Charleston

After we had dropped anchor in Charleston, Andrew phoned the CBP office and was told he had to go in to the office. He was not allowed to fill in the forms online and he needed to make an appointment. And if he was late he would need to make another one. Laura and I didn’t need to go in, just Andrew. He left feeling a bit nervous about what he was going to have to endure!

While he was ashore we tidied up the boat. He was gone for about two hours but said all went well when he returned. The officer wasn't happy because we had not filled in the required forms in Brunswick where we said we were going to check in. Andrew told the guy that he had been told it would be fine and the officer threatened to phone Brunswick. He also said that we could be fined if we don’t make the check-ins we put on the forms. Lesson learnt. Eish, this traveling in a different country is difficult. It would be so much easier if all the CBP offices had the same rules!

The following day we went ashore to provision. There is a very nice shop, Harris Teeter, about 10 minutes walk from the dock but I needed to have a longer walk, so we walked another 10 minutes to the Target.

On the way back we went in to Harris Teeter. It is a very nice store. A little more expensive than Costco, but not too bad.

What do you do when you get home from shopping? Unpack the shopping, put the kettle on… well, we got absolutely drenched coming back in the dinghy, properly soaked! We don’t want salty drips in the boat, so we had to strip off and have a shower before going down below, on the back of the boat in our knickers and bikini tops! I am sure the passing boats thought we were mad. 

We were planning another overnight sail to Beaufort but the weather was not playing ball. When Andrew first looked it showed good south easterly wind but then softening and turning north closer to arrival. The next time he looked the south easterly was due to get stronger and stronger, up in the 30 knots. And then changing direction to north and dropping. We decided to wait a day and see what it was doing.

The anchorage here is very busy. They were dredging part of the causeway 24 hours a day. The low drone of the engines got very irritating and tiring. Add speed boats coming past all day, making the water choppy and the tide causing more chop, it was not the most pleasant anchorage we have been in.

Bev and Andre arrived on Sunday afternoon. Sadly, we didn't catch up with them as we needed to be out by Monday - according to the CBP officer. He gave us papers for clearing in and out on the same day but we had to be gone within 72 hours. If not we had to contact him again and he “might" give us a verbal clearance or he might not. Then Andrew would have to go in again. I am not sure if I have mentioned this, but most of the CBP offices are far away. Too far to walk so money has to be spent on an Uber ride!

We woke on Monday morning to dark, gloomy skies, thunderstorm and rain. Although it passed quickly, more storms were predicted throughout the day. 

We ummmed and aaahed a little about whether to go or not. In the end we decided we couldn’t handle the noise and chop any longer and set off.

The first bridge of the day was a swing bridge which only opened on demand after 9am.

There was a shallow patch along the main section of the ICW that we had to maneuver through. We have already been through a section where we must have been dragging through the mud on the bottom. Luckily there was a detour. We were very nervous about it but it was fine. The shallowest depth was 4m. And the detour was quite pretty.

We stopped overnight in a beautiful spot off the ICW. It was so quiet and peaceful after the noise of Charleston. I could have stayed there for a week! We had dolphins swimming around the boat for most of the evening. Later three other boats joined us but they anchored far away.

The following morning set off again, once again worrying about another shallow patch. We had to be there on the rising tide but we had left far too early. Nothing to be done about that as turning around is not an option, so we puttered along as slowly as we could.

The charts showed at least 900m less than what we were seeing. The lowest was 1.2m and we draw 1.9m. It would have been a big problem if we had got stuck but the tide was rising, so we would just have waited for high tide! Our angels were watching over us and the lowest we saw was 2 meters. 

We stopped outside the channel to George Town. 

On Wednesday, 12 June, we hopped in the dinghy and went ashore. We walked the 2,5 km to the nearest Piggly Wiggly which is a local supermarket. 

The streets were so beautiful. Typical American suburb. The houses are all lovely. There is not much garden, but no high walls or electric fences. As we got closer to the shop the ambiance changed becoming more run down and commercial.

Andrew’s back had just recovered from the last time he twinged it, so he didn’t want to damage it carrying heavy bags back to the boat. An Uber was required. 

However, as he was putting the heavy backpack into the dinghy he twisted funny and hurt it again! There is nothing worse than a sore back or injury on a boat.

The wind had picked up so we got absolutely soaked getting back to the boat, again!

After breakfast, Andrew and I went back to refill water jerry cans and do some washing. The marina, Hazard Marina, allowed us to do washing in their laundry and allowed us to fill up with water. I did the washing and drying for $4.50 and water was free! Bonus!!

