Last Four Days in Charleston

Mar 25 thru Mar 28

—Blogpost written by Bob

Monday, March 25

We focused on some major daily tasks for the upcoming four days:
          Monday: Get boat's bottom cleaned by diver
          Tuesday: Check oil and coolant levels and clean the boat interior
          Wednesday: Provisioning
          Thursday: Put the dinghy in the water and load up the bikes.

Today's task was getting the boat's bottom cleaned.  Josh of Port City Diving Company (843.343.1692) completed the job in about 30 minutes.  There were some barnacles on the propeller, the strut, the bottom of the rudder, and the bottom of the keel.  He cleaned the entire hull and advised us that our bottom paint was in great shape overall.

Josh giving me the "thumbs
up" on the bottom cleaning.

While the diver was working beneath the boat I was reconnecting the reefing lines for the main sail.  I also replaced our worn out Maryland flag on the port flag halyard.

Today was warm and sunny, reaching the high 70's in the afternoon.  A 15-knot breeze blew out of the west as a cold front was approaching.

At lunchtime, we rode our bikes to the Brown Dog Deli for lunch--this time we deliberately arrived a little early to make sure we got seats but it wasn't that crowded.  We expected this to be our last lunch at the Brown Dog Deli.  In fact, it was one of our last bike rides into Charleston.  On our way back to the boat we bought a replacement lock for Maggie's bike since she lost her original overboard (off the pier).

When I got back to the boat, I checked the boat's fuel level--both tanks were full, meaning that we have about 51 gallons plus 5 gallons in a jug on deck (equivalent to 93 hours of run time at cruising speed).  

It was soon Happy Hour and we relaxed with our adult beverages.  I had a (diet) lemonade with (spiced) rum and Maggie had a rum and soda (Sprite Zero).  It was really pleasant being onboard in the afternoon.  

My (diet) lemonade with (spiced) rum.
(Notice that my drink is precariously
close to my computer keyboard.)

Tuesday, March 26

It rained lightly during the night but the sun was up when we awoke.  However, the clouds came in and blocked out the sunshine before long.  Rain appeared likely.  It was noticeably cooler today (low 60's).

An older Beneteau 41.1
on a nearby dock.

We decided to do some inside work in preparation for our trip north.  First, we removed everything from the quarter berth to get access to check the engine oil level.  After checking the engine oil level, we re-packed the quarter berth, now including our dock steps.  Then I checked the coolant level--all levels were prefect.  I ran the engine (for the second time in was many days for no other reason than to simply get in the mood to move on.

Access through the quarter berth for
engine oil level checks.  (I'm very
glad that I added engine room
lights one summer!)

While Maggie sorted things out in our fridge, I rolled up our forepeak tent and tied it fast to the handrails in preparation for leaving.  (Instead of moving to the MegaDock on Thursday afternoon, we considered anchoring out in the harbor the night before departing Charleston.)

For lunch, we decided to try Amen Street Fish Market on East Bay Street.  Of course, we rode our bikes there.  We had (Half Moon) oysters on the half shell and blackened grouper with a side salad--everything was absolutely delicious!

Amen Street Fish & Raw Bar had about six
different varieties of oysters on the half
shell--we selected Blue Moons
from Massachusetts.

By the time we rode back to the boat it was much cooler, windier, and the rain threatened.  We made a beeline back to the boat before the rain came.

For happy hour we both had white wine, Spier Chardonnay from South Africa, which we brought with us onboard.  (We were introduced to this wine by Maggie's neighbor in Federal Hill who was born in South Africa.  However, I like Fetzer Chardonnay from California a bit better)

Wednesday, March 27

It felt cold outside this morning (low 40's) and the temperature was not expected to exceed the low 60's in the afternoon, even though it is sunny.  This cold snap is expected to disappear very soon.  Friday, the day we leave the high temperature is expected to be 72 degrees and 73 degrees on Saturday.  The weather window that we are watching for our upcoming ocean passages has been maintained.  Below is the forecast from my WINDY app for Friday and Saturday.

Today's forecast for Friday and
Saturday courtesy of WINDY.

The wind shown in the dark blue bands in the center of the page varies between 2.4 knots and 7.7 knots (pretty light!) and the ocean swell was shown (in the little bright blue bars down the page further) as between 1.8 and 2.7 feet (not bad!).  So, at this point, we are still on for leaving from our slip at low slack tide (9:45 AM) on Friday.  Based on the predicted low wind speed, our ocean passages are expected to be motoring trips or motor-sailing trips.

This is an image of the ocean water temperatures
along the southeast coast of the U.S.  The red
represents the highest temperatures (the Gulf
Stream).  We expect to be traveling in the
light blue area, 5 to 10 miles off the coast, 
well inboard of the Gulf Stream.

Provisioning was on the agenda for today and we really did provision--over $300! 

Shopping carts outside of the
Harris Teeter Grocery store.

Provisioning is a big job when you live aboard but a little bit easier when our boat is in a slip.      We're planning on our next provisioning stop being in Beaufort NC on or about April 5, about a week from today.  Between here and Beaufort, we expect to be anchoring out for four nights and spend 3 nights in a slip in Southport.

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Maggie decided to do laundry in the early afternoon since our next laundry stop will be about a week away.  At the same time I relocated a fire extinguisher from under the galley sink to a more accessible location in the head. The fire extinguisher may be more accessible but access to the mounting bolts sure wasn’t.  It took me an hour to complete such a simple task involving only two mounting bolts.  I’ve also noticed that the task involved a lot more swearing and cussing than similar tasks in the past.  I think my increased frustration was due to the fact that I’m not as flexible as I used to be. Damn!

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Before we knew it, happy hour had arrived and another day was history.

Thursday, March 28

On our last full day in Charleston, the weather improved, compared to yesterday.  Even though chilly in the early morning, the sun came out and the afternoon was nice and warm.  There was very little breeze.

The dinghy is temporarily tied to the bow
and our bikes are loaded on deck.

Our bikes neatly fit inboard of the shrouds.
We tied them fast so that they couldn't
move.  Surprisingly, they didn't
obstruct our vision very much.

We were finished with our major task of splashing the dinghy and loading the bikes before lunchtime.  The only thing left to do tomorrow morning before we leave is to top off the fresh water tanks, get ice cubes, take showers, retrieve our shore power cable and our fresh water hose.

With most of our work complete, we decided to catch the courtesy van to the Brown Dog Deli for lunch--our last lunch out in Charleston.  

At 4 PM, we declared happy hour and toasted to a successful winter excursion in Charleston.  We really like Charleston and Charleston City Marina--we'll be back sometime in the future!  Stay tuned for our northward travels...


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