Georgetown to Charleston

It is the morning of December 9th (Thursday) and we are preparing to take the boat offshore again.  The engine mechanic came on Monday and the engine checked out OK.  He tightened a few belts but overall it looked fine.  That was certainly a relief and worth the cost of a tuneup.  Chris the sailmaker returned our sail with a freshly stitched up clew and new thread on our sacrificial fabric for our headsail.  We decided to leave and head over to the Big Tuna dock on Monday afternoon after we fueled up at the current marina.  We had a bit of a hard time getting to the fuel dock.  The current was crazy on the river and we had to back in so that the fuel hose would reach.  Easier said than done!  Full keel boats do not back up well.  We knew this going into it but realized fairly quickly that this wasn’t going to happen with a 3 knot current, steady wind and million dollar boat sitting right next to our parking spot.  We went in bow first and ended up using a jerry can instead. We moved to the Big Tuna with no problems and then set up shop there for the night.  Ryan is a fix-it master and got the stove working again.  Ellie gave us a batch of meatballs to cook up so Julia and I browned them up and made a nice pasta dish with that and some of our fresh veggies.  It was our first official meal aboard!  We lit the oil lamps for effect and grabbed a couple drinks from the Big Tuna to top it off (perks of being docked up beside a bar!).  Our heater still wasn’t working properly but Bucky dropped off a nice electric heater for us to use for the night.  We brought our laptops and charts into the bar and started working on our next passage plan.  Bucky was in there and introduced us to his friend Peter Poulnot, a tug boat captain.  They were hilarious!  Both Peter and Bucky were very helpful.  They looked over our charts and made some suggestions for the rest of our trip.  They got in a few “arguments” over which channel to use and some pretty funny lines came out of it.  Peter to Bucky: “I’ve pissed more salt water than you’ve ever sailed and that is Morgan Creek!”.  We wrote down several notes.  Peter suggested that we take the ICW all the way down to FL and then hop over from Ft. Pierce.  We really want to get back offshore and are planning to do several one to two day stints depending on our weather.  We got up around 6 am on Tuesday and headed over to Aunny’s for breakfast.  We were the first ones there and most of us ordered their famous Shrimp and Grits.  It was really tasty but different from the traditional shrimp and grits we were used to.  It was a very large bowl of grits with brown gravy and big shrimp on top.  I was stuffed afterwards!  We left the restaurant and started to get the boat ready to head out!  We backed out and started heading down the river to the ICW channel.  The morning was pretty cold but pretty and we made our way down the river.  After several miles we turned into the narrow ICW inlet.  Most of the passage was through the Cape Romain Wildlife Refuge.  Within the first mile or so we saw several birds of prey including a Bald Eagle!  There were birds everywhere and hardly any development.  It was much prettier than we expected and it turned out to be a nice day.  We used a watch system so that we could take a few breaks throughout the day.  Several dolphins came and made an appearance as well.  We were aiming to make it to Charleston but didn’t think that we would make it all the way down.  There were several nice anchorage spots to choose from so we decided to wait and see once we got towards the end of the afternoon.  While underway, Ryan managed to fix the heater!  The burner top had rusted completely shut on the old one and he took a few things apart and used pieces from one of our spare burners to fix it.  Now that we had heat on board, everyone was a little happier.  We burned it most of the day and it kept things nice and warm.  We were right around mile marker 450 and it was decision time.  We could try and make it in to the Isle of Palms Marina or anchor near there but the sun was beginning to set.  We ended up anchoring in a nice creek around mile marker 452.  The sun was beginning to go down and Jimmy took the wheel.  Ryan and I were at the bow and Julia was helping from the cockpit.  We dropped the anchor successfully and took a few bearing to make sure the anchor was set.  We set an anchor alarm on the chartplotter to go off if we drifted more than 40 feet.  The sunset was beautiful and went down right as we were finishing up and heading below.  Another sailboat came in right after us but went further down the channel.  Jimmy made a wonderful curry with rice and vegetables and we had another delicious meal aboard.  We cleaned up from dinner and all huddled together on the folded down dinette to watch a movie (roughing it, I know!).  Jimmy had 180 Degrees South on his laptop so we watched that.  The movie was great and we decided to head to bed.  The plan was to wake up bright and early and get into Charleston so that we could enjoy the day.  We went to sleep, cabin warm thanks to the heater, with the alarm set.  We all shot awake at 4:30 am to the anchor alarm going off.  Jimmy shot out of the quarter berth and popped his head up.  I handed him our spotlight and he checked our bearings.  The wind had picked up and we had shifted a little.  