Dewees Creek Anchorages
Statute Mile: 455
Lat/Lon:
32 49.866 North/079 45.632 West (Anchorage on central branch of Dewees Creek, west of this stream’s intersection with Long Creek)
32 49.503 North/079 45.175 West (Anchorage on Long Creek)
32 50.299 North/079 44.788 West (Anchorge on unnamed, northern branch of Dewees Creek, west of the Long Creek intersection
Location: Dewees Creek crosses the Waterway to the south of unlighted daybeacon #109
Minimum Depth: 8 feet
Swing Room: sufficient room for vessels as large as 34 to 40 feet depending on particular anchorage chosen
Foul Weather Shelter: Protection: Fair to Good; marsh grass shores do not offer enough shelter for particularly heavy weather
Rating: 
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Centered on the Location of This Anchorage:
Comments from Cruisers (6)
We always used Dewee’s Creek and it’s branches, such as Long Creek northwest of the ICW, at 455. Lots of options, very good holding, pretty Low Country surroundings. We don’t have dogs, but the banks are mud/dirt, same as the area around Price’s. I would suspect less current than Price’s.
George
Even if you think you’d rather be in a marina, this is an anchorage that could change your mind. There are at least four separate anchoring areas — and that’s without going up the creek and exploring — and there’s plenty of room to maneuver.
First, you have two options, West off the AICW or East off the AICW. We did not personally explore the Eastern option but observed a large sailing catamaran take the turn, go past the ferry dock at Dewees Island and drop the hook pretty much exactly as Skipper Bob suggests. She was still there in the morning where we’d last spied her — so we presume it was a good spot. From the Waterway, this Eastern choice appears a little less picturesque than the Western option and you do have Gray Aggie taking people back and forth to Isle of Palms, a feature that is neither a plus nor minus in my book.
We chose West just because it looked pretty. We found lots of deep water, just as charted — even the numbers we thought were typos such as a 71 which we were sure would be 17 were accurate. Had you been listening in on us, you would have heard us both say, with great surprise: Nope, it’s really 71!
The Western option offers you at least three obvious choices without wandering far off the AICW — you can go straight ahead (which we did), take a port turn or take a starboard turn, each to what appear to be fine anchoring spots. Going straight ahead, we found that the depths drop to 20 and just past the first creek arm to port, we found depths of mid- to high teens — perfect for anchoring. There is so much room here, we felt very comfortable, even if a parade of boats were to join us as Isle of Palms Marina and some in Charleston, too, were full. As it turned out, only four vessels joined us for the night. One right near us in the main section of the creek as you can see in the sunset photograph. Another chose the slender arm that heads South. Two other boats took the first turn to North.
It was a breezy night and we found holding excellent. The currents aligned us for a splendid sunset and in the morning conveniently spun us so we faced east for an equally splendid sunrise coming up over the ocean as we reentered the AICW.
It doesn’t get better than this.
Captain Jane
S/V Lady Jane
We anchored recently at the Northern most spot shown above. Dolphins were swimming and diving all around for hours. It’s a nice spot.
On the way in, there’s a “hole” about 90 feet deep. It’s known locally as “shark hole”.
We have anchored our 61′ LOA boat on the western Dewee’s Creek spot shown in you chartlet, as well as twice on Long Creek, one time where shown on the chartlet and once further south around the bend. Long Creek is a little roomier for us, holding is very good. We like the Low Country beauty of the marshes there.
George and Ann
“Incentive” Hatteras 56MY
Thursday we cruised to about 10 miles north of Charleston SC and anchored for the night next to Dewee Island, an “exclusive” residential area with no cars. Private boat or ferry is the only access. Two garbage trucks were being brought ashore Friday morning for the weekly pick-up. The tide changed around 4am so the Captain was up to make sure the anchor didn’t drag and send us into the nearby ocean inlet. All went well.
Subject: SC Anchorage Dewees Creek MM455
Message: We anchored our sailboat in the Dewee’s creek anchorage at MM455. This is the one on the east side of the ICW, between Big Hill Marsh and Dewees Island. The anchorage is nice, EXCEPT there is a water taxi that runs hourly to the nearby dock! It doesn\’t slow down for anchored boats, and we were “waked” twice an hour, each time the water taxi arrived and left. This went on until 10 p.m. at night! As long as this !!#$%^#$!! water taxi is running, I would suggest NOT using this anchorage!
RapidRoy
S/V “Gideon”