This morning
brings another milestone for us: Charleston! We left Prince Creek at 0750, with hopes of
getting into Charleston by 1100/1130…but first we would have to make the last
swing bridging into Charleston on time..We were late…again, but the bridge let
us come through anyways! We passed that
first hurtle at 1100…now onto the second!
Charleston is an
old city, which means an old port. There
are 2 marinas, one huge one located just outside the city’s main anchoring field,
the other just north of the downtown area.
The huge one has a dinghy dock for those anchored out in the field…Both
Mike and I had read many, many reviews about this anchorage: most were that the location is excellent, but
the atmosphere is not. The anchoring
area contains derelict boats, some at moorings, some partially sunk, and some
washed ashore…all not a very telling visual.
Many of the reviews on activecaptaion.com stated loosing an anchor: it would become stuck on the debris at the
bottom of the area. They all suggested using
an anchor trip line to help retrieve the anchor when you are ready to leave.
For whatever reason, I was not feeling to anchor there. I called the 2 marinas: both were booked until the following morning…shoot,
we would anchor anyway! We chose what we
felt was a good spot: we passed our
friend Kissimmet and our pirate friend so figured if they were here, we should
be safe! We dropped anchor (and trip
line). We sat on the boat for close to 2
hours to monitor her holding: she was
sound! I still felt weird and knowing
the row would be insane across channel, took Salty with us in our exploration
of Charleston for the day.
We planned on
walking along the waterfront to the downtown area: something we didn’t do when visiting last
April. We passed many huge old houses
and explored White Point Garden, one of the original battery/gun locations from
pre civil war days (or I should say “the
war”, there is only one down here.) As we meandered around the downtown
area some more, we both became ravenous!
While looking for a place to eat that would be dog friendly, we stumbled
upon a take out place located next to its main restaurant: Hymen’s.
Unbeknownst to us, this is “the” place to get good southern food in Charleston! The line for the restaurant was out the door,
but we were hitting up the express, so just had to wait for our food to be
done! I decided to get shrimp and grits,
which came with fries, coleslaw and hush puppies for 6.00! Mike got the low country chowder and a
seafood Panini. Once we had our goodies,
we went in search of a place to devour the food…and devour we did! Those hush puppies were fried bits of
heaven!!! And my shrimp…mmmm…so good,
and soooo bad for you! We explored some
more, even managed to watch some of a adult league rugby game (Mike’s first experience with the game) but then started the long way back to the
boat: we knew we would be stuck on her
for the rest of this night, as the tide would have changed to get us back to
the boat…and we didn’t want to fight it to come back out.
With rapidly beating
hearts, we head off to our boat! Nothing
can describe the feeling of seeing your boat not where you left it, about .75
miles away, and only .25 m from the Savannah breakwater…with the current
running that way! We board the boat,
expecting to find some more notes about how idiotic we are, ect. A guard at the Coast Guard station yells out
to us: we thought we were in trouble for the boat being so close to them! But he just wanted Mike to verify who he was,
and that we were indeed the owners of this run away boat…the guard did holler “you
should put more line out next time”…yea, it took a lot for mike to not say
anything back to him, as we did put enough line out! Both of us were ashamed and embarrassed! We knew both the marinas were full; we had nowhere else to go but back to the
anchorage! With heads hung low, we
motored back over to the field, expecting the other boaters to point and laugh
at us! I was at the helm while Mike was
about to drop the anchor again when “You and I, You and I, this is WindAway,
over” came across the radio. I grabbed
the radio and replied back. Windaway
advised us to NOT anchor where we were at the time..Mike grabbed the radio from
me and started talking to Phil:
Kissemet, WindAway, and 2 other boats we never met saw us dragging down
the channel, got into their dinghy’s (with motors) and as Mike says, became the
“super cruisers” to rangle down a runaway boat!
When they reset our anchor, they found a large piece of metal attached
to the trip line: the freaking trip line
got stuck on some wreck at the bottom.
When the tide changed, the trip line stayed where it was, hitting the
keel in the swing. The trip line pulled
the anchor up, hence the runaway boat! We then try to find another good spot to
anchor, this time closer to the bridge:
with the view of a ketch half sunk, its 2 mast sticking out of the water
we hesitated to drop the hook here as well!
Again, over the radio “you and I, this is Kissemet, over”. He advises us to not drop hook here, our
other boat rescuer already lost his anchor there this morning (meaning it is
stuck on something at the bottom and there is no way to pull it up), the boat
also lost its chain, as the whole thing broke off! Not sure what to do, we ask Kissemet if we
can anchor near him, his reply “No, don’t come near us, my anchor is
stuck. I will have to cut it loose in
the morning when we leave”. WTF! 2 anchors and a runaway boat!!! When we finally did drop the hook again, the
sun had completely set, like it or not, we were staying put (hopefully) were we
were….many, many drinks later we stayed up for the tide change, and didn’t go
cruising down the river this time! We
barely slept though that night, constantly waiting up from every noise or wake
movement thinking we were drifting!
10/21/2012 =>Charleston, SC (maritime
marina)
By 0700, we headed
over to the downtown side marina, hoping they would have a space available for
us that early in the morning!...and they did, thank the Lawd! I could have kissed the floating dock, I was
so happy to be “moored” to something!!! After settling into the marina (staff
was very cute, fyi!), walking salty, showering, and making much deserved
pancakes, we again set off to explore Charleston, sans Salty this time. Boht of us very much wanted to see Fort
Sumter! You can only get there by boat,
and through one company. We thought it
would be super expensive, but was very reasonable and just up dock from where
we were! Its 30 minutes out, hour and a
half at the fort, then 30 minutes back.
We really enjoyed seeing the fort and learning some new stuff: what the confederate flag really looks like,
what the fort when under, that South Carolina LOVES to be the “first” in
everything…ha!
After the tour,
we made a stop at a close grocery store; Harris Teeter. Mike had gone in the day before to check it
out, said I would love it as “it’s if Trader Joe’s and Shoprite had a southern
baby”, ha! He was right! I like this store! Cheap with good selection, woo!
When we got back
to the dock, we made friends with our neighbors and then had dinner: we scheduled a ghost walking tour of
Charleston/graveyards that night too!
The tour was fun, though I didn’t at all feel creeped out in any way! Mike on the other hand got super cold in one
of the graveyards and caught something funny on a picture he took from his
phone...we will let you believe what you think!
Afterwards, we hit up Wet Willies:
a frozen margarita/daiquiri bar.
The drinks are cheap and all in slushi machinces behind the bar! We had
stopped here last April as well! And
they are opening one in NYC, for your information! I would make a stop there when it opens, but
most likely it will be in a tourist section and just annoying to be in…We got
abck to the boat late…and very exhausted!
Happy to be at a marina for the night thoughJ