Our anchor appeared to be holding strong we had just shifted directions.  It was also freezing cold.  The burner was just about out on the heater.  I tried to turn up the heater and it promptly went out!  I guess we are out of kerosene!  We bundled up and went back to sleep.  The anchor alarm went off several more times that night but we appeared to be holding fine.  We woke up late the next morning and it was so cold!  We put our backup reserve of kerosene in (which wasn’t much!) and cooked breakfast with that.  We motored down to the Ben Sawyer Memorial Bridge.  There were several boats waiting and we hailed the bridge.  The bridge had been broken since 6 am!  Luckily we had slept in!  They were working on opening it manually.  We did a couple laps while they worked on it.  We only had to wait about 30 minutes and we were able to squeeze through the mostly opened bridge.  We turned into Charleston Harbor and spent a couple of hours making our way towards the downtown area.  The current was definitely against us and it was pretty slow going.  We called a few marinas to get pricing.  After a few calls the best we could do near downtown was a total of $65 at the Charleston City Marina!  We only spent $35-40 per night (or free at Big Tuna) in Georgetown.  It was my turn to pay for the docking so I guess I got the short straw.  We pulled up to the Megadock and found our spot.  They parked us next to all the huge boats, there weren’t any shorter than about 50 feet!  On boat, the Sea Bowld was monstrous.  We went in, paid up and got ready to take showers.  It was at least a quarter mile walk from the end of the dock to the main office (this place was huge).  I didn’t have any soap so I waited to take a shower after everyone else.  Jimmy dropped off the soap and I started to take a shower.  The hot water ran out in under two minutes.  I hadn’t had a shower in three days and had been freezing the past two…I was definitely going to take a hot shower!  I waited and kept rechecking over the course of 30 minutes and there was still no hot water.  I went and checked several of the other rooms and there wasn’t any there either.  I finally resigned myself to an icy shower and returned to the boat in a foul mood.  We decided to head into town to run a few errands and eat dinner.  Ryan was meeting a couple of his friends so we took off with plans of him meeting us later.  We walked down and made it to Barbara Jean’s Southern Cooking.  I had the Chicken Fried Steak with green beans and mashed potatoes.  It was really tasty.  Ryan met us a little bit later with news that his Mom had sent fresh cookies with his friends and homemade hot chocolate mix.  We made our way to Half Moon Outfitters which was along a street of shops consisting of Louis Vatone, Gucci, etc.  We expected overpriced gear but needed a few blankets and gloves.  The staff were very friendly and we chatted while we shopped.  Julia bought a sleeping bag, I bought a new Jetboil and way too expensive gloves, Ryan got fleece pants and a few warm garments and Jimmy bought a few things as well.  One of the girls working there named Kelly invited us to her friends house who had a rock climbing wall in his garage.  Our only plan for the night was to find somewhere warm and that sounded like it would do the trick!  We went to City Lights Coffee Shop until she go off work.  She picked us up and ran us to the grocery store and Walmart so that we wouldn’t have to catch a cab the next day!  Amazing!  We found everything we were looking for except kerosene but it was a huge timesaver.  We went to her friend’s house and had a great time.  Tripp and Jess had an awesome rock wall in the garage and we played on it for awhile before retiring to the kitchen to hang out.  We had a fun night and even ended up making snowflakes with glitter to decorate the boat for Christmas.  We took a Green Cab hybrid taxi back to the boat and slept warmly in our new gear.  We woke up bright and early this morning and clicked off the rest of our checklist fairly quickly.  There was no kerosene to be found anywhere but a really nice guy named Captain Larry overheard us asking around and offered to help us find some and drive us into town.  Julia took him up on the offer and found the only place in town that carried it (Lowes on James Island!).  Bill and Sylvia own a 50 foot custom sailboat docked across from us named EOS.  They graciously invited us in to have coffee and hot chocolate.  They showed us around their beautiful boat which they have spent the last 15 or so years working on.  It was very well though out and we were a little jealous of the huge cabin space below.  We said our goodbyes and got back to work.  So we are fueled up, topped off with kerosene and Jimmy is working on another hot meal right now.  We just cast off the dock lines and Ryan is taking us out of Charleston Harbor as we head offshore again.  The weather looks clear until Sunday so we are planning to head to the Brunswick/St. Mary’s area in southern GA.  I’ll try to post pictures before we lose cell signal and get out of the harbor.  We are trying to stay warm but still meeting some great, friendly people and exploring new areas.  Think of us as we are offshore the next couple of days as it will certainly be cold during the night shifts!  We’ll keep you posted as we keep heading south! -Daniel