Post #30: Reveling in Wide Open Space

 Sunday, November 1, 2020

About 5 miles south of Georgetown, we banged a hard right (saw two more dolphins!) and began about 10 miles of motoring that demanded our full attention due to shoaling and currents. “I can’t talk right now.  There’s a whole lot of stuff going on here,” David stressfully stated.  As we wound down the rivers and canals, we often had four or five waterways converge with currents running in multiple directions, while we battled against a 20 kt wind on our bow and the aforementioned Fiery Tentacles From Hell grabbing at us at every turn.

It’s impossible to capture the movement of the water in a still photo or even in a video, but hopefully this chart will help you imagine our situation.  We have to follow the red line or go aground:

We saw our first pontoon bridge which connects the mainland to the (love this Boston connection) 24,000 acre Tom Yawkey Wildlife Center just south of Georgetown.  It was actually a barge with ramps that is pulled across the creek when needed.  Maybe they could do something like this to replace the Chappy ferry???

We saw two dredging units working today, too.  The dredging is contracted by the US Army Corps of Engineers and, quite simply, is what makes it possible for us to continue on our journey and we appreciate that our tax dollars keep the ICW open.  The dredge lowers the boom (at the left in this photo) into the water and uses suction to excavate the accumulated sediment/sand/silt/debris from the bottom and sides of the river, canal, or stream.  A long tube (you can see the beginning of the tube on the right in this photo) carries the sediment to the surface and deposits it in a new location. Vessels need to pass dredges on the deep water side, i.e., the one with the two diamond shapes on the side (near the red roof in this photo.)

We saw more southbound pleasure craft traffic today than we have since Norfolk.  It’s good form to notify the boat in front of you on the VHF if you would like to overtake them and to state your intentions. Most of the motor vessels hail us (we’re much slower than they are) and then go past us slowly so we don’t get “waked”—sloshed from side to side by their waves.  We really appreciate this as we have actually had canned goods, avocados, and coffee mugs fly across the cabin in the past!

We pulled into Awendaw Creek at about 3 p.m. and called it a day. We are surrounded by “amber waves of grain.”

and an abundance of waterfowl, including these toucan-looking shorebirds, called black skimmers. (Photo courtesy of Audubon North Carolina)

Here’s our view until tomorrow morning when we head to Charleston, SC, a place I have dreamed of visiting since reading Gone With the Wind as a young girl.

Another magnificent sunset: