Steamboat Creek - at anchor

The famous Octagon house at Steamboat Creek - a landmark on the ICW

We usually go from Charleston to B&B Seafood which is really out in the boonies but the tides were not right. Low tide was around noon which coincided with entering the shallowest part of the ICW between Charleston and Savannah, not good. So we settled for a shorter day and the anchorage at Steamboat Creek. The great advantage for us is the public dock for easy Hoolie relief. 

How would you like this walk to get to your boat? Typical along sections of the ICW

As usual, Ann piloted the boat while I set the anchor. She picked a spot right in front of the docks to make the trip short for Hoolie. Needless to say, our 66 lb anchor grabbed right away. There's no moon out tonight since the sky is cloud covered and it's pitch black outside, real wilderness. The weather is rather warm so we're running the genset tonight with the A/C on to cool off the boat. 

Ann's photo for a tree for painting

On Saturday we'll have a 52 mile day to reach Hilton Head  but we'll have the advantage of passing through all the trouble spots with a high tide, plan ahead I say. The ICW is really deteriorating. The depths are such that many places cannot be navigated at low tide so you have to plan your passages. The ICW is supposed to be kept at a minimum of 12 ft at low tide and in many places it's more like 1 to 2 ft! Luckily, there's 7 foot tides down here so it's still possible to make a passage - at least until it fills in some more. So we're targeting a 7:30 am anchor up departure and shouldn't have any trouble with the shallow area given the high tides. We are still about a week ahead of last year's progress due mainly to all the good weather (except for two days of rain), we'll take it anytime.