Day 7 - Can you say MUD?

Current Position: 32° 29' 10" N 80° 41' 18" W

What a beautiful morning after a calm, peaceful night.  

The VERY WIDE Madmalaw River.  We saw several dolphins but so they were out of the water so briefly that I couldn't get good pictures.  I'll keep trying.

A VERY SHALLOW Ashepoo-Coosaw cut.  A cut is like a canal between two creeks or rivers.  The day markers are the green on the left and the red buoy on the right.  You are supposed to stay between them.  Somehow this poor sailboat got outside the channel and ended up grounded.  If that happens you can a. wait for the tide to come back in or b. call TowBoatUS or SeaTow.  Since high tide was 6 hours away I think he call TowBoatUS.  He asked us for help but we barely got through the channel ourselves.  Bob said he felt us "slide" across the mud.  The good news is that since it's mud there is no damage to the boat.

The houses along this stretch were very similar to yesterday with the LONG walk to the boat docks.

Our anchorage for the night:

Brickyard Creek

Our only water neighbors were Egrets and the Crab fisherman:

The crab boats come by and pick up their traps, shake out the catch, re-bait the trap and throw it back in.  Mr. Pelican follows along behind hoping for an easy dinner.

 Watch him glide in.

 Can you see the crab they caught?

No treat?  He doesn't give up waiting until they speed away.

The end of beautiful day. - Tomorrow - LAND!!!!!!

Anchored at Brickyard Creek near Beaufort, SC.

Day 6 - Rockin' and a Rollin'

Current Position: 32° 39' 57" N 80° 17' 12" W

How many of you remember the childhood rhyme =

“One misty, moisty morning, when cloudy was the weather,”?

I rewrote it to “One wild, wondrous, morning, when windy was the weather,”

It’s always a good to know feeling that your boat can handle something rough.  We are not sure how high the waves or swells were but Captain Bob and The Good Life worked well together to get us across the bay? at Charleston. It was so bumpy that I stayed below making bread.  Not sure what to call the “bay” – it's where 3 rivers = Wando, Ashley and Cooper – join before going out to sea.

We had to time leaving Charleston to go through a “cut” at the right flow of the tide so the current wouldn’t be too strong.  It was perfect!  From there we went under a draw bridge.  

We didn’t need it to be raised but the sailboat in front of us did so we got to watch the show.  We saw mostly sailboats today. The next bridge – a swing this time was pivoted in the middle instead of the side like our first two swing bridges. Like the first bridge, we did not need it raised, but the sailboat and fishing boat behind us did.  It is a very busy waterway with lots of boats coming and going. 

We went from a large body of water to a narrow one and finally onto the widest “creek” we have ever been on.  It’s wider than most “rivers”. 

The names of the waterways here are just as fun as the Indian names back home in Washington: Wappoo Creek, Wadmalaw River, and finally, my favorite and our anchorage last night – Toogoodoo Creek.  We actually saw houses around us; well three anyway!  We wanted to take the dinghy out for a spin but the winds were just too strong for Nervous Nellie (me :P). 

Thank goodness the winds died down when we went to bed and it was a very quiet night.

On a side note, I think I got sea sick.  I didn’t have the normal symptoms, just nauseous for several days. At first I thought it was stress, but even if I didn’t feel stressed, the nausea didn’t go away, so I dug out my patches and put one on.  No more nausea!  I did, however; want to sleep all day and had a cotton mouth so bad that I drank water, and drank water, and drank water.  Needless to say, the night might have been quiet but I was up and down all night anyway L.  I finally got so tired of the tiredness and cotton mouth that I took the patch off.  So far today, I’m fine.

Tomorrow we will be at Hilton Head Island just outside Savannah, GA.  There we will stay in a Marina for two days and meet up with friends from our Japan tour (40 years ago – ouch!)  We may stay longer if we find more things to see, but we’ll move to an anchorage.

Anchorage just east of the ICW on Toogoodoo Creek.

Day Five - Opposite view points

Current Position: 32° 52' 42" N 79° 42' 54" W

A day of opposites - we started out this morning at a very slow pace going through some very shallow water.  Shoaling is where sand or silt builds up as the water moves it around.  It's hard to keep track of as it changes so fast.  Some areas are more prone to shoaling than others  especially where streams join a larger body of water carrying silt/ and/or sand with it.  Luckily the charts we use warn us about the dangerous areas so we go slow and watch out depth.  We have a 3.3 ft depth on the boat which is quite shallow compared to some other boats.  Because of our shallow depth the shallower areas are not too difficult, but Bob still "felt" the muddy bottom several times today.

From there we moved to a deeper area where we could move at a quicker pace.  We had to dodge shrimp/crab pots the whole way.

It was interesting watching the shrimp/crab boat zoom by, picking up one pot and putting another down. The little buoys each fisherman uses are unique to them so you know where your pots are.  You DON'T want to get one of those caught in your props so we play dodge the pots.

The houses changed design again.  It seems each section of the ICW has it's own type of housing. These homes remind me of genteel days of no air conditioning and built to catch the wind.

Then there was patriotic row where nearly every home had a flag or two or three on their docks.

Notice again, - nearly every house has it's own dock.  There are new ones:

And there are those so old I wouldn't trust them!

