Awenda

 4/16- Church Creek to Awenda River 

   This morning was just gorgeous. It was a nice sunrise and the temperature was just right. There was no wind at all. The whole marsh stilled like a painting. Then we started our motor. This was to be a rather long day of about 45 nautical miles. That would be over 50 regular miles. We are doing longer days now as we have more daylight. I also figure as long as we have nice days we should get some miles under the keel. 

   We chugged along through more winding channels and rivers. This area has more development on the shoreline. We came out into Charleston harbor and it was like glass. We motored all the way across with our wake the only thing upsetting the mirror like finish on the water. 

   After going through the swing bridge on the far side of the harbor we came to the Isle of Palms. It is interesting that the swing bridge only has restricted openings on the weekends. During the week it opens on demand. This place is a huge resort like area. But back to business, the Isle of Palms is also a notorious shallow spot on the ICW. In fact 2 or 3 boats grounded in this spot this morning before we got there. Fortunately we have the bread crumb trail to follow and it was close to high tide. Our friend Bob C had proposed a detour around this spot in the fall using other channels. Well people had sounded it out and it was now designated as an alternative route. We did take it even if we probably didn’t need to. 

    This anchorage is in a wide spot in the river. You can see forever over the grass marsh which stretches almost to the horizon. It seems to be a popular place as there are now about six boats anchored here. It could hold many more.  There was a pod of 15 or so dolphins hunting around the boat this evening. The pelicans were crashing left and right also so there must have been a good fish run when the tide went out.

    Tomorrow is another long day as we hope to do another 50 regular miles. The area we are coming to is very commercial and developed and has very few anchorages. We are now trying to get ahead of the cold front that is forecasted to come through on Sunday. We hope to get past the Cape Fear River inlet before the wind turns north and it gets very rough. We’ll see what happens the next couple of days. 

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