Extended Passage to Beaufort, NC

Extended Passage to Beaufort, NC

Wednesday 14th to Thursday 15th May, 2025

In theory we could have carried on up the Intra Coastal Waterway (ICW) all the way to Norfolk, VA, but In practice there a couple of sections that are a nightmare. The Waccamaw river, in SC is amazing and definitely worth visiting. However, it is immediately followed by the “Rockpile”, which is a narrow canal-like section with sharp, hull threatening rocks on both sides. It is almost inevitable that you will meet a tug and barge half way through! After that is the Calabash river, which is a great anchorage except for the ultra shallow bar that protects the entrance. You can time the entry for high tide, but when are you are leaving heading north you need to depart at low tide in order get a rising tide for the Shallot and Little River inlets, both of which are heavily shoaled, and also to catch the flood tide up the Cape Fear river to Wrightsville Beach. We have done these sections previously with no terrible incidents, but it is a bit stressful and we just aren’t up for it. We have never tried the following leg from Wrightsville Beach to Beaufort, NC on the ICW because again it has a reputation for being extremely shallow. All of this is to explain why we were so keen to go offshore directly to Beaufort, NC. Our original plan was to leave from Charleston, SC, but because the weather has been quite stormy we decided to spend a few days in the South Carolina low country marshes and then head offshore from Georgetown / the Winyah River.

We left the beautiful Awendaw Creek at 8 am on Wednesday, 2 hours before high tide, and had a pleasant 4 hour journey along the ICW to the Winyah River. Here the ICW route goes north to Georgetown, SC and on to the Waccamaw River, but we turned right towards the estuary and dropped anchor for a couple of hours whilst we considered our options. The weather is still not settled and the key question was whether or not we might run into violent thunderstorms. In the end we decided that leaving that afternoon directly for Beaufort, NC was a good or better than any other option. We had alternatives, cut-out at the Cape Fear River or Masonboro Inlet (Wrightsville Beach) if conditions proved to be nasty. We had a good lunch and got our things ready for a 24 hour overnight passage. We left at 3pm to catch the ebb tide and give us a few hours offshore to get reacquainted with the conditions before it got dark. Of course, just as we were departing, thunder clouds rolled through and we got a good soaking.

As we headed down the estuary we raised the main sail and shortly thereafter put in a reef, with the anticipation of more squalls and thunder storms. Fortunately, once we were clear of the Winyah River estuary we managed to dodge the worst of the squalls / T-storms. We shook the reef out of the main sailed through the night with a full main and Genoa on a broad reach. We weren’t able to take a direct course to Beaufort because we needed to avoid the Frying Pan Shoals off Cape Fear. Actually, the more easterly route gave us a better angle on the wind and we had an excellent 10 hours of sailing. It was only two days past the full moon, so once the moon rose (~10 pm) it was a bright clear night for sailing. In the early hours of the morning, once we were clear of Frying Pan Shoals shoals, we had to make a turn about 20 degrees to the north, and this essentially put us dead down wind for the remainder of the passage. We continued to sail for a couple hours but around dawn we decided to turn on the engine and motor sail. 

The seas were actually quite lumpy and rolly throughout the passage, which made it somewhat uncomfortable. Once we turned downwind it was a struggle to keep the sails filled. We used a preventer to stop accidental crash-gybes and we deliberately sailed (or motor-sailed) a little off the wind where possible, in a series of long-leg gybes. The days are long and the nights short, but we were both pretty tired by the morning and we still had a full day of sailing ahead. We alternated taking naps and trying to keep the boat moving and prevent the sails flogging, but it was tough. Thankfully, with about 20 miles remaining, we got a bit of a wind shift and were able to sail the final three hours to the Beaufort inlet on a broad reach. That’s when the real excitement started! A nasty looking thunderstorm emerged nearby and the winds picked up. They were also blowing directly against the last of the outgoing tide as we made our way along the inlet channel. We made good decision to drop ours sails and motor the final three miles along the channel. It was very rough, with steep breaking waves, not helped by a couple of power boats that motored by at full speed, creating large wakes. The last of these threw our coffee thermos and various bottles off the counter, where they had been “bungeed” in place. Anyway, we made it to the inland waters and proceeded to follow the channel up to the town of Beaufort and Taylor Creek. It took us 26 hours to cover 155 miles from the mouth of the Winyah River to Beaufort inlet. 

