Lady's Island Marina & On The Hook at Church Creek SC

We stayed at Lady's Island Marina, an off the beaten path cozy marina and only $1.25 ft :-)

There were a few liveaboards and a beautiful Heritage East 44, that Ron drooled over. We needed some canvas and zipper repair and they put us in touch with Adam who has a shop just outside the marina entrance. Excellent guy who fixed us up the next day. It was nice grabbing the loaner bikes and picking up some needed items at the hardware store. Feeling extremely content I treated myself to a pedicure up the street! Ron on the other hand toiled away in the engine room. 

After two nights we pulled our lines in at 6:45 am this morning and headed north to an anchorage near Charleston. What a passage we had ahead of us!!!! As we approached the cutoff between two rivers at Ashepoo Coosaw we noticed a sailboat in front of us turning away from entering the cutoff. They announced on the radio to a following sailboat in the vicinity that they were concerned about depth 5ft and were turning away from entering. 

We announced to them both that we would attempt an entrance to the cutoff and advise them of the depths we noted. As we proceeded slowly, suddenly the depth on the chart plotter went from 6-7 ft to 2-3 ft, way too shallow for us. Captain Ron put the engines in reverse and put throttles to all back flank!

This was as close as we have ever come to a full grounding and hope to never again!!! Yikes. We backed up to turn around. So all three vessels conferred and decided to find another option. Although we considered dropping the hook and waiting a few hours for the tides to change, an alternate route was discovered that would bypass this cutoff. 

The sailboat "Not So Interim" decided to head offshore and hauled up their sails. "Pegasus" the other sailboat decided to follow us into the Ashepoo River and through the Fenwick Cut rejoining the ICW. Although the Fenwick Cut was a little shallow (5-6 ft), we both made it. Yay! 

Back on the ICW Captain Ron powered forward to our anchorage for the night at Church Creek. A good 7 hour trip, all is in order and we are enjoying a cold brewsky. :-)  Anchored here with "Pegasus". 

Sunset at Lady's Island Marina

Pegasus Anchored Near By

A Most Majestic Bird