The Treacherous Ditch (Part One)
Stories abound about the nasty nature of the Intercoastal Waterway (aka The Ditch) through Georgia and South Carolina. Sure there are trouble spots throughout the 1243 miles from Norfolk, Virginia to Key West but no concentration like there is in this stretch. Thus the reason we don’t go there and choose to travel in the ocean where it’s nice and deep. Weather wasn’t cooperating and we wanted to be in St. Mary’s, Georgia for Thanksgiving. No choice but to head south, inside.
Lucky for us we had the tides rising with us as we hit most of the bad parts. Recent dredging also helped but there were still plenty of spots that caused on to “pucker” a little.
Our first anchorage was in the South Edisto River. Weather was deteriorating quickly so we left the channel and anchored alongside. The anchor never felt like it really caught and as the wind picked up we began to slowly drag. Up came the anchor and off we went to look for a better spot. After finally switching to our “Fortress” we were able to stay in one place, well sort of. There is lots of current through this stretch and when opposed to the wind it causes the boat to “sail” around at anchor.
This photo of our chartplotter shows our track for several hours. We traveled 2.3 miles in that time. The waypoint 239 is where the anchor was dropped. We didn’t sleep too well that night.
The next morning dawned crisp but beautiful. As we motored through Watts Cut we discovered a beautifully protected anchorage a little over a mile further along from where we had been. Oh well, live and learn.
We motored along through the twisting and turning rivers that cut through the salt marshes. We passed small villages along the way. Really quite nice. Saw a few shallow spots, but no bumping so far. Midday we passed Beaufort and then the spot we anchored near Port Royal Sound on the way south in 2008.
As the day turned to twilight we anchored in Bull Creek, just passed the Hilton Head area. It was beautiful and we got much needed rest.
We awoke to grey skies and a light fog. We headed off for Thunderbolt and the Savannah area.
