Wednesday, May 1, 2019

Awendaw, just south of McClellanville, SC - at anchor

Peering ahead, where are those diamonds? (which tell you which side to pass on)
The Ben Sawyer Bridge does not open during the week between 7:00 am and 9:00 am so the earliest we could start through the shallow Isle of Palms was 9:00 am. High tide was at 6:26 am so already we were facing a falling tide entering into the shallow, not the best strategy but doable. I used Aqua Map Master with the USACE survey charts to plot a course and found a 5.3 MLLW path. I had a 2.5 foot tide, so it was no problem with my 5 ft keel.

On the way, we encountered multiple dredges at the northern end of the Isle of Palms passage. At least they had the right signals out - pass by the dredges on the side with the two diamond-shaped day markers.

Ha, we got it right, we passed next to the diamonds. No answer on any VHF channel.
It's our old friend, Tenacious who did Watts Cut, Dawho, and others. 
We went through most of the way to Awendaw with about a foot of tide and by carefully monitoring of the USACE charts, it was no problem. Navionics was having some problem with their SonarCharts so they were of no use. McClellanville was ahead of us at noon but at low tide and besides, we were in no rush to get north so we stopped on one of our favorite anchorages at Awendaw. It has tons of room with 10 ft depths and it could hold a hundred boats - plus, there's pet relief at a nearby shore, perfect for us. We will start out Thursday with a full tide for McClellanville, easy.

Now for a sunset!

We are all alone in the anchorage



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