We had an excellent sleep last night. Lights were out by 2115 with the anchorage waves rocking us to sleep. It was raining when we went to bed and overcast when we woke up but the skies cleared by midday. I enjoyed my morning tea in the cockpit with just a light jacket and shorts on watching the birds on Crab Island. Temp for the day was in the low 20s.

By 1100, Jorge and I had weighed anchor and were on our way to the anchorage across from the Coast Guard station, closer to town and the essentials like real showers! Diana and Gilbert decided to stay at last night's anchorage. The trip across the harbour was only an hour. We anchored successfully in Ashley Creek across from the Coast Guard station and had a late lunch. Shortly after that, Kind of Magic (HYC) anchored next to us.

As we were preparing to go into town we heard a knock on the hull. A young couple with two small children were asking about the Argentine flag flying from our stern. Lo and behold they were from Argentina. Now living in Toronto. Not only that, they were from Jorge's province and the guy from Jorge's city - Cordoba! Small world. Like all Canadians on boats here, they are headed south, hopefully to the Caribbean. We promised to visit with them in the next couple of days while they are here.

We sourced out the dinghy dock, garbage disposal, laundry facilities and showers in that order. (Counting getting to our new anchorage, that was five jobs we got accomplished today!) Following our showers, we saw two French-Canadian couples we had previously met in Elizabeth City. After getting back to CS'ta Time, we heard another knock on the hull. It was an Australian guy we had met in New York City. He came aboard for a beer (his wife was on their boat doing computer correspondence). And then Lynn and Sally called from New York City (they are still at home visiting). It is so true, you keeping meeting up with people from past anchorages.

Military plane.

US Coast Guard plane (the kind you want around in case of trouble at sea!)

Commercial plane.

 

I think we are in a flight path to the Charleston, S.C. airport judging by the number of planes flying by. (Also the military base is just up the road.)

Local guy going to his anchored boat.

Pelican at dinghy dock.

 

Tomorrow might be a sightseeing day. We picked up a city map with local attractions so we'll peruse them in the morning and decide then what to do/see.

Charleston, South Carolina, we have arrived!

Last night Jorge was up a few times checking the anchor and height of tide as Mother Nature was giving us a bit of grief. No problems.

Jorge and I decided to leave our anchorage at 0800 this morning and head to Charleston. It was going to be a 6 hour trip provided the current was favourable. Diana and Gilbert followed shortly afterwards.

Serenada peeking out of the marsh at anchor.

Abandoned boat.

Ditto.

Some local birds enoying the sunshine.

No basement with these tides!

 

We motor sailed off and on when we had good winds and yes the current was quite favourable. We had a short delay at the Ben Sawyer swing bridge while we waited for another sailboat to catch up to us, so the bridge master didn't have to stop traffic twice within half an hour. No easy feat as the wind and current were both pushing us towards the bridge. This swing bridge opened on request, others open at specific times. Once past this bridge we were in the Charleston Harbour. We had decided to anchor off Crab Island, should have been called Pelican Island with the amount of pelicans roosted on it. Anchor was set at 1400, dinghy and motor down and tidy up chores done shortly after that and Jorge and I were enjoying a beer in the cockpit in T-shirts and shorts. Yes the weather has improved again. Sunny with cloudy periods and a temp of about 23C, not too bad!

Waiting for Ben Sawyer swing bridge to open before Charleston, S.C.

Bridge opening (clearance 31').

Inside Charleston Harbour - old bridge inhabited by birds.

Cruise ship in Charleston harbour.

 

I had booked a marina to keep the boat at for two weeks while we are back home and also booked our flights for Nov 14. Our close friend and Jorge's compadre, Chris, is picking us up at the airport so things are falling into place nicely. Pub night is booked for Nov 16 at 6 p.m. at the Bull and Barrel to facilitate seeing as many friends as possible. It is going to be a whirlwind trip between doing things with the kids, seeing friends and doctors' appts!

