November 20, 2020 Friday

We got ourselves over to the fuel dock for a pump-out and then headed for the 9:30 opening of the Wappoo Creek Bridge which we made with twenty minutes to spare. A large high-pressure system has settled over the southern United States which continues to provide a light north-east breeze. Today started cloudy but slowly more and more blue started to appear. It was a perfect day to cruise the open marsh lands south of Charleston.

The ICW here follows numerous rivers interconnected with manmade canals called Cut-offs; Elliot Cut, Stono River, Church Cut, Wadmalaw River, North Edisto River, Dawho River, Watts Cut, South Edisto River, Fenwick Cut, Ashepoo River, Ashepoo Coosaw River Cutoff, and finally the Coosaw River where we anchored along the river. There are many shallow areas of this route and we were lucky to have high tide all day so we never had any issues with groundings. The currents alternated against us and for us all day long as we moved through the waterways which flow and drain these marshes.

It felt good to drop the anchor and open a can of beer after a long day on the ICW in an open area with no homes nearby. The weather forecast was for a calm evening and we slept well after several nights rocking in the Charleston Maritime Center Marina.

We purchased some sound canceling headphones which we picked up in Charleston and they are wonderful for working down below when the engine is running. I upgraded the engine sound proofing but it is still tiring to be in the cabin for long periods with the engine running. We should have gotten the headphones years ago.