Hunkered Down In South Carolina
We are currently at the Isle of Palms Marina, which is just off the Intra-Coastal Waterway (ICW). The Isle of Palms Marina is located on a barrier island of the same name. This island is about 10 miles north of Charleston. We decided to wait out tropical storm “Sandy” here for a few days.
Our course to this point was as follows:
Mile 315.0 to Mile 373.3 (58.3 miles): We departed the St. James Plantation development, our last stop in North Carolina, at 0830 hours. We travelled the most miles in one day so far on this leg of the trip. The current was at our back most of the way and our speed for most of the trip was 6.5 to 7.0 knots. The weather report was calling for a couple days of good weather so we wanted to make as much distance as we could. By the end of the day we were in an area similar to the Great dismal swamp with no place to drop our hook. So at 1740 hours we pulled in to the Osprey Marina. The Osprey marina is in a remote location but is very nicely kept. The dock fee was very budget friendly at $1.00 per foot.
Morning Fog as We Leave the Osprey Marina
South Carolina Swamp near Mile Marker 375
Mile 373.3 to Mile 420.0 (46.7 miles): We left the Osprey marina at 0815 hours and wanted to get in another long day because we knew hurricane “Sandy” was starting to make her way north up the Bahamas Island chain. Today was another day where the current was mostly at out back, but at 1530 hours we decided to anchor in the South Santee River at ICW mile 420. The waterway guides indicated this was a better anchorage than the ones located further down around ICW mile 430. The South Santee River is a nice wide river, where we could anchor out alone and enjoy the elements. The river has marshland on both sides with no trees. There is no wind protection here, but the winds were only about 10 knots, so this would not be a problem. Sandy was not expected to be offshore of the Carolinas for 2 more days and we were going to go to Charleston the next day.
Motoring Sailing Down the Cape Fear River
This anchorage was beautiful but had one major problem that we did not realize until we were settled in. At dusk, we were sitting in the cockpit, enjoying the warm evening, when swarms of bugs and mosquitos attacked us. We had to rush below decks to avoid the bugs for the rest of the night. We have had several nights in the low 50’s for the last couple weeks, so I thought these bugs would be gone for the season. But they were worse than anything we had experienced in Annapolis.
At Anchor in the South Santee River
Mile 420 to Mile 456.5 (36.5 miles): At 0830 hours we tried to get our anchor up and had a problem. I will explain more about this difficulty in a separate post in a few days. We finally got our anchor up at 1015 hours and, because of the delay, we changed our destination from Charleston to the isle of Palm Marina (about 2 hours closer).
I am not sure if we were experiencing the monthly extreme tides or not, but a couple of these sections of the ICW were very shallow. How shallow? Well, you know it is shallow when you pass a fixed red marker on your starboard side that is 20 feet from the water’s edge on dry land (These markers are supposed to mark the outer edge of 10 feet of water depth). We were passing floating docks that were sitting on dry land (floating docks are always supposed to be “floating”). Needless to say with a 5 foot draft boat this made me a little nervous. This means you must go slower through these sections in case you run aground. Also the current was at our back so I did not want to run aground or we may not have been able to get off the bottom. The channel we had to pass through was not very wide, maybe one boat length. We did make it through without touching bottom but it was touch and go as our depth sounder was reading 6 to 7 feet for several miles. We arrived at the Isle of Palms Marina around 1630 hours with the wind blowing about 20 knots.
Odyssey tied up at the Isle of Palms Marina
The Isle of Palms is another very nice area with big fancy homes and beautiful beaches. The temperatures here have been very comfortable; in the high 70s during the day and around 60 at night. I had one significant maintenance task at this location. I changed the diesel engine oil. This is a messy job that must be done about every 100 to 125 hours of engine running time. This project took me about three hours to complete. The worst part of having a small boat is the lack of accessible storage areas. It seems like every time I need to do a project, the tools or parts are always at the bottom of a storage locker or under a bunk. I actually have a plan view of the Odyssey’s below deck storage areas where I list where everything is located. Otherwise I may end up searching through the entire boat to find something.
We are here for a few days waiting for hurricane Sandy to blow by the coast before continuing south. Our goal is to make 40 miles per day.
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