Heading South on the Intracoastal Waterway - Part 7

5/8/15 - We departed Cane Patch Creek anchorage (mile 608.4) at 0930.  This was such a beautiful location it was difficult to leave but we had plans to meet a friend in Brunswick in a few days and time keeps marching on.  Motoring out through the Georgia salt marsh is different from the one we travelled through in South Carolina where we followed a fairly straight 45 mile cut.  Here the ICW is a path of narrow creeks winding it's way through lush green marsh grasses interspersed with low islands of trees.  It's incredibly beautiful.  The Georgia coastline is only about 130 miles long but it's made up of barrier islands with the marshlands forming a seven mile wide corridor between them and the mainland.  The marshlands see tidal changes of six to eight feet and are mostly unpopulated.  The barrier islands have all (except one) been set up as preserves and are for the most part uninhabited.  Cumberland Island is a "national seashore".  Blackbeard Island was once the hangout of the famous pirate and it's rumored that his treasure is buried there.  In 1800 it was acquired by the Navy as a source of live oak timbers for shipbuilding.  In 1924 it became a preserve and in 1940 was made a National Wildlife Refuge.  Jekyll Island was once a winter get away for the ultra-rich.  In the 1880's the Goulds, Rockefellers, Astors, Goodyears, Pulitzers, Morgans and Vanderbelts all built mansions here on huge estates and formed a club of their "social equals".  To encourage social interaction their homes had no kitchens and they were expected to dine together at the clubhouse that was staffed by Delmonico's Restaurant of New York.  This exclusive club held one sixth of the world's wealth and at the start of WWII the government feared for their safety and evacuated the island.  In 1947 the state of Georgia purchased the island for a grand total of $675,000.  It's somehow comforting to know that in this great country everyone gets screwed by the government indiscriminately and proportionately.

As we continued working our way down the ICW we were contacted on VHF radio and told that an Army Corp of Engineers survey boat was approaching us from behind and that we'd need to allow it passage without it's having to change course.  We pulled off to the side and let them by.  The boat was moving at about 10 knots and we watched it disappear around the next bend.  About an hour later he returned and covered the same ground several more times.  It's good to know the Corp is keeping up to date data on the ICW through here.  The Georgia stretch of the ICW has a reputation for poor maintenance with severe shoaling in some places.  We would get a taste of this in a few days.

The rivers flowing through Georgia's lowlands run together between the barrier islands and form large waterways.  These are called "sounds" and we crossed three of them this day; St. Catherines Sound, Sapelo Sound and DoBoy Sound.  While crossing Sapelo Sound we were buzzed by an Air Force C-130 four engine transport plane.  He dropped down low to the water and flew across our bow, then banked hard and flew down our starboard side.  Quite a show and really added some pizzazz to the day.

We anchored that night on the North River (mile 651.3).  We found a quiet spot around the first bend with about 18' of water.  The anchorage was fairly exposed with the only protection being from the tall marsh grasses on either side.  We did have a nice sunset that night and also spent some time working on our 3D puzzle of St. Basil's Cathedral.

5/9/15 - Our destination was Brunswick which is about 30 miles away, probably about five or six hours.  We wanted to time our arrival there so we'd have most of the first day to visit with our friend and we chose our next anchorage so we'd be closer to town.  We departed around 1000 and headed south.  Just 15 miles down the ICW we turned into the Frederica River and wound our way back the narrow channel for five long miles.  We found an excellent anchorage at a bend in the river within sight of old Fort Frederica (mile 665.9) and the state park.  When we first got there we tried anchoring in the wide entrance to the bend and circled around checking the depths.  The entire area was over 40' deep so we continued on past the bend and found a good spot in 25' depth just off the dinghy dock for the park.  This was a beautiful spot with big old live oaks just dripping with Spanish Moss lining the side of the river and within sight of the fort.  We were tempted to blow up our dinghy and go ashore but the heat of the day and the bugs were all the argument we needed to keep us on board.  This area has an interesting history.  Founded in 1736 by James Oglethorpe, a Brit, it was to serve two purposes.  The Spanish had claimed all of Florida and Georgia and this colony was meant as a poke in their eye and was enough to go to battle over.  The town was also a social experiment where England's poor and unemployed could make a fresh start in the "New World".  Wikipedia has a good explanation of the history (click here).

