Captains Log 11/20/06
Departure Point / Start Time Vinyah Inlet, SC ICW
Arrival Point / End Time North Santee River, SC ICW
Distance Traveled 5 NM 2 hours
Located in North Santee River, SC
Today was storm preparations day. The gale/storm force winds were supposed to persist for much of the week Monday-Thursday(Thanksgiving). I looked at the ICW guide and there were plenty of anchorages to try out. The big problem is that none of them had wind protection. They were all in small creeks with low grassy banks. There is a small town north but that would make us backtrack about 20 NM. Instead of backtracking I went exploring for a creek with some trees to the north. The storm winds were supposed to be out of the N, NE for the entire time. I was getting nervous. I realized that guide didn't mentioned anything about wind protection for any of the anchorages on the next 40 miles of ICW. We left Vinyah bay at 7AM and we had time to make it all the way to the one anchorage with a bit steeper banks offering more wind protection. While motoring the ICW, Ivthought about the way this ICW guide was written. Skipper Bob received emails from contributing cruisers about spots they found to anchor along the ICW. That made me realize that there must be other anchorages in the ICW besides those mentioned in the guide. So I started exploring the depth in each little creek traversing the ICW that had some trees along the north bank. And luckily, bout 5 miles later I ran into a perfect little spot. It wasn't mentioned in the guide but it was just 50 yards from ICW, about 100 yards wide creek that had some trees and shrubs on the north side. It ran east to west, with east side connecting to the ocean after several bends. On the east side we had about a mile of water so easterly winds would make quite a wake. I kept close eye on the forecast which predicted N to NE winds. So this was the place to weather the storm. Since the currents were strong we decided to anchor temporarily for the afternoon and wait for the flood (out of the east) that would align the boat correctly for us to set the anchor. Meanwhile I went along the northern river bank and realized that there is about 10 feet of water just next to the trees and bushes. That gave me a great idea. I was excited. I will put one anchor about mid river, and tie another line off the bow to the trees. This way, boat will face the wind and have 2 points of attachment. Then we will put a small anchor astern to keep the boat facing the wind and aligned parallel with the northern river bank when the tide tries to swing the boat around. I was excited and scared at the same time. We never experienced storm force winds on the boat. Will the anchor hold? What about wind generator, solar panels and bimini top? I was very tense the entire afternoon waiting on tide to turn. Crystal was trying to calm me down but it wasn't working. I always wary too much. But my idea and the fact that we can align the boat just few feet from the river bank with high trees made me relax a bit. I drank few beers to chill the nerves. Waiting for afternoon tide, I took the genoa off the roller furling, tied up the main with some extra ropes and went ashore. There I found a heavy rope that someone was using to tie to the trees on some other occasion. That made me happy, realizing that someone had done this before. The rope was thick 3 strand braid bigger than anything I had onboard. Great! I just decided to change the tree. The one the rope was tied to was a bit small so I tied it to the bigger pine trunk, and checked the rope for wear and cracks. It looked pretty good. I took our dock lines and extended it to reach into the creek. By 3PM we could start the anchoring. We laid the main 45lbs CQR anchor in the middle of the river about parallel to the pine tree where the other rope was tied to. We first made sure that our primary anchor hooked in the mud. With wind and current from NE, the anchor set very well. Next was the stern anchor. I cut off about 25 feet of our primary chain(5/16 BBB) to put on the small danforth anchor that we are using on the stern. We have plenty of primary chain. 300 feet. Now we have 275. No big deal. So I dropped the stern anchor about 150 feet from the back of the boat and about 30 feet from the river bank and laid the line all the way to the boat. Cleated it off on the stern dock cleat. The last thing was to take the shore line, and winch the boat closer to shore until all the lines are tight and the boat is about 10 feet from the river bank. I had to connect three additional lines to make the shore line reach the boat. Crystal was winching it and I was guiding it. By the time the strong line reached the bow of the boat, the chains rhode was very tight. And so was the stern anchor line. I winched some more and pretty soon you couldn't see any slack in the shore line. I did a little test by putting the engine in reverse and reving the rpms to 2000. The bow anchor held very well and so did the shore line. The boat didn't move a bit. So we were ready! We spent the rest of the evening drinking beers and anticipating the storm.
