CODA : More travels in the South Carolina ICW
Church Creek anchorage (21 miles south of Charleston), South Carolina
Charleston architecture.
Marc- We departed soon after sunrise this morning to continue our battle with the shallow ICW and the tides. My calculations worked very well and we made it over some really shallow water (3-4 feet) with a four foot four inch high tide. The photo below explains to what lengths people go to get through here.
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We went straight through the red zone at high tide. Next was Charleston. I tried to find a spot in the municipal marina but unfortunately they have not repaired the docks from storm damage (you might ask what storm the place looks fantastic). There are other options like the MEGA Dock and even anchoring. Looking into the anchoring was easy to eliminate since the bottom is covered with ancient and more recent wreaks. The MEGA Dock was actually full.
This is the MEGA Dock and the anchorage to the left. The crane is pulling a recent sunken boat out of the harbor. This place really does not appeal to me.
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Nice bridge coming into Charleston.
Nice old boat that was boarded by the Coast Guard when it came into Charleston.
We decided to just bypass Charleston after all and headed up Wappoo Creek. The drawbridge over this creek only opens on the half hour such that since we missed the 11:30 opening by 10 minutes we had to wait 50 minutes for the next opening kind of hovering in place. Hovering is not quite the word for it when you have a 15 knot wind behind you from the north and a 2 knot current coming at you from the south. In a perfect world these two forces would cancel each other out and leave you be still. When it came time for the bridge to open the bridge-tender could not get the traffic gates to come down and then could not get the bridge sections to rise up. The problems were all made very public as the bridge -tender kept speaking to the electrician on the VHF radio that all the boaters were listening to. We did get through the bridge, saw more dolphins and pelicans and decided on an anchorage.
Nice sunset from a very quiet anchorage south of Charleston.
(Sara Lou photo)
No alligator sightings, but Dad did mention that they could definitely be lurking nearby so no swimming tonight.
Happily, to balance out the dreaded gators, we now have dolphin pals popping up every so often during the day.
Mainly today I was focused on a biography of Jack Kerouac, so I don't have too much from real life to report, but I could tell you all about Jack's friendship with Allen Ginsberg!
Tomorrow we're headed to somewhere 52 miles away that I forget the name of. Dad says it's great. I'm mainly excited that we'll be on land for the first time in 2 days and we can walk!! Also, a shower will be nice.
G'night fellow smelly sailors!
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