Cruise what you got!!

We had a surprise last night. About 7pm I receive a phone call from the dock master telling me that the porters were here and would someone be aboard to let them take the luggage!! I looked at Karen and said “Are you leaving me?? Wait you don’t have any luggage!”. They had me confused with another Temptation here – a mega yacht!! I hope they don’t mix our bills tomorrow!!





WOW – what a night at the dock!! It was rolly in here all afternoon and it rained all day. We watched the radar and could see the end of the rain coming in about 2 hours. At 9:00pm the wind had clocked to the North and about 4 kts. It was getting downright comfortable here. We went to bed a little before 10 pm. About 11 pm I was awakened by sharp movements from the boat. It was pouring a torrential rain and the wind was howling. I checked the direction and it had clocked to ESE or right back where it was on our unsheltered quarter. It was rocking here -- very uncomfortable. I had 6 bumpers between me and the dock and they were getting worked hard to keep me off. It was raining and blowing so hard I even had some water blow in from under a hatch – not much but it annoyed me. Finally by midnight it had nearly stopped raining and the wind had died and backed to the north. It was slowly quieting down.

Looking at the statistics today there was 6 inches of rain down by 6pm yesterday and then from around 9pm till midnight it rained another 3 inches!! Charleston saw a lot of flooding last night. This was an unusual event for them. Chris called it right when he said this would be a “doozy” of a storm.

Early this morning I was surveying the boat and the dock when an older bearded fellow came in with a ragged tired old canoe with an electric trolling motor. He had been on anchor last night. He said “that was some storm”, I agreed, then he said “the canoe sunk and I had raise it this morning sop I could come in”. Now that is an indomitable spirit – wish I had taken a picture of him in that canoe.

Today we just putz around and made a couple of trips to town on the shuttle for more provisioning and did a couple more loads of laundry. . It will be awhile before provisioning will be this easy again.

Today the photo theme is “cruise what you got”. I’ve got a lone cruiser sailing into the sunset of a small sailboat and a couple of pictures of mega yachts at the dock here in Charleston. The one of “Chevy Toy” is an example of no matter how much money you have it still doesn’t buy good taste. The owner is the local Chevy dealer -- Hey you have got to sell a lot of cars at $1 over invoice to buy that boat!!

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Why Mutiny??

Why do crew mutiny?? Maybe when the captain says “Swab the decks in a rain storm!”.
It’s a nasty afternoon here in Charleston. We have had heavy rain since morning, the wind is blowing between 20 and 27 MPH and the direction is now ESE which is a BAD direction. No shelter from this direction and thus the boat is quite lively here. Not for the uninitiated I assure you.

Ohh the crewman in the picture – he has been out there for hours today. I can’t explain it but he doesn’t seem too concerned.

It has been a good day to spend on the free WiFi here and just surf the internet and tie up loose ends in business matters.

Still I took time to do some pesky chores like cleaning the shower drains and sump filters – no crew to order about on this boat!! We have some lighting strips in the galley that have been intermittent – flickering – so I cleaned some contacts and reinstalled. Then a good afternoon for the ultimate luxury – a nap!!


I was also playing with some figures for the statistically inclined:

When we arrived yesterday I fueled the boat. It took on only 43 gallons -- by my calculation I thought it would take 60 – 65 gallons so I was surprised.
My burn rate by the previous owner was 1.4 gallon per hour. I have run for 59.5 hours and 7 hours on the genset for a total of 59.5 hours. That puts my consumption at 0.72 gallons per hour.. Not bad but clearly I have not loaded the engine down much.

We have traveled 293.0 miles or 6.8 mi/gal.
Also that put the average speed at 5.5 mi/hr. I’ll push harder on the next leg just to how the boat behaves not that I’m in any hurry.

Looks like the adjustable prop needs another adjustment. Possibly when I’m in the gin clear waters of the Bahamas and an area with no current I’ll disassemble the prop under water and adjust it – good thing I brought the scuba gear.

Ahhhh Charleston awaiting weather

Whiteside Creek turned out to be a great anchorage. It got a little crowded with 5 boats. The wind died at Sundown and was very nice. Unfortunately it was cloudy so sky watching was not good. There are a lot of strange but interesting sounds in a tidal marsh and that was interesting though. Things did become worrisome around 4 am when the wind came back. I was concerned about the neighbors but all the boats stuck well and there were no problems. Our only concern was that the wind stay under 25 MPH until we reach the Ben Sawyer Swing bridge. It will not open if the winds are above 25 and I didn't want to get stuck on this side of Charleston with heavy weather threatening. Fortunately they were only 17 kts when we got there for the 9am opening.