5/10/15 - The Frederica River makes a loop on the ICW and joins it at both ends.  We weighed anchor (lardy dar term) and headed south for another five miles to get to the intersection.  From here we motored across the St. Simons Sound and up the Brunswick River.  We passed under the Sydney Lanier Bridge (suspension type, 185' clearance, picture at top) and turned into the East River.  Our destination was the Brunswick Landing Marina (mile 679.4) at the head of the river.  On our way there we passed a group of fishing boats dressed out with flags and we found out later this was for the "blessing of the fleet", a prayer given for the local fisherman each year by the local Catholic priest on Mother's Day.  Once we got settled in at the marina we called our friend Bobbi and spent the rest of the day at her house.

She offered to take us sight seeing the next day and we spent most of it on St. Simons Island.  We visited the Christ Church, the location where John Wesley (founder of the Methodist church) had preached outdoors under the branches of the live oaks in the 1730's.  The church itself was built in 1880 by Anson Dodge Jr. in memory of his bride who died on their honeymoon.  The small chapel is picture perfect.  Across the street is a park with footpaths winding through the woods and a memorial to John Wesley.  We followed the path out to the other side of the park and found Wesley United Methodist Church.  Built in 1987 with post and beam construction it has walls of concrete embedded with seashells and a humongous pipe organ inside.  Really a beautiful church.  Back to the marina by early afternoon we spent the rest of the day doing laundry and cleaning the boat.  It had been nice to catch up with old friends and we found Brunswick and the surrounding area to be well worth the visit.  We were getting close to the end of our voyage though with plans to be in Green Cove Springs by the middle of May.  It was time once again to move on.

5/12/15 - After topping off our fuel tank we headed back out beneath the Sydney Lanier Suspension bridge and entered Jekyll Creek to continue on the ICW.  We found some serious shoaling as we entered the creek with the posted depth of 15' in actuality being more like 6'.  As we passed a northbound boat we hailed him on the radio to warn of the shoaling he was approaching.  He responded to say that it was nothing compared to what we were headed for.  Several more miles down the creek we entered a one mile stretch of water that was only 5' deep and we literally plowed our way through the mud.  It was a relief to get back into water that was 6' deep or more.  In the chart at left the shallow area we encountered was next to the airport, shown in purple.  Further on we crossed St. Andrews Sound which brought us briefly out to the edge of the Atlantic with breaking waves on the shallows around us.  We entered the Cumberland River and turned off into the Brickhill River (mile 696.2) where we found a secluded anchorage around the first bend tucked in close behind Little Cumberland Island.  Nice peaceful spot with trees on one side and salt marsh on the other.

5/13/15 - We departed Brickhill River around 0930 and turned south on the Cumberland River.  Just a short way down the ICW we came to a spot called Cumberland Dividings where we would turn onto the Crooked River.  As we approached the junction I could see multiple red markers ahead, all in the same spot.  Our chart showed the channel being to the left of center because of a sand bar and there were two red channel markers about 20' apart.  Our chart also showed very shallow water on our port side so I steered for the red marker farthest to the left planning to keep it close to our starboard side.  As we got closer our depth gauge went to zero and we ran hard aground.  I figured the sand bar had extended past the red marker so I tried plowing through to the port side but all that did was turn us sideways and wedge us in harder.  I tried backing down but we were in good.  Or bad.  Since it was low tide all we had to do was wait a few hours and the water level would raise enough to float us off so we shut the engine down and waited.  After about an hour a sailboat approached from the south, went across our bow and turned down our port side into the Cumberland River right along the shore.  Apparently they'd been through this area before.  By my chart they were actually 20' onshore, on dry land, but when I talked to them on the radio they said they had 17' of depth all the way through.  Gee.  Missed it by that much.  I fired up the engine and put it in reverse again and backed down hard, full throttle with the wheel over hard.  We straightened up in the river but just sat there for a few minutes making noise.  Then we inched back a bit.  I swung the wheel over and we inched back a bit more.  Swung the wheel over to starboard and we slowly slid off the sand bar into deep water.  Woohooo!  We backed further up the river until I felt safely distanced from the sand bar and then shifted back to forward gear and turned over to port.  We went in the secret channel right along the shoreline, 17' of water, and followed it out to the Crooked River.  The entire time our chart plotter showed us 20' inland.  Funny.

