Tankage

Tankage

Tuesday November 17, 2020

Cotinga has many tanks that are of concern for us while living aboard.  We need to keep track of the levels in the fuels tanks (there are two) and the water tanks (two of these as well) and none of the gauges work well.  Nothing gets us quite so excited as seeing an unexpected reading on the level of the holding tank.  I think we mentioned that we pumped out the holding tank on Friday the 13th!  This morning the tank was reading “super full”!  Of course, in the general excitement of Friday, we hadn’t thought to check the level of the tank after the pump out.  Suddenly we were calling the closest marina about the possibility of coming into the dock to pump out.  As it was low tide at about 8:30 am we were reluctant to start moving at 9.  Mike remembered that we had previously had some problems with the “focus tube” for the ultrasonic tank sensor.  A quick investigation revealed that the tank was not full.  A cleaning of the focus tube resulted in a reading of about one quarter full.  This seemed much more in line with only four days of use.  It’s always something keeping us hopping.

At a more leisurely pace, we pulled up the anchor and motored five miles down river to Bull Creek.  This anchorage has a five star rating on “Active Captain”.  One reviewer even suggested that it was the best anchorage on the ICW.  That seemed like one to check out. “Skipper Bob” is a guide to the anchorages of the ICW.  Each anchorage is given a rating based on six parameters: Holding/Wind/Current/Wake/Scenic/Shopping.  For each category the maximum score is four with a minimum score of 1.  The Skipper gives Bull Creek a score of (443241).  The shopping is apparently the pits!

As for the wake (score of 2), so far it has been pretty quiet.  We saw one small open fishing boat (bass boat) zoom up the creek and then return but that’s all the traffic.  In the later afternoon, we decided to take a dingy ride up the creek.  The current was flowing so strongly that it was a different world from yesterday’s lazy trip.  After a short distance, we decided that we really didn’t feel comfortable leaving Cotinga unattended. So we turned back.  Back onboard the instruments indicated a current of 1.5 knots—not as fast as it seemed to me but still considerable. Let’s hope it’s a quiet night.

Gloria

33 36.668 N, 79 06.217 W

Cotinga anchored in Bull Creek

Evening colors - Bull Creek

Gloria relaxing with a cup of tea and a book in the late afternoon

Dusk in Bull creek. The float is tied to a trip line on the anchor. This is recommended in the Waccamaw river because of tree roots / branches etc on the bottom. You can see the current on the float