Day 16 - Monday November 23, 2009

It was a long night! Most of the night I laid awake on the settee listing to the wind howling in the rigging. When I did fall asleep, it wasn’t for long and then I would get up and check to make sure the anchor was holding.

Sometime between 0300 and 0500, the wind died down some and I slept a little. The “Buddy” alarm didn’t let me sleep too much though. That cat’s stomach would give an atomic clock a run at accuracy tolerances.

Since we are only 17 miles south of Charleston we delay departure to time the arrival, take advantage of the slack tide in the harbor and hopefully let the fog clear out. We get underway about 0840 with only about a 1 mile visibility. I’m trying to time the arrival at the infamous Ben Sawyer Bridge for at 1000 opening.

As we are putt-putting along, the big sailboat from the anchorage passes me and continues onward toward the bridge. To my surprise, the bridge opens and he continues on. I quickly call the bridge and find out they are “on request”…. so much for timing the arrival.


We speed it up, clear the bridge and continue on to Charleston Harbor. Did I mention the fog? Well, it didn’t get better, it got worse. Thank goodness for the chart plotter. The visibility is now less than a quarter mile which is not good in a busy harbor with two main shipping channels. I take us on a course through the commercial anchorage area and setup a quick run across the main channel. From there I paralleled the second channel for a while and then made a quick jump across it into the smaller channel going up the Ashley River.

We arrive at the Charleston City Marina at 1215 and are directed to the first slip on the “J” dock. This is the same slip we spent 5 days in June 2008. Slack tide made it much easier to dock than the last time.

Once we docked, I jumped on two high priority maintenance issues. We discovered our port running light was out while coming through the harbor. A lamp change was an easy fix. The other problem was a screw holding the companion way hinge plate pulled out of the fiberglass. This kept the door form closing properly. It took a bit of effort, but through bolting the hinge will keep that problem from coming back.

After a quick cleanup of the boat and ourselves and we headed for the shuttle stop to take the van downtown for pizza and beer. We went to a favorite we discovered in 2008, the Mellow Mushroom. The food was great and we stuffed ourselves.

By the time we got back to the boat it was already dark so we settled in for the evening. Tonight I will sleep for sure.

Today’s Tech Stuff:
Location: Charleston City Marina, Charleston, SC MM469
Started: 0840 Stopped: 1215
Distance Traveled: 17 mi
Total Distance Traveled to Date: 469 Statute Miles

Day 15 - Sunday November 22, 2009

What's that noise? Oh yeah, it's an real alarm clock, not the usual "Buddy alarm". I set the infernal thing so we could get an early run out of Jericho Creek. The mouth of the creek appeared to be shoaled in more than what I remembered of the 2007 trip. I wanted to be out before the tide reached full low, plus it would give us some push down to Georgetown, SC and Winyah Bay.

Despite the 0530 alarm, it was 0715 before we raised the anchor. We eased over the bar at the creek entrance with a couple of feet to spare and headed southward. We rode the tide boost a while but lost it as we passed Georgetown.

Seems like cloudy, damp and cold mornings make travel seem slower than it already is. We push on down the Winyah Bay and enter the Esterville Minim Creek Canal. This is another man-made cut that scares the heck out of you at low tide. We’re fortunate to be passing on the rising tide. We have spotty rain as we move through the North and South Santee rivers. The only thing that breaks the monotony is the occasional powerboat wanting to pass us. By the time we are nearing forty miles of travel, the rain is more of a nuisance. The plan was to stop in Graham Creek, but there was real shallow water at the entrance so we decided to proceed on. That decision was met with heavier rain and increased wind, naturally! We pushed on another 12 miles to Whiteside Creek.

One sailboat was already anchored in the prime spot so we went around the bend and attempted to anchor. After two unsuccessful attempts to get the Danforth to set, we moved back to the first leg of the creek and anchored just up stream of the other sailboat. Shortly afterward another sailboat anchored just off the other boat’s stern.

It was raining pretty good and the wind was 15 gusting to 20 knots. This creek is totally exposed with nothing but marsh grass all around. After two failed anchor sets, my anxiety level about our location was maxed out . It was getting dark so we’re stuck with this place.

Today’s Tech Stuff:
Location: Whiteside Creek, SC MM452
Started: 0645 Stopped: 1630
Distance Traveled: 56 mi Avg Speed 6.4 mph
Total Distance Traveled to Date: 452 Statute Miles