CURRENT LOCATION: Wappoo Creek anchorage, Charleston, SC
32 45.895' N, 079 58.946' W

The anchorage we currently occupy in Charleston is ideal. There are just three other boats anchored here behind a tiny island just to the side of the ICW. Even better, we know the people aboard two out of three of those boats. Jim & Bentley, on the catamaran Salty Paws, decided to move their boat over here and join us one day after we arrived. We had met them at the Cruiser's Rendezvous, and they had heard us talking to the bridge tender the day we arrived in Charleston. They radioed us that night and asked for a status report of our anchorage. I guess they liked what they heard, because the next day they were setting their own anchors down in a Bahamian mooring just in front of us. Apparently, the anchorage across from the Charleston City Marina (less than 2 nautical miles from us) is so overcrowded that boats have taken to anchoring in the channel. Not only is this generally frowned upon, but (according to the VHF) it has caused a fair amount of angst for big boat captains who have been trying to navigate around these anchored vessels.

We invited Jim & Bentley to join us aboard Prudence for sundowners last night and had a fine time getting to know them a bit better. They have been living aboard (wintering in the Bahamas) for the last 6 years, and were a wealth of good information. More importantly, though, they are really nice guys who had interesting stories to tell. I suppose that epitomizes many, if not most, of the people who choose the cruising lifestyle.



Jim & Bentley also introduced us to Carol & Carl, aboard Endless Reach. Consequently, our social network expands, and we have even more folks to stop and chat with when we motor by in our dinghy.

Besides the social aspects of cruising, we have kept pretty busy since we arrived here. The boat cleanup took a bit of time, in particular, the mud left on deck from hoisting the anchor in Beaufort, NC was a challenge to remove. This mud had traveled over 240 nautical miles with us and did not want to disembark now. I sprayed and sprayed with the deck wash and the stuff seemed to spontaneously regenerate. This mud could be the inspiration for the next great supervillan in a Stan Lee comic, "The Black Muck." His superpower would be to break into tiny balls, then reform as a river of mud, impervious to the spray of water. Alas, I (as your superhero, "Swab Boy," armed with my golden bucket, scrubby sponge, and (the cruisers' all-time favorite detergent) Lemon Joy, did battle The Black Muck into submission. He was last seen being carried away on a Wappoo Creek tidal current, encased within a thousand tiny microbubbles of Joy.

Our other boat chores accomplished thus far are much less exciting, but certainly neither were a less messy endeavor than recovering the shiny surface of our deck. We changed our oil and replaced the fuel filter on our diesel engine. We hope that if we take care of our engine, it will take care of us.

While changing the oil, I discovered that I should be able to squeeze a few more gallons of fresh oil (for future oil changes) into the bilge. This spawned an afternoon foray to civilization. Of course, running to the store is no longer as easy as hopping into the car. We instead boarded the dinghy (with a bag of trash for disposal) and motored to a boat launch which was about a half-mile away. Once Patience was secure, we had to traverse a bridge which had way too much traffic and not nearly enough sidewalk. A city bus with wide mirrors momentarily made our lives pass before our eyes and we were ever so grateful to make it to the other side. Once across, there were several amenities available to us within reasonable walking distance.

Of course, our idea of 'walking distance' is a considerable range (perhaps due to our former days as runners, when the miles ticked by a little faster). Today, we had planned two stops of necessity, and one of luxury. The luxury was lunch out at a restaurant. We ate at a burrito joint as a treat for tackling the dirty boat jobs of mud removal from deck, oil changing and fuel filter replacement. Of course, the two gallon jugs of used motor oil for recycling we were carrying waited outside for us. The necessity items were obtained by stopping at Walmart and Autozone. Walmart (the furthest destination) was a 3.5 mile walk from our dinghy (7 miles round trip). The trip there was not too bad (although we both wished for more sidewalks), and we kept our shopping cart light, knowing that we would be carrying it all back with us. At Autozone, however, I really wanted ALL 4 gallons of motor oil that I could fit into the bilge. With a three-mile walk ahead, perhaps I should not have been so ambitious.

We eventually made it back to Patience, waiting for us at the boat launch. However, I can attest to a slightly sore back and Sheryl has a few blisters to show for our afternoon of running errands. This simple trip took 5 hours to accomplish! Someone once told us that living aboard a boat means that everything you do will take twice as long as it normally would in a land-based lifestyle. So far, I think that ratio is in serious need of upward adjustment.