Myrtle Beach, SC to Georgetown, SC (scratch that... Charleston, SC).
Tad flew out of Myrtle Beach this morning and so starts the single-handed running. Laundry before departure had me pulling out of Myrtle Beach at 11:45am for an easy 42 mile run to Georgetown. Normally I would have every marina I need booked all the way to Miami weeks before I even left, but I didn't... surprisingly (for those who know me well) I'm just doing it as I go. I went on Marinalife website late last night and booked slip at Harborwalk in Georgetown for tonight. Received email from Marinalife this morning telling me Harborwalk was full. If you're a cruising boater and don't know about Marinalife.com, you should. Check it out. Cruising concierge, discounts at marinas and on fuel... a great resource and great people. I have been a member for most of the past 10 years. Yesha at Marinalife found me an alternate marina in Georgetown but I just wasn't sure I wanted to be anywhere other than Harborwalk. The "Soaker the South Needs" was forecast to hit around 3pm... I headed off certain I would be in long before it hit. Cloudy skies made it easy to pick out marks (no sun in my eyes) and I was able to run quickly. Got to Georgetown at 1:30pm under high winds and ominous clouds. But off to the South the skies looked blue and inviting. I called Yesha and asked her to see if she could get me Charleston City Marina for the next 3 days, and just kept running South. Another 58 miles shouldn't be too bad and I could probably keep running along the edge of the storm without a care. Generally that was true.
The winds were high and the waves nasty on the Wacamaw River and Winyah Bay but I pounded on. I spotted a large, submerged, 8ft log in time to take action and radioed it back the the boats I'd passed earlier. (This part may be too descriptive for some) Normally I carry a couple empty Gatoraide bottles for a long boat delivery, but this was originally planned as only a couple of hours. No Gatorade bottles and no lunch pre-prepared. One of the challenges I found was that the winds (which were blowing 20-25) did not allow me to simply take the boat out of gear and run below for a moment, instead I had to point the boat towards a mark and leave it in gear, making minimal headway, to take a break. Otherwise the boat was quickly blown towards the side of the channel. I picked my spots very carefully through this mostly narrow run. You probably didn't need that bit of info, but it was another of the challenges for the day. About 20 miles past Georgetown, I got a call from Yesha saying that Harborwalk had a cancellation and could fit me. Oh well, I was committed to making it to Charleston and asked her to get me in there for the night. Marinalife took care of everything while I kept running and got me an inside slip at City Dock as I requested. I later found out that City Dock had been turning down people all day... Thank you Yesha!!!
So on I went. Somewhere in the middle of absolutely nowhere (Bulls Bay), my chart on the chartplotter ended it's charts. Humm, no problem, I have the next chart card I need to get me all the way to Florida... so I ran below and grabbed it, stuck it in and had absolutely no detail. Still trying to get to Charleston before the storm, I continued on with the paper charts. At the next no wake zone I called Navionics to find out what had happened. Turns out I needed to run a software update on my Raymarine Chartplotter (which requires downloading the update to my laptop and then writing it to a flash card and loading it to the chartplotter). That wasn't going to happen in those weather conditions. I had been keeping my position up to date on my paper flip charts during the whole run so I switched over and just used them. Running 35, looking at a paper chart, interesting challenge. Then came the rain. Not blinding, just enough to make me laugh at the whole situation. How many different stressers does it take before panic sets in and the person bolts for the surface? (A question for divers.)
An hour later it dawned on me as I went through Isle of Palms that Joe Armand had told me about the Navionics chart app for my phone and I used it to run up Charleston Harbor. Thank you Joe! Got in to City Marina in Charleston at 4:30pm. So my easy day turned in to a 100 mile (exactly) run. Georgetown will have to wait for another time.
Went out for some Charleston bbq and Lexi came to meet me. So great to see her. Haven't seen her since last April. Tomorrow she's giving me a tour around Charleston and coming over to walk the mile of megayachts at the marina. Worth the longer day to get to spend some extra time with her. By the way, for you Haven Harbour friends, I got to see Dave & Jackie of Haven Charters tonight. They are on their way to Key West with their boat. Jackie's mom & dad brought it to Charleston while Dave & Jackie finished up the charter season. They drove down in a rental car to meet up with their boat and just got here a few hours before I arrived. Jackie saw me pulling in to the marina (Dave and I had talked last week so I knew they might be here). They hope to head out and run offshore for a couple of days down to St. Augustine before heading on to Key West. Always nice to see people you know along the way South. I'm taking a couple of days here in Charleston before continuing South on Friday.
It was 70 degrees at 10pm, and the "soaker" has yet to turn in to much of anything but high winds.