About 3.5 miles down we came to Cumberland Sound and civilization.  There's a major nuclear submarine base here and beyond that is a very industrialized part of Amelia Island, and our entrance into the state of Florida.  We motored past the town of Fernandina Beach on the Amelia River, crossed Nassau Sound and entered Gunnison Cut behind Talbot Island.  Our final anchorage for this trip was on the Fort George River (mile 735.0) within sight of the Kingsley Plantation.  The history of Fort George and the surrounding area is pretty interesting.  Originally it was the site of a major village of the Timucua tribe and there are massive mounds of discarded oyster and snail shells, fish bones and pottery shards (the mounds are called middens) testifying to their long residence there over hundreds of years.  The Spanish built a mission here in the late 1500's that existed for over one hundred years before being destroyed by the English in 1702.  In 1736 our friend James Oglethorpe (Fort Frederica, Georgia) built Fort St. George here and over the next 90 years the French, Spanish and English wrestled possession of this island from each other.  During the Spanish possession after the end of the American Revolution there were three major plantations owned by Americans here.  One of them, the Kingsley Plantation, left it's mark in history when Florida became a US possession in 1821.  Laws were then established severely restricting the rights of slaves and free blacks and it was at this time that Zephaniah Kingsley lobbied hard for the laws to be changed.  Zephaniah was married to the daughter of an African chief and felt that blacks were the mental equal to whites but that slavery was their destiny.  He worked this twisted logic to his advantage.  He trained thousands of slaves to be skilled labor and sold them for premium prices.  After fifteen years of legal battles he abandoned his plantation, freed his slaves and brought them with his family to Haiti.

5/14/15 -  We were now within one days run to the end of our journey. Ever since we anchored out at Cane Patch Creek on 5/8 I'd had this feeling that we were close to the end and I didn't want it to stop.  We'd had such a great time coming down here, spent more time together than in the last six months and really enjoyed it.  The funny thing is that before we decided to do the ICW I had no interest in it at all.  We had always planned to start our trip, our circumnavigation, by sailing straight to the Bahamas, taking maybe ten days of direct ocean sailing to get there.  I mean, why bother motoring for a month on inland waters? But then life happened and we had to modify our plans.  Buy a house, do the islands on a part-time basis for a while.  We still hope to see the world some day but ya gotta play the cards you're dealt.  Once we realized we wouldn't be able to go to the islands this year we decided it really made sense to make the most of the inland waterway trip.  And now that's coming to an end.  Bummer.  There are upsides to being stuck in the dirt like being able to spend time with my Mom who's been lost in Scotland for the last ten years.  And we both really do enjoy fixing up the house and having space to do our hobbies and blah, blah, blah.  We'll make the most of all that.  It's just that when you're in the midst of something that was unexpectedly good you hate to see it end.  These were my thoughts on the morning of this day.

