Boat Forum / Cruising / July 2008

<EG> You must be hard up for responses, neal......
First off, it's "otnmbrd"
Secondly, I was Capt. of a number of ferries in N.E. waters in my yoot.

richforman <rforman61@msn.com> wrote in news:155bedff-0a68-40f0-8f49-
4e63047c84b5@e39g2000hsf.googlegroups.com:

There are some really great PWC places within 30 miles of this keyboard.  
There's 3200 miles of navigable waterways, most without even so much as a
house on them.  Thousands of little islands all over.  There are STILL
completely untouched oceanfront islands on the Atlantic Ocean without a
single road, condo, millionaire Yankee screaming for you to get off his
beach, nasty cops trying to lie to you it's his beach (which it's NOT as
there are no private beaches here in SC.)  The public's beach runs 100 feet
back from the mean high tide mark...and THEY KNOW IT!

Let me show you something really cool:

Boot Google Earth and find Charleston, SC....
Stay around 35000 ft above the mouth of Charleston Harbor on Google Earth.

From the mouth of the harbor, slide up the coast:
Sullivan's Island - populated
Isle of Palms - populated
Pine Island - an extension of Isle of Palms but swamp.
Goat Island behind IOP is on the landside of the ICW.
Crab Bank - a sand and mud pile
Dewees Island - private island of billionaires with no cars, golf carts and
their own ferry to IOP Marina.

Then there's a cut into the Atlantic between Dewees and Capers Island, an
uninhabited wildlife refuge with no roads/condos/billionaires/unspoiled.  
Zoom in on the cut.  Deep water to play in, tide keeps it clean, a boater's
playground all summer.  Ride out into the Atlantic from the cut and come
around to the BEACH! on Capers Island.  Lay out your blanket being careful
of the curious crabs.  Notice the lack of ANYONE ELSE for MILES...(C;  
Enjoy.  From Capers to Georgetown's Sampit River, is deserted.  Bulls Bay
has lots of sandbars and bears watching carefully.  The ICW goes behind
these islands and provides a quick way back to the harbor after a day at
the beach.

PWC trip 2 - Bird Key

Go back to Charleston Harbor and up the S side of the lower peninsula the
ICW turns down two cuts, turning S at the end of the big City Marina just
past the CG station.  Come through the cuts, where there are two nice
public boat landings to launch in and as you exit Elliott's Cut into an
inland bay formed by the ICW and Stono River, hang a left into the Stono
River, which ends in the Kiawah River about a mile from the Atlantic Ocean,
again, on the end of Billionaire Country, Kiawah Island Resort.

Hang a left and go towards the ocean.  The northern tip of Kiawah is out of
reach of the billionaires and their rentacops and is another favorite
boater-only beach on the Atlantic Ocean.  It's nice but look across the
Kiawah River to the N and you'll see Bird Key, a little island paradise you
can walk all the way around shelling in about an hour.  It's constantly
shifting, so every time you visit it's your first trip to the island.  The
center of the island is a sea bird rookery so dogs are NOT ALLOWED.  Do not
cross into the rookery the DNR marks during nesting season.  On the Folly
River side (away from ocean) towards the Folly Island side to the N be
careful where you step in the shallow tidal waters.  You'll see the biggest
horseshoe crabs I've ever seen breeding and doing their crazy mating
rituals (not quite like humans on jetskis) during the spring and early
summer.
http://io.uwinnipeg.ca/~simmons/16cm05/1116/33-28-HorseshoeCrabs.jpg

PWC Trip 3 - Through the big lock into the lake....

Take Google Earth to:
Bushy Park Rd, Goose Creek, SC
which is up the Cooper River above the Harbor at the Naval Weapons Station.

Where it lands is on the industrial property where several factories are,
or were, located with river/ocean access.  To the right of the mark, you
see the winding Cooper River going down to the harbor.  To the left of the
mark is a strange, manmade reservoir whos earthen dam merely separates this
reservoir from the brackish seawater of the river on the S end of the
reservoir.  Go there and zoom in where the road crossed the top of the dam.  
There are two boat landings on top of the dam, one on the Cooper River side
in brackish water....one on the reservoir in FRESH water next to one of the
intakes to our Charleston Water System.  There are multiple ramps on both
with nice trailer parking to leave your redneck pickup and PWC trailer
while you "make the loop!".

