10/19/2012 =>Prince Creek
0515: sigh,
sometimes the best laid plans never work out.
Because of the previous days journey’s fight with the tide, we decided
to leave with the outgoing tide, regardless of the time in the morning. This seemed like a great idea, until we left
the city proper; water as black as ink,
no amount of light able to breach the deep, scary channel beyond. And then the rain started. We didn’t make it more than a mile from
Georgetown before captain called it quits; we anchored just outside the major
channel just as the skies completely opened up and the rain drove down in
sheets. It seemed even Mother Nature
preferred us to wait out the rising of her sun; by 0700 the rain disappeared
and the sun’s rays were enough to continue on.
The ICW at this point goes rather far inland, as opposed to staying
along the coast. This does mean less of
a chance for shoaling, but we are in and out of fresh water rivers. The landscape is mostly marshes, which is
very pretty…but while just slowly motoring through, a little boring! We did hear a boat behind us hail another about
a “gator” being off his portside…I was hoping this was only sailing lingo for
some random object in the water, but an actual alligator.
1545: We set the anchor in Prince Creek. This is not really a creek, as I would think
of it, rather a large tributary to the Atlantic Ocean. The waterway is very deep (40’ in some
locations) and surrounded by tidal marshlands.
At the end is an inlet into the Atlantic Ocean, about a mile and a half
from where we dropped anchor. The beach
on either side of this area is said to be great for landing dogs; we tried for a closer anchorage to the
beaches, but did not feel right being that exposed to the inlet. During our rather elongated journey that day,
I had pulled up the dinghy to the bow of the boat for safe travelling; it was
now mike’s turn to take it off and get ready to row the long way to the
beach. The tide was going out at the
time, so getting to the beach shouldn’t be an issue, plus we were timing it to
be already changed when we started back….unfortunately, as Mike pushed the
dinghy over the deck, the seat popped off…and started to float down the creek
towards the ocean! Mike jumps into the
dinghy and starts paddling ala Indian style as fast as he can to get the seat
before it sinks! Within minutes, both he
and the now secured seat, are at least a ½ mile away from the boat and
struggling against an almost low tide to make it back to the boat. It’s at this point I see something in the
water, out of the corner of my eye towards the port and bow. It caught my eye as I thought it was a buoy,
but then realized we were too close to shore for it to be: when I turned my head, it was gone. Odd, but I kept my eye over there just to be
sure. There it was again! About 12-18” rising straight out of the
water, a white turning to brown at the rounded edges…thing before it quickly disappeared
under the water again. I glanced back at
Mike’s progress; he is about 50 ft from the stern and still struggling against
the tide. Now, I am fully aware of the
fact that we are in salt water (can see
the ocean for God’s sake) as well as the fact that there are no crocodiles area
(or continent) but for whatever
reason, this is the only thought that goes through my head! A crocodile is going to attack Mike on the
dinghy! Visions of Crocodile Dundee go through
my head! So, what does an insane person do
at this point, you ask? Grab what she
thinks will “stop” this evil monster from attaching! Our aluminum hook! Somewhere in the deep recesses of my brain, I
am intelligent I SWEAR! But as I am also
a woman, I tend to over react in stupid ways…and don’t get all upitity ladies
who are reading this; you know what I am talking about: hearing a noise at night and grabbing a bat
to go investigate by yourself. It’s the same
logic :)
Anyways, there I
am at the stern (brandishing my hook),
impatiently waiting for Mike to get there!
As he gets closer, I very quietly say (because you know the freaking thing can hear me AND understand English)
“don’t slow down Babe”. This of course
causes Mike to slow down and ask “what??”
I repeat my statement; however he is reaching the stern. I grab the line to tie off, telling him to
not dawdle in the dinghy. Once Mike is
safely onboard (and giving me an odd look
about holding the hook) I casually, as to not seem completely insane, explain
that I think I saw an evil man eating crocodiles that was going to attack your dinghy
poke its head up twice! (wait for the reason why Mike is the right
man for me…and go!) Mike casually
looks out over the area (pretty sure he
asked God why his wife is so insane) before turning back to me: “You know
there are no salt water crocodile in the Northern US, right? …but if there was,
and you saw it coming towards me, all you would do is grab a metal hook? WTF?”
followed by “look over on shore, there is a huge sea turtle”. Crap. Yea,
that is what I saw poking its head out.
(still shaking my head) Although, it would have been funny for a
massive sea turtle to take out the dinghy…and to see a recording of me trying
to hit it from the boat with an aluminum hook…
Massive crocodile
attacks averted and the dinghy seat retrieved, we piled into dinghy and start
rowing the long distance to the beach.
The tide is helping, but it feels like we are going forever! As we get closer to the inlet, there is a
motor boat at a random mooring there….but before we even reach it, I see 2 HUGE
dolphins about 10’ from the dinghy….and as I overacted from the mutant
crock/turtle incident moments before, chose to keep my mouth shut…until they
were 1’ from the bow…and as I sit directly on the bottom of the dinghy, and
since my dog has no idea what to do with these things (she hides under the bench seat) I felt the movement of them under
my butt as the passed! AHHH! This time I
did scream…which I think took like 10 years (or some more hair follicles) off his life, he looked so
startled! I only said “dolphins” before Mike
started to look behind him: both
dolphins again surfaced about 1’ from us…he understood why I screamed then…ha!
We started to
pass the boat at mooring at this point.
Both the boaters came out to say hello, and offered us a tow back to our
boat! They were going to take the one’s
dog ashore too and would gladly lend us the ride afterwards (their dinghy was a 12’ fishing boat with
dual engines HA!)
When we finally
made it to the beach (renowned for the shells you find there) we were able to
meet up with the boaters: 2 guys who
were just starting their annual fishing trip.
One owned the boat, James and his dog Maddy (ha!) the other was
Steven. Both grew up in the area and
would be joined by other fellow married male friends: this was apparently guys weekend out! They gave us some pointers on the next’s day’s
sail into Charleston and places to go/visit/eat/etc while there! Salty got to play with the dog Maddy for
about 45 minutes before we had to leave, so she was happy!
Salty's new beach buddy
being towed back to our boat
My shell spoils from the beach (pumpking NIC)
Once the sun
went down, we relaxed and once again star gazed as the night was clear and peaceful…until
I heard what sounded like a bull huffing next to my head. Salty heard it too and jumped up to look
around…and there is was again! …and
again! Over there this time, or closer,
or with more spray?…ohhhh its dolphins blowing out their spouts! Haha! There must have been close to a hundred surrounding
our boat! We could hear them jumping,
spouting, calling, and splashing all around us!
In the moonlight, we would occasionally catch them surfacing but for the
most part relied on hearing. They went
quiet for a little while; Mike thought maybe they had gone inland or back out
to the ocean. I got up and went to the
bow of the boat to turn off the main gas supply….I hear the snort followed by
spray on my legs; this sucker was super,
super close to the back of the boat!
Again I screamed! Annndddd while I
know he didn’t do it on purpose, but…not 15 seconds after I screamed, a dolphin
did that cackle, ala Flipper; was perfectly timed to seem like it was laughing
at me J.
As the night wore on, the dolphins kept swimming around…and snorting…I don’t
think either one of us would ever say this:
having dolphins surround your boat at night is really annoying, they are
just so loud! Ha.
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