Arrival Point / End Time North Santee River, SC ICW
Distance Traveled 5 NM 2 hours
Located in North Santee River, SC
Today was storm preparations day. The gale/storm force winds were supposed to persist for much of the week Monday-Thursday(Thanksgiving). I looked at the ICW guide and there were plenty of anchorages to try out. The big problem is that none of them had wind protection. They were all in small creeks with low grassy banks. There is a small town north but that would make us backtrack about 20 NM. Instead of backtracking I went exploring for a creek with some trees to the north. The storm winds were supposed to be out of the N, NE for the entire time. I was getting nervous. I realized that guide didn't mentioned anything about wind protection for any of the anchorages on the next 40 miles of ICW. We left Vinyah bay at 7AM and we had time to make it all the way to the one anchorage with a bit steeper banks offering more wind protection. While motoring the ICW, Ivthought about the way this ICW guide was written. Skipper Bob received emails from contributing cruisers about spots they found to anchor along the ICW. That made me realize that there must be other anchorages in the ICW besides those mentioned in the guide. So I started exploring the depth in each little creek traversing the ICW that had some trees along the north bank. And luckily, bout 5 miles later I ran into a perfect little spot. It wasn't mentioned in the guide but it was just 50 yards from ICW, about 100 yards wide creek that had some trees and shrubs on the north side. It ran east to west, with east side connecting to the ocean after several bends. On the east side we had about a mile of water so easterly winds would make quite a wake. I kept close eye on the forecast which predicted N to NE winds. So this was the place to weather the storm. Since the currents were strong we decided to anchor temporarily for the afternoon and wait for the flood (out of the east) that would align the boat correctly for us to set the anchor. Meanwhile I went along the northern river bank and realized that there is about 10 feet of water just next to the trees and bushes. That gave me a great idea. I was excited. I will put one anchor about mid river, and tie another line off the bow to the trees. This way, boat will face the wind and have 2 points of attachment. Then we will put a small anchor astern to keep the boat facing the wind and aligned parallel with the northern river bank when the tide tries to swing the boat around. I was excited and scared at the same time. We never experienced storm force winds on the boat. Will the anchor hold? What about wind generator, solar panels and bimini top? I was very tense the entire afternoon waiting on tide to turn. Crystal was trying to calm me down but it wasn't working. I always wary too much. But my idea and the fact that we can align the boat just few feet from the river bank with high trees made me relax a bit. I drank few beers to chill the nerves. Waiting for afternoon tide, I took the genoa off the roller furling, tied up the main with some extra ropes and went ashore. There I found a heavy rope that someone was using to tie to the trees on some other occasion. That made me happy, realizing that someone had done this before. The rope was thick 3 strand braid bigger than anything I had onboard. Great! I just decided to change the tree. The one the rope was tied to was a bit small so I tied it to the bigger pine trunk, and checked the rope for wear and cracks. It looked pretty good. I took our dock lines and extended it to reach into the creek. By 3PM we could start the anchoring. We laid the main 45lbs CQR anchor in the middle of the river about parallel to the pine tree where the other rope was tied to. We first made sure that our primary anchor hooked in the mud. With wind and current from NE, the anchor set very well. Next was the stern anchor. I cut off about 25 feet of our primary chain(5/16 BBB) to put on the small danforth anchor that we are using on the stern. We have plenty of primary chain. 300 feet. Now we have 275. No big deal. So I dropped the stern anchor about 150 feet from the back of the boat and about 30 feet from the river bank and laid the line all the way to the boat. Cleated it off on the stern dock cleat. The last thing was to take the shore line, and winch the boat closer to shore until all the lines are tight and the boat is about 10 feet from the river bank. I had to connect three additional lines to make the shore line reach the boat. Crystal was winching it and I was guiding it. By the time the strong line reached the bow of the boat, the chains rhode was very tight. And so was the stern anchor line. I winched some more and pretty soon you couldn't see any slack in the shore line. I did a little test by putting the engine in reverse and reving the rpms to 2000. The bow anchor held very well and so did the shore line. The boat didn't move a bit. So we were ready! We spent the rest of the evening drinking beers and anticipating the storm.
posted by sundowner-cruise at 1:06 PM
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