December 13

December 13. The alarm didn’t go off and I’ve been spoiled by all this sitting around waiting for parts. We were out of bed at 0700 and underway by 0730, no small feat when you’re dependant on the dogs taking care of business in a timely fashion.

The entrance to the marina is extremely shallow at low tide so we have to leave before the tide is dead low. We get out about 45 minutes before low tide, we show zero water beneath us but we squeeze out and are on our way south again.

This morning has been the most tense I’ve ever been at the helm of our boat: we are entering an area called the Rockpile. The Rockpile is a section of the ICW that was blasted through an area of solid bedrock and has numerous hull splintering submerged rocky ledges jutting out from either side. Before entering from the north you are advised to make several security calls advising all concerned northbound traffic that you will be transiting the area. There is not enough room for you to pass a tug boat and barge combo.

Christy makes several security calls and all go unanswered so we enter the rockpile. Its now dead low tide which turns out to be a blessing. There’s plenty of water beneath our keel and the water is low enough that the protruding ledges are visible. The trip goes off without a hitch but it makes for the longest 5 miles of my life.

The rest of the day’s journey goes very well until we are about 10 miles from our goal of Georgetown, South Carolina. There had been a beautiful patchy fog covering spots on the surface of the water. It was only about 15 inches high so it was no hazard to navigation, until we came out from behind Butler Island. It was amazing how the fog just swallowed us up. We couldn’t see more than a hundred feet, it was very eerie. We were the only boat on the water all day so there wasn’t a lot of traffic to worry about. Between the radar, chartplotter and dead reckoning we were able to reach our destination with out any problem.


That evening we spent some time with Kurt, a friend of mine from an internet sailing board. Then Christy’s cousin Cindy and her husband Allen met us at the marina and we walked to a nearby restaurant for a good meal and wonderful conversation. It was good to see everyone but it would have been better if we had more time, til then…..