We departed Fort George anchorage and continued south.  We passed through Sister's Creek bridge (bascule) and shortly after turned up the St. Johns River (mile 739.7).  This officially ended our time on the ICW but we still had eight bridges to contend with before reaching the end of our journey.  The first three were high fixed bridges with plenty of clearance for large ships.  As we got into downtown Jacksonville we ran a gauntlet of four more.  The first was the Main Street bridge (lift) and we called ahead to let the bridge tender know we were on our way.  As we approached, the bridge raised with perfect timing and we passed beneath.  Just on the other side  though we encountered three more tightly grouped together.  The one in the middle was a railroad bridge and as luck would have it we got there just was a train was approaching.  We drifted, backed and circled with several other boats while waiting to get through.  The bridge finally opened and we had an uninterrupted run up the rest of the river, passing under the Buckman Bridge (fixed, 65') several miles further on.  We had a beautiful day and put up the sails for a short while but neither of us were really into it so we motored in the rest of the way.  We arrived at Green Cove Springs Marina around 1530.  End of story.  Actually, this was the end of our voyage but there's more to the story which will continue at another time.

Here's some stats:

• Distance of voyage - approximately 900 miles including 90 miles at the beginning from Herrington Harbour to Mobjack Bay,  32 miles from there to Hampton Roads and then 12 more down to Hospital Point (mile 0.0 on the ICW).  At the end on the St. Johns River we added another 35 miles too.
• Bridges - way too many, something like 78 bridges
• Groundings - hard aground twice and bumped about six or seven times.
• Fuel consumed - approximately 210 gallons.  71 gallons at Dowry Creek Marina ($2.99/gal), 70 gallons at Charleston Harbor Marina ($3.65/gal), ? gallons at Brunswick Landing Marina.  We haven't topped off the tank since we arrived in Green Cove Springs so I'm guessing 70 gallons more including Brunswick.
• Stayed in eight marinas for a total of 15 nights.  $$$

1. Dismal Swamp Welcome Center, 4/9 - 4/10
2. Dowry Creek Marina, 4/14
3. River Dunes Marina, 4/15 + 4/16
4. Cricket Cove Marina, 4/21
5. Harborwalk Marina in Georgetown, 4/23 + 4/24
6. Charleston Harbor Marina, 4/27 - 4/29
7. Lady's Island Marina in Beaufort, 5/1 - 5/4
8. Brunswick Landing Marina, 5/10 + 5/11

• Total length of voyage was 40 days, 4/5 to 5/14.  I guess that means we spent 25 nights at anchor.
• We saw bunches of dolphins and eagles and all kinds of wildlife but not one single alligator.  I really was hoping to see one.

All in all this was a great trip and I'm glad we decided to do it.  I'm not sure I'd ever want to do it again  because I think it would get kinda monotonous after the first time but it was a great experience and I picked up some new skills along the way too (like getting off sand bars and avoiding strong currents).  We saw some old friends along the way and made some new friends too.  This was definitely a nice way to start out our retirement.

Heading South on the Intracoastal Waterway - Part 6

4/30/15 - After settling up our bill with Charleston Harbor Marina (mile 464.5) we prepared to be on our way.  We usually manage our own lines but have always had offers from the host marina for assistance.  We had no offer this time and it didn't occur to me that this might be the one time we really would need it.  The change in tide here can be as much as 6.5' and because of this they use floating docks exclusively.  Backing out of the slip was when I realized how strong the outgoing tide was.  As soon as the stern came around the rushing water caught us and forced us back down towards the dock and other boats. We narrowly missed contact with a power boat but did get pulled sideways into the open slip beside it.  Under full throttle we pulled ourselves back out into the fairway between the docks but managed to drag the port side against the rubber bumper surrounding the finger pier.  We later discovered a 2" wide black racing stripe down most of the length of the boat.  I don't have a lot of experience operating a boat in these ripping currents but I suspect the only way to deal with it is to time your arrival and departure during slack tide.  It would have been helpful if the staff in the marina office had mentioned this.  Driving down the fairway we were starboard side on to the outgoing current and it continued to push us sideways toward the pier.  It was a battle getting out into open water and the sense of relief was strongly felt once we were away from this marina.  All my experience has been on the Chesapeake Bay with 2' tidal changes.  Coming down the ICW we experienced strong tidal flow at anchor but this marina is located on the side of the Cooper River and has no protection from the current.  I may be an old dog but hopefully I'm still learning new tricks.  I won't put us in that kind of situation again.  Woof.