This is a actually a very exciting moment as this is essentially the place that I departed from in November 2023 with Dave, Pete and Simon, and now we have closed the loop. (Beaufort and Morehead city sit either side of the Beaufort Inlet and are connected via a bridge.) 

Check out the tracker …

https://forecast.predictwind.com/tracking/display/Cotinga/

Mike

34 42.866 N, 76 39.881 W

p.s. We have been having issues on and off with our wind speed instrument. Yesterday afternoon it was reading a bit high ... 123 knots to be precise !!!!

Sunrise in the beautiful Awendaw Creek anchorage

The sun dipping below clouds off the coast of South Carolina

Amazing sunset with storm clouds

A panoramic perspective (actually a 3-shot panorama using 70 mm lens, as opposed to the wide angle image above)

Cloud formations in the evening sum

Post sunset out on the ocean off South Carolina. It was less than two hours later that the almost full moon came up.

A t-storm threatens as we approach Beaufort, NC

Rough conditions heading up the Beaufort channel. It's really hard to capture rough seas, particularly in this case as the auopilot was not handling the squirrely seas very well so I was hand-steering and trying to photograph with the other hand ... plus the auto-focus no longer works on my 17-35 mm lens!

Looking back out the Beaufort channel. It stretches about 5 miles out to sea, and on this occasion was surprisingly rough. Beaufort is a class-A (deep, well maintained, all weather inlet) ... I can't imagine what conditions might have been like in one of the sketchy, shoal inlets.

Storm clouds over the Beaufort waterfront at sunset

Coastal Marshes of South Carolina

Coastal Marshes of South Carolina

Monday 12th - Tuesday 13th May, 2025

We ended up staying two nights in Dewee Creek, about 15 miles north east of Charleston. It’s a beautiful remote anchorage surrounded by the coastal grasslands that are typical of this area. We hadn’t planned on staying two nights but the weather was poor, with frequent showers, periods of heavy rain and the occasional thunder storm. We weren’t in any rush. Gloria spent Monday working on her quilting project, whilst I dodged the rain, trying to do some stainless steel polishing out on deck. We both spent several hours reading and we watched a movie on Netflix.

This morning it seemed like the worst of the weather had gone through and we left early to make some northwards progress up the ICW. It felt really hot as we covered about 20 miles up to Awendaw Creek near McLellanville. This is a magical anchorage that we have stayed at a few times in the past, but mostly in the winter on our way south. It’s part of the Cape Romain National Wildlife Refuge and is a great place to experience the South Carolina coastal marshes. 

As we have made our way up through Georgia and South Carolina we have been delighted by the number of birds that we have been seeing … all sorts of herons and egrets, whimbrels, plover and shorebirds by the thousand. We have seen black skimmers, wood storks, osprey, bald eagles and brown and white pelicans. This morning’s trip was a particularly noisy affair with American oyster catchers screeching from the shoreline close by. Every day we have seen dozens of dolphin. The area is completely flat, with wooded islands where the land is a few feet higher, and the skies are enormous.

This afternoon, as we sat at anchor, the winds strengthened from the south west and we got to experience the classic heeled-over boat effect, where Cotinga points in the direction of the tidal current and the winds blow across the beam. In this fashion the boat lies slightly on it’s side as the current rips past and the wind whistles through the rigging. The skies were blue and temperatures reached 80oF, and for the first time in days we were able to sit out in our ‘Captain’s chairs’ on deck and enjoy our late afternoon drinks.

Tomorrow we have a vague plan to continue along the ICW to the Winyah River and then head off-shore later in the afternoon, or maybe the following morning … to somewhere. You never want to be too specific in your planning!

p.s. This afternoon we again had to work on the septic hoses on our forward head. The issue turned out to be the one section of hose that I hadn’t cleared out on our previous ‘maintenance’. But who wants to hear any more about that … !?

