Awendaw Creek SC (2014-03-25)

N33° 02.040', W79° 32.229'

Tonight we are at anchor in Awendaw Creek, South Carolina.  The winds are howling tonight, but we are snug and secure in the boat.

 
Yesterday morning when we left Beaufort it was cold and very windy.  We ran from the flybridge and kept all of the isenglass closed up, which made it quite comfortable.  With the sun shining through the isenglass it was actually a little too warm.

The winds stirred up a bit of a chop on the AICW, but other than in a couple wide open spots it wasn't too bad.  Late in the afternoon we pulled off of the AICW into a little creek named Church Creek, where we anchored for the night.  It was well sheltered and we had a very comfortable evening.

Overnight we had some rain falling, and it continued into the morning.  It was a bit cold when we got up this morning, so our Mr Heater was put to the task of providing some heat for the salon, which he accomplished with flying colours.

The rain stopped after our breakfast,  so we got underway shortly after that.  There were forecasts of high winds for today, so I was keeping a close watch on the NOAA weather radio throughout the day.  My main concern was Charleston harbour, which is a large wide open body of water.  Strong winds would make it quite uncomfortable or even dangerous to cross.  We lucked out however, as the strong winds didn't start until late in the afternoon, and we were across the Charleston harbour by 1300.  All we had as we crossed the harbour was a light swell of about 1/2 to 1 foot, rolling in from the ocean, which was running very rough today.  The forecast for this evening and overnight for the Charleston harbour called for a Small Craft Advisory, with waves of up to 3 feet.

We had a few intermittent showers hitting us late this afternoon as we approached tonight's anchorage, and they were accompanied by strong gusty winds.  It gave us a little hint of what was to come tonight, so when we dropped the anchor we made sure it was well set.

Tomorrow we will continue on with our journey through South Carolina.  We've been making good time, and are roughly half-way through South Carolina.  We are on track to reaching Myrtle Beach on Thursday, where we will refuel at Osprey marina, which has the cheapest diesel in this part of the AICW.  After refuelling we'll continue on a bit further to Lightkeepers marina in Little River, where we'll spend a couple days taking a bit of a break, as well as getting some laundry and re-provisioning done.

This will put us at the border with North Carolina.  We're not sure what we'll do from there, but if the weather looks good we will likely continue on through North Carolina, with stops in Oriental and Elizabeth City.  From there it's on to Norfolk and the end of the AICW and the beginning of the Chesapeake.  We should be there about mid April, which seems to be the normal start of the boating season on the Chesapeake, so we're hopeful for warm weather and good conditions.  Time will tell if spring will be travelling with us or not... :-)