We left Charleston Thursday afternoon (April 14th) and anchored for the night in Awendaw Creek. Cheryl and Dan from CURIEUSE rowed over for a visit. The current in the creek is very strong. The current and wind combined to drive the boat ahead on the anchor so the anchor rode was under the boat and the rudder making for an uncomfortable and potentially dangerous situation. We solved the problem by using a stern anchor. We were worried about whether of not the stern anchor would hold but in the morning we realized this was not a problem, the problem was raising the anchor. Bill had a good workout along with an omen for what the day would be like. We fought the current all day and ended up averaging 4 knots over a ten hour day. We anchored for the night in Thoroughfare Creek which turned out to be a very good choice. After many days of being in the marshes where we were the tallest object we were tucked up in a beautiful tree lined creek with great protection. Saturday we listened to the weather and decided to stay in the creek for the day. The weather report was calling for dangerous thunderstorms with a possibility of tornadoes. We had scattered rain showers and gusty wind all day. The weather settled down for a couple of hours in the afternoon giving us a chance to go for a dinghy ride through some of the tributaries of the creek. We saw painted turtles that had climbed about ten feet up a leaning tree over the water. Not only could these turtles climb trees but they demonstrated impressive diving skills when they decided we were too close. After the turtles we saw two swimming snakes. The first snake was about three feet long, the second one was closer to five feet long. After we saw the creepy swimming snakes the wind came up and the trees looked like the whomping willow from the Harry Potter movies so we decided to head back to the boat. We had dinner on board CURIEUSE during a thunderstorm. Some of the wind gusts were strong enough that their Island Packet (a very heavy and stable boat) heeled over to the point we would have to hold our glasses so they would not slide off the table. In the morning we listened to the news and heard about the 60 tornadoes that touched down in NC.
Sunday the weather was completely different from the day before - it was flat calm. In the morning we went through the beautiful osprey filled cypress swamps along the Waccamaw River.
For a change we were with the tide for the entire day. We thought about anchoring for the night near the Shallotte Inlet but went aground going into the anchorage. Luckily a sports fisherman came by and his wake was enought to bounce us off the sandbar. The next inlet was Lockwood's Folly. The guidebook description warned that "shoaling in both the inlet and the ICW is always a problem here". Judging by the placement of this navigational aid I guess they were right.
We ended up spending the night at the St. James Bay marina after a 77 mile 12 hour day.
No comments:
Post a Comment