Mike

33 02.062 N, 79 32.440 W

The moon sets in the early morning at Dewee Creek, SC

Cotinga at anchor Dewee Creek

A couple of power boats joined us in Dewee Creek on Monday night. 

After days of rain and storms the sun breaks through

Dewee Creek

We were particularly taken with this cottage off the ICW in the Cape Romain NWR. The only way to reach it is by boat, and the dock is off a creek, and is connecvted to teh house by a boardwalk.

Charleston, SC

Charleston, SC

Friday 9th to Sunday 11th May, 2025

I really like Charleston. It’s a fabulous city with lots of beautiful buildings and a wealth of history. We have visited here several times in the past, but it still seems fun just to wander round the streets.

Being at the dock in Charleston City Marina is a luxury. It’s only a couple of hundred yards away from the anchorage in the Ashley River, where we have stayed previously. However, reports that we have read more recently about the anchorage suggests that the bottom is “foul” and that many boats have had issues getting their anchors snagged and having to call out divers to retrieve them. So we decided to bite the bullet and cough up for a couple of nights on the dock … that ended up being three. (Marinas can be like velcro - it takes a certain amount of energy to tear yourself away!) As Gloria mentioned previously, we were assigned to the ‘super-yacht’ dock, which seems entirely appropriate, and there were certainly some impressive boats. By far the best was “Svea”, a 145 ft modern J-class sloop. (Check it out on the interwebs - absolutely beautiful!). The facilities at the marina were also good, with excellent showers and a laundry (that we didn’t need as we did laundry in Beaufort, SC). But the best thing about being in the marina is the ability to just walk off the boat and immediately be in the city.

The weather has been dodgy and continues to be problematic (more on that in a moment), but we got lucky on Friday and had a beautiful, sunny, warm afternoon stroll around the city. It also stayed dry on Saturday morning, which allowed us to go do some grocery shopping. However, I went back into town on Saturday afternoon and that was a very wet experience. Gloria opted for a quiet afternoon on board.

Our original plan was to leave Charleston, SC and sail directly up to Beaufort, NC (~ 200 nm, 36 hour passage), but the weather is so stormy that this is not possible at the minute, and it seems like it will be many days before off-shore sailing will become reasonable again. We aren’t too keen on the idea of motoring up the ICW all the way up to Wrightsville Beach (another 200 miles), where it is possible to go offshore in a day to Beaufort, NC, so we have come up with a compromise. We will continue along the ICW from Charleston for another 60 miles to the Winyah River. We will do this in very short hops, spending long periods each day / night at anchor in the lowland marshes. This allows us to make use of the top-of-the-tide to traverse some very shallow sections, and to seek shelter from the unrelenting storms that are scheduled to continue through the next several days. If the weather improves we can then go offshore from the Winyah River (another good deep water inlet) all the way to Beaufort, and if it doesn’t, we can make a day trip offshore to the Cape Fear river and from there go up to Wrightsville Beach. This would allow us to skip the most challenging sections of the ICW and also avoid the risk of being caught off Cape Fear and the “Frying Pan Shoals” in a storm. 

So this morning, after a night of thunder and lightning, we got up at 5.45 am, drank some coffee and prepared to leave the dock. We were hemmed in by two expensive-looking powerboats, with about 3 or 4 feet clearance forward and aft. So we ran a line from the bow round a bollard on the dock at ~ mid-ship and back to the bow, and used it to pivot the stern away from the dock whilst driving forward. Once clear of the boat astern, we backed out, pulled in the pivot-line, and set off from the marina. It all went smoothly and we also got really lucky with the weather. Whilst we could see impressive lightning in the distance, we were more or less dry for the three hours it took to get to our destination anchorage in Dewee Creek. It’s a beautiful location, seems to have plenty of swinging room, but also strong current and little protection from the wind. Nonetheless, we feel comfortable here, and plan a lazy day as more storms roll through.