The intention was to set off on Thursday morning. However, you know the saying about all good intentions… We woke up to dark skies. The weather was supposed to get nasty with high winds coming from the north and rain. We decided to hunker down for the day as the weather was supposed to improve on Friday.

I am so glad we didn’t go. The highest wind we saw was 35 knots, all from the north. The waves were big and before the tide changed we were side on to them, bouncing all over the place.

We woke on Friday morning to flat water, blue skies, not a cloud in sight! What a difference.

After an uneventful day, puttering slowly down the brown waters of the ICW, we dropped anchor in a little inlet. Apart from all the jet skis that came whizzing past, it was lovely. In the evening, when all the other boats had stopped coming past, we could hear the wild life in the nearby forest. 

It was quite funny. A speed boat came zooming past pulling two boys on an inflatable ring making a huge wake at our boat. As they went round the corner we could hear a girl yelling that she could see a 'gator, the boys screaming like... girls!! Well, we didn’t see them again that evening!

On Saturday, 15 June, we upped anchor early and set off again. We passed some big, fancy houses.

That evening we dropped anchor in shallow water near Little River Inlet. The beach was packed and each boat seemed to vie for the prize for the loudest country and western music. 

At about 4pm Andrew said that he had got a weather warning, a storm was brewing. Within half an hour the clouds had gathered and a thunderstorm rolled across the sky. We were surrounded with one on the port side and another on the starboard side. 

Laura anxiously counted the ‘crocodiles’, the closest boom being about 8km away. And then the rain pelted down, cleaning the salt from the boat. I went down below and discovered at least 4 places that were dripping water. The garage cover we know about and it tends to spread water over the stove on one side and the nav station on the opposite side. We now have a leaking port light - not good and the other was the new zip on the Bimini which was dripping down the companionway. 

I put towels down and we waited for the rain to pass. It was over in an hour of thunder, lightening and heavy rain. As soon as sun came out, it was hot again.

The up side of the rain was a lot of the boats left during the rainstorm. We were left with one boat who still played his music louder than an ACDC concert! It would have been okay if the music was decent. They eventually left just before sunset which these days is 8:30pm.

Once the last boat and jet skis had left the birds returned to the island. The island is called bird island but I think they leave when the day trippers arrive with their racket!

The following morning, Sunday 16 June, we left at about 8am and puttered down the ICW, once again passing big, fancy houses.

We found a Marina with a dock on the outside where we could buy diesel and top up the water. Once again we can’t make water in the ICW. I am not sure if it is because it is not salty enough or too dirty. 

After filling both the water and diesel tanks we pushed off the dock and set off. Andrew and I heard a weird noise. Andrew went to investigate and it sounded and felt like the prop was juddering. We have been struggling to get into reverse, but I think we may have broken a prop blade. Andrew said when he went astern something went pop and then it felt easier.

We hobbled to our anchorage, Cape Fear, which wasn’t much further hoping we were not damaging anything by driving with two blades on the prop.

We were planning on doing an overnight trip on Monday night, so we really needed to see what the problem was with the prop. Andrew put the GoPro on a long GoPro pole and put it in the water. The sun was about to set and was behind clouds. That coupled with the really murky water, he could see nothing at all.

The following morning he got in the dinghy and put the GoPro in again. We hadn’t just broken a blade, we had lost it completely! It was gone.

We have a Kiwi Prop, yes all the way from Kiwi land. It is a feathering prop, which means the blades fold in on themselves to change direction. We have had a problem before when we broke a blade going in to reverse!

Thank goodness, Andrew has spares from the last time this happened. The previous evening he had spent a lot of time on Google asking about alligators in these waters. Still not sure whether he was going to be eaten for breakfast or not, he donned his diving gear and went to fix a prop.

Tools and spares ready

I sat in the dinghy passing him various tools that he needed and keeping a beady eye out for any strange movement in the water.

The only thing that came past were a bunch of birds flying back to the island with fish in their beaks.

At first he thought the pin was bent because he couldn’t get the new blade on the shaft. He asked me to go and look for some wood. 

While looking for wood, I found the missing door to the cupboard in the galley. We had searched the boat for this door which needed a hinge and a handle. Andrew swore up and down that he had looked in that cupboard!

He eventually managed to get the blade on and all the screws in place without dropping any into the murky brown water. Relieved that no ‘gators joined him, he got out the water as fast as possible.

Once again we were deliberating whether to leave that day or not. We were going to do another overnight sail to Morehead City. The wind looked like it was going to taper off during the night which we didn't want. At the last minute we decided to leave with Andre and Bev and motored over be closer to the inlet to stage our departure. 

Once the boat was ready for overnight sailing, we set off. It wasn't a great sail but we got there eventually.