This is one great PWC or small boat day trip you never have to turn around
and go back from.  Put the boats in the Cooper River's salt water side.  
Ride out the cut into the river and turn left, upstream.  Unless there has
been some torrential rains, the currents in the Cooper River is nearly
zero, which is why the seawater backs up this far in the river.  This side
of the dam, the water runs up and down with the tides.  Hangin a left gives
you a fantastic opportunity to explore the SC lowcountry in a small boat or
PWC (or 50' sloop if you like because ships go up the river here).  The
overhead wires are way high for ship traffic up the river quite a ways past
the factories...most of which are closed any more.

Above Hagan Island, the river T's and it's not well marked, or wasn't the
last time I took the loop a couple years ago.  The T to the right takes you
up past some old plantations and nice horse farms of local moneyed people
and really goes nowhere, getting smaller and smaller.  The T to the LEFT
takes you further up the Cooper River, which eventually becomes the
Tailrace Canal for the 1930's power plant way up in Moncks Corner, SC.  
Trip 4 goes up there, but not this loop trip.

Upriver past the T, you'll see a tide station (orange dot) at Old Rice
Mill.  Our rivers are shored by old rice plantations so be careful not to
get too far out in what appears to be a lake, but is actually about 5" deep
in the old rice paddies from the 1800s.  They finally marked the channels
up to Moncks Corners about 5 years ago with little bouys.

Around the bend past that station is another T in the Cooper River.  Around
the next bend past the T to the right towards the Tailrace Canal is a
railroad swing bridge you shouldn't get under on this trip.  We're gonna go
LEFT at the T, this time.

By now you are in FRESH water caused by the flow from the lake through the
power dam.  The T to the left is the supply canal for the reservoir you
CONVIENTLY left the truck and trailer parked at the other end of!  The
canal takes you right pass Cypress Gardens, a park full of alligators
you'll see cruising the canal looking for small redneck children riding in
tubes behind old fishing boats.  Down the canal at the bridge you'll have
to duck your head to get under, is another public boat landing.  Go under
the bridge and watch out for redneck children swinging out over the river
on huge ropes hung from massive Southern oak trees, a popular swimming hole
all summer long.  Cruise down the canal waving at the other nice folks
going both ways into the reservoir and you'll enter the upper end of the
fresh water reservoir.  Keep to the right all the way down to the fresh
water intake as that's where the water is deepest with no nasty rusty pipes
lurking under the surface along the left side from the factory intakes of
old.  Factories who used water loved it they had a fresh water lake at
their back doors for free.

At the dam end of the lake....THERE SITS YOUR TRAILER, RIGHT WHERE YOU LEFT
IT!  A small beach to the left of the boat landing is a popular place for
the local PWC crowd to congregate in the reservoir and the pylon floats you
may see out from the boat landing, there, is where the PWC races are held.  
A very friendly group will simply ride off from you up the lake as their
boats are so modified you can hardly hang onto them.  You'll also see a
waterski slolam course if the big skiboats from the Ski club are present.  
Their coarse is air powered and anchored to the bottom of the reservoir up
around the bend from the boat landing so the big wakes don't bother anyone.  
When the ski club arrives, someone connects an airtank to a hose floating
on a little float and all the spring loaded floats on the course pop up to
the surface from the interconnecting hoses laying on the bottom.  How
cool...(c;  Watching the expert water skiiers assembled is a great way to
waste time in the reservoir, resting from having your doors blown off by
the jetski racers...(c;

TRIP 4 - A trip to the lake through the Moultrie Dam.

Put the boat in either side you like at Bushy Park, same as trip 3.  But
this time ride up past that railroad swing bridge into the beautiful waters
of the upper Cooper River and Tailrace Canal.  You'll pass Mepkin Abbey's
beautifully-kept massive lawns just past a riverside housing area.  The
whole area is matted with old rice fields and some building ruins from the
old rice plantations of the 19th century when Rice was King.  (keep an eye
on your course or YOU'LL BE SORRRRRY!)  The channel, itself, through all
this is quite deep and very dependable.  I've taken this trip up the
Cooper, not the reservoir, in a 41' cruising ketch and we spent the weekend
cruising the lake, flushing out the various seawater devices, and sleeping
next to one of the hundreds of islands.

