7 April 2023
Depart: Stono Creek anchorage 9:35
Arrive: Ripley Light Yacht Club, Charleston, SC ~ 10:30
Distance: ~ 5 nm
Conditions: no breeze, temps in the 80s, calm waters
Considering we anchored last night in relatively strong winds, we found the Stono Creek anchorage to be exceedingly calm in the morning. Before we left the anchorage, Clark took several pictures capturing the serene environment. Several of the photos show great reflections.
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| Bridge Reflections |
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| Bridge Reflections again |
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| Marshland |
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| Reflections in the marshes |
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| Reflections of the power lines |
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| Reflection of crane and more |
Clark said we should wait until after 9:00 to start our trip to get a current advantage going through Elliott Cut. We were anchored a short distance away from Elliott Cut , and it did not take long to get there. In fact Clark almost navigated right on by as he thought the turn was further upstream and had to make a sharp turn as he saw us starting to pass the opening.
Unfortunately, even though our chart showed we should have a .5 knot current in our favor, we found ourselves fighting the current the entire length of the cut.
Pictures taken on Elliott Cut.
Passing by Charleston towards our marina choice, we saw a small cruise ship.
Approaching our marina, we passed an oncoming pirate ship. As we passed by, we heard "Fire!" The many children on board all fired their (water) cannons at us! I threw my hands up in the air in surrender, but we had no hope as, like true pirates, they fired at us en masse and called us Scallywags!
We decided that it made sense for me to leave Clark here and go to the Harris Teeter nearby to get some groceries. I had two choices to get there - travel along Route 17 or backtrack to the Green Way and follow that path to the store. I decided to check out the shorter Route 17 option, found a sidewalk and was on my way.
Only an hour after we left the anchorage, we were tied up in a slip at the marina.
Clark had two plans for our stop here. He needed to visit an urgent care center as a follow up to his doctor visit in Pompano Beach. He also planned to meet with a representative from Hull Shield regarding the installation we did in the Keys.
I had one request -- find me a marina with laundry facilities because I am drowning in dirty clothes. As we finished tying our lines and getting power hooked up, the dock hand gave us the run down on restroom facilities, etc. Clark inquired as to the location of the laundry room and was advised that the Yacht Club did not provide those services. A laundromat could be found down the highway - 5 minutes away by car. Sadly, we don't happen to have a car on our boat.
It was so ridiculous that all I could do was laugh. I had my stack of laundry ready to haul up to get washed and no where to take it. Clark insisted that he had read that the marina had laundry, but when he checked on his iPad, he said, "I must have been wrong." No laundry was shown for this marina. I told the dock hand to mark a checkmark on the ceiling as my husband had actually admitted that he was wrong for once!
The dockhand looked at our lines and indicated a concern for the length of our bow line tied to a pole as opposed to those tied to the floating dock. With a 3 foot tide change he was concerned that the line was too short. He asked, "Will you be here all day?" Clark said "Yes" as I said a resounding "No". The dockhand looked at us with an expression of "who do I believe?" I sternly looked at Clark and reiterated "Nooooo!" After a moment of consideration, Clark said, "Oh, you mean physically. Then, no, we won't." I was left shaking my head, what else could he possibly mean as we paid for overnight at the slip.
Our first order of business became addressing the Hull Shield problem as that involved meeting with a representative to do the work. We kept getting a false alarm due to a perceived overheat problem. The issue is, we believe, now fixed due to a firmware upgrade on the electronics driving the transducers.
After lunch we set off to find the urgent care facility. It was only about a mile away. The facility Clark found was on Route 17 - a busy highway, but he found a cool way to get there.
Pictures of Ripley Light Yacht Club ...
We took our bicycles on the "Green Way" - a paved over unused rail track to get to the urgent care facility.
Unfortunately the urgent care place was packed with people. We were told it would be an hour wait to see the doctor.
I did all my shopping (as much as I could carry on my own) and made my way back to the urgent care to find Clark still waiting to be seen. Finally he was called in. While I waited for him, I thought I would freeze solid in the waiting room. It seemed like Clark had been sucked into a black hole and would never reappear. Eventually I had to step outside to thaw out. It was near 90 degrees outside, and boy did it feel good compared to the refrigerated waiting room.
Finally Clark reappeared and we made our way back to Harris Teeter to fill prescriptions and then finally back to the boat for dinner. We talked briefly about finding a restaurant, but I was done in and just wanted to eat on the boat even though that meant I had to cook.
We had a relaxing night and watched "The Help" movie to finish off the day.
8 April 2023
Depart: Ripley Light Yacht Club, Charleston, SC 8:20
Arrive: Butler Island, SC anchorage 5:15
Distance: ~ 66 nm
Conditions: cold and rainy all day
Overnight a cold front moved in. Where yesterday we had hot, dry and close to 90 degrees. This morning we found the weather to be overcast and 30 degrees cooler than yesterday. It rained overnight, and we knew more rain was imminent. We had a brief window of no rain to escape the marina while staying dry, so we took advantage of the lull and got underway.
Very few boats were out today due to the weather. I guess the seagulls were desperately looking for fishing boats and thought we were one of them.
There were so many and they were so close to the cockpit that I was afraid that if I opened the salon door and stepped outside they would take that as an invitation to come in and dine. I poked my head out, snapped a picture, and jumped back inside.
Further along, we passed an egret bush. Even the egrets didn't like the weather.
When the tender asked if the boater had heard his reply, the boater said, "Sorry. I'm in stunned disbelief!" Then the story came out.
Yesterday, Zig Zag had come through the bridge, found depths too shallow to continue his voyage, turned around and come back through the bridge with the plan to return this morning. He said he called to verify hours of operation for the bridge and was told that the bridge did not open before 9:00 and would open on demand after 9:00.
The bridge tender obviously felt sorry for the guy but said that openings are set by the US Coast Guard, and he had to follow the rules. Zig Zag replied, "I understand. It's not your fault. I'll just do circles out here like an idiot for the next 45 minutes." The captain of Zig Zag was dressed in all-weather gear from head to toe, but he looked cold and miserable.
As we traveled along the ICW, we saw why the sailing captain turned back the day before. He must have been attempting the route at low tide.
The view of the chart below shows depths at low tide.
Red = 4 - 5 feet deep
Orange = 5 - 6 feet
Green = 6 - 7 feet deep
Fortunately this morning , we had high tide.
Our travels today took us by Isle of Palms. We saw on the news last night that 6 people were shot on the beach here yesterday. The beach was crowded with high school students for the "Senior Skip Day" event. Most of the victims were teens. Even the news reporter could not get to the beach to the scene of the shooting due to the traffic jam that ensued as people rushed to get away from the area. He had to make his report from a neighboring town.
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| Isle of Palms |
We had waves on the ICW with 30 knot winds on our bow. So far we had only seen one other boat on the water today -- the sailboat waiting for the bridge.
Traveling through the marsh-surrounded ICW at high tide made the river appear so much wider with the marshes flooded with water.
We saw a couple of houses on the marshes that are only accessible by boat.
We saw an island a little further on that looked available should someone want to build there.
The scenery was very much the same for mile after mile.
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| Closest neighbor to the marshland houses |
Finally something to look at besides water.
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| Fishing vessel docked in SC far from house |
Our real view for most of the day is shown in the picture below. As Clark pointed out, it was difficult to see hazards in the water through all the raindrops on the full enclosure.
Today seemed to be our day for birds. More sea gulls chased us as we approached our selected anchorage.
After we docked, a flock of birds decided that our cockpit would make a good place to rest for a while.
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| Just a few of our anchorage visitors |
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