August 17, 2007 Destination: CHARLESTON

We got off early this morning to make an early arrival at Charleston – need to do a provisioning run to the Harris Teeter and we need to do laundry.

We had a good run up to Charleston but with a slight adverse current. As we crossed into the narrow waterway immediately preceding the Bascule bridge just as you enter Charleston harbour the current increased and had us under 5 knots. It was going to be close to make the bridge opening. I had been babying the engine all the way so far – 200 RPM. It was time to drop the hammer. I increased RPMs to 2400 and this was the first time we heard the Turbo kick in – SOG increased to 6.2 knots!! We made the bridge opening,,,

We arrived around noon. The wind had really piped up and was setting on the dock. They gave me a location way out on the outside of the Fuel dock. I turned around to face the current, then crabbed in with the bow trying to face into the wind. With fenders out we made a soft landing on the pier. Damn there was room on the inside!! It was blowing us too hard against the dock to think about moving now – this was going to be home sweet home.

We had a fine lunch at the Marina Restaurant but they had put us so far out there it was a ¼ mile walk just to the parking lot!! They brag about there 3000 feet of dock space but man it’s a long walk.


After lunch it was off to Harris Teeter in the Courtesy shuttle – ouch – dropped $208. Kourtney said we bought too much beer. Hey – I feed my crew well.

On the way back to the boat I pulled or bruised a tendon in my left ankle -- boy did it swell up. There would be no going out to dinner tonight!


Back on the boat I cooked the fresh shrimp and made a salad for dinner. But first we had sundowners, cheese and smoked oyster.

While Kourtney and Buck went off to do Laundry I met some cruisers on the same fuel dock as us. We had a nice chat and all were complaining about the heat.
The AC and everything else but the fresh water system was working fine on the boat. Boy we all slept well this night.