Anchored tonight at mile 554 in Skull creek.  Actually sailed most of the day today , tacking down a wide river after leaving an anchorage at factory creek before dawn so as to make a bridge opening before 7 am.  If I didn’t make it before 7 I’d need to wait until 9.  Ends up I could have slept in since as soon as I stopped for fuel around 8 am a thick fog decended and I sat at the fuel dock for two hours waiting for it to clear.

I wish I could remember where this was taken.

Sailing!

Anyone know what this is?  Looks like those candies we used to get.

Sunrise over the South Edisto river

A thatched boat.  I think they were duck hunting.

Charleston harbor.

I saw this in one of the inlets I passed.

Anchored in Cow House creek.

Unrelated graffiti.

One of many ICW bridges.

The area was blanketed by dense fog all Xmas morning. Hope Santa made it through.

South of Georgetown.

In the same canal.

Miss Ellie is a floating swing bridge.

That’s Rob, my new friend.  He’s a great sailor and can tell you exactly what bird you’re looking at.  They’re all chicken to me.

Rob helped move Skylark from Ocean City to Norfolk.   It was a very uneventful trip, no wind and flat seas, we motored the entire way. 

Rob at the mast.

Norfolk.

Rob at the helm.  Even though conditions were calm we wore our life jackets anytime we were out of the cabin and clipped on our tethers if we got out of the cockpit.

Flat ocean.  Just a slight swell, no waves.  It was like this most of the trip.

And of course I ran up when anchoring that night.

Last night I was reminded I need to keep an eye on the tide.  That’s the cabin in Skylark around 11 pm Tuesday night.  I pulled off to the side of the ICW about 50′ from a marker to anchor.  I was heading for an anchorage nearby but it was getting dark and I didn’t want to risk pulling into an unknown Creek to anchor in the dark.  I pulled over and had about 7′ of water under Skylark, plenty I though.  I didn’t realize the tide here is 5′.  4′ Skylark in 2′ of water and the cabin looks like that.  I just forgot.  No big deal except it’s pretty hard to sleep like that and I didn’t think to close the seacocks for the sink drain so the sink filled via the drain since that side of the boat was deep in the water.  By the time I got out of my bunk to investigate a noise that’s sounded like running water the sink was draining into the cabin and the locker below.  OK I’ll be more mindful next time.

Nothing much to report today.  I wanted to go outside, to Ocean sail from the inlet near Mile Hammock Bay to Wrightsville Beach or Carolina Beach inlet but I couldn’t see any markers at the Mile Hammock Bay inlet so I stayed on the ICW.  I really don’t want to take any risks, had enough adventure like that for a while.  It’s slow going on the ICW.  Waiting for bridges, the chanel twists and turns all around and I’m always hunting for the chanel.  I can be in 17 feet of water, look away for a minute and it’s nine foot.  Then I need to slow down and swing the boat from side to side to search for deeper water.  The weather for the next 5 days at least isn’t good for going offshore, southerly winds all week.  The other concern is which inlet to use.  Some are large, we’ll marked and deep.  Some are labeled on the chart as “use only with local knowledge”.  The curve of the coast is perfect for jumping outside in a mostly any breeze with a northerly componen and there’s a great inlet just 20 miles south of here but I won’t go out due to the weather.

Probably the most photographed swan on the ICW.

Here’s where they hang out when they aren’t posing for pictures.

I like it.

280 mile marker.

No wind today.

Looking across Banks Chanel at Wrightsville Beach, tonight’s anchorage.