Creeks , Canals and Rivers

Creeks , Canals and Rivers

Monday 19th too Tuesday 20th May, 2025

We have travelled this particular section of the ICW from Beaufort, NC to Norfolk, VA many times in both directions. In fact, we have never sailed this section offshore, partly because we are intimidated by the prospect of rounding the infamous Cape Hatteras. In truth, I’m sure it’s fine if you pick a good weather window. Despite our familiarity with the area, we have really enjoyed the last few days. 

The route covers quite a variety of locations. There are narrow windy creeks, lined with marsh grasses and trees, as well as wide rivers like the Neuse River and Pamlico River, with 50 miles or more of open water to the east. The winds have been quite light and so conditions in the big rivers have been mild, but in some conditions they can be really miserable, with steep, short-period waves. 

Last night we anchored a half mile off the ICW in the Pungo River. It was quite beautiful and we experienced the most fantastic sunset. We made an early start because we had close to 50 miles to go to our next stop. The first 20 miles were along the Alligator River - Pungo River canal, dead straight for 20 miles except for one bend. Nonetheless it is beautiful and we saw several bald eagles. The south end of the Alligator River is also attractive, but once you turn northwards it opens up into a wide and featureless expanse of water. It’s not my favorite spot and today, with winds of 10-15 knots from the north east, we just bashed our way northwards for 20 miles.

The only real excitement to a trip up the Alligator River is the swing bridge at the northern end. On many occasions we have been forced to motor in circles, waiting for the bridge tender to relent. We thought we were going to be golden today as we listened to several boats requesting openings and seeing the bridge tender cooperate rapidly.  Sadly, there was a “shift change” just as we neared the bridge!  Once again it was trying to keep the boat in place while we waited for seven other vessels that were following us to close the gap.  Evidently, eight was the magic number for the bridge tender!

After clearing the Alligator River Swing Bridge we cut out of the ICW to anchor about 4 miles to the east in “South Lake". We stayed here in 2018 and got caught in some of the worst thunderstorms we have ever experienced! We had forgotten just how wild and beautiful the anchorage is. Once again there are T-storms forecast for tomorrow morning, but hopefully they don’t materialize to much. Our plan is to cross Albermarle Sound and that would not be fun in a thunderstorm.

Mike

35 55.153 N, 75 54.729 W

Sunset in the Pungo River

Early morning in the Pungo River

Approaching the start of the Alligator River - Pungo River canal

There was a lot of traffic today - most of it going a similar speed to us, but some power boats going a lot faster. This boat was doing 20 knots as it came up on our stern, but we communicated by VHF radio and the captain, who was charming, slowed down and gave us a comfortable slow pass.

As well as all the pleasure boat traffic, many commercial barges frequent the route

A solitary tug heading south in the Alligator River

Beaufort and Beyond

Beaufort and Beyond

Friday 16th ton Sunday 18th May, 2025

Our couple of days in Beaufort were a good mixture of rest and activity.  On Friday, while strolling around town, Mike got a phone call from Joel, a friend he had met during his 3 week stay in Morehead City in Oct 2023.  Joel had come over to Beaufort in his motor vessel.  He collected us from the dinghy dock and took us on a tour of Taylor Creek.  It’s amusing to realize that we have anchored in that creek several times but never got further than the dinghy dock.  We saw many beautiful homes with docks and boats on the mainland side.  On the island side we saw plenty of white ibis and at least ten of the feral horses that inhabit the national seashore in this area.  Joel was a great tour guide and I was so happy to have met him.  He dropped us off explaining that he had to do some preparation for his trip to Aruba on Monday!  Later that day, we got an Uber to Morehead City to meet Diane and Joel and their regular Friday night crowd at a nice bar/restaurant.   Having eaten an enormous late lunch in the intervening hours, we stayed for a couple of drinks and then made our way back to Beaufort.

Saturday saw us doing laundry.  At the laundromat, we met Dan, a young sailor single-handing on a 51ft Beneteau.  He was so young (29) and excited about his boating adventure.  He recounted his trip from Miami to Beaufort over the very stormy days that we had enjoyed tied to the dock in Charleston!  It sounded like a very tough passage—frankly, I couldn’t imagine deciding to do that.  He’s on his way to Maine for the summer and then has plans to sail offshore to the Virgin Island.  I quizzed him about any longer term plans.  He confessed that at some point he would need to get another job before he could formulate further adventures.  Wow, he represents a different type of boater to those we usually encounter!

Mike spent part of the afternoon cleaning Cotinga’s water line.  He does this from the dinghy.  The combination of swell from passing boats, trying to hold the dinghy against the side of the big boat and leaning over into awkward positions results in a bad case of seasickness.  After a couple of hours, he was starting to feel better.  I’m pretty sure he didn’t enjoy our dinner out quite as much as I did—maybe because of the motion sickness. Returning to Cotinga, we got ready for an early departure on Sunday.

It was chaos in the anchorage on Sunday morning.  Boats were lying in all kinds of directions.  Our anchor chain was disappearing under the hull.  The depth sounder was showing some scary readings (3.9 ft!).  Many people were out on their decks trying to puzzle out the cause of all this mayhem.  I’m pretty sure that we weren’t the only boat to depart earlier than planned.  We rejoined the ICW after the confusing section north from Taylor Creek.  We encountered a lot of boat traffic (it’s Sunday) on our way to the South River anchorage, off the Neuse River.  As we were turning into the South River, I commented to Mike that we were going to miss the barge-tug combo that was making it’s way south along the Neuse (not the first barge of the day).  In an after thought, I added, unless it decides to motor on into the South River and anchor there.  Not too long after we had got the anchor down, we saw the tug and barge turning into the entrance of the South River.  I couldn’t quite believe it.    

Gloria

34 57.939 N, 76 35.101 W

Feral horses on the islands to teh south of Taylor Creek

The wooden boards of a handmade dinghy in the Wooden Boat Workshop, Beaufort

Our first barge encounter of the day in Adams Creek Canal, north of Beaufort. Thius barge was carrying phosphoric acid

Past sunset in South River

Ditto - 30s exposure, telephoto lens and tripod

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