Return to Charleston

The view of old Charleston during an afternoon cruise. Two-hundred year-old, grand homes with three stories. 

Charleston was a one-week, planned stop/respite on our Loop march. There were a slew of things we wanted to do that were more convenient to do during a one-week pause.(1)

We had some great meals with local friends Paula and Carl. Spending good times with old friends and driving our own car made us feel at home, again, in Charleston.

   

Cruising Charleston Harbor with Paula and Carl

 
You may recall we had our truck in storage in Charleston, where we bought Sacagawea.(2) It actually felt novel to drive around in our own car again. 

About a month ago, we decided that we, and Sacagawea, deserved a brand-new mattress. The existing foam mattress was probably original. Eww. We ordered a custom mattress from a factory in Charleston. We absolutely love it. It also helped make Sacagawea feel like she was truly ours.

At the not-so-glamorous, but super-interesting mattress factory. They used our old foam mattress as a guide—notice the trapezoidal shape. The factory was huge with specialized cutting and sewing machines. There was no production line. Everything was custom.

When Mike took a break from his continual work updating and simplifying the boat's electronics, we took a day to visit the aircraft carrier/museum, The Yorktown. Originally we thought we would stay for a couple hours. We surprised ourselves by staying for six hours! There was so much to read and learn about. 

Mike in The Yorktown, reading about the antique fighter planes. What a great museum—with each plane there were stories about notable pilots.

In the interior of The Yorktown. One of the original electronics schematics. It looks just like the crazy wiring in Sacagawea! 

This photo was part of The Yorktown museum too! So cute…(read caption below)…

The used kayak we bought for our son AJ's visit was gathering dust (salt?). We found it to be too heavy and awkward to pull up on our kayak holder, so we listed it on Craigslist. SOLD.  In two days. When we only stayed one night at a stop, so far, we didn't have much time to do any kayaking. And there haven't been enough great places to kayak right from the boat. Who knows if that will change?

One nagging item on our ToDo list was to get all the right items to comply with the United States Coast Guard regulations. Nagging item number one: fire extinguishers. You could say we were pretty sure there were no fires on Sacagawea because all the fire extinguishers on board were dated 2007, the year she was built--and out of compliance.  Sacagawea came with a Fireboy system (3) which was also out of date. We hired a fire suppression professional to tell us how to bring the system into compliance. We were nervous that this would be a high-ticket item but were pleased to hear that all we needed was an hour of his time to test and re-certify the system. Phew! And, he taught us about this amazing system. 

The Fireboy in the engine room down below deck.

NEW SITES NORTHWARDS

After tucking the truck back into storage and waving goodbye to Charleston, we continued North. This time, we were pushing through new waters. Just when we thought we had left behind shallow (aka “skinny”) waters, we had many more nail-biting moments traversing through the Northern part of South Carolina on the ICW. We have very good navigational tools at our disposal, like seeing recent US Army Core of Engineers precise depth soundings overlayed on our digital charts.

  

Here are USACE soundings overlayed on a digital chart. You would see our boat and its path if this was in use.  This is just an example of the precise data we have available. The challenge is staying in the path if there is oncoming traffic. We had to work around active dredging rigs smack in the middle of the canal.

We had only two more stops in South Carolina before we crossed the line into North Carolina. The first was a quiet anchorage among the broad, peaceful marches. As we continued North we noticed that marshes were starting to shrink and foresty swamps started to grow. We also saw more sandy beaches. By the time we got to a quaint, rural marina for a one-night stop, we were surrounded by tall pines and oaks and the ICW channel was only 150 feet wide. By this time, we were appreciating Southern accents more and more. And, we were hearing differences from one state to the next.(4) 

We always pilot Sacagawea from the fly bridge with the exception of one day. It turned from expected rain to unexpected thunderstorms! Here’s Mike running the boat from the inside. He said, “I’m surprised at the great visibility down here.” Luckily, there were no lightening strikes near us. 

After Charleston, we soon crossed into North Carolina. We had four more one-night stops at marinas before our next multi-night stay. (5)  

Right after we docked at one quaint marina, a half-dozen cute-as-can-be turtles swam over to our swim step. Perhaps people feed them?

When we left the marina early the next morning, we were stunned by the beauty of fog rising off the lovely waterway just outside the marina’s cove:

And here was the view out my galley window while we were at anchor one of these days. I find these rural anchorages very peaceful:

At first, we found North Carolina pretty much like South Carolina, from the viewpoint of our fly bridge. However, we started to see differences in the homes. They tended to be in pastel hues of Easter eggs. Also, some of the land seemed less swampy and a tad bit higher off the water. There were fewer palm trees and more pine trees. 

FOOTNOTES FOR FUN FACT FANS

(1) We found a wonderful dentist who would see us for a short-notice, preventative visit. I got a much-needed professional haircut! Like all of you, we needed to spend some time preparing taxes. All our statements were digitized--so it was not an issue getting this to a tax preparer. 

(2) Mike installed a trickle charger in the storage unit. Now we're confident the truck will start when we need it. Thanks to Paula and Carl for starting it on a periodic basis!

(3) Fireboy is simply a brand of fixed, automatic extinguishers. We learned that when it senses 180 degrees it automatically goes off. The system also shuts down the engines and turns off the engine room blowers, reducing oxygen. There's a loud alarm, too. We learned how to bypass the engine shut down so we could turn on the working engine and blower, if needed, to limp "home." The system sprays a gas that does not hurt the engine! However, if you breathe a good amount of it, you pass out. But if you're in the engine room when it's 180 degrees, you're toast anyway?

(4) Just when I thought I could understand everything locals were saying with their charming accents I got caught up. I was making reservations via phone with a marina. You typically tell them your length and draft. Then she said, "What is your baah-eeem, darlin'? Confused, I asked, "Can you repeat that?" Patiently and slowly she said, "Your baaaaah-eeeeeem?" She was using two syllables to say, "beam." So funny. We both laughed about it when I met her in person and now I know! 

(5) The quaint stop was Osprey Marina, South of Myrtle Beach. We got there late and hardly got off the boat. Then we stopped at Southport Marina which is along Cape Fear River. We watched "Cape Fear" that night. So scary! So appropriate! Next, we anchored in a large bay among more marshlands which also hosted a Navy training facility. This was the first place where we had challenges getting our anchor to hold with two engines in reverse. We moved to another spot in the same bay and had the same problem. We were so tired after six hours underway that we decided to see if it would stick with only one engine in reverse. It stuck! The Weather app forecasted the wind to be mild, so we were confident we would not drag; the anchor did not drag overnight. Finally, we stayed at a rustic shrimp boat dock and seafood store called R.E. Mayo. I was so happy to stock up on inexpensive shrimp, scallops, and flounder. The owner was so kind and friendly.