Like a Rabbit, Like a Snail

Fenwick Island, SC
N 32 31.543 W 80 24.559

We had a pretty nice day. We motor sailed the whole day, much of the time with favorable currents.

I was very happy to blow through Charleston Harbor with little trouble. We really don't like Charleston. I know that it is a favorite spot for a lot of our friends, and that some people love to anchor there, but we had a couple of our worst days ever at the Charleston City Dock. (See the blogs from 6/10-12/2005 which understated the degree of our distress in that place). Therefore, we never want to go there ever again. Today, we zipped past it in just a few minutes.

The ICW south of Charleston, to the North Edisto River is the only portion of the ICW that we never traveled before. We did it today. That's sort of a milestone for us. We have traveled 100% of the ICW (except New Jersey which doesn't count) all the way down to Biscayne Bay. We have also traveled 95% of the US East Coast on the outside from Bar Harbor to Key West. The 5% we have not done yet is the 6 miles between Port Canaveral and Fort Pierce Florida.

The South Carolina waterway is very pretty. Especially the salt marshes. It looks like the Georgia ICW except that the rivers are wider and deeper for the most part. There are a few places that warn about shoaling, but we managed to pass them with water 2 feet or more above low tide.

I'm sorry but we can't photograph salt marshes very well. They impress us because we can see up to 100 square miles of grass all around us. It is not only pretty, but very important to the ecology. Salt marshes are said to be the most productive land on earth acre for acre. If you want an idea of what they are like, I suggest Google Earth. Start at McClellanville , SC, then zoom out until you see all the marshes between the fixed land and the ocean. Up close, it is spectacular. There's also
a scary part. I read a story about Hurricane Hugo and how it plunged McClellanville under 10 feet of ocean because of the storm surge. Take another look at our current location 32.5 -80.5 with Google Earth or with wikimapia.org

We are likely to stay here at anchor tonight and all day tomorrow. Tomorrow morning there is a 90% chance of rain, and winds will blow 40 knots. That's the gale we were worried about encountering at sea. Anyhow, Friday does not sound like a good day to travel.