Well – we made it to Little River a
little more than 2 weeks ago (April 12) and I have been woefully
late in getting this update out. Apologies again. So let me catch
you all up.
We left Steamboat Creek, GA on Saturday
April 9th where we had anchored overnight. The anchorage
was beautiful and really out there in the middle of nowhere. We had
the fishing dock / boat launch to go to land to take Gracie ashore
and after as early as possible departure began our trip that would
take us up the North Edisto River, the Wadmalaw River, the Stono
River, the wild Elliott Cut to the Wappoo Creek, just in time to
catch the ebb current and a NW wind to cross the Charleston, SC
harbor in about 20 kt winds. The timing of this trip also included
catching the opening of the Wappoo Creek bascule bridge which only
opens on the hour and half hour and the Ben Sawyer bascule bridge
which only opens on the hour! Had we missed the first at the bottom
of the hour, we had no chance of getting the second without waiting
for about an hour. As it turned out, we caught the first (just
barely) and were able to get across the Charleston harbor in a half
an hour in time to catch the second. (All the cruisers out there
reading this will fully understand this detail!) Wind, current,
motor, and sail all played a part in this little dance which got us
to our dock for the night at the Isle of Palms Marina. We went here
because the dockage was supposed to be reasonable but it turns out
that they raise their rates April 1. Their new rates were not
reflected in Active Captain (which is what we use for lots of our
itinerary planning) but we stayed anyway because we had arranged to
meet up with Joan's brother and sister-in-law that evening there.
We had a great dinner with Joe and
Elise Mangiulli at the Morgan Creek Grill which is right next door to
the marina. We stayed on the fuel dock after getting fuel so it made
for an easy in / easy out stay.
The next day our journey was to an
anchorage we had stayed going south in the South Santee River. There
are very few places you can go these days where you can not hear the
sounds of civilization but where we anchored in the South Santee
River was definitely one of them! When we went ashore before
leaving the next morning, however, we think the sounds we heard then
were sounds of an alligator growling!!! We made a hasty retreat to
the pier and our dinghy with our tasty little doggie!!
After South Santee we were only
one day away from Little River and just happened to be running
perfectly with the current which was very strong and went to another
little gem of a place we found on our way south – Bucksport Marina
for Joan's birthday (April 11th)! Unfortunately, the
restaurant we were on the dock right in front of, Seaweeds, was not
open during the week yet so Joan's birthday dinner was limited to
chef Whit's grilling on the stern!!
We arrived in Little River, SC
on Tuesday April 12th, right on schedule, and have been in
our previous dock location (Dean and Andrea Pence's slip on “O
dock”) Light House Pointe, in Coquina Harbor. Gracie has been
ecstatic!!!! She really much prefers land to water. Perhaps that is
why she still has not gone to the bathroom on anything other than the
land. (And we still have a square of sod on the boat for her to
use!!) She is in for another big shock when we load up and head back
out onto the water!! Poor little doggie!
Since arriving in Little River,
we have been doing lots of re-provisioning, cleaning, and enjoying
beautiful weather here in South Carolina. All our condo friends have
been hanging with us and participating in happy hours and dinners!
My son and his wife, Andrew and Suzie came down from Raleigh, NC for
a weekend visit last weekend. Lots of fun.
The plan is to leave on Monday
May 9th to continue our northward journey. We will be
retracing our tracks back through the ICW to Long Island Sound.
While most of our stopping places are the same as on the way down
(which is really determined by how far we can go in a day as well as
needing to get Gracie ashore) still many factors come in to play that
change plans – tides and currents, availability of accommodations,
breakdowns (heaven forbid), weather, and whim. Weather, however, is
the big ticket item! But we do have more sunlight during the day to
work with so we are sure that even though it is the same it will be
different. Plus, we may also change some of the places we will be
stopping – we are still trying to keep our journey - a trip and
not a delivery. Joan is very much more at ease about the places we
will have for stopping each day since we have already been to them.
It is not a big unknown for each day. Now it is more a matter of
execution. As always, it will be an adventure because on the water
it is never exactly the same!
To be continued.....
To be continued.....
Our trip to Charleston, SC had us racing tugs and barges through very small channels.
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