Temptation did me proud today. She has burnt me over some little stuff in the past but she has always been an easy boat to dock – much to my surprise considering her windage, length, and mass.

The conditions today were not good. They had small craft advisory out for Charleston Harbour and we had to transit the entire breadth. The wind was blowing 15 – 20 with gusts to 27 NE but we got across slowly yet comfortable. Shipped no water on the top sides.

Then came the dock – ohhh I’m still not comfortable docking this big baby. Luckily they decided to put us inside the Mega Dock. Much calmer than the outside but more difficult to navigate. We came in and the dock master signaled my spot -- ohhh boy maybe 50 feet between a mega yacht (that’s a million dollar plus boat) and a personal trawler remember – I’m 42 foot! We had protection from the strongest gusts and the current was coming at me. I eased it in and all looked good till the dock master cringed a little – I was getting close to the bow of the mega yacht. Fortunately I laid her right into the center, backed her down, and the wind pressed me against the dock till the lines were tight. Ohhh boy it was beer 30 even if it was only 10:30am.

There is a really large severe weather system coming in tonight with heaviest winds and rain tomorrow into Saturday. We will stay here till Sunday and reprovision the boat and do laundry and take Beau coup HOT showers – the slip rate is now $2 a foot so I expect to use a LOT of hot water.

"If your not moving then the anchor is holding"

Yes we heard that on the radio today. Apparently a cruiser on the ICW lost engine power and had asked the coast guard for assistance. It was a TIRESOME exchange. The coast guard was trying to determine if the boat was drifting or not and that was the exchange – incredible!!

We had a GREAT FAST run from Georgetown to Whiteside Creek – 48nm. We left at nearly low tide and had a favorable if not great current all the way. Across Winyah Bay I was hitting 8.8kts!! The combination of 15-20 kts NE wind and the current had us flying today.

The trip was nearly uneventful. We did run aground or actually into mud near R18 across the South Santee River. We were only 1 hour from low tide there. No problems – just powered away – luckily.

We made the anchorage here just a little after 2pm. Gosh years ago it took me from 7am till 5pm to make this leg in the ol Luna Sea but then I did not have this great current that I had today.

Should be great if not cold star gazing from here tonight. We are about 15 miles from Charleston and so little light pollution out here in the marsh grasses.

We expect to be in Charleston from tomorrow until Sunday while this – in Chris Parker’s assessment – “vigorous low pressure scoots up the South East coast” Friday and Saturday. Time for more indoor projects and a couple of major provisioning runs to the GREAT Harris Teeter in this town. I’m nearly out of tonic water!!

Just another day in Georgetown, SC

First off I need to thank John from ‘Ching Ching’ for the fine red table wine he gave me – Excellent --- Cantina Zaccagnini.

Ahhh another day in Georgetown. With the mild conditions here I’m comfortably anchored on the waterfront, however if any weather threatened I would be in a marina here. The holding is poor.

Today we took a long dinghy ride over to Georgetown Landing Marina and I bought 3.5 gallons of gas for the dinghy – it is all it would take. My ulterior motive was to ask to leave the dinghy there awhile so we could go shopping at Schoefield Provision company a short walk away. It is actually a very nice and well stocked hardware store that also specializes in high end performance outdoor wear like North Face, etc. at discount prices.

We didn’t buy much but we enjoyed the shopping. Then a long ride back to the boat for lunch.

Afterwards we visited the Rice Museum and took the tour. Very interesting and I highly recommend it. I had no idea that in 1850 Georgetown was the leading exporter of rice in the world!! There was 40,000 acres under cultivation back then – none today though.

Then we went to the fish house nearby and bought some fresh Trigger fish filets for dinner tonight and just had to have some of those fresh SC Shrimps for shrimp cocktails… Ummmm good.

I also came across an antique NCR Cash register. I just had to have its picture.

You probably didn’t know this but I was one of the pioneers in developing the electronic POS registers used today when I worked for NCR back in 1974 – 1976. I wrote software for the printer and CRT drivers and specialized in memory tests for the then very new and untried dynamic RAM memory. Ahh a walk down memory lane briefly.




Looking forward to another quiet night here on the waterfront and tomorrow we will head to near Charleston but anchor in one of the creeks so we can enter Charleston Harbor Thursday morning.

Just relax'in in Georgetown Waterfront

Ohh last night was great for stargazing. I got to refresh my mind with some of the fall constellations and identified about 8 of the navigation stars.

An easy day. We were just 7 miles from Georgetown and it was COLD -- 42 degrees. We waited till around 8:30am to start moving. That full enclosure she makes days like this quite comfortable.