The evening was quiet. We have a week in Charleston to have some down time and do some sightseeing before heading home.

The time change has certainly brightened things up in the morning. Diana and I started laundry at 0800 this morning before leaving Georgetown. The morning was cool and a bit overcast.

We managed to weigh anchor shortly after 1100. The skies darkened and we had some rain travelling Winyah Bay outside of Georgetown. The current was against us at about 0.5 kt for an hour but then turned in our favour. Yeah, yesterday's calculations were right on! We motor sailed and highest speed was 8.8 kt SOG. The rain stopped after about an hour but remained overcast until we got to our anchorage, then the skies cleared. Because of the wind strength and direction, the first two choices of anchorages were ruled out. The third seemed to be better but it was tricky getting through the channel to the creek we wanted to anchor in (low tide). We set anchor at 1530 but reanchored at 1600, tide variation was 5 feet here and we decided to err on the side of safety.

The tide is out.

 

And Jorge said he would never be caught dead in a baseball cap! And on backwards at that!

Diana and Gilbert joined us for happy hour during which time the winds and currents were battling each other and CS'ta Time was caught in the middle. There were some strange movements of the boat as Mother Nature raged war outside. We were anchored in a marsh area with not much protection from the winds which are supposed to gust to 15 to 20 kt. At least if we drag anchor we will only end up in the mud against the weeds!

The first meal of scampi was on the menu tonight with the fresh shrimp from the boat in Georgetown.

We are beginning to adjust to the cruisers' time, 2000 is our midnight!

We awoke to a cool but wonderful day. We visited a fresh seafood market this morning. How fresh? Right off the boat fresh! And bought 2 pounds of shrimp. I have a deadly recipe for scampi so we'll get our share of cholesterol in the next couple of days.

Sign on boardwalk in Georgetown, S.C.

We picked Diana and Gilbert up in the early afternoon and headed into town. The Rice Museum was on the list of things to do today. I had no idea South Carolina was a great grower and exporter of rice in the 1800's.

Skeleton of 50' boat in museum, S.C.

Model of the 50' boat (sorry about the flash.)

Old cash register in museum.

Town clock in historic building housing the Rice Museum.

 

Historic building housing the 50' boat and artifacts from the rice plantations.

 

After the museum we found a bakery that served coffee and sweets and enjoyed them on an outdoor patio, albeit we had to move to keep in the sun and be warm. Temp was only low teens but it was sunny.

Afternoon "tea" on outdoor patio.

"Generations" scuplture - male side.

 

"Generations" sculpture - female side.

 

During the trip back to the boats after the museum and bakery, we noticed Kind of Magic from our home port of HYC was anchored in the Georgetown harbour.

We had supper with Diana and Gilbert at a restaurant of Diana's choice, she was the birthday girl! Over supper we marveled at how fortunate we were to be where we were at this stage in life. (That was a mouthful.) We discussed travelling plans for tomorrow and then headed back to the boats. The current is going to be against us until at least 1100 so it will be a late start.

Diana's birthday dinner.

 

The dinghy ride after supper was cool to say the least, glad I had my winter coat on. Decided to turn the furnace on for a bit before bed to take the chill off things.

We had a great time with Diana and Gilbert last night aboard CS'ta Time and I guess I had too much wine because I really didn't want to get out of bed this morning. Thank goodness for daylight savings time and putting the clock back an hour, it made sleeping in not so bad!

We spent most of the morning exploring getting back to Barrie options (driving vs flying), estimating where we will be in a week's time, calling marinas to check on availability and prices, etc. and still haven't come to any hard conclusions.

The walk to the grocery store in the early afternoon, (Piggly Wiggly) was enjoyable. It wasn't too far but discovered they do not offer their shuttle service back to the docks anymore and it seems the taxis don't operate on Sundays! Good thing we didn't buy too much and what we did buy wasn't too heavy. I forgot to take the camera with me so no pictures today.

We had a quiet afternoon and evening - only happy hour with ourselves. The temp today was quiet pleasant, high teens and sunny. Tonight the temp is supposed to go down to only 5C, time to pull out the woolies!

