Sailing from Georgetown to Charleston, SC

Georgetown is a small port town, Charleston is a large port city! While we had just made it to Georgetown, we really wanted to get to Charleston, and the winds looked like they would be favorable for this journey. 

Charleston is located about 40 miles south of Georgetown, inlet to inlet, but the distance from anchorage to anchorage is around 67 miles. The added distance comes from navigating the inlets and avoiding the offshore shoals before you can finally head to the next inlet. 

Now, the issue is the prevailing winds blow from the South, meaning that this journey would usually require beating for 40 miles to windward. Instead of slogging along, the alternative is to wait for a cold front to come through and reverse the winds. This is a delicate subject, as not all fronts are created equally.  

You would not want to head out into a powerful cold front, but at the same time, a weak front might not generate enough winds for you to actually sail. 

The way the weather was looking, the current cold front was creating winds of 30 knots from the North and massive seas; not exactly ideal to head out in. As the front passed, the winds began to die down, we then headed out and rode the tail end of the storm. The winds were on the light side, but still enough to motor sail at a very slow pace of 2-3 knots. 

The light winds meant that we needed to listen to our generator for 23 hours straight, as we motor sailed along the coast, but they also meant that the seas were calm and the voyage was uneventful. 

Aside from the winds, the next consideration to take into account is the tides. The tidal currents in these inlets can be quite dramatic, so it is best to time your passage of the inlets at slack water, when the tides are lightest. 

To accomplish this, we raised anchor at 4:30 AM, and left the anchorage by 5:30 AM. We were heading down the river for 16 miles as the current was pushing us back up. This meant that we were slowly moving, but we did manage to reach the inlet at slack water. Slack water is especially important when navigating weird inlets that have sand bars and breakers. You might think you are steering clear of an obstruction, but the current will take you right onto the shoal and pummel you with breaking waves! Slack water takes this fear out and gives you a short window of time to scoot through easily. 

Once we made it out into the ocean, we were faced with the leftover slop from the previous storm. The seas were merely 6 foot swells that were causing us to toss around; a stark distinction to our still time on the ICW. Had there been a strong current, these seas would have been even more miserable for us as we transitioned from river to ocean sailing. 

Motor sailing with an electric motor and generator is very uneventful. Every effort is taken to alleviate the slating of the sails in the windless patches, and any puff of wind is welcomed as it grants you a speed push. 

As we reached Charleston, the sun was setting and fog was rolling in. Charleston is not an easy inlet due to the rock jetties and all the confusing lights that exist as you enter. The fog actually made this simpler, as it obscured the city lights and only allowed visibility of the next lighted buoy. Since fog was present and this is a major shipping port, I made my presence known on CH 16. The local tug boat captain conversed with me to make sure we would not have any close calls. He found us on his radar, I found his navigation lights on the horizon. As he approached, I stayed to the right of the channel and we had a very peaceful passing in the night. Had we not communicated, this situation would have been much more stressful.  

While I don't like to rely on electronics, having Navionics on my phone made entry to the port and anchorage possible. When the channels divide, the blue line on the screen tells you which is the correct way to go.  

We left Georgetown at 5:30 am and arrived at Charleston at 5:00 am. This made for a very long day, but it got us to a new city with benign weather. 

Georgetown, SC

When cruising, we find that the biggest awe inspiring revelation that we are in a new land comes from foreign vegetation. Living in Maryland for several years, we are accustomed to the deciduous trees and conifers that make up the land. When we left to go cruising, this same flora and fauna was consistant all the way through Virginia and North Carolina. When we reached South Carolina, we started seeing palm trees, but everything else seemed the same and not that striking to us. 

When we reached Georgetown, SC, we felt we had gone someplace new! 

Spanish Moss hanging from every branch and Resurection Fern growning on all the trees made this landscape feel alien to us! We felt like we had really made it to a new land that has totally different ecology from what we are used to. That made it feel like we had finally made it somewhere new! 

Waccamaw River

If you live on the East Coast of the United States and want to see something completely different without traveling very far, look no further than the Waccamaw River in South Carolina. 

The water is still and tranquil creating reflected images of the trees on the waters surface.  

The trees grow right out of the water! It will be 20 feet deep right up next to the trees. 

