Where we at

Tuesday, April 11, 2023

New River to Fenwick Island, anchor

We remained on the New River for 3 nights waiting out the blow. Yesterday, we texted boats we saw traveling on Nebo to ask how the water was. Their responses made us feel good about staying put.

The morning was clear when we brought up the anchor. Russ started to contact some marinas seeking a pumpout. Good thing he called, too, since our first choice (which was a Safe Harbor marina) had a broken pump. Skull Creek Marina was close by, easy access from the ICW, and a functioning pumpout. Bingo!

Dramatic sunrise and the storm moves off
leaving winds behind it.
After that our only bit of water churn was crossing Port Royal Sound. Still a little bouncy but nothing like what folks told us they experienced yesterday.

The only other excitement was "the dredge". The Ashepoo-Coosaw Cutoff was notoriously shallow. They dredged it this year, and are still working on the end we'd encounter first (so most of it was already done). But this dredge had already been an issue to some boater recently; Somehow they got caught on a line and did serious damage to their vessel, nearly sinking it. 

Once he made the turn, tons of water.
But tight in the channel.
We listened closely to radio chatter as other vessels hailed the dredge and asked for instructions. We felt pretty confident about what to look for as we got closer so I didn't think we'd need to talk to them. Until the tow showed up. The tow was pushing 2 barges the other way (heading south). I hailed the dredge asking if he needed us to stand station until the tow passed. "Yep, please stay put."

The American Star, one of the tiny cruise ships
that traverse the East Coast.
Watching the tow go by was impressive. The skinny channel was choked by the huge dredge and pipes strewn all over. But it went through fine, passed us, and we crawled by the dredge ourselves.

Just a little further we found an anchorage and dropped the hook. Decent day, all in all.







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