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.
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| 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.
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| Ben Sawyer Bridge - we could clear without an opening; sailboats behind us were not so lucky |
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| 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
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| Sunrise in the Church Creek anchorage |
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| Waves in the anchorage |
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.
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| Sunset Cruise on Bull Creek |
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