Icy Double You - Day 17 Southbound

Bill Blevins

Today was a very long short day. We covered about 25 miles, and I dropped the hook at 1430. I woke April at 0415 this morning to climb out of the V-berth. The wind didn’t feel right, and the waves didn’t sound or feel right. Both @DamageControlSailing and Avemar had chosen a spot to anchor in Charleston on Wednesday night to avoid as much of the SW wind on Thursday as possible. I knew that after that storm on Thursday passed us, the shift would be from the North, but I didn’t know when that would happen. Well, it happened around 0400 this morning. The depth sounder showed that Avemar was in 11 feet and the anchor was in 22 feet of water, but the chart plotter showed the stern sitting at 5. I started the engine, made coffee, dressed, drank coffee, went up, and pulled the anchor after putting on even more clothes and two pairs of gloves!  The wind chill was 31º F. Avemar motored up the Ashley River and anchored at the entrance to the ICW to wait for the 0930 opening of the Wappoo Creek bridge. We were through the bridge by 0935 and breezing with a nice current push at 8.5 knots. That ended about an hour later when we crossed an inlet timed with a tide change where we slowed below 4 knots due to a current of 1.75 knots against us. April worked below all morning and had a previously scheduled video conference call to be recorded. This Perkins 4.108 is LOUD. A recorded video conference call would not be good. I searched the charts and found a cool finger off the Stono River near MM 495 in the middle of a marsh. We will hang out here for the night, recoup from the frigid weather, wake up well before dawn again, and take on Day 18 tomorrow morning!

Boat & Crew

Avemar

Liberty , 38

April Maria

First Mate

Bill Blevins

Owner