic. They were too busy looking for breakfast.

We passed a busy worksite in the marshland, and then

as we rounded a bend in the waterway, we spied a grounded sailboat with the owner still on board. It looked like he would have a long wait until he had enough water under him to float off. The tide change here in South Carolina is about 8 feet, so eventually he should be afloat.

I expect it is a little uncomfortable to be on the sailboat listing at such an angle over several hours of waiting for water to rise.

The other day we had a boat, "Joy", follow us for hours. Today we had "Sea Spirit" following us for the better part of the day. They reminded us that they had followed us back in North Carolina for a while until they ran into mud trying to pass us. Today they decided to just follow along in our track. They reminded us that their boat is one of 6 that were built before the plant where they were being built was destroyed by a tsunami. 

"Sea Spirit"

We planned to continue on, but they said their home port was Beaufort, SC and would be stopping here. Since we had chatted with them and found they would be traveling to the Keys this winter, Clark decided we should give them a boat card (like a business card) to exchange contact information. As we came up to the Lady's Island bridge, we decided this would be the place to give them a card.

As Clark suggested, they sat at idle while Clark swung our boat around to come up on their starboard side. I grabbed a boat card, a fishing net, and a clothes pin to attach the card to the net and ran out to "hand" over the card. Clark told me to stand on the bow and got me just near enough that they could grab the card from the net as I stretched over from the bow!

The bridge clearance for this bridge is shown as 30 feet. We can make that with no problem at all. "Sea Spirit" was not so sure. We went through and they held back. A short while later we heard on the VHF, and saw looking back, that they made it through. They needed 32 feet and the water is so low today because of the full moon that they had plenty of room to spare as well.

Deciding!

They made it! Yay!

Immediately after the bridge, we saw another sailboat grounded. However, we believe that he put himself there on purpose to work on the boat. As a catamaran, the boat did not tip over when grounded. I could see him walking around the boat when I looked over.

Clark said this is great until the boat starts to float and some yahoo goes by and creates a wake that bounces the boat on the ground! Hopefully that does not happen to this guy.

We snapped a couple of pictures as we passed by the Beaufort / Port Royale area.

Looking back at the bridge

Anchorage nearby

We saw a lot of jets out today zooming across the sky. One set of trails left a V in the sky.

After Beaufort, we passed Hilton Head, and I grabbed some pictures as we motored by here as well.

As it was late afternoon as we traveled this stretch of the waterway, we had to deal with the sun. It was brutal as we headed in a westerly direction. However, looking easterly, it gave the houses a nice glow. 

Sailboat races were underway as we passed by. A small motorboat at anchor directed the races.

We had a number of options today for a place to stop for the night. A few days back I had requested a stop at the marina in Port Royale as we have stopped here before, and I know I can get groceries here and do laundry. However, when I made that request, I thought it would take longer to get here. We decided to pass on staying the night and continue on until later in the day to an anchorage. 

The current weather report is a bit insane. We had a cold breeze when we traveled into the wind, but the weather report said it was 75 degrees in the local area. When we were into the sun with no wind, we "boiled over" and stripped off jackets. When we faced into the wind and not into the sun, the jackets came back on in a hurry. We heard on the weather report that after this warm bit, the temperatures at night will dip into the 40s maybe 30s. Consequently, we are moving south as fast as we can!

Clark found a spot for tonight that sounded attractive on the May River near Bull Island. Shortly after passing Hilton Head we turned off to the right to travel up the river  to look for a spot to drop anchor. The spot we found to anchor was about 15 feet deep. That was better than Clark's initial estimate that we would anchor in 20+ feet of water. 

When putting out anchor line, we need to calculate how much line is needed for proper holding. We have to allow for the current depth of the water, the amount the water will go up and down, the height to the anchor pulpit from the water, and the distance from the bottom of the water from our depth finder. 

My job is to do the mental math as Clark gives me the depth and tide change numbers to calculate how many feet of line to put out. Today that number came to just over 200 feet of line. A usual number for us is around 125'. The 8' tide change makes a huge difference!

As we looked for the "perfect" spot to anchor, a pretty boat went by.

Finally, just before 5:00, we were anchored for the night. We started the day with the moon setting and the sun rising. We ended the day with the reverse.

Sun going down ...

while the moon is going up!