Rock Creek Anchorage
Statute Mile: 516
Lat/Lon:32 31.730 North/080 28.978 West
Location: on the waters of Rock Creek north, northwest of the intersection with the southeasternmost portion of the Ashepoo Coosaw Cutoff
Minimum Depth: 6 to 11 feet
Special Note: Depths in Rock Creek are radically mischarted on 11518. Grounding can now be expected if you attempt to approach the stream’s first turn to the northeast, where 11518 shows a 22-foot sounding. Be SURE to anchor well south of this northeasterly turn, favoring the eastern banks in order to avoid the correctly charted shallows making out from Rock Creek’s western shoreline. Use of a GPS chartplotter is recommended to avoid unmarked shoals abutting the banks of Rock Creek
Swing Room: sufficient room for vessels ranging from 42 to 45 feet
Foul Weather Shelter: Excellent
Rating: 
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Comments from Cruisers (4)
We anchored after the northeast turn. There is a shallow section on the starboard side the channel right where you approach the first trees along the bank. The port side has 15 to 18 feet of water with 7 to 8 feet at 1 hour before low tide past the turn getting shallow on the starboard tide of the creek past the turn. We anchored in 6.5 feet of water 250 meters past the turn. We were having 20 to 22 kt of wind from the north which calmed down to 12 to 15 behind the trees.
We anchored here 4-12-10 and remembered we had been here previously when the water suddenly got thin near the turn to the northeast (the last time we spent time on that shoal waiting for the tide to turn.) This time a quick turn to the west got us into 17 feet of water and once around the corner had no problem getting to where the creek turns north west and anchored there. Had a quiet night and no problem getting out in the morning. Just have to stay on the correct side of the creek!
Jean Thomason
(DOVEKIE)
We anchored there Nov 2008 in company with two other cruisers and had a beautiful evening.
James Lea
S/V Estelle
Claiborne
Thought you would be interested in the picture of the shoal at Rock Creek near the bend where the creek turns northeast. The picture looks south over the shoal and is near the charted 22″ line and was taken at low tide. The shoal extends out at least 350′ into the Creek and there is deep water on the west side of the shoal. Further upstream I ran into more shoaling so I turned around and anchored upstream of the shoal where the picture was taken. At this point I would only recommend a safe anchorage up the creek a short distance
Jim & Judy Howenstine
” The Silver Foxes”
40′ Mainship
A narrow, shoal, tidal anchorage is the bain of most delivery skippers and in my experience the Rock Creek anchorage refered to here (“Rock Creek’s charted turn to the west, northwest”) is one to avoid for those reasons. After five times anchoring in here over the years, four of them found me either waiting for the tide to turn in order to exit or hard aground. Furthermore, the entrance to get back into the anchorage is one of those “first one side and then the other” channels if one is to avoid the bottom. Instead, for the last few years I’ve chosen to anchor in 13′ about 1/2 mile SSE of #172 at the SW end of the Ashepoo-Coosaw Cutoff. It’s a bit more exposed, and not quite as “idyllic” as the anchorage described in the various guides but you can get hook down easily, have plenty of swinging room, and get underway at any state of tide. Also, the bugs don’t seem to be nearly as bad here. Just my $.02 worth.
Capt. Andy Denmark