Gone Sailing / Abigail Grace
02 February 2018
• McClellanville, SC to Stono River, SC (ICW anchor)
by 53* / Sunny
Elliott Cut/Near Miss
With water under our keels we were up and on our way. We motored through McClellanville passing a north bound trawler who was unable to get through yesterday as well (with a 4 ft draft). The sun was out and we motored/motored sailed along enjoying the views. Before we knew it, we were in the shipping/commercial channels of Charlestown. We continued past Charlestown to the Wapoo River (ICW) and the very very scary Elliott Cut. There truly are "no words". Seriously, it felt like we were motoring up hill, and at times like we were going backwards. It took forever (I was afraid to breath) or at least felt like it. The current was CRAZY, the cut narrow, and lined with BIG BIG rocks/boulders - it made the "rock pile" we had passed through look like a joke. Of course we went through on an incoming current - thank you Ken (not recommended) but we made it. Thinking the rest of our day would be a piece of cake (after Elliott Cut - I think it should be called the Devils Cut) we were in for a surprise. We were six miles past Elliott Cut when we were running out of daylight and water (low tide). Shortly after passing under the John F. Limehouse Bridge sv Surrender went "hard" aground. Greg hailed Ken on the VHF letting him know we were passing port side (as we still had water) and would stay on the VHF giving depths as we passed so he would know where the water was when off. Just feet after passing sv Surrender we too were aground. Little did we know, at that exact moment, Ken (sv Surrender) was off the bottom and little did Ken know we were stopped (getting an image in your head). We were just waiting for our dink to become a kayak (or worse). Ken quickly put Surrender in reverse spinning her around and aground again - you really just had to be there for this one. Now sitting stern to stern, aground, and in shock the sun was setting and it was, again, a beautiful sunset. In awe, we grabbed our cameras and started clicking forgetting the "near miss" and Elliott Cut. Once we/sv Abigail Grace was off the bottom we motored out of the channel and anchored. Shortly, Surrender too was off and anchored close.
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