North to Charleston

One of the great treasures of Looping is finding these secluded anchorages like Mosquito Creek and enjoying the scenery and solitude of being miles away in such a civilization.  So far, we have been fortunate to find several of these places that reminds us the true meaning of "getting away".  It's the mixture of destinations like Charleston and remote pools like Mosquito Creek that keep this trip fresh and interesting, not to mention the new challenges presented by going from one place to another.

The GA and SC coastal region with its deep tidal swings and associated currents add another dimension to successfully getting from point A to point B.  Today we needed to leave at sunrise, which coiensided with high tide, so we could traverse places like Fenwick Cut and Watts Cut before the water ran out, and make it to Charleston by slack tide (low tide turnaround) to mitigate the swift currents inside the MegaDock at Charleston City Marina.  Tides changes occur approximately 6 hours apart, and we needed to travel 45 miles today at about 7.5 mph average speed.  There is a significant amount of homework that needs doing, and running your route plan by another captain that is making the same passage helps build confidence.  Today's cruise was a classic exercise in estimating boat speed, tide change, current direction and arrival time using a hull speedboat to cover 45 miles to a destination known for wicked currents inside the close quarters of the Charleston City Marina.  It is a no-brainer to arrive here at slack tide to perform inside docking maneuvers safely.  After our experience in Everglades City with current and wind, we didn't want a repeat episode with super expensive yachts docked all around. Viridian traveled with Dash Away once again, and we were joined along the way by two other Looper boats that were making the same course calculations to get to Charleston and arrive at slack tide.  So it was pretty busy in the pilot house today navigating the twisting AICW and monitoring the depth guage as we headed north.  Lots of radio work and a few phone calls to Charleston to get the exact time for low tide there in the Ashley River.

We all arrived at the very end of the slack tide window (about 15 min after low tide).  With that many boats arriving at the same time, the dockhands were quickly saturated, so Viridian had to orbit in the Ashley River outside the dock area until help could reach the spot we were to dock.  Charleston's MegaDock is 1,530 feet long and is the longest freestanding dock in the Southeast.  Workers speed along the dock in electric golf carts in order to be able to service arriving boats efficiently.  Viridian soon got the call to come inside and dock, but it would require a 180-degree spin-around once inside and then backing down 400 feet to parallel park in a slip between two boats.  By now, the outgoing tide was dragging a noticeable current and of course the wind was 15 mph off our beam and we were to dock on the leeward side.  There is always an audience that magically appears whenever a boat comes in.  Even in Mosquito Creek, 4 people came out of nowhere to watch and "help".

Our rotation inside the turnaround area was executed successfully, so we started backing down the narrow path between boats for a stern-first "parallel parking" attempt to the leeward side.  With the wind blowing like it was, we couldn't get the stern close enough to the dock in the tight confines, so that attempt was aborted.  After we recovered, we decided to back past our spot and power in bow-first at a steeper angle and get a line out to the dockhand so that he could secure it to a cleat.  Once this was done we sprang off that line with reverse throttle to pull the stern into the dock, get a line on a cleat and then it was Miller Time Baby!  Since our friend on Dash Away was single-handing they allowed him to dock on the outside (windward side).  With all of the radio traffic, wind and waves, he was focusing on coming into the dock and forgot to set his fenders out.  He made a perfect approach but landed "wheels-up" against the dockside with the wind and current having its way.

It was all good afterward, but this is just a brief overview of some of the things that must be considered when traveling in this part of the country by boat.  You have your options and bailout plans that you can choose in case things didn't go the way you plan, and sometimes they won't.  Dropping a hook and waiting for slack tide is an option for most of us.  The wind and current got a good bit stronger an hour or so after we all got settled.  Had we come in during that time, we would have anchored and waited for the next slack tide to come around.

Once we got registered, we rested a bit and took a walk over to Battery Park on the east end of Charleston,  then came back to Viridian and served up BBQ ribs that had been simmering in a crock-pot all afternoon.  We will stay here 4 nights and explore as much as we can before moving on up the coast to our next stop.

That's the news and here are a few views:

We are here

Today's route from Mosquito Creek, SC to Charleston, SC

Sunrise on  Mosquito Creek

Looking down the MegaDock

Glad to be in Charleston, SC

Captain Mike of Dash Away with the Crew of Viridian

Checkout the names of these pump-out tenders.  That's too funny!

LOL

Taking the path under the Ashley Bridge to Downtown Charleston, SC

Battery Park along the Sea Wall

A garden behind on of the old homes

This is a beautiful B@B close to The Battery Park

Mosquito Creek and the Dock Side of the Moon

Timing is everything when in the land of large tidal swings.  Viridian chewed on her mooring ball all night and all morning until we took it away from her at noon.  I say chewed because we picked the one ball that happened to be located in a weird eddy current that caused Viridian to run over the mooring ball, and pull it under her hull till it popped out on the other side, making a terrible noise.  It took a little noodling to figure out what was going on, but after watching a full cycle it became clear that we were in an area where physics was not obvious.  All the other boats were behaving, as one would expect by going with the flow.

Now, the reason we waited to depart Beaufort at noon was to time the trip so that the tide was rising when we went through the notorious Ashepoo Cut and we had enough water to keep us off the bottom.  We also wanted to get into our stopping place before dark.  So after a nice walk through the old town of Beaufort, SC and photographing a few more sights, we dinghied back to Viridian and got her ready to depart.  We would be traveling with Captain Mike in Dash Away again today, and he was tied to the outside long dock and was ready to start north for either an anchorage or a primitive dock tie in Mosquito Creek off the Ashepoo River some 25 river miles away.

