Sunday, November 10, 2013

We knew we had a fixed bridge as well as a swing bridge to pass through today.  The bridges were 3.5 miles apart with five, yes 5 trouble spots between them.  To be able to travel some miles today, we needed to get through the Isle of Palm(fixed) and the Ben Sawyer(swing) as early as possible.  Low tide this morning here is 7:01 am so we need again at least 2+ hours of incoming tide to make a safe passage. 

 

We cast our lines off the dock at 8:45 planning on motoring slowly so we could  time our approach to the Ben Sawyer bridge.  We were in the lead and while watching the depth gauge, saw 6.9 as the lowest depth.  Good!  Al and Colette followed and all went as planned.  Once through the two bridges, we choppily motored across the Cooper River into the Ashley River…..Charleston Bay.  During the 5 mile crossing, we past a fleet of Lightening sailboats getting in position to start their race. 

On to another fixed bridge, the mark Clark Expressway into the Wappoo Creek Highway Bridge….about a 15 minute wait.  It opens on the hour and the half hour.  The rest of today’s trip should be a piece of cake….2 more fixed bridges and then we’ll search for an anchorage for the night!  However when we got to mile marker 490 going to Stephens Towing Shipyard, the markers were very confusing to us.  I got out my I Pad to double check our magenta line with our Garmin.  It turned out that we were going in the right direction.  Whew!!   Then from 3:30 to 4:30, the sun was dropping in the sky and created a horrendous glare on the water. 

It definitely was a long day.  We decided to anchor at the South Edisto River, North….and we traveled about 1.2 miles off the ICW to find a reasonable depth to cast out our anchor.  The tide is anywhere from 5-6 feet here and the current is very strong but we are holding quite well.  It is very peaceful up this river and I hope we see some dolphins this evening. Besides our two sailboats, there is one other sailboat, and a trawler just came in to join us.  Great day!! Now it’s time for sundowners and to plan tomorrows trip….on our boat.