fine weather, and a gentle breeze. Departed Hilton Head at 9:30 traveling through the various islands and rivers effortlessly and sailed into Beaufort after lunch. Leaving Beaufort the rivers turned into endless swamps. We were making good time as the tide was outgoing. What we didn't realize was that as the tide dropped so did the width and depth of the waterways that we would have to travel to get out of the damn swamps.
About 1/2 way through the swamps the water on the ICW was only about 40 feet wide with at least 40 feet of slick mud oozing up to the saw grass and cattails on either bank (our boat has a 15 foot beam leaving only12 feet of water on either side).
There was no jolt or bump, just a speed reduction and the bow started lifting up. We had driven into 3 feet of water in the center of the channel (our boat has a 3 1/2 foot draft). I cut the throttles and we were through it that fast, it was a sand bar that simply crossed the entire width of the canal. No damage, just a bad case of nerves (so we thought).Then we noticed our new depth sounder was acting strange. Tom said "Could we be in 42 feet of water?" The transducer had been knocked out by the sand and we still had three more hours of African Queen adventures ahead of us.
Fortunately we didn't find anymore "skinny" water and arrived at Bohicket Marina on Sea Brook Island at 6:30 tonight. Not to bad for our first day, 80 miles, lots of sun, and stories to tell.
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| Goodbye Hilton Head. |
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| Getting crowded at Beaufort. |
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| Donna knows where we are going, Tucker knows where we've been. |
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| This is where we touched bottom, notice how low the tide is. |
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| Skip right after we touched bottom. |
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| Damn, I hate docking in these tidal currents. |
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| Our view from the boat at Bohicket Marina on Sea Brook Island. We traveled 80 miles today and docked for the night at 6:30. |
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