It was absolute low tide when we passed under the Woods Memorial Swing Bridge out of Beaufort, SC.  Fortunately, we had deep channels to run with plenty of water on the first part of our journey and just had to make sure we stayed in the middle and watched other vessels to see where they went.  Of course, the charts had to be honored as well.  Steaming north on the Beaufort River, we rounded Pleasant Point and headed for the Brickyard Creek Cut that carried us into the big waters of the Coosaw River.  With the Atlantic in sight, we swung to starboard and entered the Ashepoo Cut at Rock Creek with 3 ft of tidal water above what was there at low tide.  Wind and current always present, we slid between the red and green channel markers and entered the relatively calm waters of the Ashepoo.  The depth guages went from 30 feet of water to 4 feet pretty quick.  A dredging crew was busy digging out the channel and did not answer our calls for guidance around them.  We picked what looked like the best way to go around and idled by as the dredging machine hoovered up mud and pumped it to a spoil area where a dozer pushed it around and spread it out.  Constantly searching for the deepest water, we watched our depth guage climb or fall depending on what the bottom was doing.  All the while, the water was rising, and soon enough we were in 12 feet of water and heading into the Ashepoo river that brought us to the Mosquito River where we planned to spend the night.

I had called the owner of the B&B Seafood Market to ask for permission to tie onto his dock, since several Active Captain reviews said that he allowed boaters to use his dock for a small fee.  He finally answered the phone just as we were coming into sight of the landing, and he said for us to come on in and he would help us get in and tied up.  Billy and some of his workers met us; they caught our lines and got us secured, then we helped them help Captain Mike get Dash Away secured just in front of Viridian.  We settled up with Billy, but he had to go to Beaufort to buy some calk for his shrimp boat before the store closed at 5, so we didn't get a chance to buy any fresh shrimp from him.  Bummer!  There is no electricity we could use here, nor any water so we were, pretty much anchoring except we were tied to a floating dock.  This is a good thing, as we tend to sleep better at night.

We had all purchased some chuck eye steaks at Wal-Mart in Savannah, GA. Captain Mike and I lit inexpensive cigars as well as the gas grill on the flybridge of Viridian, and got the steaks to medium rare. Down below, the chef prepared other items while enjoing the air conditioning, made possible by the generator. We closed up the boat to escape the no-see-ums and had a good supper on the dock in the Middle of Nowhere, SC, hence, the Dock Side of the Moon.

That's the news and here's some views:

We are here

Route from Beaufort, SC to Mosquito Creek Primitive Dock, SC

Looking Back at Beaufort, SC

St. Helena Anglican Church

Beaufort Arsenal

Tender Tug

 Under Way

Low Tide

Back in Big Water, Deep Too

B&B Dock on Mosquito Creek, SC

Billy's shrimp boat in Mosquito Creek, SC

Goodbye Georgia, Hello South Carolina

Isle of Hope Marina in Savannah, GA was a great place to visit and weather the storm that hit Monday.  With access to the loaner car, we were able to refill one of the propane bottles on Viridian and make trips to Wal-Mart and Sam's to provision.  Laundry was done as well as topping off the fuel tanks and getting a pump-out.  We were able to visit with some Looping friends at a restaurant called Driftaway, where we got some shrimp and grits.

After topping off the fuel tanks, Viridian and Dash Away departed Isle of Hope at low tide.  Since the channel was deep we didn't worry about shallow water, but while we were making our way north the water was rising.  By the time we got to Field's Cut we had enough water to float the boat.  The rising tide gave us a 10 mph cruise speed and put us in Beaufort, SC right around slack tide.

Today's passage took us from Savannah, GA north up the Skidaway River and into the Wilmington River.  The Wilmington wound around by Thunderbolt Marina, where a Looper was beginning his trip He haled us on CH-16 to tell us he was using our blog to help plan.  What a nice compliment!  We saw a hand full of seasoned Loopers getting ready to shove off for Beaufort as well.  The Wilmington took us to St. Augustine Creek, into Elba Island Cut and across the Savannah River, where we crossed into the state of South Carolina.


Entering Fields Cut, we followed the Grand Banks 32 Snow Bird and negotiated the cut with only a few shallow places.  Field's Cut spilled into Wright's River, where we crossed into Wall's Cut, Turtle Island and then into Ram's Horn Creek.  Ram's Horn Creek led us to Cooper River Inlet where we crossed into the Calibogue Sound and steamed northeast in Mackey Creek to Skull Creek and into the mighty Port Royal Sound.  Five miles across the Sound we entered the Beaufort River, sailed north to the Downtown Marina of Beaufort and picked up a mooring ball for the night.  We will get to explore more of Beaufort tomorrow since we time our departure with the state of the local tides, which gives us till noon to look around.

That's the news and here's some views:

We are here

Today's Route from Savannah, GA to Beaufort, SC

Sunrise at Isle of Hope, Savannah, GA

A 1978 Grand Banks 32 "Snow Bird"

A portion of Hilton Head Island, SC

More big water

A house along the way

Our traveling buddy today, Captain Mike in Dash Away

Along the Sea Wall at Beaufort, SC

Outdoor Eatery

Where's the Party?

Pretty garden

Classic

Another olde Pink House - The Beaufort Inn

This dog lives on a boat and watches everyone who walks by

Crossing the mighty Port Royal Sound, SC

Hanging on the ball at Beaufort Marina, SC

Sunset at Beaufort, SC