Daufuskie Island, South Carolina - Sailing the Sea Islands

High tide is a very bad time to run aground, especially in the Sea Islands with their nearly nine feet of tide that can range to twelve feet or more on spring tides.
The crew of this shrimp trawler will have nearly twelve hours to wait before their vessel floats again.

These tides are wonderful if you use them to your advantage, going with the tide, not bucking it. 

I used to joke that the ebb tide in the Savannah River was so strong that you could water ski behind an anchored boat…not a stretch of the imagination. The channel marker buoys get pulled under by these powerful currents, leaving only a churning swirl of turbulent water to mark the place they went under. 

Read more about this fascinating end of the world in Sailing the Sea Islands: Travels of Dursmirg by John M. Grimsrud. View here.

Available in paperback and digital editions.

More Sea Islands recommended reading

The Water is Wide by Pat Conroy

Lighthouse, New Moon Rising, and The Beloved Invader by Eugenia Price

Tuxedo Park by Jennet Conant; The man who first developed Hilton Head

Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil by John Berendt

For recommended reading and links to the books, click here.