Day 215: Sunday, April 7, 2013

Port to Port: Two Way Fish Camp to Big Tom Creek

Underway: 7:55 am      Motor Off: 5:50 pm      Miles Traveled: 58       Stayed At: Anchor

First Things First: First time hearing the Coast Guard Station broadcast from South Carolina; first barge on ICW passed us going south.

Mile 666 to Mile 613 (plus 5): We hit the jackpot today. The sun was shining. The temperature was ideal. The wind was a steady 10-12 mph from the east (and we are traveling generally north). We motor sailed all day. We had a favorable current (random chance) almost all day. We saw some dolphin. We had almost no traffic. And we baked perfect cinnamon rolls for breakfast. What more could you ask for?

We averaged almost 6 mph for 10 hours. We were still going 7+mph when we took the sail down to head up into the channel we picked to anchor. It took everything in us not to keep going but we didn’t want to make dinner while the no-see-ums had us for dinner. There aren’t any towns, marinas or places to stop along this stretch so we aren’t missing anything by cranking out the miles.

We are surrounded by swamp grass and an occasional wooded area in every direction. It is interesting to watch how your view changes during the day as the tide goes up and down 8+ feet. These are the highest tides we have had to deal with on the trip so far. It makes anchoring a challenge. We anchored in 10’ of water a couple nights ago and found out the tide was going to go down more than 7’ overnight – a little too close for comfort. We picked a 13’ spot tonight. As I write this we are at high tide and we can see out over the surrounding grass all around us – during the day, all we could see was the edge of the grass and few trees because we were 8’ lower down in the river. Just think how much water gets flushed in and out of these waterways everyday, day in and day out, for eons. Amazing to think about.

We are going to sleep good tonight. It is quiet out. The wind has died down. The sunset was beautiful. And tomorrow is supposed to be a repeat of today. We’ll see if we can win the lottery again tomorrow.

In Passing: Bear Creek, St. Catherines Sound, Wahoo River, Blackbeard Creek, Dog Hammock Spit, Mud River, Old Teakettle Creek, Postoffice Creek, Dead River