As we were rolling and bouncing into the Wassaw Inlet, it made me think that they couldn't make a carnival ride this crazy--right, left, up, down, backward, forward. We were being tossed every which way. Good thing we're used to it!
As we were coming up to the place we had chosen to anchor, we saw dolphins. Oh, happy day. We decided to eat dinner out in the cockpit tonight so that we can watch for more. Yes, while we ate, we saw many dolphins, some quite close to the boat. While I was below, dishing out dinner, Carey saw one dolphin come up behind the boat, look at him and our Canadian flag, and then dip under. So cool! He just wanted to make sure we were friendly Canadians. Haha.
Unfortunately, the bugs have returned. We have been pretty much bug-free for the past several months in the Caribbean, but now we've run into them again. Lots of small flies alighted on our boat tonight. I guess we're back to reality. Thank goodness we have our screens installed!
Tuesday, April 25, 2017
This turned out to be a good anchorage for us. It isn't a recognized anchorage, just a spot that we thought looked good and that was relatively protected from the high winds last night. We are on the Wilmington River, which has a fairly strong current when the tide is coming in or out, but, with the peace of mind from our Mantus anchor, we had a quiet and peaceful night's sleep.
After a relaxing breakfast at anchor, we lifted the hook and were on the way by 8:30. Carey had to toss a tiny hermit crab overboard, because it came up with the anchor chain!
We have reached the point that we have to exchange our Caribbean chart micro SD card for our North American card in our chart plotter. I guess that means that we've left the Caribbean behind. Sad, but true. Onward north!
At 10:50, finally out of the inlet and able to turn north (yes, it took that long!) , we raised the sails and turned off the engine. We were getting a huge fluctuation in winds--from 13 to 21 knots--so it was really hard to trim the sails just right. What's right for 13 knots is way too much sail for 21 knots. We compromised, and ended up moving between 5 and 8 knots. We still have 38 miles before we get to the inlet that we are headed to for overnight. Then, it's another 10 miles, at least, before we get to our anchorage. That's around another 8 hours before we anchor. The good news is that we are getting longer days of sunlight, so if we arrive at 6:30 or 7:00pm, it's still light. However, it still makes for a long day.
We sailed by Hilton Head Island while we ate lunch. No golfing on the agenda for us today, though. By then, the wind had calmed considerably, so we put out the Code Zero. That didn't last long. By 1:30, the wind had died and turned to our stern. We furled the Code Zero and motorsailed. Grrrrr.
It took us an hour and a half to get in through the channel to the inlet and to anchor. We need to find inlets that don't have such long entrance channels. These long ones just add so many miles and hours onto our days.
Wednesday, April 26, 2017
Carey removed the snubber at 7:30, then lifted anchor and we were on our way. It took us almost two hours to get out of the channel and turning northeast toward Charleston.
For my birthday, I made French Toast for breakfast on the road. Then, I did my birthday dishes. Carey's idea was to buy me a new spinnaker for my birthday. Yup, still Mr. Romantic, even at sea.
By 3:00, we turned into the South Channel toward Charleston. There are lots of beautiful homes along the shore as well as expensive boats going by. Also, there is an impressive suspension bridge to our north.
We dropped the hook for the night at 3:30 near Fort Johnson. We will anchor tonight and then move to the Charleston City Marina tomorrow morning.
As we enjoyed our appetizers, we watched several dolphins lazily swimming in the anchorage, pelicans and terns diving for their supper, and a turtle came up right beside the boat. So cool! We love the nature show.
Carey is fascinated by the aircraft carrier that is docked across the channel, and the sailboats, coast guard boats, and Navy boats going by. Me, I'm thrilled with the dolphins.
Thursday, April 27, 2017
After breakfast, we added water to the bowthruster batteries. This is always a time consuming process, because the batteries are under the vee berth bed. It takes two of us to do this. By 10:30, we were ready to move the 2 miles upriver to the Charleston City Marina. While lifting the anchor, I saw a couple of dolphins nearby.
