Mer Sea

Time is precious and computer time is very limited, since we use the computer for navigation, so it’s been a long time since I’ve had the opportunity to write about our travels. I’ll try to catch you up.

 

We left Jekyll Island and headed for an anchorage on the Herb River. We’d been told of this place by a couple of fellow cruisers. It was a lovely place – quiet and secluded, as advertised. We fired up the generator to make dinner, and it shut off immediately – another problem! We were not amused, although at least this problem didn’t come with big clouds of black smoke! The error code said “needs service” – whatever that means! What it meant to us at the time is that we needed to improvise for dinner. We’d planned on grilling pork chops, and were of course able to do that anyway, but switched the veggies to beet salad and applesauce! Got to be creative!!

 

Our anchoring out days were behind us until we could get the generator FINALLY repaired ( Charleston), so we next stayed at a marina in Beaufort, SC. This is an absolutely lovely town with a large, lively downtown area right on the waterfront. We had a great dinner at a restaurant, and enjoyed strolling along the streets while dodging the raindrops and snooping the shops. We were there after business hours, so it goes on the list as another place to revisit when we have more time.

 

The wind really picked up as we headed towards Charleston, SC, and pulling onto the dock was a bit of a challenge! They have a long “face dock” (1000 feet of it!) where they berth the “mega yachts” (not us!) and many of the “transients” (us). Basically, what this means is that you have to “parallel park” your boat in the space they assign you. In addition to the wind, the current is substantial, and all these forces of nature give you something to think about as you try to park your ten ton brakeless vehicle!! They gave us a dock assignment on the radio as we pulled into the harbor, and were trying to describe it to us (well, Roy, actually, as I was by now on the bow setting my lines and preparing to toss something to someone on shore when I spied a friendly dockhand) while poor Roy was trying to control the boat amid the elements in a pretty crowded area. Hard to talk on the radio and control the boat simultaneously! The space they seemed to be describing looked too small to us, and lacked a friendly dockhand waving us in, so we had to keep going until we could find a place to turn around, go back out, and try again. This time they assigned us a larger place and there were TWO dockhands there to help. The wind was blowing at about 20 knots, so we were grateful for the help!! We finally got tucked in and lines on and could relax!

 

I love Charleston, and the next day, which was sunny and beautiful, I took the marina courtesy bus to the Battery and walked from there all over downtown Charleston. I had a lovely lunch at a little café, had ice cream twice(!), and finally called the marina to have the courtesy van pick me up and bring me home. Pretty nice setup!

 

In my absence, Roy dealt with the mechanic who came to work on the generator, and they got things squared away. Looks like it should work fine from now on!! Cross your fingers!!!!!!!

We had the pleasure of hooking up that night with some friends who live in Charleston, and they came over and took the tour of Mer Sea and then we went out to a nice dinner together. It’s such a pleasure to be meeting friends along the way in our journeys – it is a joy to share our fun and adventures with them.

 

The next day we decided to find a movie theatre and hit the movies, which we hadn’t done since leaving Punta Gorda. If these little marina mini stores were smart they would rent DVDs, but none of them seem to. We’ve had great success watching movies on our 17” computer screen, and we’d be good customers if we could get our hands on some DVDs. However, that hasn’t worked out, so we searched for a movie theatre. We finally found one outside of the downtown area, so had to take a cab there, as the courtesy bus only goes to the downtown area. We saw “The Merchant of Venice” which was quite a lavish spectacle. We both enjoyed it! We then took another cab downtown and had dinner at a little café there, and got the marina courtesy van to pick us up and bring us back to the boat.

 

The wind had been picking up steadily for the last couple of days, and we ended up staying in Charleston an extra day to wait out the storm. Then, when we were ready to leave, we brought in our shore power cord, took off our extra lines, got ourselves set up for the bow spring we were going to use to get safely away from the dock, and the engine wouldn’t start! We thought it was some kind of a bad joke! And on a Sunday, so no way to get anything done about it until the next day!! At this point we were just about ready to give the boat to the first unsuspecting passerby and head back to Dawsonville!!

