Thursday, December 3, 2009 Coquina to Bull Creek SC

At 8:20am after I got Sandy’s email we left Coquina Yacht Club and got to Bull Creek at 2:35pm. We went 30.2 nautical miles and anchored on the bend of the meander in 12 ft. It was a pretty day – sunny and in the 60s. I’m enjoying the weather while I can. With a cold artic blast roaring down from the north, the nice weather could be short lived.

After leaving Little River we passed through the “rock pile” at high tide. This time I didn’t see any of the rock ledges that testify to the making of this part of the channel. This section was dug out and blasted, making it the longest man-made cut (28 miles) along the entire length of the ICW. From Statute Mile 347 to 367, a hard fossiliferous limestone, cretaceous in age, is the underlying bedrock. I’m not sure if I mentioned it last year, or not but, at the lower part of the rock pile it’s 66-144 million years old. Formed at the end of the age of dinosaurs and at the beginning of flowering plants and modern mammals, it’s loaded with all kinds of interesting fossils. The rock became a challenge for the engineers to blast through. So the further we go down this section of the ICW, the narrower it gets.

The aerial tram that ferries golfers across the ICW to the Waterway Hills Golf Club was quiet today. Last time we came by this stretch, there were trams crossing overhead at a steady pace. This time there was only one.

Barefoot Landing was quiet too. There were only a few motor yachts at the dock taking advantage of the free dock and shopping at all the stores there. This area is terrific for hitting the retail and upscale stores and outlets, having lunch or dinner or to just stretch your legs and window shop or people watch. I’ll bet it’s amazing in the summer when it’s in full swing or early fall when all the cruisers head south with the geese (honk onnnk…) It’s really quiet now though. I’m not sure if it’s due to it being so late in the season or due to all the cruisers heading south earlier to beat the closing of The Ben Sawyer Bridge.

The Spanish moss is becoming more predominant in the trees. I saw my first tree covered in it as we passed Barefoot Landing and drew closer to the Soccaste (pronounced saw-cuss-tee) swing bridge.

Bull Creek, where we’re anchoring for the night, is surrounded by Cypress Swamp and is still as pretty as I remember it. It has to be one of the prettiest anchorages along this route. It’s very natural looking and I can only imagine that it looked the same way as now 200 years ago or earlier. We’re about 20 miles from Georgetown. I’m not sure how long we’ll be there waiting for a weather window to go outside. It depends on what happens, and when, with this cold front that’s swooping down. Time to make a meat pie for dinner and enjoy the sound of peepers and some bird that’s sounds like a loon.