Bridge Waiting People
29 November 2008
From Georgetown to Charleston is about 70 miles - too much to do in one day of daylight so we need to break into two. We spend the morning in Georgetown doing provisions. We walk to the Super Walmart and get a cab back. We have lots of stuff for the next while. We get underway from Georgetown around noon and wend our way through a pleasant thirty or so miles and anchor in a neat little creek off the ICW. There are several other boats in this same creek. We overlook acres of swamp like land and shrimp boats ply their trade, seemingly floating on the swamp. It is a very quiet night and we get to bed early in anticipation of an early leave to get to Charleston.
We get up around 6:30 and it is raining hard but not cold. We leave our anchorage and wend our way through the ICW towards Charleston. While it is hard to see where we are going because we have the full enclosure up and the windows are both dripping with rain and misted over from the warmth of the cabin. There is virtually no other traffic so while Judy watches a movie below, all I have to do is keep us from running aground. We are at high tide so it's easy going. There are several bridges along the way but only one which has to open and it only opens on the hour. We're getting a pretty good lift from the tide, so I pile on some horsepower trying to make the noon passage of the Ben Sawyer bridge. Landlubbers may not comprehend the significance, but at an hour away, I figure we've got about 7.4 statute miles to make. I add some power but our speed "over the ground" varies from 6.4 mph to 8.2 mph.
OK a short lesson on coastal navigation; there are two (actually more but I'll save that for sometime later) speeds to be concerned about; speed over the ground (SOG) and speed through the water. If you were driving your car along Prospect Street in Fredericton, they'd be one and the same - the road does not move. Our road (in this case the ICW) does move under you influenced by tides, currents, winds, wakes of other boats, etc. So, while Sea Sharp may be moving at it's usual 7.6 mph (about 6.8 knots), if the water is flowing against you, your actual speed over the ground is slower; the converse applies. Now, in our case today, complicate it by various inlets and outlets where despite our speed through the water being around 8 mph, our SOG varies from 6 mph to 7.5. Suffice it to say that it's gonna be tight at the bridge. Also, we are warned that this bridge tender loves to make pleasure boaters' lives miserable.
As we approach the bridge, it looks good; there are three boats ahead of us and we catch up. So we fall in line expecting to get through. As the now four boat flotilla approaches the boat now around 5 after noon, the bridge tender tells us that we'll have to wait until the 1:00 transit; we weren't close enough. Despite the whining of others in our little pack, the tender tells us it's tough and wait it out.
Anyway, no biggie. We putter for an hour then make the 1:00 transit and head for the marina at Charleston which we've reserved a dock spot. We are placed on the Mega Yacht dock along with other sailboats. We share the dock with other modest boats like ours but because we are on the mega dock, we also share it with the filthy rich.. Our neighbour up three boats is called THEMIS and a google on internet reveals the following:
At 156 feet she just makes it in the top 100 largest yachts in the US - she is numbe 99. She is owned by Ron Motley, a powerhouse lawyer who went after the tobacco industry with a vengeance, doesn't just relax on this yacht, he often works onboard her. She carries a crew of nine. Well, Sea Sharp has a crew of three; me, Judy and Chopin!
So, we dock and make acquaintance with the other boats which were forestalled by the bridge tender. We've captioned ourselves the "bridge-waiting people".
We get settled, talk to our neighbour and explore this first class marina. Just when you'd think the excitement would end, we are approached by three Customs and Boarder Patrol folks asking for our boat information. We give them passports and cruising permit. They ask when we last called in to CBP. Innocently, we replied on September 1 when we cleared at Eastport Maine (seems like an eternity ago). They scowl, caucus, call supervisors, admonish us that we simply cannot expect to stay in the US on our own time and generally give us a moderate hard time. Judy is somewhat distraught 'cause of the trauma when we crossed the border returning to Sea Sharp. It seems (and I have to admit we knew) that you're supposed to check in at every port of entry.
Well this would take an entire blog, but this seemingly clear direction is anything but. Suffice it to say that we met bureaucracy at its best! These three were not bad folks but needed us to understand that US is not really a free country; that visitors can come but under their rules. They told us that we simply could not come here and expect to stay as we wished. They subtly threatened that they could send us home (never mind that it took almost three months to get here and the water's frozen home). Finally after calls to supervisors, much furrowing of brows and general heaviness, they gave us back our papers and told us to be sure to call in "whenever you go ashore but only where you go ashore is a specified place of entry". Up to us to figure this out.
Anyway, it is all of these small challenges which make this trip so exciting. Judy has gone to do laundry. Chopin and I are doing this blog. This upscale marina has a shuttle which'll take us anywhere we want to go and life is good. The aforementioned shuttle makes a special trip to West Marine each day at 11:00. I checked out churches for tomorrow and there is a mass at the closest church at 11:15. Don't think we can do both. Given our recent circumstances, we think church will win out!