 

Monday morning we called a marine mechanic bright and early, and someone was able to get out to us by 11:00! He looked around, tried a few things, and was able to effect a very simple fix – turns out that something was loose, and just tightening it was all that was needed. We felt kind of dumb, but were happy that it was nothing serious and we were able to get on our way after all! So off we went!

 

The next segment of our trip was through an absolutely beautiful, lush, broad river called the Waccamaw River. Thick stands of cypress trees draped in Spanish moss lined the banks, and other boat traffic was sparse. In fact, we’ve been pleasantly surprised at the sparseness of boat traffic in general to this point on the waterway – it’s not what we expected, and it’s been very pleasant! The couple of days on the Waccamaw were peaceful and loaded with scenic beauty that calmed and refreshed our souls!! We were able to anchor out and use the generator and experience all that we had been expecting in terms of feeling self-sufficient and being able to take advantage of our surroundings.

 

We’d been pushing kind of hard to make up some of our lost time, and were able to cover extra miles each day. The next segment of our trip took us into North Carolina, and we saw a dramatic difference in scenery. All of a sudden, we were at the beach! The water was a beautiful blue, after the brown of the river, and we could literally see the ocean past the narrow strips of land protecting us from same. This part of the trip was loaded with inlets that, were we not careful, would take us right out to the ocean! Each one presented a challenge in terms of navigation: spotting the markers and picking out the ones we were trying to follow, and figuring out which to keep to port and which to keep to starboard to stay on course. Each inlet is a merging of at least the ICW and a channel leading to the ocean, and sometimes there are more choices as well. Lots of traffic and no traffic lights! Add to that possible strong currents and you have an “all hands alert” kind of situation! We managed to successfully navigate each one, and always breathed a sigh of relief on the other side.

 

We made our way to Moorehead City, NC, where we were meeting a couple of friends. It worked out perfectly, because a Northeaster blew in behind us, and we had the opportunity to get off the boat and stay with Paul and Michelle while 75 mph winds and driving rain pelted the area. Paul and Michelle took us all over Beaufort, NC, and environs, and let us do laundry at their house, and gave us a really nice vacation while we let the storm pass. This is another place we’ll revisit, and hopefully when the weather is nicer!

 

We pushed hard out of Moorehead City to try to get back on schedule, and managed to make up time. The challenge of this leg was the last 20 miles before Portsmouth, VA. We had six bridges and one lock to traverse, and most of them open only on the hour or half hour, and don’t open at all during rush hour. It was a logistical challenge to synchronize our travel with their schedules, but Captain Roy excels at this kind of challenge, and we had a great plan! But, as we all know, life is what happens after you’ve made other plans…We were tripping along, way ahead of schedule, and then there was the barge…The barge, of course, has preference entering the lock, so ALL the other boats (and about fifteen had accumulated by now, since we all had to wait for these openings) had to wait until he could maneuver into the lock and then duke it out for who would go through with him and who would have to wait for the next opening. We opted for the next opening, and tied up to shore and visited with some of the other cruisers. That was fun! We made it through the lock and the remaining bridges, and found our marina in Portsmouth and breathed a sigh of relief! It had been pretty tense!

 

But we knew nothing about tense! The next day we had to get OUT of the Portsmouth/Norfolk area, and had to dodge battleships, barges, tugs, etc., to do it. LOTS of traffic, confusing channel markers, BIG boats, and little old us just trying to “get out of dodge”. Whew!! It was such a relief to turn into the Chesapeake and head for the Potomac. We saw very few boats on the way, and have seen virtually no other trawler-type boats on the Potomac. But it’s beautiful, and very pleasant going.

 

We’ve had a great time here in DC visiting family and friends, and tomorrow we’ll push on back towards the Chesapeake and to Baltimore. We’re planning to stop and see Mt. Vernon on the way, which neither of us has visited before. It will be fun to visit from the water.

 

We’re delighted to be back on schedule after all the delays, and we’re looking forward to a leisurely pace from here on. Hoping for uneventful days and restful evenings…