Mike

32 50.216 N, 79 44.835 W

This is one of my favorite photos of the entire trip! It is taken through the window of the Anglin Smith art gallery in Charleston. I liked the look of the beautiful glass pieces and put my wide angle lens right up against the window ... I didn't expect it to come out so well! 

 Same situation as above but with the lens at the longer 35 mm (rather than 17mm).

On our 2012-3 trip I took a photograph of this exact location, which resulted in one of my signature photos "The Blue Portal". The doors have been replaced since then ... but I was really happy to come across the location again (by chance)

As you may know I'm a big fan of murals ... and I don't take nearly enough people pictures. This photo of a two story brick wall mural can double up as my people picture!

Abstract - textured wall and tree trunk

A fascinating little alleyway 

A classic beautiful Charleston house

Colorful walls and amazing window boxes - there are so many beautiful town-houses

A female 'Boat Tailed Grackle' takes advantage of a puddle bath

Threatening skies, but we managed to stay dry on our short trip up the ICW to the Dewee Creek

Now we are back in the USA we once again have access to Sirius Radio weather information, which we can overlay directly on our chart plotter. I took this picture shortly after anchoring in Dewee Creek and it shows the extent of the storms along the coast of South Carolina and Georgia

The Importance of Timing

The Importance of Timing

Wednesday 7th and Thursday 8th May, 2025

Between the strong currents created by the large tides and the restricted bridge openings, traveling the ICW requires careful timing.  We departed the mooring field in Beaufort shortly after 1pm to catch the 1:30pm opening of the adjacent bridge.  Once safely through the bridge, there were many areas of shoaling to be avoided.  The thought of the rising tide helped ease the worries.  There were several difficult sections on our route that required careful and precise steering, but we arrived safely at the anchorage in the South Edisto River just before 6pm and spent a peaceful night in the marshes.

Knowing that we faced another notoriously shallow section shortly after getting started, we set the alarm for 5:30am to catch part of the morning high tide.  Having investigated the time of sunrise, I speculated that it would be light by 6 am when we planned to depart.  It seemed very dark at 5:30am, probably the result of cloudy skies, but shortly after 6:00am we were on the move.  Our route would meander along different rivers and creeks, sometimes we were fighting current, at other moments we were zipping along with the flowing water.  The day held some significant challenges including the Elliot Cut where the current flows at 4 knots and, shortly thereafter, the Wappoo Creek Bridge that only opens on the half hour.  With the current carrying us, we had to slow the engine to avoid arriving at the bridge too early with the possibility of four knots of current pushing us into the pilings and roadway!  During the four miles leading up to the bridge, we kept the engine at idle.  Entering the Elliot Cut, you can detect the powerful current in the roiling of the water’s surface.  The narrowest and fastest part of the Cut is mercifully brief, much stiller water greeted us on the far side as we approached the bridge, and we ghosted down the final half mile until the opening.

Once through the bridge, the next challenge was to dock at the Charleston City marina.  We contacted them by radio and were told to prepare for a port side tie up on the mega yacht dock.  Once at “piling #1”, we should radio for further instructions. The further instructions told us to turn around the end of the dock and tie up adjacent to “piling #2”.  As the mega dock was currently on our starboard side, turning around the end to starboard would give us a starboard tie up.  We were NOT amused.  Further discussion on the radio elucidated that we should proceed to the “turning basin”, turn around and come back along the dock to tie up on the port side.  Half instructions are not helpful in these docking situations.  As we went by our “spot”, I thought, that doesn’t look like a lot of space!  Thankfully, there were two people on the dock to take the lines. Mike did a fantastic job of getting the boat into the space which may have exceeded Cotinga’s length by as much as 6ft.  A quick application of reverse, kept us from hitting the bow of the boat in front.  Nerves were jangled by the time we were securely tied.  

As we sat down to lunch, a short time later, we heard the first rumbles of thunder.(I found myself thinking “more good timing!”)  A powerful thunderstorm ensued with heavy rain.  I’m not sure why it feels safer to wait out a thunderstorm tied to the dock rather than underway.  Perhaps it’s the idea of many masts substantially taller than ours in the near vicinity.  Once the rain had subsided, we went for a wander around Charleston, admiring the old homes and trees.  I was so totally turned around by the time we “headed back” that I was unsure that we would arrive at the correct waterfront.  It’s a good thing Mike knew which way to go! 