The anchor came up easily and clean. No work here. We got under way and made the Georgetown Waterfront about 10am. We cruised the whole waterfront then went back out to the entrance. The boat Dots Way we saw in Wrightsville was here.. We anchored between her and the red/green mark. Surprisingly the hook stuck the first time.

We dropped the dinghy and prepared to go to town. We went in around 11am and went to the book store so Karen could buy some fancy thank you cards for our friends and then we looked for a bakery. About the only thing we are low on is fresh bread. We found the Kudzu Bakery on King Street. Not much of a bakery but did have some fresh French bread. They had lots of wine and cheese and preserves.

We then went to the River Room Restaurant for lunch. Looking for some authentic low country southern cooking. Sorry a disappointment. The waitress asked for our drink order and I said “sweet tea”. She said all they had was unsweetened tea. I changed that order to water and knew the authentic southern was GONE.

We had the Cajun Gumbo which was pretty good but I had my heart set on Shrimp and grits.

Looking at the weather and confirming with the NWS and Chris Parker there appears to be some nasty weather coming up the east coast for Friday Saturday. Thus we will want to be in port then. I decided to spend two days here on the hook then head to Charleston arriving Thursday noon time. We will stay till Sunday.

Thus I need to make a bit of a grocery run here. The closest grocery store is just 2 miles away but I want to use the bike. So I retuned to the boat for the folding bike. ON return to the waterfront I assemble it and bid Karen good bye. She is off to a yarn shop and a museum and I’m headed to Piggly Wiggly. I don’t get to far. I stop at the Clock tower to wait traffic and I have to stop. I’m wearing those over your glasses sun glasses which distort your peripheral vision (rationalizing) and I stick my left foot out to catch a curb to wait the traffic. Well the curb was a good 4 inches further than my foot reach so over I went. I learned a long time ago how to fall and not get hurt. It works but is very unglamorous in style. At any rate it happened in front of a crowd of people and several moving vehicles so I stopped traffic and heard a lot of gasps. I was instantly up and said “I’m okay” and very red faced peddled away.

Georgetown is a quaint nice town but not friendly to pedestrians or bicyclists so beware!!

Bought all I could fit in my backpack and back to the boat. Happy to be off the road.

Spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing and watching the comings and goings of a few cruisers. Made reservations in Charleston for Thursday through Sunday and will need to kill 2 days here on the hook.

Tomorrow we will visit the museum and go to a very cool Low country hardware store and outdoor clothier over near the Georgetown Landing Marina.

Looks like it’s salmon cakes for dinner tonight aboard.

Ohhh the weather is perfect. Very cool almost cold with a light North 5kt breeze which is supposed to hold through Tuesday. Otherwise I would not remain here since the holding is poor.

ASSUME and the Waccamaw River

Assume – how does it go?? If you ASSUME you will make an ass out of you and me..
Sorry - no pics of the bozoos!!

Great example of that today!! The day started peacefully with me brewing some coffee around 7am. I’m not one of those cruisers that leaves at first light. Well I heard some voices and the mention of repositioning some lines so I figured some one is getting ready to leave the dock. I stuck my head up and noticed the sailboat in front of me getting ready to leave. I thought I would go offer to help with their lines – and maybe hear there plans on how to leave – but then again I met these guys last night – 3 French Canadians – and they were bragging how they came in Cape Fear Inlet and down yesterday in the blow – so I assumed they were very salty sailors and would be insulted at the offer of assistance. I went back to breakfast. Then a few minutes later I hear a sound like an airplane running but with a funny vibration so I know it is in the water – I look out the port facing the stream and here goes that sailboat as hard as it can just inches from scraping my topsides, all hands like statues facing dead ahead with grimaces on their faces and clenched teeth – what the hell!!! I dart up on deck. They clear my boat without scraping me and all have a sigh of relief. They turn and head south again. A quick glance at the water shows that they left with the current coming aft of them. WHAT STUPID AMATEURS!!! You never leave with the current aft. You have no steering control. You must have flow over the rudder to control. If the current is aft you are just a log in the water until you can accelerate faster than the current then the control is proportional to how much faster than the current you are.. A very common mistake by beginners. I had assumed they were seasoned but they really just had a lot of bravado.

Whew that was close. We left by ourselves with the current coming forward and had no problem leaving the dock unassisted. The rest of the day was just an enjoyable ride through the Waccamaw river after leaving Myrtle Beach Behind. We anchored here on the north side of Butlers Island just 5 miles from Georgetown. We will visit Georgetown for a few hours tomorrow and then head down to Minim Creek to anchor for the night unless Karen wants to spend more time there.



With an early season Canadian High Pressure coming in tonight and NO Light pollution here I expect to do some fine star gazing tonight but bundled up – supposed to be in the low 40s tonight.