Oh Poop
18 November 2017
Thursday November 16
We motored back onto the ICW at 8:15 a.m. from Myrtle Beach Yacht Club. It was another beautiful day with clear skies. Despite the fact that there was frost, it seemed to warm up faster this morning. We were in our short sleeves (in the cockpit) in no time. We ran with the current all day, motoring easily, at 7-8 knots. The Wacamaw River has lost most of its fall color now, but is still beautiful with all of the spanish moss. We were entering the anchorage at Georgetown before 4p.m. We dropped anchor and rafted with Compromise. In the past we have spent a day or two here. A quaint little town with lots to explore. This time we are just staying the night. The anchorage is calm and jazz sounds from a waterfront restaurant entertain us as we enjoy a glass of wine and prepare dinner.
Friday November 17
It was a calm night in Georgetown. With another cold front approaching, we decided to stay inside the ditch. After timing the tides we decided that we need to move fast. We pull the anchor at 8:40 a.m. We are trying to get past McClellanville before the tide gets too low. We usually go offshore to avoid this shallowest part of the ICW. We are ahead of Compromise. The wind is blowing 20 kts. on Winyah Bay. With the wind and all of the power boats it is very choppy. We are cruising with the tide at 7-9 knots. The homes are huge and all have docks as long as a football field to the water. It is sad to see that the hurricaines damaged most of them. We have to slow our boats down to go through the skinny water at McClellanville. We are down to a foot or less for what seems like forever. Steering back and forth trying to find water thats just not there. Then we have 0.0 and we are on the bottom. I radio Compromise and they are aground too. Captain Ron just says "Yep , we are too, oh poop! Compromise manages to turn around using their bow thrusters and get off the bottom. Our wing keel has stuck in the soft bottom. Compromise throws us a tow line and pulls us off and then invites us to dinner. Did we pick great boat buddies or what?! Our anchorage for the night, on Whiteside Creek, is just 15 miles north of Charleston. We rafted together again and gathered on Compromise for drinks. Karen cooked pork tenderloins in a pressure cooker. (I need to get one of those!) I made rice and we put our vegetables together for a delicious medley of sweet potatoes, brussel sprouts and white potatoes with bacon that Karen whipped up. Oh, and she made brownies for dessert! Yum. We got a weather passage update and we're thinking we may stay in Charleston a few days to wait for an offshore passage.
Saturday, November 18
The water was like glass this morning. The sunrise was beautiful. We left the anchorage at 8:40. We followed Compromise through a few more shallow spots with no problems. There is a lot of weekend boat traffic. We didn't time the Ben Sawyer Bridge very well and had to wait 45 minutes for the opening. We have decided to get fuel and stay the night at the Charleston City Marina. While waiting at the bridge I called for a reservation. It was another two hours to the marina. We motored around a group of kids on Opti sailboats. The current is always strong here and a little tricky getting to the dock. The wind has been light all day...it picks up just we are ready to dock. They put us on the Mega Dock. We are a tiny boat in a sea of mega yachts. There is a beautiful three masted 300 foot yacht from the Cayman Islands. Compromise decides to stay here too. Grant and Diane are here on Monarch. We take showers. It is 71° and Carl has on shorts and I have on flip flops. We are happy! Carl and I took the marina shuttle to Harris Teeter to get some provisions. I enjoyed getting to see some of houses, the market and a couple of horse drawn carriages along the way. It was just a tiny taste of Charleston, one of my favorite places.