Gloria

32 46.730 N, 79 57.311 W

Ps. As we have been traveling along the ICW we have both been thinking that our “motor” has been sounding louder than normal. To be precise the engine sounds fine (in neutral) but when motoring forward the drive train sounds a bit “clackety”. We are starting to worry that we have a problem with our transmission or the Aquadrive (the universal joint / thrust bearing that connects the gearbox to the propeller shaft). There’s nothing obvious on an external inspection and I topped up the transmission fluid (which didn’t seem low), but I’m not sure there is much else we can do at this point other than hope that it holds up. Once back in East Greenwich I’m thinking we should pull out the gear box and take it in for servicing / refurbishment. It’s a worry ... Mike

A foggy morning in Beaufort, SC

The Lady's Island swing bridge - opens every hour, on the half hour from 9.30am - 4.30pm

Beaufort, SC to the Edisto River had some really remote and beautiful sections

Threatening clouds but no rain

Ripple patterns from our wake

The sun finally climbs above the clouds - the Dawho River

Almost dead calm in the Dawho River

Your typical 'slow pass' in the ICW

On the Mega Yacht dock at Charleston City Marina - just before a storm

Early morning from our dock at Charleston City Marina

A Day of Gluttony

A Day of Gluttony

Monday 5th and Tuesday 6th May, 2025

On Monday we switched tactics regarding the tides. We figured we needed a few extra feet to get out of the New River anchorage and through Buckhorn Creek, but after that we would have good depth all the way to Beaufort (pronounced “Bewfort”). So we pulled up anchor early in the morning, at about half-tide and falling, and made our way past Hilton Head to the Beaufort River in time to catch the flood tide all the way up to Beaufort. It turned out to be a beautiful day and a relaxing trip. We picked up a mooring south of the city and in the afternoon hiked out to the Food Lion grocery store for some more food. If you think maybe we eat too much - read on!

Monday night was dinner and a movie. We ate steak, savory rice and broccoli and watched a good film. But before all that we showered at the marina. This was the most awesome shower we have had in weeks! Lots and lots of hot water … marvelous.

This morning started with croissants and coffee, then we topped up the diesel and water tanks and refilled jerry cans at the marina. We also had to clean the fridge as we had a beer can break open and consequently the fridge smelled like an old bar-room. A sad loss of a can of Voodoo Ranger IPA, but happily the mess is now resolved. With all our jobs done and a satisfying lunch of ham and cheese sandwiches under our belt, we spent the afternoon wandering round the historic district of Beaufort. It’s really a beautiful area, with fabulous old houses surrounded by giant ‘live oaks’ draped in Spanish moss. We stopped and had an ice coffee late in the afternoon, which was notable because the ice cubes were actually frozen coffee. We each forced down a pastry … a mini pecan pie tart for me and a giant piece of ‘7 deadly sins’ for Gloria! Needless to say we had to take a break back at the boat to recover our appetites before heading back in to town this evening for dinner. We ate at the Breakwater Restaurant and it was really nice - I had southern fried chicken followed by creme brulee, Gloria could only manage a salad and a side order of roasted Brussel sprouts. I guess you could say it was a day of gluttony!

Mike

32 25.705 N, 80 40.870 W

The New River anchorage shorty after dawn - with 'Restless Dragon' in the background

Ditto

Gloria doing the anchor wash-down. We have a radio remote control fob for the windlass which Gloria works with one hand while managing the deck wash-down hose with the other

We left before 'Restless Dragon' but they overtook us as we entered Port Royal Sound

Historic Beaufort - beautiful houses and massive old 'live oaks'

It's lovely to walk around the old part of the city

Beaufort, SC likes to emphasize the role that it played in creating a new America after the Civil War. I liked this bench ... it makes me look forward to a third founding of America when the current bunch of A-word holes have gone.

A brown thrasher takes a bath in a puddle near the marina

Hydrangea

Abstract trunks