We motored out across the river and rounded Battery Point into the Ashley River.  We saw numerous dolphins along the way.  Entering Wappoo Creek we continued south on the ICW.  At the head of the creek is a short and narrow cut connecting to the Stono River.  The outgoing tide was so strong through here that we could only make 3 knots under full power.  We continued on down several connecting waterways over the rest of the day before finally reaching Fenwick Cut off the Edisto River.  This connected us to the Ashepoo River where we pulled off the ICW and anchored behind Fenwick Island (mile 511.6) in 18' of water.  This area is salt marsh to the south but Fenwick Island is covered with trees providing good protection from any wind from the NW to NE as it was that day.  This is an unpopulated area and the only lights we saw at night were from the channel markers upstream on the ICW.  We felt totally secluded and were caught off guard the next morning to be passed by a large cruise ship, apparently returning from an offshore gambling run.




5/1/15 - We departed our anchorage at 0900 and proceeded into the Ashepoo Coosaw cut which brought us out to the Coosaw River.  Here we had a long upstream run with a headwind of 20 to 25 knots and made slow progress at 4.5 knots.  We finally got to Brickyard Creek which wound it's way down to the town of Beaufort, SC.  Just upstream from the swing bridge is Factory Creek and we turned up the narrow channel here to get to Lady's Island Marina (mile 535.9), which turned out to be so friendly and accommodating that we ended up staying for four nights.

We arrived on a Friday afternoon and decided to make use of the marina's loaner car to replenish our groceries.  The next day we struck out on foot and crossed the bridge into Beaufort.  There was a festival going on in the waterfront park and we spent several hours wandering around the booths and listening to the live music.  We walked into town and checked out some shops then headed down Carteret Street in search of a cigar shop, which we finally found out past the college.  We each got a cigar and an ice-cold beer and enjoyed them while sitting outside under a large sun umbrella.  We continued our walk back through the quiet tree lined streets, eventually finding our way back to the boat in time for dinner.  On Sunday we again borrowed the loaner car and drove out to Hunting Island State Park where we spent the day on the beach.  Just in from the beach the park is covered in forest with an interesting mix of deciduous trees and palms.  There's also a lighthouse here that we viewed from a distance, not feeling up to the challenge of climbing to the top.  We walked up and down the beach for several hours before heading back into town.  Monday we spent doing laundry and cleaning the boat.  It was here that I managed to polish out the racing stripe.  This was a quiet day and we spent the afternoon with drinks in the cockpit.  We also made use of the car one more time and drove out to Lady's Island for some authentic Low Country eatin' at the Gula Grub.

5/5/15 - We departed Lady's Island Marina around 0930, passed through the swing bridge and continued south under power.  We crossed Port Royal Sound and entered Skull Creek behind Hilton Head Island.  This brought us out to Calibogue Sound and the Cooper River.  Our next anchorage was just off the Cooper River on Bull Creek (mile 565.7).  We anchored around the first bend and shared the spot with several other boats.  That evening we worked on our 3D puzzle of St. Basil's Cathedral and took in a pretty spectacular sunset

5/6/15 - We continued south through several cuts before crossing the Savannah River and entering into Georgia.  We had originally planned to visit Savannah but everything we read said to avoid it because of the 9' tides and strong currents and would be better visited from the nearby town of Thunderbolt.  Bummer.  I had just finished reading "Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil" which is a bazaar true story that takes place in Savannah and I was intrigued to see some of the places mentioned.  We'll hafta come back by car for a visit some day.  We passed through the Elba Cut into the Wilmington River and drifted by a cemetery right on the edge of the river.  I instantly recognized it from a picture I had seen and the description as the Bonaventure Cemetery that had played a major role in the "Good and Evil" book.  Cool!  That kinda made up for not going into Savannah.  Just downstream from there we passed the town of Thunderbolt and Thunderbolt Marina.  This place caters to megayachts and we saw a number of them on the hard and tied up at the docks including a sloop that must have been at least 80'.  If you stay at the marina overnight they'll greet you in the morning with a newspaper and Krispy Kreme donuts.  In spite of that temptation we continued to move on.

