The Longest Day

OOO Wee it was a L O N G day. A new record for number of miles traveled in one daylight day – 68 miles.

We were underway by 6:40am. The tide was just 2 hours off of low and rising. We needed the tide to get through the possible trouble areas. The near areas were easy but the Minim Creek was going to be dicey since we would be there on the low side of high tide. Fortunately we had a favorable current all the way through Minim Creek and made it an hour early or half tide. No problem other than anxiety.

Then as we reached Winyah Bay the favorable current left and a strong adverse current was felt. Speed over ground dropped to 4.4 to 4.7 kts and stayed that way all afternoon. Motor sailing I could increase the speed to 4.9 – 5.0kts. It was a long afternoon.

We reached Cow House Creek across from the Wacca Wache Marina a little after 5pm and had the hook down by 5:30pm. Celtic Cross and Waterparke were already there. I anchored between them with no problem and just sat down to relax when we moved forward into the current over the anchor. Ohhh shades of Beaufort, SC again. What the heck!! I had a current coming into the creek and a mild wind behind but the boat moved into the current and very close to Waterparke. Then Sweet Chariot came in and ran aground on a falling tide??

I set my freshly opened beer down and launched the dinghy and mounted the outboard. I went over to assist Ian and Sweet Chariot to get off. It was tough and all we could do was pull up the anchor and move it to deeper water so they could get off once the tide rose. Then it was time to decide what to do about my closeness to Waterparke.

It looked very close but with the wind forecast to die I decided to leave it alone and Waterparke agreed too. It was not going to be a comfortable night and it had been such a LONG day already.

After a hasty dinner since I had a motor on a dinghy in the water I went around to Waterparke and Sweet Chariot and ferried crews to Celtic Cross for a little get together.

We all agreed that this might be an anchorage for one or two boats but not four. That and the proximity to the marina on a Weekend day was bad because of all the buzzing boat traffic from small outboards.

Sleep was welcome this night.