The day began at 3 am when I woke up and something seemed wrong. Getting out of bed, I realized that the boat was tipping at an angle. Last night at about 10 pm a marine policeman came by and told us we had to move closer to shore because at high tide we would end up in the middle of Broad Creek’s channel. We were reluctant to move. First, it was high tide when he came and we were not in the channel. We didn’t want to get closer to the grassy shore as there is about a 4-5 ft tidal change and low tide was coming during the night. In the photo at the left taken after we dropped the anchor yesterday, we were already close to shore. Also, we never like to move the anchor when it is dark. Other boats in the anchorage were farther out towards the channel than us, and during the night few if any boats would be coming past us before we would be leaving at 4:30 am. However, those other boats didn’t have anyone on them and we were the only boat in the anchorage with our anchor light on. I guess that wasn’t important to the policeman. I guess we were the only people he could find to assert his authority on. We moved closer to shore and went to sleep.
When we looked outside at 3 am, we were on dry ground on the starboard side and titling. The port side was still in water, but also aground. I was actually worried that we would tip over, but Mark assured me we wouldn’t. He went back to sleep, while Daisy and I sat out on the deck and watched until the tide started coming in. Low tide was at 4:30 am and since there was a full moon the low and high tides were more extreme than normal. At about 6 am the water was high enough to attempt using the anchor and the props to get us off the bottom. We were able to get free and we headed down Broad Creek to the inlet by 6:15. It takes two hours to get out to the ocean from this anchorage. We were going against the incoming tide in the channel, so could only get up to 5 kts on the way out. Once we made the turn north along the coast we went to 7 kts and averaged 7.5 kts the entire trip to Charleston, even though the winds remained lower than 5 kts most of the way. We had 3-5 ft swells but since they were from behind, we merely surfed on them. We had to go out ten miles to avoid shoaling and shallow water, and then another ten miles in when we arrived at the Charleston channel. The total trip was 92 miles from the Hilton Head anchorage to the Charleston Maritime Center Marina.
It was a pleasant trip with clear skies. The generator performed well and didn’t stop running until about 3:30 pm when it started to die and then charged back up. It did this several times until it finally died. Mark restarted it and all was well. We will need to get this fixed as it has been a problem all the way north from Ft. Lauderdale. When we were just a few miles from the channel entrance into Charleston Harbor, the sky grew dark over the land. Then the Coast Guard came on the VHF radio announcing that there was a severe weather warning for the coastal South Carolina area, including Charleston Harbor. The storm had up to 60 kt winds and was heading northeast at 20 kts, directly toward us. We quickly took down the sails and prepared to battle the wind and waves. Various reports came over the radio from boats in trouble. A 40 ft catamaran had somehow lost its anchor in a Charleston anchorage and was headed out to sea. We heard a call from a boat out of fuel, unable to get ashore. The Coast Guard continued to advise all boaters to find a safe harbor.
As we entered the jetties, we saw a small fishing boat near the rocks, presumably waiting out the storm rather than heading in. We had heard them calling for anyone in the channel, but there was no way we could get near the rocky jetty to help them. There were numerous small fishing boats passing us trying to get to safety. We are always shocked at people who go miles out into the ocean in these small boats, especially when the seas are rough as they were today, with storms approaching. Some of the small boats going past us at full speed had young children aboard.
Fortunately, the storm went over us quickly and we were only in 25 kts winds with some higher gusts for a few minutes. We’re not sure if they ever reached the predicted 60 kts in this storm system. The photo at the top of this blog page shows the storm clouds after they had passed over us, headed out to sea. However, more clouds were approaching us as we came through the jetties toward the harbor and the storm warnings were still in effect for Charleston Harbor. An added worry was the generator. We are still able to use the electric engine when we lose the power from the generator, but it doesn’t give us quite as much power and uses up our batteries. For some reason, the generator continued to run well in the inlet, even though every time this has happened since we left Ft. Lauderdale, we’ve lost power while leaving the ocean through a channel. As we passed the Ravenel Bridge, the skies were clearing, but we weren’t home free yet. (The Author Ravenel Bridge in Charleston is the longest cable supported bridge in the United States. It runs from Charleston across the Cooper River to Mt. Pleasant. )
The Maritime Center is very easy to get into and we knew where our slip was located. In the photo at the right, the Maritime Center is to the left of the tall condo building in the center. As we entered the marina, the generator suddenly quit. It almost seemed like it was holding off until we were safely in the marina. Perhaps our guardian angel was watching over us once again. Without time to try to restart the generator, the electric engine provided enough power to get us over to the dock. No one was around to help us, but there was no current, the wind was down to a few kts and it was easy to throw the lines over the cleats on the floating dock.
Finally, we are at our summer/fall home in Charleston. We left Ft. Lauderdale ten days ago, stopping for three days in Port Canaveral, so it took us seven days of motorsailing to get here. We only did one overnight, from Ft. Lauderdale to Port Canaveral. Next time we take this route, we might just bite the bullet and go straight through.
We are presently docked right behind another Lagoon 420,
Mirasol. Gregg and Jen made the same trip we did from Ft. Lauderdale, but they did it in one shot and it took them 2 1/2 days. Our plan had been to get the mast cut down and take the ICW part of the way but we ran out of time to do it. However, overall, it was an easy trip on the Atlantic. Now we can rest for a few days, get
Seas the Day cleaned outside and in, pack up what we are bringing back to our storage garage in Minnesota, and leave on Saturday. By the middle of July we’ll be back here with our car, ready to enjoy the Charleston area again......beaches, yoga class, dog park, great historical sites to visit, museums, shopping, day trips in the car, bike riding, etc.
First on the agenda is to ride our bikes a few blocks to East Bay Deli for sandwiches and then another few blocks to Harris Teeter for groceries. Tomorrow morning, Daisy will get reacquainted with her buddies at the dog park across the street.
