Beautiful days and quiet nights

We cast off the dock lines and pulled out into Factory Creek after saying our goodbyes to the Pegu Club crew. We were so happy that they came to see us off and more than a few tears were shed by everyone as we motor away…❤️.

We came out of Factory Creek and turned north up the ICW. Infinity was purring under us and she was very happy that we had her bottom cleaned so she could zip along at a good speed. Denise was getting her first taste of the ICW and she said it was totally different than what she pictured it to be. We had a busy day ahead of us as we were heading for our first anchorage of the trip and it was about 46nm to get there.

As we traveled down the Coosaw River towards our first cut, Denise took the helm to knock some rust off her driving of the boat skills and it didn’t take long for her to get back into the groove of things!! Soon enough, we were entering the first cut of many that day. A cut is a small canal that is used to connect rivers or creeks together with the idea of shortening the route or going around trouble spots. Here’s the first cut we went thru…from markers 184 to 177. It’s used to shorten the distance of the route.

We passed thru the first cut with no issues and continued on our way. We didn’t have any issues with the rest of the cuts until the last one where a huge barge being pushed by a tugboat came around the corner. No worries though as we contacted the tug captain over the VHF radio and confirmed how we’d pass each other. No pics of the tug though as we were kinda busy passing in the very narrow cut…yikes!!

A couple hours later, we were approaching the first anchorage of our trip. I had used this anchorage on the southbound portion of this journey so I knew it pretty well. We started to get things set up to drop anchor as we entered Church Creek so once we got to the spot where I wanted to anchor for the night, we were ready!! It was a perfect set as the anchor dug into the creek bottom on the first try!! I let out about 90′ of anchor line and we were snug as a bug in a rug for the night.

I gotta tell ya that having Denise on board makes everything a lot easier and safer. I just don’t get as many steps in running back and forth while setting or retrieving the anchor though…🤣. The night came pretty quick as we made dinner, relaxed, and talked about the day. We also knew that morning was going to come early so we called it a night and fell asleep. The next morning came quickly but it was a spectacular sunrise that Denise caught a picture of…!!

What a way to start the next day…😁

Next up…Day 2 with bridges and Charleston harbor!!

❤️❤️❤️