Oriental to Charleston, SC

We made it to  South Carolina on November 5, but you wouldn't know it by the weather. Here is a synopsis of our journey. Let it be noted that transiting the Intercoastal waterway is work. Each night we study our route: we have to check bridges, tides, currents, shoals and maps. We have not anchored as much as we hoped because of the cold, I like our boat heater over the little portable oneand generator plus we have to find enough water to anchor in (depth), current that isn't too swift and one that has a place to land Oliver. The last one is the hardest. It drives us crazy to pay some of the prices, but...... This is a tiring journey.

Anyway, we went from Oriental on a Friday, the 2nd of November to Swansboro. It was a long run, but we left a day after the crowd at River  Dunes marina, so we wanted to get some miles in. It was a cute town . I saw the town early in the morning walking Ollie and nothing was open.That is a good way to save money. Onward we went to Wrightsville. Had a bunch of shallow areas to watch and bridges. There is a good anchorage by the beach, but a beach in my winter clothes is just wrong. Any way, we made it to the bridge and had to wait 45 minutes for an opening. It was a busy Saturday on the waterway and as we neared  Wrightsville Beach,  low tide was coming in. As many of us waited for the bridge trying to stay out of the fisherman's way 3 of us went bump. We grounded hard, which means we couldn't get off and had to call Tow Boat US. Luckily we have insurance. It was a 30 minute wait for help and the tide kept going down. We missed the 4:00 bridge opening. Needless to say after the 5:00 opening, we pulled onto a marina's face wall, on the canal and plugged in, walked Ollie had dinner and went to bed. Oh, I forgot the wine. Another sailboat was still trying to be pulled off the shoal as we went for a walk with Oliver.  Said a special prayer for them and after dinner we saw they were off. The shoal there is so bad, the locals have a fake palm tree on it. It is quite the party place. It is probably fun watching all of the crazy Yankees run aground.

The next morning, bundled in our winter clothes, we left for Southport. Pulling out, we saw S/V Moondance with Skip and Harriet who had anchored and we waved them on. We followed them to Southport. There was quite a long line of boats navigating with us that day and the next few, All sailing vessels: Silhouette (Bob and Pam from River Dunes), Excalibur, Fantabulous with names I cannot remember being overwhelmed. It was an easier transit following experienced sailors with the route. When we got to Southport, we were 2nd in line to go in, but we were not called by the dock master in order. as we waited, our engine decided it had had enough and decided to overheat. Dale  ran downstairs to the engine, steam billowed put and I was at the helm trying to keep us in the channel. I had since done a donut. At one point he ran up to get the anchor windlass ready so we wouldn't crash into shore. I am watching the thermostat get a touch better and letting him know what I see. Panic was the operative word, so I radioed in that we needed to dock, but they were so busy, our cries went unheeded. Dale finally got the engine to cool enough and we limped in as the last boat. I took a long walk into town later that day which helped. It was a Sunday so most things were closed, but I met really nice people. So far, November was not going well we arranged with all the sailboats to leave the next day for Myrtle Beach.

On November 5, we all left following the momma duck. Dale had worked on the engine and double checked everything that morning. By 7:30 we all got in line and left. We had a boat with a tall mast that had to slowly go under bridges that  are 65 feet.  We all made it, thanks to charts, instruments and our leaders on Excalibur and Moondance. We needed a day of calm especially because we were going through a section called the Rock Pile where you cannot deviate or you hit rocks, not sand. This is not a good thing. We also had more currents, especially at inlets from the ocean to deal with.

We are at Grande Dunes in Myrtle Beach, two nights as today was rainy, cold and a good day to relax. Poor Ollie cuddles in a blanket in the cockpit in the mornings. It is weird seeing palm trees, dolphins and pelicans when we are freezing our $&$&@' off.  When things are bad, we will see a pod of dolphins swim with us, see a beautiful bird or meet great people and we think, this is okay.

After that we took off ourselves to master the ICW. Made it to Georgetown without incident on the 7th/ From there we went to McClellanville and the 9th onto Charleston. We stayed at the Charleston Harbor Marina on Patriots Point. It was a lovely marina and the people were really nice. The big megadocks in Charleston were by a highway, very busy and did not have great "Oliver" space. We were going to rent a car so it was across the river from downtown in Mt. Pleasant, but beautiful and more peaceful. We spent 5 days there and ran into Brian and Judy on Sweet Escape again. Judy and I did some quick catching up as they were leaving sooner than us. Next to our marina was the USS Yorktown, which was to host the Carrier Classic college basketball game between Ohio State and Marquette. Unfortunately they did not plan on such cold nights and the condensation on the floor was too dangerous for the kids to play. The other very exciting thing while we were there was that Ollie saw a dolphin up close and personal. One swam by our dock when he was on it and came up right next to him. He jumped, but was thrilled and watched it swim around. Everyday, he looked for that dolphin.

Here are some of the many pictures we took. Unfortunately the order isn't  always correct, but we are done fooling with them. Happy Thanksgiving to all. I sure will miss church and the family dinner.

cruising along the ICW

Oliver happy to be docked for the night.

Sunset in Swansboro

Many times we see dolphins swimming with us.

Coming up to a bridge that has to open for us.

Interesting house along the way.

Southport at dock

Lots of birds along the way too.

oops

near Myrtle Beach

Golfers in cable cars going over us.

Ollie in his blanket since it is sooo cold.

Spanish moss on trees

McClellanville

boat with shark jaws next to us

Marsh everywhere

Charleston in the distance

Oliver and Patty checking out the sights

1000 year old oak tree

church from the 1700s

must be Mytle Beach

Charleston from our dock

Carrier classic

Ravenel Bridge, longest cable bridge

flying over our boat for the game

Charleston at sunset



USS Yorktown, see the bleachers?

Dale in winter clothes on the ICW, this is wrong!

I will have more Charleston pictures later. From there, we did anchor out at Fishing Creek and run the dog to a ramp nearby that night of the 14th. We are now in Georgia and will post more later.