Arrival at Charleston
20 November 2019
• Charleston SC
by Michael and Barbara Turney • Sunny at last but still chilly
Wednesday 20 November 2019
We awoke at anchor this morning, or rather I should say that I awoke for the fourth time this morning having gotten out of bed previously to check the anchor. I new we had a good set when we arrived but I was both concerned and curious as to whether the current that we anchored in would reverse when the tide changed and whether the anchor would reset itself when it did. I needn’t have worried. It appears that the bottom is good heavy mud and when we initially anchored we gave it about 1/2 hour to settle and then we backed down on it hard at about half reverse. We didn’t budge then and we didn’t budge during the night other than to swing around and face the other way. In fact, when we chose to leave, we had to power the anchor out it was set so strongly!
We also decided to bleed a little more money yesterday evening and called the marina to arrange for two vice one night alongside. That’ll give us enough time with power to get our packages and install the new macerator pump. I also want to get 12’ of garden hose that I can force down the evacuation hose into the holding tank to loosen up the bottom sludge. Obviously we will have to either trash the hose when I am done with it or store it in a sealable bag should I need it sometime in the future. If the hardware store has a cheap little plastic spray nozzle, as long as it’s thin in diameter I will get one of those to add to the tool as well. En route, Barb did some Dr Google research and discovered several ways and means of clearing a blocked holding tank and what to do to prevent it happening again.
We motored down the ICW at dead low tide which was a bit of a test. As it was we made it through without a problem although there were one or two tense moments when the depth sounded narrowed down to a foot under the keel.
No problems and we arrived at the marina just before noon, topped off the fuel (a bit expensive even with the Boat US discount) and tucked into a dock for two nights. This is a very pleasant place if you want to spend money. One of our orders has already arrived and the rest will show up tonight or during the day tomorrow. There are over one hundred and fifty boats here which pales in comparison to the City Marina right next door which has over four hundred slips! Wow! Few of them, say 10% are transients, the rest are local boats and another 10% would be liveaboards.
Barb and I eschewed Uber and the local cab company and walked to the City Market. That place is HUGE! Four barn sized buildings with all sorts of artisan and food craft products in it. But what we went for were the sweet grass weavers and their products. Gullah and Geechee sweet grass weavers plié their craft so you can watch and then you can buy one of their completed products. Or, you can if you have a lot of moolah. They ain’t cheap! Bowls start at $75 and we saw some for over $4000. Bless em if they can get that for their skilled work. I bought Barb something small and inexpensive as one of her Christmas gifts.
Then we went off to a really great grocery story Harris Teeters and stocked up.
Round trip walk? Six miles. Good exercise but now although my dogs aren’t barking they are whimpering a little bit.
Hurrah!
The only thing wrong with the marina is that their courtesy shuffle is in the garage for an engine replacement. So, if we want to go into town we either walk a fair distance or take an Uber.
As we were motoring along as you can imagine when it’s cold and Barb can’t work on her craft projects, we were chatting and we came to a momentous conclusion. So far on this trip I, and sometimes we, have been under a fair amount of self induced stress to put miles down range. This has all be hampered by bad weather and ensuing damage repairs. We had been aiming to get to the Bahamas and perhaps further south by Christmas. Well, Barb looks at me and says, “I’d be happy to spend Christmas in Florida.” Well, can you imagine what a relief that was to me? This means that we can take our time. We can stop if we have to wait for tidal conditions to allow us to. We can visit places rather than rush past. We have agreed if we get to Miami with more than a week before Christmas we might try to get to the Bahamas otherwise we will hang out and enjoy the place. Who knows? We know people in Florida, some Americans and even a couple of friends from home. Maybe we could all get together for Christmas. Wouldn’t that be neat?
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