Charleston Sail

We left this morning around 9 because we had to time the tides to get through the Elliot Cut, just South of Charleston. This is a narrow 2 mile cut through land and if you don't go at slack tide, the current can rush at 5 knots and you will be at a standstill. Add to that the fact that there is a bridge that has to open for us that only opens every half hour and it could be a bit of a problem. If we arrive at the bridge too early, we have to just tread water, but with a current against you or on your stern you can be pushed around quite a bit. We were a bit nervous going through here, but were anxious to head on. Luckily, we made it through with no problems, hit the cut right at slack tide and had no current resistance and even made it just in time for a bridge that is halfway through the cut to open for us. It was perfect and was a great start to our day.

Once we were through the cut, we were right at Charleston. With the wind blowing just ahead of the beam, we unrolled the jib and had a great sail around the Charleston harbour. We sailed for about an hour before making it across to the ICW on the other side. It was a beautiful day and so peaceful with the motor off and the boat cruising through the water. Hopefully we can sail again around Georgetown!

Beautiful Charleston in the background:

Our sailing mutt:

This never gets old:

Dog's eye view:

Koa checking the lines:

We motored through the next part of the ICW, which is said to be very shallow at low tide. This was a bit unnerving to hear because we had found that the ICW for the most part was very shallow and had even hit some parts that had we not gone through at high tide, we would have been hard aground. So, to know that this was a particularly shallow spot was not good news. We were still at mid tide and should have enough water to get through, but it would be close. After some research on Active Captain, a cruising website that helps you navigate the ICW, we were ready to favor the land side and hope for a couple of spare feet under our keel.

As we approached the shallow area, the depth came way up...as was expected. Except it came up more than what we had even thought it would. We were moving very slowly (1knot) through about 5.5 ft of water. That means that the bottom of our boat was only .5 inch above the bottom. At a few points, the reading on our depth sounder was even less. I noticed that all of the smaller local boats were not favoring the land side and were actually closer to the marker and I thought that peculiar. Finally, one of the local guys went flying past us and gestured grandly that we should move closer to the markers. I gladly did as he recommended since we were losing even more water and was happy to find that we now had 2 feet under the keel. So much for the advice from Active Captain! We continued on at our slow pace, with the depth coming and going and finally breathed a collective sigh of relief when we reached depths of 5-7 feet.

We only motored another 10 miles North of Charleston before deciding to stop for the night. It was early today, but low tide was coming upon us and the depths we were seeing were lean and making us a bit hesitant to press on. We are currently anchored in a nice creek off the ICW and enjoying the breeze that is flowing through the cabin.

A few more short days of travel and we should reach Little River in the beginning of next week!