We got to the marina quickly. First, we docked on the outside of the megadock, but we were blown onto the dock, which is not our choice. Too noisy with the fenders squeaking all night and too rough when boats go by. They found another slip for us on the inside of the megadock, so we had to move. However, that meant that we had to get off the existing dock, into the wind. Aaarrrggghhhh! This is not easy! Our bow is so high that we are strongly blown onto the dock, even with bowthrusters working against the wind. We tried to "spring off" (using a stern line attached and motoring backwards to get the bow into the wind), but there was a small boat right in front of us and we couldn't get past it. The dock guys walked us back on the dock and we tried that strategy again. After three tries, we were able to leave the dock. Then came the fun part of docking while being blown off the dock. I'm getting really good at throwing dock lines, so that helped, because I got lines into the dock guys' hands right away. Then, they struggled to pull us in. Carey was on the helm and had to reverse to keep us off of the mega yacht in front of us. A half hour later, we were firmly tied up. Phew, time for lunch!
After lunch, we took the shuttle into Charleston. There are horse drawn carriages taking people on tours here.
We strolled around looking at the sights, booked a walking tour for tomorrow, went through the market on Market Street where lots of vendors were selling everything from handwoven baskets to tee shirts to fresh lemonade, and then wandered to the waterfront. We always end up on the waterfront. From there, we walked to La Farfalle, an Italian Restaurant. We had a delicious meal and then called the shuttle to take us back to the marina.
Friday, April 28, 2017
This morning, we got up, caught the shuttle, and had breakfast at Toast in town. I had a rendition of Eggs Benedict, but it was an egg on a crab cake on a green fried tomato with a sauce on top. Carey had the real Eggs Benedict, his favourite. We deemed both renditions delicious.
Since we had a little bit of time before our tour, we walked to Market Street to look for a Canadian flag. The guy selling flags knew Sarnia well, because he grew up just outside of Port Huron. His graduating class came to Tang's Chinese Restaurant on Cromwell for their dinner. Small world! Unfortunately, he was out of Canadian flags.
Then, we walked to our meeting place for our tour. We were going on a historical walking tour of Charleston. Our guide reminded both of us so much of my sister, Diny. She was very knowledgeable about the history and architecture. Very interesting. We walked the streets for over two hours.
Unfortunately, it was sweltering and humid. By the time we were finished, we were exhausted and our backs and feet hurt from all of the standing. Time for a rest. We headed for a restaurant that was down an alley called 82 Queen (which just happens to be its address). What a lovely respite. The restaurant had air conditioning, linen table napkins, excellent service, and beautiful glossy dark wood tables and chairs. The best part was that the prices were extremely reasonable. I had a Queens Salad and Carey had pulled pork on a bun. Both were delicious.
Rejuvenated, we left there and walked to the Harris Teeter Grocery Store. This place was huge and had beautiful produce, homemade bread, and lots of everything else you could imagine. We stocked up on a few things, then called the shuttle to come pick us up.
Once we were back on the boat, we did the laundry, filled the water tanks, topped off the fuel tank, and washed the boat. There's always so much to do.
By the time we had a late dinner, we were ready to relax and have an early night.
Saturday, April 29, 2017
The tides are quite high (about 5-6 feet) here in Low Country. That means that they create quite a current when they are ebbing and flowing (which is approximately every 6 hours). Because of the tides, they recommend leaving the dock at slack tide. That's just after it reaches either high or low tide and is just about to turn. That gives us a fifteen minute window to get off the dock.
Unfortunately for us, high tide isn't until 11:10 this morning. That means we have to wait until then to leave. Of course, this wreaks havoc with our schedule because we can't get to the next inlet in the time left in the day. Therefore, we will leave here, go two miles downriver and anchor at Fort Johnson overnight. That's where we saw the dolphins, so it's not a bad place to hang around.
Carey is due for a haircut, so that's first on the list for today.
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