#44 A whole bunch of stuff happening

I think we’re going to need a new flag soon…

We just pulled into Georgetown, SC, (another great stop!) after another uneventful 65 mile/7 hour passage. (Cheryl has a different view about our Charleston passage, see her comments below.) We talk on these passages, listen to music, watch the dolphins fishing, pass boats, eat, drink coffee, marvel at the homes we see, both the mansions and the shacks, and talk some more. Really hard work and exhausting. Not! We are here for two days, then on to South Myrtle Beach where we hear fuel prices are the best in the area. We’re working our way up the coast with hopes and plans of arriving at Norfolk May 1st or before. We’ll attend the AGLCA rendezvous there, hopefully picking up all kinds of great information about the next leg of this crazy journey, including the Chesapeake, Great Lakes, and Canada, as well as meeting up with Looper friends and making some new ones. (Side note: We had noticed, as did other Loopers, that the dolphins here don’t play in the boat’s wake like they do in Florida. On one of our tours, we learned that dolphins, while the same species, have different ethnic groups, which speak different languages and behave differently, and yep, the inshore east coast dolphins are very territorial and don’t surf boat wakes.) I have also noticed that while there are still gorgeous live oaks here, we’re too far north for Spanish Moss, so they look kind of bare.

We’re headed out right now to explore, so, on to some photos.

We’re still having a great time meeting people, Cheryl can set up a docktail meeting in minutes and bam, a new group of interesting friends. New friends include: Bahama Problem, Tortue de Mer, Wiggle Worm, Zia Later, ShipFaced, Tinker Toy, Hide Aweigh, Six Winds, Morning Star, Encore, Oasis, Revival, State of Grace, Wade-ing Around, and Knot Working.

This is what eight feet of tidal range looks like in Savannah Georgia.

The scooters are still working out great.

We had a rooftop drink in Savannah one evening, and, if Cheryl will ever win the lottery, I’m going to build us a boat like this to cruise around on.

You just never get tired of the beauty of the water.

We took a boat tour, which seems incongruous since we’re living on a boat, but we really enjoy the tour guides narration. We’ve done tours at several stops, including Charleston. The history and stories they tell are always fascinating. (Like, did you know that Patty Hearst lives in Charleston?) Cheryl is in front of Pippi Longstocking’s house.

At Fernandina Beach, our boat was the last one out at the end of this long long dock. Then we came to Charleston, home of the mega-dock and discovered what a long dock really looks like. More on that in a bit.

It’s a good thing pelicans are not as big as people, or bigger, it would be dangerous to walk past them as they are always hungry!

It would be easy to spend several days in Charleston.

Some mornings underway are just gorgeous.

Some, not so much, but still engaging.

We pulled into Charleston after an uneventful passage, although the wind was blowing like stink, (which means 25 gusting to 35) but we drove from inside most of the day so didn’t really notice, other than some lumpy seas crossing the sounds. However, we got to the mega-dock in Charleston and they put us on the east end, closest to the swells coming in from the ocean and totally unprotected. As you can see, that’s not gonna work. We couldn’t even stand up, much less rest or sleep. So we asked for a better spot and they moved us to the other end of the mega-dock, about a mile away, inside, and protected. Way way way better, and much appreciated. This marina is one of the most accommodating we’ve been to, they don’t have loaner cars, they have a shuttle that picks you up on demand. Very nice! The mega-dock is just amazing to walk, it’s 1530 feet of unbelievable yachts.

https://www.live5news.com/2024/06/20/multi-million-dollar-mega-dock-opens-charleston-safe-harbor-marina/

Scroll down the photos on the right side here, this boat, parked right next to us, is amazing.

https://www.northropandjohnson.com/yachts-for-sale/atlantide-122-philip-son-ltd

Cheryl: OK, so I have to be brutally honest. Let’s discuss the “uneventful passage” from Beaufort to Charleston that Butch mentioned. I started out the morning wearing two pairs of pants, two shirts, socks, tennis shoes, a winter jacket, and leather gloves. It was 52° outside with 25 mph winds with wind gusts up to 35 mph coming right at us. You do the math. We tried to drive from the upper helm, but it was too cold and too windy so we drove from inside.

Driving from inside presents its own set of issues entirely. Visibility on a good day is limited. Visibility on a day where you’re rocking and rolling five of a 7+ hour long trip, with waves crashing over the bow drenching the windshield, splashing into the upper helm, and leaving a dense layer of sea salt on every surface within their reach is like steering your own roller coaster car with your head wrapped in parchment paper. The video “Middle of the Ocean” that Butch posted wasn’t even during this passage. It was from a much calmer day. So use your imagination regarding this trip. Dodging the dreaded crab pots was virtually impossible since you couldn’t see them until you were right up on them-if at all.