Would you like to walk all that distance to your boat!  That's one way to get your exercise.  All the houses along this stretch were this long or longer!

When we weren't in the "housing areas" there were miles of swamp.  Including Francis Marion National Forest.  Remember "The Swamp Fox"?  This was his territory.  (But not his house I think)

This is our anchorage for the night:

And this is our only neighbor:

A windy night is forecast, but no more thunderstorms!  

Blessings on your night!

Anchorage - Whiteside Creek outside Charleston, SC.

Day Four – The Big Fire

Current Position: 33° 10' 26" N 79° 18' 26" W

A shorter day on the water due to strong currents on the Waccamaw River.  It moved us along at a good clip.  Going back up will take more engine power! 

We started out much different than the last couple of days.  The ICW has been dredged out or carved out in places to make more of a straight highway.  Today we joined up with the Waccamaw River's original path.  It wound around this way and that! 

Then she opened up to the widest and deepest body of water we’ve been on yet.  

We crossed under a LONG bridge, passed very few boats and bounced along on some mildly choppy waves.  

We saw an interesting sight of a small boat towing a very large tree root. 

The trees here have very large root systems and we saw one root ball floating down the river.  One of our friends said root towing is common in South Carolina.

Do you see the nest in the tree?

It looked to be a non-eventful day until we neared our anchorage and saw huge smoke clouds in the sky ahead of us. 

It was a wild fire on the Tom Yawkey Wildlife Preserve.  We just caught the edge of the smoke on our way to our anchorage.   I actually saw flames down near the water but mostly lots of smoke.

You can just make out the flame just above the shore line.

We are anchored in a fairly open waterway on the North Santee River.  It’s got a good current flowing but our anchor is holding fast.  We saw three dolphins after dinner – our first.  But they were shy and wouldn’t let me take their picture.  I did get a good one of a pelican.

Thunderstorms are predicted tonight so it will be an early bed.

May your night be more peaceful than our will probably be!

Anchorage just east of the ICW on North Santee River

Day Three – Swing Bridges and the Rock Pile

Current Position: 33° 39' 56" N 79° 4' 14" W

What a wonderful day!  Last night was calm and quiet and we slept very well.  I felt so much better even though it was a COLD 39 degrees when we woke up.   Bob started the generator so it would warm up a bit for me (he gets up in the cold and showers – brrrr).  The hot water is generated either from the engine running, or the generator.  After a day of motoring down the waterway, the water is scalding but it cools down to lukewarm for Bob’s shower in the morning.  When I took my shower, the generator had heated it back up to a nice, steamy heat but even after a QUICK shower (can’t use too much of our precious water), it was nearly scalding and I discovered our cold water does not work in the shower!!  One more item for the fix-it list!! 

Just before pulling up anchor

We pulled up the anchor at 8:30 – low tide – and headed back down the ICW – (do you remember what that stands for?)  See notes below if you forgot J. Our new to us experience was a swing bridge.  Bob called on the VHF radio – channel 9 – to the bridge operator:

Bob: “Little River Swing Bridge, Little River Swing Bridge, Little River Swing Bridge, this is Trawler ‘The Good Life’, ‘The Good Life’ southbound, requesting bridge opening.”  

Bridge operator responded: “May we have your home port?”

Bob: “Olympia, WA”. 

Bridge: “We will open when you get closer”.

Bob: “Roger, thanks.”  

As we approached we could hear the bridge alarm and see the gate to stop traffic go down and then the bridge swung open and through we went!

Later we went through another one with the same procedure.  I was so worried – and it was a breeze!

Our second little adventure was “The Rock Pile”.  This is a stretch of the ICW that was carved out of rock and there are piles of rocks that you DON’T want to hit with your boat.  Again, this worry wort was very fretful.  I was picturing a wall of rock on both sides and piles of rocks jutting up around us.  In reality, there are small rock ledges along the sides.  Nothing scary (still wouldn’t want to get the boat close to them).  It is recommended that you go through at low tide so you can see the rocks – which we did. 

"The Rock Pile"

After that, I could breathe freely and enjoy the ride.  Bob does most of the steering but I can take over when he goes below.  It’s a big boat when you are up on the bridge.

The rest of today’s journey was very picturesque with big, medium and small houses along the route.  Nearly all the homes have their own boat dock and many have pools.  

I call these two "Waterway Upper Class"

These I have dubbed "Waterway Middle Class" - notice the slide on the boat dock :)

This is the "lower class" - still a lot of these have their own boat dock.  We probably couldn't afford even one of these :).  Love having our own "waterfront property" that moves with us!

We are anchored tonight in a quiet oxbow – the old course of the river before it cut a new path.  There is only one other boat sharing it with us.  The birds were so noisy settling down for the night.  I sat outside on the deck for a while this afternoon reading and stitching. It was so sunny and warm. Won’t see many days this pretty at this time of year so I really enjoyed it.

No internet here so this will be posted on Day Four.  I hope your evening was as peaceful as ours!

Anchorage just south of Enterprise Landing, Myrtle Beach, SC.

Notes:  ICW – Intracoastal Waterway

More pictures from our day:

Passing under a 29' bridge.  Our air draft is  20'.

Sorry this one is so dark.  It looked good on FB and in PhotoShop.

Our last night at Little River anchorage - beautiful sunset. Notice the pelican on the daymark on the left.