CODA BAHAMAS BOUND 2024-2025 (39)

 CODA : Traveling in the South Carolina ICW

Awendaw anchorage (25 miles east of Charleston),  South Carolina  

Our visitor who made the biggest splash today as he dove on a fish 

and swallowed it whole (about 10 feet from CODA).

Marc-  Travel day of 56 nautical miles from Wacca Wache to the Awendaw anchorage on the ICW.  We had an excellent start out on the Waccamaw River with a following 10 knot breeze.  We also had to use the tides to our advantage today since several passages on the ICW are very shallow (4 feet or less) at low tide.  The timing worked well getting us to the end of the Waccamaw River and into Minim Creek at the hide tide mark.  There is a four foot tide here and we used it all.  

The Waccamaw River flows southeast to the Atlantic Ocean but about one mile before its mouth is Minim Creek that the Army Corps of Engineers has reconfigured to be part of a series of tidal creeks connected by manmade ditches to make a navigable waterway inside of the barrier beaches and islands.  Great engineering that works well but needs constant maintenance (otherwise known as dredging in certain locations).  

The water source is both through Inlets from the Atlantic Ocean and fresh water creeks.  Because the waterway is open to the ocean it is subject to tides.  In this part of the coast you have tidal changes every six hours giving you two high tides and two low tides daily.  When we came down the Waccamaw River we were traveling at 6 knots fighting a 1.5 knot current (the tide was coming in or rising).  As we turned the corner into Minim Creek that current turned in our favor bringing up our boat speed to 8 plus knots.  CODA's actual boat speed through the water was 7.5 knots all day (except when we plowed through some very soft mud).  

Speaking of mud as we drew closer to our destination the tide had gone out bringing us closer to the red zone of the Army Corps of Engineer surveys found on one of our i-pads.  The red zone indicates depths of 4 feet or less (we need 5.3 feet to float CODA).  There are blue zones and green and yellow which are all fine for us.  CODA has a powerful diesel engine and a rather large three bladed propeller that allows us to plow, or push, through soft mud as we did today for the last mile or so of the trip with a reduction of speed to about 6 knots.  

The Awendaw anchorage is really an enlarged section of a creek that leads to an ocean inlet.  In fact some of the boats anchored here appear to be facing the open ocean.  If we look past the six sailboats anchored to our east we can see the Atlantic Ocean.  It is very calm in here for whatever reason.

It is not good to see red in a survey.

Steering through the shallow parts.

Waccamaw River pilot.

Prizes for a job well done.

Lou- We started the day at Cracker Barrel, where our kind friends Craig and Donna took us out for breakfast. Donna's got me hooked on biscuits! Much better than boring old toast.

It was my first day out on the water; it was exciting to get moving. Dad and I switched off at the wheel every hour. I spent my wheel time attempting to meditate, listening to a podcast about the reality TV show Love is Blind, and gawking at pelicans diving for fish. Dad got us through this one super shallow portion of the creek. He's cool under pressure, but I could tell he was tense. "Look," he said, pointing to one of his chart-screens. Our path forward was totally red. Yikes! "I think we're plowing through the mud," Dad said. I crossed my fingers that we wouldn't get stuck.

By the time it was my turn to drive, Dad had successfully navigated us out of there.

Then, we found this great place to anchor (with a few other boats) and had butternut squash ravioli and the last of our key lime pie (with peaches on the side) for dessert. Dad cooked; I did the dishes. 

0 miles walked today! Hopefully tomorrow we get to go on land!

Bonne nuit, brave wanderers!

P.S. Aren't anchor lights magical? (For friends who don't know, they're a light at the top of the mast that sailors turn on after dark so they don't get hit by other boats.) I see a couple out the window now and they feel so friendly in the vast gusty darkness tonight.