What day is it?

What day is it?

Cant remember what day it is, they say it's one of the delights of being retired. It really doesn't matter. Still it's a bit disconcerning when you have a heated discussion on what the day is. I wouldn't say the discussion that Vince and I had was heated, but we did discuss the matter.... at length. Decided it was Tuesday. 

 We are in a fine anchorage about 1/3 of the way to Savannah. 

Sunset

Charleston Monday

Monday

Sunday night we were late finding a marina, at the beginning of the day finding somewhere to stay looked easy, lots of anchorages and marinas. However all the anchorages were very exposed and didn't look suitable as the forcaste was not good. Marinas were full! At the last moment before the sun faded we found a marina with space. Not the best we have stayed in but welcome.

  So Monday morning we depart for Charleston Habour Marina, just an hour away.

 This marina is also a resort with hotels etc, we borrow a couple of bikes from the hotel to do our shopping . It's tricky crossing six lanes of traffic on a bike but we make it back safely. Off to Charleston on free bus, charleston has lots of old rather grand houses, quite European , in places you would guess you were in London , Paris or Madrid not USA. Had a great meal , ate shrimp and grits. Was surprised to find out that grits was not some sort of offal but is actually like polenta.

Krill are cleaning the hull of our boat. Krill are small crustaceans and they nibble away at all the crud on the hull. Inside the boat you can hear them, it sounds like high frequency light tapping , almost as if the hull is creaking. Very strange when all is quite in the night.

View of our Marina taken from town of Charleston.

Alligator

Most notable thing today was a sighting of the first alligator, it was swimming across the ICW just in front of us could only see eyes and nose poking above the water. No more swimming!

Very poor photo of it, can you spot it?

Thursday/Friday/Saturday

Thursday

Weather looks a little better and improvement is promised. It is still blowing a bit and raining but we are off , most of the  ICW travellers are off too everybody heads south. 

Only did 23 miles it was cold and wet, full waterproofs were needed just like sailing in the UK ! Got a berth at a restaurant / bar , watched American football whilst eating a hamburger. I might just be getting into the culture.

Friday 

46 miles is the plan today, ocean isle marina. Places to drop anchor are few and far between on this section.

Turned out that ocean isle marina is for motor boats and people fishing, so we pushed on to one of the few anchorages. As we arrived the sun came out and it looked a beautiful place to stop, unfortunately we went the wrong side of a red marker. In our defence half of it had dropped of and there was no red visible but we should of known that shape being triangular meant it was red. We didn't come to a sudden stop , bottom must have been muddy, luckily the engine is pretty powerful and we reversed our way out of it. Would have been nasty to get stuck there as the tide still had 2 or 3 feet to fall. Another attempt the correct side of the red marker gave pretty shallow water so decided to continue up river to a marina.

 The Myrtle Yacht Club sounds like an expensive place to stop, I thought we were going to face some hefty charges however for 51 dollars we got a bargain as it include electric and a car for an hour! The car was supposed to be to pick up supplies , as it was close to the time when the marina office closes the guy said drop the keys through the letter box. So we had a car for the night! Off to myrtle beach, worth seeing , fine beach and board walk, otherwise is was an American Blackpool. We are just inside South Carolina  , the state laws must change as there are lots of firework supermarkets, and casinos I guess firework sales and casinos are illegal in north Caroline.

 Saturday

Latest start yet , must have been 8.30 before we pulled away from the mooring. 

The tidal currents along the ICW are a mystery to me. Around myrtle beach where the ICW is fed from inlet from the sea and across marshland the tidal current turns this way and that, one moment you can be zooming along at 8 knots then you pass an inlet and you are going 4. Totally unpredictable. Having said that today we have had adverse tides most of the way , we entered the Waccamaw river and had 1.5 knots against us all the way.

Do you fancy a new house with ICW frontage ? Not me.