After passing through four more bridges we came to our next anchorage on Cane Patch Creek (mile 608.4).  This entire area is part of a vast salt marsh and has meandering, intersecting creeks.  I hafta admit that I totally missed our turn for Cane Patch Creek and we had to backtrack about a mile or so. We had been running with the current making about 8.5 knots and I was just enjoying the feeling of driving a formula one car through the twisty turns of the creek.  Or something like that.  Anyway, we anchored way back on Cane Patch Creek between tree covered islands.  The tall green grass of the salt marsh and the trees provided good protection from the wind and rain that came in that night.  The next day we were joined by three other boats and we all waited out an extra day here with reports of  tropical storm Ana forming just off the coast.  On the morning of 5/7 we saw heavy rain with winds as high as 35 knots but remained safe and secure in our anchorage.  During the day the storm worked it's way north up the coast and by the next day we had clear skies again.

Heading South on the Intracoastal Waterway - Part 5

4/25/15 - We departed Georgetown (mile 403.0) with our next destination being Charleston, SC which was over 60 miles away.  This would make for a very long day so we chose an anchorage from the guidebook that would work better for us and still get us close.  Heading south on the Waccamaw River into Winyah Bay we entered the Estherville Minim Creek Canal (4.9 miles).  This empties out into a series of landcuts and canals that wind around for the next 45.5 miles through salt marshes.  Driving a boat through the salt marshes is kinda like driving your car through a town with endless intersecting creeks that form a maze forcing you to pay attention to the roadmap, er, charts.  There's also a strong tidal flow and it's associated shoaling through here and that requires paying close attention to the depth gauge.  After 45 miles we felt exhausted and were ready for the next anchorage.  We pulled off the ICW into Dewees Creek and turned into Long Creek (mile 454.3).  We chose this spot because it offers some protection from the strong winds blowing that day.  We anchored in 18' depth with the wind blowing 25 knots and a strong tidal flow in the opposite direction.  Because of the depth, the 6' tide and the strong wind I let out 120' of chain.  Cheri and I use simple hand signals when anchoring for communication and to minimize yelling and confusion.  To ensure that we got the anchor to set properly I gave her the signal for backing down hard in reverse.  When the anchor bit into the sand, mud and shell bottom it was like it had been set in concrete.  We stopped so quickly the bow of the boat dipped down and I was almost thrown over.  Guess we don't have to worry about dragging anchor tonight!  That evening a storm blew in with rain and lightning which lasted through the next day.  We decided to just sit it out for an extra day.

4/27/14 - Our anchorage on Long Creek was just 10 miles out of Charleston (mile 464.5) and from that distance we could see the Ravenel suspension bridge (first picture at top) and the city lights at night.  We departed Long Creek at 1030 and headed south on the ICW, passing under the Isle of Palms bridge (fixed, 65').  The approach to the second bridge, the Ben Sawyer swing bridge, had severe shoaling with depths as shallow as 5'. We touched bottom several times and there was quite a bit of VHF traffic about how best to get through.  When we arrived at the swing bridge we had to wait half an hour for it's next scheduled opening.

