SC: Charleston City Marina

Wednesday 4/18/2018
Depart: Beaufort, SC Anchorage 9:05
Arrive: Charleston City Marina 4:15
Distance: 59 nm

When I went to bed last night, I hit the pillow, and it was "lights out"! I heard from Clark that he had some anchorage concerns to deal with before he came to bed. I slept through all his excitement.

Because we anchored in fairly deep water, we had out a lot of line for the anchor. Wind and current determine the direction the boat points at anchor. When we dropped the anchor, our boat ran parallel to the channel. Just before he came to bed, Clark noticed that Sunset Delight had swung around and looked to be in danger of getting entangled with an unoccupied mooring ball. Planning to reel in some of the anchor line to avoid the mooring ball, he discovered that Sunset Delight sat at a 90 degree angle to the anchor line. Given this, our boat was not in a position to get entangled with the mooring ball, so he left it.

Later, Sunset Delight swung around to position herself out towards the channel. Clark noticed some spot lights on the river. He turned on our AIS so whatever was coming would see our boat. Then he checked to see what was coming. On the AIS, he saw two tugs approaching at the exact same speed. Given we were sticking out into the river, he worried about Sunset Delight being in harm's way. As  he looked out, he could see two tugs with a barge between them coming straight towards our boat. Then, as they got closer, they turned and continued on their way without Clark having to do anything.

Anchoring out with batteries that are on their "last legs" is no fun. As I said to Clark this morning, "I'm afraid to do anything." I wanted to brush my teeth and was afraid the water pump would run and trip the low-voltage alarm. Ditto for flushing the head! For the second day in a row, Clark got underway before eating breakfast because he did not dare run the microwave.

For about an hour this morning, as I piloted the boat, Clark talked with technical support personnel regarding batteries. Clark has come to the conclusion that, although standard issue with the Krogen Express, the batteries installed are not designed for deep discharge. They may be fine for starting batteries, but they suck as house batteries.

Unfortunately, even though they are only 5 months old, our three house batteries appear to have been "cooked" and are pretty much dead. The solar panels may have sped along their demise by overcharging them. Clark has cut back on the charging power, but it is too late to save these three batteries. Now we have to go through the pain of acquiring and swapping out batteries yet again. At around 160 pounds each, it is not a fun job.

With all the battery concerns, Clark decided to head for a marina tonight where we can brush and flush to our heart's content come morning without worry of alarms going off. He managed to get a reservation at the Charleston City Marina.

On the way to Charleston, we mostly saw typical South Carolina sights. A few scenes stood out as interesting.

Clark saw this yellow thing in the trees and wondered,
"What is that?"

Further along the ICW he got the answer to his question.

Crane at work site

U.S. Army Vessel at work site

Crane on RR Tracks

Also at the work site ...

Tug with Paddle-wheel Boat

Clark also took some pictures that reflect the South Carolina waters on the ICW and their long piers over marshes.

South Carolina on the ICW

Long dock out to the waterway

As we approached Charleston, we smelled smoke and saw it off in the distance. Traveling through Elliot Cut to get to Charleston, the smoke was so heavy, it made my eyes burn. Though not reflected in the pictures taken of Elliot Cut, the sky was hazy due to the smoke in the air. The associated fire and source of the smoke sat miles off in the distance behind us.

Entering Elliot Cut

Elliot Cut behind us

Elliot Cut was short, but my-oh-my, the current was whipping through there! We slowed down our RPM to transit the cut as required. At 1200 RPM, we flew through there at 10.4 knots. 10.4 knots is fast for us at 1600 RPM! As we flew along with the current, a vessel coming the other way "plowed" their way through fighting it.

As we approached Charleston, we could tell quite clearly that we arrived at low tide.

Bridge at low tide
with 7 extra feet of clearance

Houseboat docked on the mud

Ugly and strange arrangement under this house
 that appears at low tide.

More of the SC long docks out to the water

We have visited Charleston in the past, but we have not stayed at the City Marina before. They assigned us a spot on their "Megadock". This dock is a very long dock that accommodates very large vessels.

Charleston City Marina - Megadock Up Ahead

Two Mega Yachts on the Mega Dock

76' Scorpio from Red Bank, NJ!
 -- opposite us on the other side of the Megadock

Docking here was "interesting". They saved us a spot, between two other boats, that measured slightly larger than the length of our vessel. We had current pushing us one direction while the wind pushed us hard towards the dock. I could tell we would come in fast, so I made sure I had all of my fenders out before we came in for a landing. Clark had to circle around twice to kill time while I prepared my lines and fenders.

With the wind whipping and whistling, Clark could not understand me through our headsets that we use when docking. On the second approach, I heard him say, "I think you said you are ready. I am assuming you are ready." Thank goodness I was ready!

If Clark had been driving a car, he would have had to parallel park to get the car in the space. He used his excellent piloting skills to position the boat such that, when the wind took us sideways, we slid right into the space allocated. Impressive! We had two dock hands to grab lines, and they had us tied to the dock in no time! We did come in hard as expected, but with the fenders in place, we softly bounced when we hit the dock. Nice!

Having stayed in Charleston before and done the "tourist thing", we did not feel a need to explore the city. Instead we grabbed the free van service provided by the marina and took a ride to the Harris Teeter food market for some provisions. It is not clear when we will get our next opportunity to stock up.

The front of the store was nicely decorated with trees and plants - almost too pretty to be a supermarket.

Storefront Harris Teeter Supermarket

Storefront Harris Teeter Supermarket

Storefront Harris Teeter Supermarket

We called for the van after shopping. Unfortunately, the driver was swamped with customers, so we had a 25-minute wait for our free ride back to the boat.

When we finally got back to the boat, I grabbed the railing to climb on board and immediately decided that my next highest priority was to remove some of the salt. I did not have time to wash the whole boat, but I did wash the salt off the railings. I can't stand grabbing the railing and coming away with a handful of salt!  While I had a bucket of water at hand, I also washed all the windows. The salt was so thick we could not see through the glass! We have had a lot of wind and therefore a lot of spray.

Since the van driver did not retrieve us from Harris Teeter's until 6:45, and instead of cooking dinner I washed railings and windows, we did not eat dinner until quite late. While I prepared dinner, Clark found a sunset to photograph. We finally ate dinner at 8:30 which is later than I prefer.

Sunset in Charleston, SC