Wally's Leg to Kilkenny Creek

OK, first another shot of Wally the Gator. What can I say, I like big animal sightings:-) You can click on the images and look at the larger versions if you're interested.

We're now in Beaufort, SC but we missed a few days of posting our travels, so I'll catch us up to the present over the next couple of entries. We left Wally's leg early in the morning just as the tide was starting to come up and help lift us over the shallow Buttermilk Sound and Little Mud River, which turned out to be sort of anti-climatic because we went through right at high tide and had plenty of water underneath our keel. Our friends Sam and Ginger on 'Grace' led the way for us with their one foot shallower keel, and were kind enough to call back with any trouble spots later in the day when we were on the falling tide. We had decided to push on and do a 50 miler because high winds were forecast for the next few days, and we wanted to get the open Sappelo Sound and St. Catherine's Sound behind us while the weather was light. This meant travelling through the falling 8 foot tide in the afternoon. The treacherous nature of sailing on a large dropping tide was highlighted later on about 1-1/2 hours before low when we came across a beautiful 45' sailboat laying on it's side, the giant maple leaf on the stern still flapping proudly while the irritated and frustrated owners snapped at every passing boat who called on the radio to see if they needed help. There was nothing anyone could do. "Da time an da tide wait for no mon" I'm sure they had a long night, since it was going to be another 5 hours or so until they floated off after dark. We decided to just treat them as another green marker and increase our vigilance until slack low.

With the sky darkening we neared our destination of Kilkenny Creek, which I believe was the inspiration for a Southpark character, and were crossing our fingers that we would get the hook down before the storm. We didn't make it. Just as we turned off of the ICW into the creek, the wind started howling and building to about 30-35 knots and heeled Felix over on her side under bare pole. Lightening crashed around us and the first few sprinkling drops of rain fell right as we positioned the boat and the chain began rolling over the bow. The storm passed but the wind stayed with us through the night. At about 1 am we held the dreaded Midnight Anchor Drill. Fortunately, or unfortunately, Star was sleepless because of her itching horse fly bites, and happened to notice that we had moved closer to a barge in the creek(Which you can see in the picture, along with the natural herding instinct of most cruisers). A glance at the chartplotter which we keep on at night and face into the companionway so that it can be seen from in the cabin, showed that we had drifted about 50 feet behind where we'd been all evening. Once an anchor slips, we don't trust it. So it was fire up the engine, haul in the chain and anchor, and motor around the creek in the dark looking for another spot. So you can see, cruising isn't all gourmet meals, sailing in 10 knots, and cool nature sightings. Because we were tired the next morning and the wind was blowing hard, we decided to take a day off and relax and spent a second night in Kilkenny Creek.