We had tried to make reservations at marinas in the city but they were all full so we ended up across the Cooper River at Charleston Harbor Marina.  We found this place to be very expensive with diesel priced a dollar higher ($3.65/gallon) than anywhere else on the ICW and slip rates at $2.15/ft.  The location also suffered from a strong tidal flow that made entering and departing the slip very difficult.  Grrr.  They did offer a water taxi service ($6.00 in each direction) but redeemed themselves with a free shuttle that only took 15 minutes to get into Market Street in Charleston.  We made good use of the shuttle.

Once we got settled in at the marina we headed over to Charleston and spent the afternoon touring the city.  We started at the Slave Museum where we picked up a book for a self guided tour of the city.  We spent the rest of the day wandering the streets of the old part of town, learning the history and enjoying the beauty.  Had lunch at the Brown Dog Cafe.  On 4/28 we returned for another day of wandering.  Charleston is known for fine dining and has a long list of excellent restaurants.  We stumbled on 82 Queen for lunch and enjoyed our meal while seated outside in the courtyard.  We had no real plans for this day, mostly intentions to shop.  We didn't get far though before we discovered a nice little cigar shop that also offered beer and wine.  We commandeered a table just inside the entrance and stayed there for five hours.  We spent the rest of the day making new friends with the shop owner and several of the locals.  One in particular was an older gal who turned out to be a professional walking-tour guide in the city.  She loved to talk and if you had listened in on the conversation you would have thought we had all known each other for years.  Another character we met was an author who was working on a book about serial murderers in the US.  This was the highlight of our visit to Charleston.  Fine wine, great cigars and friendly and interesting people.  Who could ask for more?

Our last day there was a rainy one so we spent it at the marina doing laundry and cleaning up the living quarters on the boat.  Next to the marina was a Naval Museum with an aircraft carrier (USS Yorktown) and destroyer (USS Laffey).  We wandered over and took a look but didn't want to invest in the $40 (for two) entry fee.

This is a beautiful city with history going back to it's 1670 origins.  In 1718 the city was besieged by Blackbeard the pirate and in it's early years was under constant attack by the French, Spanish and Native Americans.  During the Revolutionary War the city was attacked by the British fleet several times.  The first time they were repelled by a hastily built fort made of Palmetto logs.  The "liberty" flag flown in this battle became the state flag for South Carolina with the addition of a Palmetto tree emblem commemorating this battle.  The second attack in 1780 was more successful and the British held the city for two years.  This was considered the greatest American defeat of the war.

Charleston played a leading role in the slave trade with something like 40% of all slaves in America brought over from Africa.  When international slave trade was outlawed in 1808 Charleston became the center of an even larger domestic slave market with slaves being brought there for sale from all over the south.  The slave museum we visited had been a huge indoor slave market in the mid-1800's.  We learned that our home state of Maryland was a major contributor.  During this time Charleston also became a big exporter of Indigo, a blue dye that was in short supply in Europe.  It's also what's used to make bluejeans blue.  In 1862 the attack on Fort Sumter in Charleston's harbor began the Civil War.  During the war a blockade was established that effectively ended commercial traffic in the city.  It was at this time that one of the first submarines, the H.L. Hunley, was used in naval warfare, attacking one of the ships in the blockade.  In 1861 Charleston was ravaged by fire, unrelated to the war, which burned over 500 acres of the city.  In 1886 the city was nearly destroyed by one of the strongest earthquakes to hit the East Coast, registering 7.3 on the Richter scale, second only to the New Madrid earthquakes of 1811 and 1812.  The city's economy languished for decades but has recovered to become well known world-wide for it's art, music, local cuisine and fashion.  We found Charleston to be a beautiful city with an interesting history and plenty of interesting people.  This was  easily the best part of our trip down the ICW.

