Charleston SC and North - March 2012

After Mom's funeral, Kim dropped me back off in Hilton Head, and met me the following weekend in Charleston.  It was a two day trip, and was uneventful, so I got there early and got settled into the City Marina for the weekend.  North of Beaufort, I was treated to fly overs of Navy jets doing touch and go landings. Not sure the picture does it justice, but here is one shot I got of a passing jet.

Boats and Planes - north of Beaufort

Charleston is one of my favorite cities - it's just a lot of fun to walk around in, and has some great restaurants. We were in town for the annual Cooper River Bridge Run - a 10K run and walk.  Kim and I were walking it, while our daughter and her boyfriend, and several others were running the race. My sister, Pam joined us for the weekend.

Cooper River Bridge - from downtown Charleston

Top of the Bridge - halfway point

It was a great weekend. We got together for a good seafood dinner at Shem Creek, did the race (we all survived), and then just chilled out after the race. The race had record attendance - 14,000 souls.  It kind of overwhelmed the race organization, so the start was delayed (Kim and I left the start for coffee and donuts - and still got back before our corral got going) and provisions ran out (water stations with no water) - but overall, still a good event

After everyone headed home, I left the following morning heading up the ICW to Wrightsville Beach.  It was a four day trip, with more than it's share of adventure.  The first day after leaving Charleston got me to an anchorage just south of Georgetown.  It was in Winyah Bay, just after coming through the land cut. I lived to regret this one.  The anchorage was not sheltered, but winds were not in the forecast. It took a couple of tries to set the plow anchor (or what I thought was set).  Shortly before dark, the winds picked up, and the boat began dragging.  It became a routine of lifting the anchor, motoring up and resetting.  The problem was the wind was strong enough that I couldn't get slack in the rode long enough to completely raise the anchor (since I was single handing).  Finally, it looked like I was holding, but just for good measure I threw in a second anchor (brand new Fortress) and retired for the night.  Early the next morning, I awoke to a loud pop and went on deck to see that I had drug a good way across the waterway.  The pop was the anchor rode for the Fortress - it looked like it shredded on a sharp object and separated - goodbye anchor.  When I raised the main anchor to get underway, I saw the  source of my original anchoring problems.  The plow had a cinder block hanging from each side, with a nylon line holding them together.  The only way to free it was to hang off the bow with a knife to cut the nylon line - fun.  After I freed the anchor, I was underway again - a little wiser about anchorage selection.

The morning trip was a nice motor up the Waccamaw River.  The river water is the color of dark tea, but the river is wide and deep, and very scenic - with Cypress trees lining the bank. From there, it was into the landcut passing Myrtle Beach.  Anchorage for the evening was a nice little river just south of the NC line at Little River SC.      

Waccamaw River - north of Georgetown

The next day had me passing through Southport NC and up the Cape Fear river to Carolina Beach for the night.  Southport marked the completion of a large circle, since this is where we originally headed offshore on the trip down.  This leg also had the next bit of adventure.  Just after passing through Snow's Cut into Carolina Beach, I passed a barge heading into the cut.  Snow's cut is very narrow with a strong current - so it a challenge to navigate normally.  As I headed into Carolina beach to find an anchorage, I listened on Channel 16 to the barge captain.  He was heading into the cut with the current and encountered a small fishing boat (that apparently wasn't visible to him).  Following directions from other boats in the cut (who were trying to stay out of the way), the barge was trying to back down against the current to avoid swamping the small boat.  It was a bit of high drama for about 5 minutes - and I'm sure it was stressful for the other boats in the cut. But - everyone came thru OK.

I headed into Wrightsville Beach the next morning....