So we left Southport, SC. and made it to Georgetown, South Carolina, to the anchorage with a fellow sailboater we seem to be traveling the same way with.
Talk about crowded! Georgetown was packed with boats, some of them just dead boats left there on a mooring to wither away in the sun and salt. We looked around for a good spot and we thought we had found one. Well, I should have known better. The current was swift and the bottom where we set our anchor went from ten feet to twenty in no time so the anchor was set on a bank and when we swung around it worked it’s way loose and fell into deep water so we drug the anchor. Thank God we missed every other boat, we noticed it when Trina heard a bilge pump from a big motor yacht go off and we should not have heard it. It’s a darn good thing she looked to see what the strange noise was, we were ten feet from landing on the boat at the dock. The anchor had re grabbed so it stopped us just in time. We had heard on the radio that others had drug anchor up to three time but we have a big anchor and plenty of chain and line so we just knew we were fine. We pulled up the anchor, motored around the harbor up toward the paper mill more to find that this was a much better place but it was stinky and noisy all night long. Since this was a problem harbor we took anchor watch, this means no sleep even when you try you just are waiting for it so we got out of there as fast as possible. I felt like I had smoked six packs of cigarettes from the nasty paper mill this is one place I would skip and not stop again.
We only went about thirty five miles South and hit a nice quiet anchorage and called it a day – kicked back and got some much needed rest, we were both exhausted from the Chinese fire drill all night.
This morning we left super early since we had such good rest it was easy to get up and get a move on. What a great day. It was cold in the morning but it warmed up as the day went on. I say it was a good day because we had fair winds and tides all day, the boat went seven to eight knots at times and made a great distance South we made it through Charleston and through Elliot’s Cut.
Elliot’s Cut was fun it is a very narrow channel that connects the ICW and the current is four knots or better and tries to turn your boat around as you go through, we did just fine though I had it holding at thirteen hundred RPMs and she was doing three knots against the current I was very happy with the performance she gave us this afternoon.
Our fellow sail-boater needed fuel so he went into the marina and filled up while I scoped out the anchorage. I found a great spot and then went in to grab some fuel myself when he was finished and then off to the spot I scoped out earlier.
So the sun is setting on another fine day and it’s off to bed to get some rest and do it again tomorrow.
Wolfbernz