Fogged In!

We had a nice night in Deweese creek. No one else joined us. We are apparently out of sync with the rest of the cruisers. Big group in front of us and a big group behind us with a mob of trawler types consuming all the marina facilities.

We left early like just as it was enough light to discern the banks and pulled anchor and left. The wet enclosure made visibility poor. We hit the ICW before 7:30am and ran it towards the Ben Sawyer Swing bridge. We hopped to make the 9am opening. On Weekends it only opens on the hour from 9am - 6pm. Well surprisingly I had a lot of current with me. It was nearly high tide and we "flew" towards the bridge and saw no skinny water. I arrived at 8:20am and they opened for me. Great we are way ahead of schedule!!

Now as we approached the bridge we had seen whiffs of fog but didn't think much of it. Then 1/2 a mile from the bridge and just before entering Charleston Harbor -- WHAM BANG -- pea soup thick fog enveloped us. GREAT!! I was at a wide spot in the ICW so we just circled till the fog cleared. It took a good 45 minutes. I did this because I didn't want to cross the ships channel with no visibility. Given the electronic charts I could have but if suddenly a huge container ship looms out of the fog -- who's fault is it??

Well we finally arrived at the Charleston City Marina and checked on wait listed reservation -- still no opening. I asked to dock for fuel and still no room -- I would have to wait. Well I was tired of circling and waiting so we anchored to await the ebb tide to slacken through Elliots cut. I've got more than enough fuel to make Beaufort SC so we waited the 2.5 hours and then left.

It wasn't quite slack tide when we hit Elliots cut but I got through there doing about 3 knots.

We had the current against us so we made slow like 4.7 - 5.5 kts to Church creek 18 miles distant. About 7 miles out we were running along at near low tide for this area. Now the tidal range here i 7.6'! The shore looked scary with dry mud everywhere and just a ribbon of water to follow. However that ribbon made it easy in that if you stayed centered you had 15' of water but stray 50 feet and you were aground. Ohh and now as we approached the shallow water the current changed and we were running at near 8kts. Run aground and we were really going to STICK.

We arrived about 4:00pm and dropped the hook. This is a nice anchorage and no one here at 6pm. All to ourselves again.

Tomorrow is a L O N G Day -- 48 miles from here to Beaufort, SC. On the plus side we have reservations there at the Lady ISland marina for 3 nights. Now we can provision, eat out, laundry, and fuss, and clean the boat. We have been traveling a week and we are ready to stay put for a few days and Beaufort, SC is a great place to visit.