It was a cool and grey day all day long today with temps in the low 50s. Cold work for the clamers working in the 50deg water near Holden Beach.
This is another section of the ICW you would love to avoid if at all possible because of the shallow and shoaling inlets of Lockwoods Folly and Shallotte. Unfortunately for us the wind was from the south so it made more sense to stay in the ICW than head offshore into the wind/waves.
Lockwoods Folly was a winding path with strong currents left and right, but the channel was deep and exactly as annotated on the chart plotter. We passed through with only white knuckles to show.
Shallotte Inlet was another story. It started out ok, then we rounded the bend and spotted a dredge and work crews directly in the center of the channel ahead. From the dredge, pipes and lines and tugs went all the way to shore to the left. On the right side there were two temporary red bouys well outside the normal channel. A quick call on VHF channel 13 and the dredge captain told me to pass down his western side between him and a temporary yellow bouy (sending us outside the normal channel). The waters went to 6ft deep (we draw 5), then quickly dropped to 12ft as soon as we passed the dredge. The rest of the Inlet passage has apparently been dredged as it was 12ft.
Of course, to our disadvantage, it was low tide during the afternoon as we passed through the shallowest sections of the ICW in this area. Several times we had to nearly stop and relocate the channel, almost always over to the left of the charted position.
We eventually arrived safely at Barefoot Landing, North Myrtle Beach just after 5pm and as darkness was descending. Our day was more successful than this sailor's day. Not sure how he ended up here (probably broke free from a mooring), but always a sad sight.
We will be off early tomorrow for Georgetown SC and down the Waccama River, the prettiest section of the entire ICW. Looking forward to that leg.