Butch does most of the driving. But on these long arduous days, I have to give him some relief. So he has me “steer” the boat in areas where I am less likely to run it aground, collide into a boat/dock, or get tangled in crab pots. These areas are the wide/deep areas (inlets or sounds) where the Atlantic Ocean pours into the narrow Intracoastal Waterway. Envision a two lane highway being hit from the side by an expressway, and all those cars trying to merge onto the highway. Some cars trying to turn left, the others right while the original highway cars are trying to pull into Burger King. Add 35 mph wind gusts against a 17 foot tall RV, an undulating roadway, no designated lanes, and a torrential downpour then you might start to understand my struggle. Keeping the boat in the channel and on the sail line is like using a chopstick to keep a ping-pong ball lined up with the row of buttons on a shirt as it is in the wash cycle of a washing machine.

When I’m driving inside, Butch uses that time to send text messages, check things on the boat, confirm our route, or take a nap. OMG! When he’s driving, I’m standing on my tiptoes on the top of the stairway trying to see obstacles in our way when the windshield wiper plows through the splashes and clears a peep hole on the windshield 10 inches over my head. Not very relaxing as I rock side to side, up and down.

When the waves of one inlet finally calmed down, I was still trying my best to stay in the channel. Butch ventured outside to pour freshwater over the windshield to get some of the salt off, allowing me some visibility. A relief for sure. Butch then proceeded to the upper helm to check something- I’m still trying to stay on the sail line. But uh oh. There’s an island of seagrass in front of me. Of course the sea grass doesn’t show up on my GPS. Do I keep it on my right- or left? I chose right. I was wrong. I realized the error of my ways in plenty of time to turn the boat the other way. But not soon enough to save Butch’s favorite cap (from Interlochen) from taking flight off his head and becoming fish fodder when he rushed down to correct our course and the wind caught it.

Fast-forward to the end of our seven hour ten minute “uneventful passage” and we are arriving into Charleston Harbor where the wind is a constant 35 mph and waves are 3 to 4 feet high. We had to go to the upper helm so Butch could see well enough to locate our marina and dock the boat. We just got seated when Butch yelled “Duck!” (That’s never good) immediately followed by us both getting slapped in the face by a wave that climbed over the bow, up the windshield, and into the upper helm.

I have no idea how he did it, but Butch parked the boat as we were going vertical 3 to 4 feet next to a dock that was moving the same magnitude, but not necessarily in sync with the boat. Three dock hands caught our lines and wrangled us in. The “Rocking at the Dock” video Butch posted doesn’t begin to show the severity of tumultuous movement. I can sum it up in one word– brutal. We were being slammed against the dock. At one point I actually thought Moonshine was going to flip onto the dock. The boat went up, the dock went down, and a huge gust of wind came from the opposing side. I was in the back of the boat during the video (don’t watch it too closely) because I simply could not get out.

15 minutes later, four men released our lines and struggled to shove us off the dock so we could move to a calmer slip. To get free from the dock, Butch gunned the boat in reverse at the same time a huge wave broke over the dinghy and poured into the aft cockpit. It soaked me up to my butt, as I scampered up the ladder to escape being sucked out in the undertow. (Luckily, the salon door was firmly closed, or all that saltwater would have gotten into the boat.) At the same time, one of our engines died and black smoke roared out of the back of the boat when Butch managed to get the engine restarted just in time (10 feet) to keep us from colliding with a big yacht. He then skillfully slid the boat into a much calmer, tucked away slip. Total damage done by saltwater in the aft cockpit- one 30 to 50 amp adapter and two electric scooters fried!

But friends, the fun does not stop there. Nay nay. When we were finally nestled into our slip, the boat was totally encased in salt. I set up the hose to give it a thorough rinsing. For some reason, Butch forgot I was cleaning the boat so opened a couple windows that are covered with black netting concealing the openings from me. Needless to say, not only did I rinse off the exterior of the boat, but the carpet, kitchen floor, and couch have also been spring cleaned.

So, you be the judge. Was April 8, 2026 simply an “uneventful passage or maybe a wee bit more?!

“The purpose of studying economics is not to acquire a set of ready-made answers to economic questions but to learn how to avoid being deceived by economists.”