Rain, Wind and Shallows, Oh My! (Prince Creek, SC)

Rainy weather - lots of time to eat big breakfasts, catch up on show series and contemplate our next move.

Heavy weather is no fun out on the ocean OR at a shallow non-protected anchorage, and if there are few or no marinas that can take our draft, there are few good choices to stay at night in Southern South Carolina and Georgia.

From Charleston, SC to St Mary’s FL/GA border is 255 Statute Miles of ICW. If ya go by ocean it’s about 183 miles. Georgia in particular is very curvy, therefore many miles of going around curves to make a few more miles “down Georgia”.

Justice draws 6.5 feet of water.

The SC and GA ICW is full of very shallow areas, some below 6 feet at mean low tide. Of course the strategy is to go over the shallows at high or near high tide, but when it’s “constantly” shallow, it makes for short travel days during the high tide hours-let’s say 6 at the most. Several daylight hours are wasted because they are not at the higher tide times and you can’t go at night.

Even then, you want to know where you are going to anchor or stay at a marina. There are few marinas that take our draft on the GA ICW. In this stretch to FL, most anchorages are shallow and not protected from the wind. We read some disappointing reviews on WaterwayGuide.com. Even if you're willing to try one, you don't know if there will be room for you when you get there. Not everyone uses AIS transmitters, so you can't see where all the boats are.

We heard Georgia ran out of ICW maintenance money last year or so. There is never enough money anyway, but unfortunate for any part of it to get behind. We also read that it’s beauty equals it’s frustration : )

Planning Inlets

“Newbie’s” without local knowledge are not recommended to use some inlets in SC and GA. So if they are not all options, then you have to sail overnight to get in the next one. We are fine with sailing overnight to avoid the ICW, but waiting for that good weather window is important and we hear there are fewer of them in late Nov and Dec. You also should time your inlet departure and arrival for close to slack tide to avoid rough inlet waves. At this time, there won't be a window long enough for about a week or month from now. Local knowledge is available from boat towers, weather routers and others, but it's still a risk in bad weather.

When we left Cape Fear to go to New River Inlet, we timed it for the arrival, not the departure, though the departure factors were not bad and it was still rough. It was an outgoing tide against the waves (but it would almost always be against the waves and wind- and it was nice to get a 2 knot push of current to get us through it asap) It was doable, but we wouldn’t want it any rougher. At that time, we had to steer straight into the wind and short-period waves to stay in the channel, which made for a rough ride of "hobby horsing". When it’s rough like that, we DO NOT go down below for anything- as you can get hurt. It might have only lasted an hour or so before we could put up a riding sail and sail off the wind a little. It got deeper and open for a smoother motor-sail ride. We did not have time to slow down and just sail, or we wouldn’t make the arrival inlet window. Some other inlets are not so well marked so we stuck with our plan to New River.

A good offshore weather window is not coming for over a week or month. It’s best to wait one day after the first  “good” weather day to depart because it takes a day for the sea state to “calm” to match the new weather. So that brings a total wish for 3 good days in a row.