Just keep going and going upriver until you see the little boat landing at
the seafood restaurant located OVER the river where US 52 crosses overhead
in Moncks Corner, SC.

FUEL - PWC needs FUEL!!  Ok, you got this far and need gas....(c;  Just
beyond the big bridge you'll find a little, non-descript cut to the left
that looks like someone dug it out with a backhoe, which they did.  There's
a little marina up in there that sells GAS (beer, snacks, bait) past a few
little docks for the locals to rent.  Pray they're open!...(c;  If they're
not, you can follow  the road from the boatramp up to the Angler's gas
station and get gas and cans from there.  BUY GAS HERE as it's much more
convenient than up in the lake.  Locals fill boats before launching because
gas is cheaper than at marinas.  99% of the boats here come on
trailers....in redneck country!

Ok, we got gas, come back down the ditch to the tailrace and turn left the
way we were headed up to the power plants.  The old power plant from 1930
is in the dam, itself....not much water fall but enough.  Beside it you'll
hear the fuel oil fired/natural gas fired new power plant.

Go up to the massive lock doors and wait with the other boats for them to
open.  The lock belongs to our SC state power company, Santee-Cooper, and
is free!  It's great fun to ride up INSIDE this 75' lift lock into Lake
Moultrie.  All you do is give the lockmaster your name and where you are
from for their usage records he depends upon to keep the lock running.  
They'll ask you from way up at the top as you lift up.  PCW riders are
required to get off their PWC (prevents capsizing in the currents when the
lock is filling) and stand with your boat on the big camel that rides up
and down as a floating dock in a groove in the wall of the lock.  Tie your
PWC to the camel with everyone else rafted up and stand on the camel for
the vertical ride...great fun, either way!

WARNING - AS THE LOCK DOORS OPEN DO NOT GET RUNDOWN!  THOSE REDNECKS IN THE
BIG BASSBOATS HAVE BEEN DRINKING BEER SINCE 0600 AND ARE IN A TERRIBLE
HURRY TO GO NOWNERE!  Stay out of their way!!  There's always a huge race
to see who gets free from the pack the fastest.  It's a penis envy thing...
(c;  If anyone is in a multi-engine inboard cigarette boat...STAY WAY AWAY
FROM THEM!!

The lake is really deep here by the dam....about 80'.  But, away from the
dam up the lake it GETS REALLY SHALLOW REALLY FAST in the submerged towns
and farms and roads and hills that are under this manmade lake.  HUGE TREE
STUMP ACRES that make it the finest land locked striped bass fishing on the
planet are coveted by fishermen and CURSED by every other kind of boater
who's just lost his prop/foot/engine/holed his hull hitting the stumps
lurking just under the surface.  The lakes filled so fast they didn't have
time to log them and only cut a few trees which were chained to the bottom
and have since broken loose.  There are uninhabited islands and some
beautiful places to explore on these two huge lakes, but they can be very
treacherous to the unwary.

If you camp out on an island, please take all your trash with you.  Thanks.  
The power company owns all the islands and doesn't much care if you camp
out....great fun, too!

Another fun thing to do on a PWC is befriend someone on their big pontoon
boat.  Beer and lunch are usually free if you've been taking the kids for
PWC rides...(c;  These are the friendliest rednecks on the planet!

The food at the restaurant below the dam is great low country food from one
of the shrimp boat companies....and tastes even better going downstream
after a day in the lake!  Don't forget where the GAS STATION IS before
heading back down....There's NONE IN THE RIVER!

Well, you can find your way back down river to the trailer, so I'll leave
you here, screaming across the lake laughing and hollaring like the rest of
the kids....(c;  Remember it's illegal to ride PWC in the dark, here!  It
would be suicide, anyways....in the ricefields.

There are a thousand other trips like these to take....You'd never do them
all....and some you don't see another soul all weekend!  

Florida my a.s......(c;