 For our anchorage tonight we picked a beautiful spot, sand beach up an inlet very quiet and remote. So we thought! It's Saturday night and one after the other boats appeared and parked themselves on the sand. Boats with delightful names like 'Hey Baby' and ' Pink Panty Pull Down'.  I have to say 'Pink Panty Pull Down' had a super stereo system, it would put most club stereos to shame, very loud no distortion , I could feel the bass on my chest. Couldn't hear what Vince was saying though , as we ate our steak for supper. I swear I could see standing waves on the water. Unfortunately their taste in music wasn't great , american rock that hadn't gone anywhere since The Eagles. Mercifully they left as the light faded, another lesson in American culture.

Our anchorage, just after sunset.and after disco left!

October 9th Groundhog Day 2
We appear to be in the marine equivalent of Groundhog Day. The wind is blowing 20 knots, gusting more, and the gray clouds are scudding across the sky bringing showers or heavy rain.
Each day we think that tomorrow it will be better and each day our optimism is unfounded.
It's the remnants of tropical storm Karen and instead of marching it's way up the East coast it's parked itself off Cape Hatteras.
Reminded me of being stuck in Jail in Monopoly, each time the die comes around we have to pass. Still tomorrow is our third morning maybe we can get out then.

To make matters worse, I thought I had got rid of all the leaks in the boat. Turns out I was wrong.

I guess we should count our blessings, we are somewhere safe (and relatively cheap) and the people here are incredibly helpful. This place is definitely not your typical marina. It even has an artistic display of marine artifacts.

Phil wearing his signature All Weather shorts (Note - read sign)

We had some entertainment yesterday when a big motor boat came in to the other side of the dock from us but the wind decided it wasn't going to be that easy. We had everybody on the dock trying to help. It even including the old comedy routines like "Throw us a line!" and "You should have tied it on first" as the line falls short and sinks down into the mud. Phil saved the situation by throwing our new 130' halyard to them and pulling them in (he did tie it on first).
Today we borrowed the "courtesy car" and went grocery shopping more for something to do than out of necessity. We carried on to North Topsail Beach to see the Atlantic.

Phil on the beach talking to... (oh,you already know that part)

Here's the entrance to the marina. The Pelicans seemed resolute about sitting on their piles (poles that is :) despite the 20 knot wind but they admitted defeat yesterday.

More of the same

Wednesday more rain more wind, I've done all my laundry , stocked boat with food, and worried about weather. There are diverse opinions on whether it's going to be better tomorrow but that big old depression in the Atlantic keeps growing and funnelling nasty weather our way. However I'm optimistic.

This is how Vince spent his day, wind howling outside, nice and comfy behind the laptop.

(He came shopping too)

 I promised catherine I would take at least one photo a day, this is today's.

This is me the other side of the table.

Bad weather

When we left Beaufort the wind was on the beam at about 15 knots, perfect for a good sail, unless you are constrained by a narrow channel and need some ability to negotiate other crafts. So we hoisted a small jib to help the engine and were aided by a healthy tide flow which altogether pushed us along at 8+ knots.

 We were sailing down the coast in a lagoon, the ICW is cut through a lagoon at this stage, normal depth is max 6 feet min close to 2 , the ICW is 12 feet plus. However there are bits which are unpredictable low and we found one, it didn't delay us long maybe only a few seconds as we painfully scraped along the bottom.

Just in case like me you were not sure http://www.sms.si.edu/irlspec/Whatsa_lagoon.htm

 Tuesday

We have hit a bit of bad weather, 2 inches of rain was forecast today and they were probably right, high winds to match. However we are in a lovely little marina pinned up by the high winds to our berth. It's small cheap and very friendly, just the place in bad weather , they put on a free lunch of chilli today .  Several other boats are her too waiting for good weather , this should arrive on Thursday when our journey will resume, we have had great weather so far so we deserve a couple of days of bad.

Have a look at  http://radblast.wunderground.com/cgi-bin/radar/WUNIDS_map?station=MHX&brand=wui&num=6&delay=15&type=N0R&frame=0&scale=0.750&noclutter=0&lat=34.70833206&lon=-77.44277954&label=New+River+Marine+Corps+Air+Station%252C+NC&showstorms=0&map.x=400&map.y=240&centerx=448&centery=196&transx=48&transy=-44&showlabels=1&severe=0&rainsnow=0&lightning=0&smooth=0 

We are at Swanpoint Marina