July 1
Schedules are a terrible thing to have when you're boating. We were tested on several fronts with this dilemma as we made our way out of St. Johns Yacht Harbor after spending a leisurely month docked there. SJYH is sort of our home base, and the month here gave us time to run back and forth to our dirt home a few times to remove some items off the boat as well as bring some other items back. We even had visitors!! My older brother Joe from New Zealand, his son - my nephew, Daniel, his wife Athene and their 2-1/2 year old son Xavier had rented a house for a few days on James Island providing an opportunity for some family time both on board the boat and at their Airbnb.
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| John, Xavier, Daniel and Joe |
We got a few projects taken care of while docked. The old name was removed and "As You Wish" with our new logo was applied. Then we were able to get a local canvas shop to repair some tears and reinforce a few areas on our bimini top. Martha did a bit of redecorating to start making it ours and I even got her to take of the tour of the engine room!
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| It's official - name installed |
Back to the dilemma of schedules. We had scheduled a firm arrival date of June 30 for the 1000 hour service work on the engines and generator at Marine Propulsion. That would involve a several hour trip back around to Bohicket Creek. We also needed to time our departure from SJYH for slack tide due to the strong tidal current in Charleston. Then we also had to time our arrival at Marine Propulsion for slack high tide as the creek going in has some shallow water at low tide. Our "schedule" was to leave SJYH at 10AM on June 29 for a couple hour cruise and anchor overnight at Toogoodoo Creek and then depart on June 30 at 9:30AM to arrive at MP at 11AM. Sounds like good planning. And for the most part it was - except for a few trials due to weather.
When we started from SJYH the weather was overcast with likely isolated rain later in the day, so we opted to begin our trip from the open flybridge. We kept hoping rain would hold off until we got anchored but some ominous clouds developing on the horizon was saying differently. So we started moving our gear down to the pilothouse. We got most of it down and the controls covered just as the rain started up. And it was a downpour. First obstacle was another boat approaching based on AIS. Raining so hard we had limited visibility but eventually a ghost ship appeared through the rain and passed as we idled slower on our side of the channel. A few minutes later the rain came down so hard we could see nothing and in total disorientation made the mistake of putting the engines in neutral which then had the effect of letting the wind and current take control. Not a smart decision while in a narrow stretch of ICW with shallow marsh on either side. Trying to gain back control we powered back and forth across the channel using just the chartplotter for guidance before finally gaining full control. I have never before felt such a complete loss of orientation as that situation. Nothing to see out the pilothouse windows except a blanket of grey in every direction. This finally passed and we made our way to Toogoodoo Creek anchorage. By then the rain had stopped and we enjoyed a leisurely afternoon and evening and even got a fine sunset to end the day.
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| Sunset in Toogoodoo Creek at anchor |
We slept well at anchor. Decent evening temperatures, very little wind to contend with and just the swinging of the boat on anchor as the tide changed. Weather forecast was for potential afternoon storms the next day and per our "schedule" it wouldn't arrive until after we got secured at MP. So much for weather forecasts. The only rain all day occurred during the 5 minutes we were docking!! That was until later that evening when a good blow came through with winds, more torrential rain and thunder and lightning. Found out the next morning the start of Tropical Storm Colin had formed and passed right over us!
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| Yup!. That's us in the yellow circle. |
We're now secured and will be leaving the boat here for a few weeks. Along with the engine servicing we'll have the boat hauled and get a bottom paint job giving us a baseline to start our ownership. We're hoping by August we'll be ready to start heading north for some proper cruising. At least then we'll be able to travel on our own schedule where we can stay in port if the weather forecast is questionable.
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| Journey for June 29 |
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| Journey for June 30 |
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