of time and tides, part two

Bobby Asher just had a nice cruise to Cumberland Island on his John Welsford Pathfinder "LAGNIAPPE."  It sounds like he had a great time.  He sent me this video clip of the running tide at the dock where he launched in St. Marys, Georgia.  I put it here just to give an idea of what the currents can be like on the lower Mid-Atlantic coast.  Thanks for letting me share it, Bobby.

In the last post I talked about dealing with the near constant tides I experienced during the Sea Islands sail.  So tides helped, others not so much.  There were two places where I experienced tides that were simply too strong for my Suzuki 2.5 four-stroke outboard.  There is a simple solution that I used in both places:  Stop, anchor and wait out the tide. 

The first place was Elliott Cut on Wappoo Creek, within a mile or two where I launched SPARTINA (it is the narrow area at left above with the blue arrow pointing towards the Stono River).  My Charleston friend Pete had warned me about the tide ahead of time, plus I had read some other warnings online.  Here is one captain's experience.

I came through Elliots Cut today about an hour before low tide, heading south. Tide was furious against me. 36′ sailboat. At 3/4 power I could only manage 1.9-2 knots but could maintain control. Thankful no other boat in cut. Would recommend waiting until slack tide, go like heck and get through.

For my first attempt at the Sea Islands, which you can see below, I headed right up to the cut thinking "it can't be that bad."  It was that bad, like a fast moving river with eddies walled by rip rap on both sides.

I quickly retreated, dropped anchor and waited an hour for the current to drop.  And you can see the difference below.  Calm water and an easy passage.  Having learned my lesson I launched on my second attempt just as slack tide approached, making for an easy passage to the Stono River.

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The second spot with a running tide that stopped me was the Ashpoo-Coosaw Cutoff.  You can see my track below.

I made two attempts to sail through the opening at the lower left in the track screen image above.  It was a bit like a washing machine with boiling water and confused currents.  I then attempted to anchor in the shallow just up the Ashpoo River and could not even get my anchor to the bottom.  At that point it was obvious that I would not even be able to power through.  So I dropped anchor and waited out the tide.  Easy passage after that.

Both the cuts above may have been man-made, or at least man-made expansions of smaller waterways.  With peak tides I found them impossible to transit.  In the future, when I pass through and the tide is running it will be nothing more to me and a good excuse to drop the anchor and take a nap.  Nothing wrong with that.

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I have had several days of excellent day sailing on the Elizabeth River, two or three hour sails that I find so relaxing.  Maybe a couple day sails then I will haul SPARTINA out to bring her home.  A little spring maintenance before heading to North Carolina for the spring sail in early May.