South Santee River, SC

Well we had an interesting time today. After staying several days at Thoroughfare creek we decided to get a move on and head 30 miles south to Minim Creek. The wind was blowing a bit today, gusting up to 20 knots, but we motored down the ICW without incident. But once we started getting ready to anchor it was a different story.

We have anchored in Minim Creek before and we know that the current runs pretty strong in that area. Last time we anchored in the creek there was no wind. But this time we had the wind pushing us from the north and the current pushing us from sort of a southerly direction. Our normal routine (without current) is to point the boat into the wind, drop the anchor, fall back as the wind pushes us back, and then back down on the anchor with our engines in reverse to get a good set. But with wind and current opposing, we did a little trial and error. We first did our normal routine but after dropping the anchor, the current pushed us forward and past the anchor, so that didn't work. We hauled it up and tried again, this time pointing into the current. After dropping the anchor the wind gusted and we started looping around in drunken circles. It was impossible to get the anchor directly out in front of us to back down on in and after several minutes of trying, Kevin just gave up and said "well it's probably set enough for us to stay here one night, go ahead and shut down the engines". We were in the middle of the creek and the anchor seemed to be holding so I shut the engines down and went inside to grab the cruising log and the instrument covers. I walk through the door a couple minutes later and hear the depth alarm going off (it is set to go off if we are in 2 feet of water). Kevin is at the helm and we are up against the bank of the creek. What? In just a few minutes we had gone from anchored to aground. Guess the anchor wasn't set after all.

So we start the engines and go about the process of getting ourselves floating again and hauling the anchor up. No easy task since the wind is now steady at 17 knots and the current has increased as well. Easing ourselves off the bank is no problem, only the tip of our bow was just barely aground. But trying to get the anchor up is another story since it is behind us between the hulls and we have to be careful about putting the engines in reverse so the propellers don't get fouled on the anchor chain. We finally have the anchor partway up but as I put the starboard engine in reverse it starts making this horrible sound. We realize that our prop must've gotten fouled on one of the several crab trap floats in the creek. We were fortunate because I put the engine in neutral right away and used only the port engine and I think somehow the trap worked itself loose because sure enough when I looked over, there the float was, floating about 100 feet away from where it originally had been (we had picked it up and moved it). We were really lucky because usually if something like that happens someone would have to get in the water and unwrap the line from the prop (in the conditions we were in it would've been next to impossible).

In the end, we gave up on Minim Creek and motored another 10 miles south to the South Santee River, where the current was still strong, but the river was wider and aligned better with the wind. Everything that could go wrong had gone wrong in Minim Creek, but the anchoring gods gave us a break and we were able to set the anchor on the first try in the Santee.

Where we are:
Location=South Santee River, SC
Lat=33 09.018 N
Lon=79 19.312 W