In the trees lives a plethora of creatures that you can view and listen to from the safety and comfort of your boat.

Remants of old rice fields are now covered in golden grasses that shine from between the trees.

The scenery around you might make you wonder how you got here because it looks like something out of a dream!

The water ranges from black (because of all the decomposing leaf matter) to brown following a heavy rain.

We spent several days leisurely going down this river, taking in all the sights that we could.

When you feel like stopping, all you need to do is drop the anchor and relax.

The Waccamaw River has definitely been a highlight of our trip so far!

Sailing the Waccamaw River

​Once past the shallows and the rocks of Myrtle Beach, you will notice the concentration of houses dropping as the number of trees increases to take their spaces. The next thing you will notice is the gradual deepening of the water beneath you.

Going through Myrtle Beach, we had around 5 feet under us in the deep parts of the channel, and less than a foot in the skinny sections. All of a sudden, 8 feet under the keel will seem normal, then it increases to 14 feet, then 20 feet! All of this depth will make you feel spoiled as you no longer need to worry about running into a shoal in the middle of the channel!

This is just the beginning! As you keep going, the houses will completely stop and you will be surrounded by trees in every direction. As night befalls you, the sounds of the wildlife will come from the trees. Frogs, crickets, owls, and some other sounds that I am not familiar with echo in the distance!​

The water in the Waccamaw is not very pretty to look at, as it ranges from black when there is no rainfall to light brown following a strong rain. The beauty comes from the stillness of the water. Since the trees are so tall and right up to the waters edge, there is practically no wind on the surface of the river. This creates a mirror image of the trees and the sky everywhere you look!​

Since the river itself seems to snake around, wind seems to be funneled into it, making it either blow on your bow or on your stern. When the wind is on your bow, why not take a day off from sailing and relax at anchor while you wait for the winds to shift? When the winds are at your stern, sailing the river is effortless and easy.

The other wonderful aspect of the river is it flows to Georgetown with some potent force! When the tide is going, you can expect a few knots of push from the current! This coupled with a tail wind will make it easy to cover the miles as you bask at the beauty of the river. 

As you near Georgetown, the trees begin to thin as the remnants of rice fields line the shores. Rice used to be a major crop in this area until a hurricane blew saltwater onto the fields, destroying the grounds usefulness for rice. The rice fields are now covered in tall grasses but the trees are slowly creeping back into the vast acres of cleared land. 

South Carolina Draw Bridges

While most  draw and swing bridges on the ICW will correspond on channel 13 of VHF radios, the bridges in South Carolina will not. They operate on Channel 9! 

Another distinguishing feature of the South Carolina bridges is they do not open on a set schedule. Most bridges along the waterway will open on the hour. If you are there at that time, you will get to pass and continue on your way. If you are not there at that time, you will have to wait for the next opening to occur. This means that if you arrive 5 minutes late, you will have to wait for 55 minutes until the bridge opens again.  

Timing the bridges becomes very important as it can allow you to cover many more miles in a day instead of waiting around all day long. It is also important to time the bridges with the tides. The current in the ICW can be pretty fierce, especially near bridges where the waterway narrows and the speed of the current increases. If you miss a bridge, you might have to fight a 2 knot current for the next hour, motoring through nearly 2 miles of water while not moving an inch over ground! 

Now, back to South Carolina. The bridges here open on demand. As you approach the bridge, you simply radio the bridge on Ch 9 and let them know that you would like to request an opening. The bridge tender wants to know what your boats name is, and where it hails from. 

If you don't give this information when you hail the bridge, the bridge tender will ask you for it. To speed up the conversation, all you need to do is identify yourself with your vessel name and port and that you are requesting an opening. 

For example: "Hello Swing Bridge, this is Southbound Sailing Vessel Wisdom from Baltimore Maryland requesting a bridge opening when you feel that I am close enough" 

To this the bridge tender will respond and acknowledge your call, thank you for the information, and let you know when he feels you are close enough. When he begins to open the bridge, he will radio you and let you know so you can pick up the pace a little bit and get through quicker as to not hold up traffic as much. 

So, you don't have to time the bridges in South Carolina, as they open on demand, but they do operate on a different channel (9 instead of 13).