The following narrative is an excerpt from the blog of Chuck and Claria Gorgen. To see the full journey log go to: http://www.gorgensodyssee.blogspot.com.
This is a trip undertaken by very few cruising size craft. Most captains choose to cease their upstream explorations at the “T” on upper Cooper River. HOWEVER, as you will see below, this cruise has its charms, and perhaps should be considered more often.

The Cooper River heads NW from the Charleston, SC harbor up to Monks Corner where it meets Lake Moultrie. Back in 1939, a WPA project dammed up the Cooper and Santee rivers to form two large lakes, Lake Moultrie and Lake Marion. This reservoir backed up the Santee River to the Congaree and Wateree Rivers, and created a water route from Columbia to Charleston. The Cooper River is deep enough to support barge traffic up to the hydro power plants that were build at the bottom end of both lakes. The Santee Cooper project was the largest WPA project undertaken.
On Tuesday we started up the river at about 10:00. The cooper river was very deep all the way up to Lake Moultrie. 35 miles up the river we came to the first bridge we needed open. To request an opening you need to call the bridge 6 hours before you get there,and then call again as you get close, so the bridge operator can drive to the bridge you want opened, he operates two bridges about 10 miles apart.

Another 10 miles up the river we arrived at Monks Corners, where we spent the night tied up to the dock at Gilligan’s Restaurant, free night dockage with power if you have dinner, what a deal!
Wednesday, we needed a second RR bridge opened just before the dam and lock at Lake Moultrie. The same bridge tender arrived to do the honors. As the bridge goes up we can see the 80 foot high dam and lock. We call the lock master and proceed to the lock door. These bridges and lock have no VHF radios so all communication is by cell phone. When this lock was built back in 1939 it was the highest single chamber lock in the world at 75′.

Once in the lock, we tied up to a floating dock that was secured to the locks bollards. YOUNG at HEART rafted up to us and we started up. the lock was very friendly with little turbulence as we went up.

Once to the top of the 75′ lift we can see Lake Moultrie off to the NW. Once on the lake there is a 6 mile buoyed straight channel to diversion channel which connects Lake Moultrie and Marion. Parts of Moultrie are 90′ deep, and when the lake was flooded they flooded over roads, bridges, and towns, all of that stuff still down there.

YOUNG at HEART lead the way out of the lock and across the lake, and enters diversion channel leading into Lake Marion. Lake Marion is not as deep as Moultrie, and they never cleaned all of the trees out before they flooded, so there are trees and stumps all over, it’s important to stay in the buoyed channel.

We spent the first night anchored behind the Santee National Wildlife Refuge at the North East corner of the lake.
Thursday morning was overcast and drizzly. We continued up the lake with the intention to get to Santee State Park. About halfway up the lake we go under Interstate 95. At this point the lake was getting shallow except for the old Santee River bed, which winds all over between the trees that continue to stand. Here YOUNG at HEART follows us through the maze.

Friday we set out to see how far we could get up the Santee River and then up the Congaree River. As we approached the far west end of Lake Marion, the channel got narrow and shallow, with lots of growth crowding in on the channel. We found the deepest water on the outside of the river bends and we hugged the growth close.

We anchored in a nice cove behind Santee State Park.

Friday we set out to see how far we could get up the Santee River and then up the Congaree River. As we approached the far west end of Lake Marion, the channel got narrow and shallow, with lots of growth crowding in on the channel. We found the deepest water on the outside of the river bends and we hugged the growth close.

The water was very skinny, running between 6-8′. It look like we wouldn’t be able to get through, but the bottom was very soft mud and many had told us we could get quite a ways up the river, so we slowly continued. They were right, within a few miles the river became a typical river, with a downstream current of 1.5 to 2 MPH, with depths along the deep channel of 12-18′. We knew there were three bridges to get under, the first a RR bridge with a reported clearance of 18′. The water is down about 1.5′, and we found about 20′ clearance. A little further upstream the Santee River ends and the Wateree goes off to the north and the Congaree goes off to the west towards Columbia. We turned left up the Congaree and soon found the second bridge, highway 601, with a new span under construction.

About 3 miles further up the river we came to the third bridge, with an 18′ clearance per the chart. Well, this bridge was also under construction and a temporary span was across the river for the crawler cranes to use. One of the construction guys stretched his tap measure down to the water and announced the clearance was about 15′. We may have been able to get under, but YOUNG at HEART could not, so we decided we were as far as we were going.