Heading South on the Intracoastal Waterway - Part 4

4/21/15 - We departed the Carolina Beach anchorage at 0900 and entered Snow's Cut which brought us out to the Cape Fear River.  Nothing to fear here.  We crossed the river and headed downstream.  About half way down we had to wait while two tugs brought out a tanker and turned it to begin it's journey out to the ocean.  As the tanker got under way the narrow river got crowded with the departure of the tugs and the arrival of a Coast Guard cutter.  We held our ground (so to speak) and waited for things to clear out before proceeding onto Southport where we continued south on the ICW.  This day we passed through or under six bridges, a signature of traveling on the ICW.  We came through a small fishing village where shrimp boats were tied up and saw the remains of what appeared to be hurricane damage from last season.  We crossed into South Carolina (mile 340.9) where a large cruise ship entered behind us from the ocean, apparently returning from a gambling cruise off shore.  We had hoped to anchor for the night at the Calabash River but found it already crowded when we arrived so we continued on with the cruise ship slowly gaining on us.  We called ahead to a marina and made arrangements to stay there.  As we approached the marina the cruise ship turned off behind us and docked, ending our worries about providing room enough for him to pass.  We had tried contacting him several times on VHF to allow him to pass us but he never responded, apparently knowing his stop was coming up soon.  We tied up at the fuel dock  at Cricket Cove Marina (mile 345.1) which is right on the ICW.  This is a nice marina with complete service facilities and a decent restaurant where we ended up for dinner, each having Grouper.  Mmmmm, mmm, good!

4/22/15 - We headed out around 0900 (apparently the best we can do) and entered Pine Island Cut, a 28 mile land cut.  When this was built in the 1930's by the Army Corp of Engineers they encountered a stretch of hard rock 2.4 miles in length which took them two years to blast through.  Because of the difficulty they had this stretch is much narrower than the rest of the muddy bottomed cut and has become known as "The Rock Pile".  It's only wide enough for one boat at a time and you're supposed to announce your intentions on the VHF before entering.  Since we were running early in the cruisers season we didn't encounter a lot of traffic through this part.  This is the Myrtle Beach area and we passed through and under a total of twelve bridges this day.  Once through the cut we entered a beautiful cyprus swamp where we saw numerous Bald Eagles and their nests.  We anchored on Bull Creek (mile 381.0) in 15' depth, way back off the ICW and about 50 yards from an Eagle's nest.  This was one of the nicest anchorages we had on the entire trip with total seclusion from any sign of man, completely surrounded by the beauty of nature.  At night the only light was from the stars above and once my eyes adjusted to it I found that was enough to make out the trees on the shoreline.

 4/23/15 -

We had been in touch with friends Pete and Sharon (m/v Emerald Lady) who were heading north on the ICW after spending the winter in the Bahamas.  The plan was to meet up with them in Georgetown, just 21 miles to the south of us.  If it wasn't for that we would have stayed longer at Bull Creek.  We got underway at 0930 and meandered through the cyprus swamp before passing under Lafayette Bridge and entering Georgetown Harbor in the early afternoon.  We had reservations at Harborwalk Marina, just walking distance from the historic downtown part of the city.  Pete and Sharon met us on the dock and we got together on their boat for drinks before heading into town for dinner.  We ended up at "700" on the advice of a local and weren't disappointed.  The food was excellent and we had a good time catching up with old friends.

Emerald Lady departed the next day but we stayed on to take in the sights.  We walked down Front Street and checked out all the shops before heading over to get groceries at the Piggly Wiggly, a mile and a half away.  We walked back through the old residential part of town in the shade of the old oak trees lining the streets.  Georgetown has a lot of history going back to 1526 when the Spanish attempted a colony here.  In the Revolutionary War two signers of the Declaration of Independence came from Georgetown as did the Swamp Fox, Francis Marion, originator of guerrilla warfare.  By 1840 Georgetown was the largest rice-exporting port in the world and there was considerable wealth in the area with many of the fine homes remaining to this day.  Throughout the next hundred years Georgetown hosted the largest lumber mill on the East Coast and the largest paper mill in the world.  The town suffered major damage in 1989 from Hurricane Hugo but on our walk through the neighborhoods it appeared to be completely restored.  Visiting Georgetown was one of the highlights of our trip down the ICW.