Crew Log for April 15th – 16th, 2023
Trip Summary:
• Isle of Hope – Church Creek
• Trip Distance of 93.1 NM, Total Distance To-Date of 3,822.8 NM
We were on the face dock at Isle of Hope Marina between a sailboat, that seems to live at the dock, and a large trawler, which was operated by new boaters who recently transitioned to the water from the RV world. We had clear skies and light winds, but we weren’t anxious in trying to get off the dock with the trawler in front us. They had planned to leave today as well, so we “somewhat” patiently waited for them to depart.
Unfortunately, given they can travel 3 - 4 knots on average faster than us, they weren’t in any hurry.
Our destination for the day was Beaufort (Bew-fert), South Carolina. We had originally planned on anchoring but managed to secure a mooring ball at the municipal marina. The mooring field is right on the ICW and reasonably close to town. We only planned to stay 1 night, so we were happy to be closer to town.
It was a Saturday. which meant there was a lot of boat traffic on the ICW. By far and away the most popular boats here are centre console motor boats. They are like the Honda Civic of the boating world, and there were literally hundreds of them. Fortunately, most of them gave us a wide pass, and they threw up a minimal wake. It was a beautiful sunny day, so it was no surprise that so many people were out on the water.
As we made our way into Beaufort, it looked like there were a bunch of sailboat races going on at the local Yacht Club. There were a number of little dinghies and another group of bigger, gaffed rigged boats, which we weren’t familiar with. Further up the harbor there were a number of small center consoles on a sandspit that seemed to be protesting something, or possibly having a political rally. It’s been our practice in these situations to put our heads down and keep mowing forward.
The municipal marina in Beaufort seems to be in hard shape. The first 2-3 moorings we tried to hook were broken and many others were occupied by derelict boats. We tried hailing the marina on the VHF and finally had to call them on a cell phone. When we eventual made our way in to get the gate codes and pay, I found the dockhand, leaned back in a swivel chair, engrossed in whatever was on his phone. When I commented that we couldn’t hail him on the VHF, he reported that it had been very busy. Seems in addition to the general state of repairs, the Beaufort Municipal Marina has staffing issues as well.
It is always nice to get off the boat at the end of the day to stretch our legs and explore the local area. Beaufort has a really nice waterfront walk that extends from the marina along the ICW to the Lady’s Island Bridge. The route is lined with a number of wooden bench swings that were very popular with folks out enjoying the evening. Almost every one of the swings was occupied. Someone had a good idea!
It was getting late, so rather than dinghy back to the boat and make supper, we decided to check out the wood fired pizza restaurant. It’s always a good sign when a place is popular with the locals. We had a table close to the pizza making station and it was a thing of beauty to watch the assembly line of pizzas being made. I spoke to the “Sauce Applicator” who told me they made 75 pizzas in the last hour, 1.25 per minute. On a busy night they’ll make between 350 – 400 pizzas. If that happens, they run out of dough and close early!
After supper, we continued our stroll along the waterfront and passed by a lady who was fishing for crabs. She had a piece of chicken tied to a homemade net that laid flat when she lowered it to the bottom. When she felt the crab grab the chicken, she hoisted the net. Chicken is relatively inexpensive in the US compared to Canada, but I did find myself computing the marginal cost of chicken relative to the potential value of the crab catch. I was ignoring however, the entertainment factor, which had to be worth “something”.
We timed our departure the next morning with the currents and the bridge opening schedule for the Lady’s Island Bridge. Our destination today was Church Creek, one of our favorite anchorages. It is only a few hours out of Charleston, but it has a remote, peaceful feel to it.
There was dredging activity on this section of the ICW and we had received reports from the day before that boats were running aground trying to navigate past the dredging equipment. The Ashepoo – Cooshaw Cut, cuts off about 4-5 miles, which is close to an hour for us. We eventually decided to take our chances with the dredging and go through the cut. As we approached, the operator came on the radio and asked us to slow up while he maneuvered the giant piece of equipment off to the side and we eventually passed without any issue.
It was slightly overcast most of the day, which might explain why there were significantly fewer boats out on the water. The other possible explanation is that this section of the ICW is more remote and had fewer beaches than the section the previous day. Regardless of the reason, we were enjoying a nice quiet ride up the ICW
As we made the turn into Church Creek, we were welcomed by 2 dolphins, which is always a good sign. However, a few minutes later, we received a radio warning of a possible thunder and lightening storm, but luckily it missed us.
I spent the rest of the afternoon reading my book up on deck, while Judy made homemade Caldillo, a Mexican soup, which was delicious. Later that evening, Judy hung out on the deck listening to the bird songs on shore and dolphins rising up to take a breath as they swam around the boat. It was her inspiration to make peach cobbler as she hummed, “...that old sweet song…keeps Georgia on my mind…”. I didn’t dare kill the mood by pointing out that we were in South Carolina.
I reflected on the fact that we had found Church Creek after a disastrous exit from Charleston on the way down. It is interesting that such a negative experience resulted in us finding such a beautiful spot.
I am not going to lie, I still had nightmares of the currents around Charleston and had been stressing over them for days. We would have to time our departure from Church Creek with the current at Elliot’s Cut and the Wappoo Bridge, before negotiating our way through Charleston Harbor.
But more about that, next time.
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