Sunset over Charleston Harbor

Chameleon did not get under way again until Wednesday, May 30 after the back side of Beryl came through St Augustine with heavy rain and wind. Wednesday, the trip to Jacksonville Beach was uneventful and we arrived early in the day with plenty of time to get laundry done and to refill our propane in town. The following day was much more stressful as the ICW between Jax Beach and Fernandina Beach has some severe shoaling. We bumped bottom three times and the first time it took Kevin 30 minutes to get us off and to find enough water for us to progress. Fernandina Beach is always a favorite of mine as I have visited there many times on business and we were happy to arrive. We grabbed a mooring and took a hard look at the weather and the charts. I looked back on my blog entries from the trip down. Georgia had the worst shoaling and most challenging navigation by far. Not wanting to repeat that, we took advantage of a small window and headed out the inlet bound for St Simons. Luckily, we got a very early start because just as we exited the channel, the Coast Guard was escorting a submarine in and stopping all traffic in and out of the St Marys. We made great time to St Simon's Inlet and arrived well ahead of some really nasty storms. Chameleon was snug at the dock and we watched the storm from the comfort of the air conditioned bar. That is the only way to ride out a storm in my opinion.
The next day the weather forecast was for 10 to 15 from the S-SW clocking to the North and diminishing later in the day with 2-3 foot seas falling to 1-2. Seemed like a great opportunity to head up to Charleston so we left St Simons at around 10 AM and set sail. Current was favorable and we were motor sailing for most of the day over 7 knots. Off shore is a lot less white knuckle than driving the shoaly ICW so we were having a great sail under an almost full moon until around 9:30 that night when our chart plotter/navigation system went totally dark and we could not get it to come back. The diminishing wind had built to 20 plus and the seas were now 3 to 4 feet. So much for the forecast. We had taken the advice of our weather router and were sailing pretty close to shore figuring we could always fall off when the wind clocked North. Unfortunately, this strategy put us in the neighborhood of several markers and bouys and our watches were quite stressful with no chart at the helm. On the plus side, we were still making great time but if we hit something, we would be sure to hit it really hard! We managed to make it into Charleston Harbor before the tide turned at 7:30 AM and made our way over to Charleston Harbor Marina on the Mt Pleasant side of the Cooper River at pretty close to slack tide and were tied up by 8:00. 22 hours was excellent time. Another lucky break as this is a notoriously dangerous marina to navigate in a strong ebb tide. The only damage we had to Chameleon on the trip south on the ICW was leaving the dock at this marina in November 2010.
The current really rips through this marina. In fact, on our second day there a 53 foot Jeanneau sailboat bounced off of us twice trying to dock behind us and damaged our grill and Life Sling. Thank goodness we had our dinghy on deck and not in the davits or they might have really done some damage. Unfortunately, the owner was clueless and did not even come to our boat to apologize and get a damage assessment. It was storming pretty bad at the time and we waited for them to come over and waited some more. Finally, Kevin had to go to them and they were pretty sheepish but the owner made good on the damage with a nice crisp bill. Their exit from the dock later the same day was even more exciting and they ended up pinned across the sterns of a sailboat and a motor yacht that were in neighboring slips. I had advised the owner to be sure and talk to the dock master before departing and get the local advice on the best time and way to leave the dock but he assured me his Captain would be at the wheel and in control. Needless to say, we decided not to leave Chameleon and go into town until they were away from us. The wind and the current were against them and even their bow thrusters were ineffective in controlling the boat. I will never forget the captain yelling instructions to the crew while running up and down the boat trying to fend off of pilings and other boats. Not sure who that "Captain" was but whatever he was being paid, he was not worth it. No serious damage was done to the other boats and after a couple hours and the tide changing, the pump out boat came over and towed them out of the marina and got them clear of the break water. Much paperwork had been exchanged by all and probably more of those crisp bills. Our last sight of them was the boat motoring in the middle of the channel with that Captain at the wheel and an incoming Coast Guard cutter bearing down on them giving them 5 blasts on the horn. That is boat talk for get the #@%* out of the way! Aye, aye Captain Ron! Hope they made it.
We stayed a week in Charleston with no more mishaps and Kevin flew to NY on Friday to attend a surprise party for his Mom's 80th birthday. He met Walt Westin at the Charleston airport on his return on Sunday. I stayed with the boat to repel all boats intent on ramming us at the dock! We have been travelling with Walt and Kevin doing the driving, me cooking and dodging storms all week. We had a couple short days due to storms but we sure do appreciate the help and are making much better time now. Our friend, George, gave us a heads up on a great application for my iPad and I downloaded it in Charleston. I got the East Coast Tides and Charts for $19.99 and a program called Active Captain comes with it. What a great tool is has been and a great back up for our chart plotter at the helm. By the way, it was a fuse so that was quickly and cheaply repaired! Whew!
We are planning on making Beaufort/Morehead City, NC today. We are getting some wind but we are not in open water to sail and it is right on the nose, of course. Travel on the ICW on weekends is crazy so we will see how much progress we can make this weekend. At least we are getting closer to our home in Virginia if the weather would just cooperate for a few days! In the meantime, we are enjoying visiting the towns along the way. I am waving at Emerald Isle as we go past.