A Peculiar Summer
Most boat trips we're either enjoying the clear blues of the Bahamas or the murky browns of the Chesapeake, but this year's run was puzzling and we sensed that even before we left.
For some reason this trip seemed like it never really started, there was little thrill of anticipation and nothing fueled our imagination. Stretching our sea legs on the run up the coast was good and the stops along the way were fun, still - something was off and somehow, we both knew it.
Sitting for a month in Georgetown, expecting some sort of an epiphany, it finally dawned on us that life was good there and looking back, it was. Recognizing the need to find shelter from storms there were decisions to be made and apparently unable to muster the motivation to push ourselves any further up the coast - we made a few calls and decided to turn around, then took advantage of a nice couple of days at sea.
Back to Brunswick was the call; reckoning this year's cruise was to do a little boat riding after crossing the insurance mandated 30th parallel. So looking at things that way — I guess we're still having a nice run.
The Turnaround
Both tide and uncertainty were working against us as we left Georgetown making the departure from Winyah Bay a hard push.
Retracing our ICW tracks to Isle of Palms Marina caused no problems. Crabbing our way over the shoals as we criss-crossed the Santee River, there were low spots, and McClellanville certainly got our attention; yet again, we arrived intact.
A Short Stay At Isle of Palms
In order to make a daylight run to Hilton Head, we left at first light; again, dead low/low tide. Having done my homework, I knew there were shoals to slide over and several spots with little water, but we took our time and picked our way around them all. Still poking along at idle speed we were within a 1/2 mile of Charleston Harbor and feeling good about leaving the 'Skinny Ass' ICW behind us. Then I felt drag and the bow dipped as we slowly crept up on a mud bank. I quickly backed off, thinking I'd try again more toward the middle of the channel and, thud... Again, backing off, and turning more, but this time the current caught us and we got nowhere. Now we were stuck sideways in the middle of the narrow channel.
Mud is not sand. Carolina low country mud grabs the boat and holds on. We were so damn stuck.
Trying every trick I could think of, nothing worked. We were so damn stuck. We hailed BoatUS, but no answer. We used our cell to call them, but no answer. We called the BoatUS 800 dispatch, they called the local guy, but no answer. We were so damn stuck.
So accepting the reality that, indeed, we were stuck and nothing we could do was going to change that, we just sat there. Small center console boats would pass us and I'd work the throttle and thrusters hoping their wakes would break the hold, but no such luck. Tidal calculations showed a minimum 2 hours before there may be enough water to float us off — then the phone rang.
A young voice on the other end proudly announced that he was Captain So&So of BoatUS then asked our position. When I told him, he knew exactly where we were, said the shoaling there was bad, and he pulls 2 or 3 boats a week off the same spot. He also said there was no reason to attempt a tow until the water came up a bit; he'd see us in an hour or so. The boat was sitting level and we weren't going anywhere so we made coffee and got over it.
The BoatUS Cap showed, quickly pulled us off, and stayed tethered as he led us over the show stopping hump. There was plenty of water as soon as we cleared the shoal and he assured us we'd be fine all the way out to the harbor — and we were.
We'd missed our planned departure by about 3 hours, but decided to continue on out to the ocean and make way to Hilton Head and Harbour Town Yacht Basin. We pulled into the marina basin as the sun's last rays were beaming through the tops of the trees. While tying up, on the stage next to the docks, a really bad band was loudly hacking old 80s cover tunes to pieces, however the resort crowd was loving 'em. Mel walked the boys as I did a partial wash down. This was the end of a long day that had started badly, but it was over and everything turned out okay.
Early Departure - Happy Current
And we got a push all the way to Brunswick. We made it in early and tied up.
Brunswick Landing Marina will be home for a while. Thinking we'd like the short walk to the clubhouse and all that comes with that, Ralph kindly gave us the coveted T-head on the popular Dock 9, but after a night we asked for our old slip down at the far north end of the marina. We like peace and quiet and that's down there in spades. Dock 13 is just across from a little tidal creek where low tide brings out plenty of interesting wildlife and there's a unobstructed panoramic view of the western sky's sunsets over the marsh.
Nice...
TDY - Brunswick, GA
Seems Brunswick Landing is that nicely protected marina we were looking for, (we hope). The plan is to hang here for a bit, drive back to Jupiter to check on a friend, and come back to work on a few projects. We arranged to have our car driven up so we're mobile. Prepping to leave for a few weeks, I turned on a couple of Nest Cams to keep an eye on the electrical panel/engine room and hired a diver do a little bottom scrubbing, though I'm not sure how much scrubbing was actually done. I was on board and didn't hear much scraping going on; we'll see. Supposedly, he'll be back every 2 weeks but again, we'll see.
Back in Jupiter
Which means dog walks on the beach, little projects around the house, some business, and stocking up on items to take back for - yet - more boat projects.
New washer/dryer appliances have been located and purchased. Due to space limitations, tracking down models with the exact dimensions was a real snipe hunt, nevertheless I prevailed and managed to find exactly what we needed. Craig from Hogan Marine will pick them up and drive to Brunswick where he and I will remove the old and install the new ones then I'll go back to the caulk job I started before we left.
Ah yes - the yachting life... somebody peel me a grape
So now we're just killing time - this year's adventure was far from ambitious, but we're good with that.
Sometimes following your nose leads you back home — and we're good with that too
"I’m going back home - this ain't no way to get along
Kinda Bonnie, kinda Janis - mostly Sarah Rogo