We are going to stay here in Georgetown one more day and night and hopefully do some sightseeing, visit the museum, etc. Winds and waves in the ocean are supposed to be high all week but hopefully the ICW will be fine when we are ready to move again.

Last night was a good night. The winds did blow as predicted, but we were really sheltered, and it did rain pretty hard. This morning was very overcast but we had clearing by the time we reached Georgetown.

We left the anchorage around 1000 with a 1 kt current against us. Diana and Gilbert followed shortly after. As predicted, the current changed to slack around 1130 and then we had a 1.5 to 2 kt current behind us all the way to Georgetown. What a difference it makes travelling with the current! SOG up to 7.6 kt while water speed was 5.8 kt.

Bird's next on channel marker.

Georgetown anchorage.

Dinner aboard CS'ta Time, Diana, Gilbert and Kim.

October 31, 2013

Jorge and I had decided to weigh anchor at 0800 rather than 0900. We had a stop to make along the way and needed an extra hour. Diana and Gilbert stuck with the original plan of leaving at 0900.

The morning temp was very comfortable and the forecast for travelling was good. During this stretch of the ICW the current was a mixed bag as two inlets were merging causing the water disturbance. On some stretches we had the current going with us, on other stretches the current was against us.

We were advised by another boat of shoaling at a couple of spots in the channel along the way so we stayed close to the markers hoping to avoid the areas. Unfortunately the ICW was not kind to us today and we ran aground! Really good this time. So good that Jorge was not able to get us off with just the engine. A guy in a small fishing boat took our anchor and dropped it in deeper waters and Jorge successfully winched us off the sandbar using the windlass. TowBoat US you owe us again! We lost close to an hour in doing this so we were behind the 8-ball the rest of the trip.

We got to the marina where we needed to stop at 1600. An exhibitor at the Annapolis boat show had a great deal on the newest handheld ICOM VHF radios and was honouring the price for us, so we stopped to pick one up. Jorge did the walk to the store while I stayed at the marina and took a real shower. We topped up with fuel and water and then were on our way.

We got to the anchorage shortly after 1830, (just inside the South Carolina border - another state behind us) good thing because it is getting dark earlier and earlier now. We anchored, had dinner and then were in bed early. We were hoping to be sheltered from the wind because the forecast was for 20 knot winds gusting to 25. (It was a long day and I didn't have it in me to blog last night.)

They get big tides here.

Along the way.

Another boat which has seen better days.

Same boat, different angle.

 

November 1, 2013

 

The wind did pick up last night as predicted and unfortunately the direction changed so we were not as sheltered as hoped. Jorge was up a couple of times during the night and things were not pretty. We had swung closer to shore than we would have liked (due to the change in wind direction) but the anchor was holding well and we came out smelling like a rose. The winds were supposed to increase today and tonight and come from the same direction so we decided that the anchorage was not good to wait out the weather. We were on the move again. Diana and Gilbert thought the same and left shortly before us. Our plan was to travel 13 miles and hopefully get to a free dock just north of Myrtle Beach.

 

Ok so we got to the free dock which wasn't free anymore and since it was just 1300 and the travelling had been relatively good, we decided to push on. A bit later, the going wasn't as good, we were battling both a good head wind and current making the going slow. Oh well.

 

We set anchor around 1700 at our new destination point. Diana and Gilbert anchored shortly before us. The anchorage, again, has us sheltered from the wind predicted, let's hope the wind direction doesn't change overnight again! Diana and Gilbert joined us for happy hour and tonight it really was only happy "hour".

 

Jorge has been troubleshooting a battery charging issue and thinks he might have it solved. My McIver!

 

Waiting for a bridge to open.

 

Bridge open.

South Carolina vegetation along the ICW.

Gnarly tree in our anchorage, South Carolina.

 

Spanish moss on tree in anchorage.

South Carolina temperature 27C on Nov 1!