Oct. 26, 2001, Friday
Oct. 27, 2001, Saturday
Oct. 28, 2001, Sunday
Lessons Learned
Here we leave Swan Point Marine in North Carolina and head to Charleston, SC.
Bringing Her Home to Jacksonville - Part II
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Oct. 25, 2001, Thursday Oct. 26, 2001, Friday Oct. 27, 2001, Saturday Oct. 28, 2001, Sunday Lessons Learned |
Here is our second leg of our
trip to bring our newly refurbished trawler from the Zimmerman Yard in
Virginia down to Jacksonville, Florida.
Here we leave Swan Point Marine in North Carolina and head to Charleston, SC. |
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Arrived late last night so we could get underway early today, but Jim had to change the oil in both engines and it took about 2 hours. That was good because I got to visit with Betty awhile. Actually, she and Bea were hanging out when I joined them at Betty’s. We had a few laughs and then it was time to go. They helped us and returned the rental car to Jacksonville for us. Thank goodness for the kindness of these folks!! Unfortunately, I didn’t get to see my fellow waterbug, Lee, but maybe next time! So, after getting square with the marina, we carried our skinny wallets back to the boat and we were off at 10am! A rather uneventful first day, which is good of course, at least there were no problems! When we began to call marinas just past Wrightsville Beach, for a place to dock for the night, everyone was full or could not accommodate a big boat like ours. We were about to settle for anchoring out when we talked with the Colquina Harbormaster who thought he just might have an empty slip at a condo complex down the way, called Federal Point. He was trying to tell us how to get to it and told us to call him once we got to a certain day mark. When we didn’t call back for 10 minutes or so, he called back on the radio “How ‘boutcha trawler?, Did you get stuck in the mud or what?” Jim calls back, “Hey, when you own a trawler, you learn how to go slow”!! Anyway, we finally made it to Federal Point at 7pm. After a nice shower in a very nice facility, we walked to a wonderful little seafood restaurant in Carolina Beach called Michael’s. Its seafood chowder was voted the best on the east coast!! And it was too!! Jim and I laughed about how we were “roughing it” as we drank wine and munched on king crab and tuna steak! Mark, at the bar gave us great service and kept us happy! Afterwards, we walked to the Food Lion to provision up for the next few days, when we ran across these homemade fudge cookies that both Jim and I remember from childhood years. They’re the no bake chocolate and oatmeal drop cookies. Once we grew up my sister called them “heart attacks”! Anyway, we went back to the boat and somehow found room for a half a cookie each before going to bed. We decided that if a hurricane took us in the night, we would definitely die happy (and fat)!!
Depart Federal Point, Carolina Beach at 8am. Another beautiful day, we can’t believe our luck, not a cloud in the sky and a nice 60 degrees headed for the 70’s. It’s a pleasant cruise with nice scenery. Lots and lots of expensive homes to gawk at… we ask ourselves as we view one million dollar house after another, “Where does all this money come from”? We catch a nice wind at our backs and cruise at 9.2 knots, a definite record speed for us! Things are going well, but Jim is tense. Maybe he thinks things are going too well! To give you an example of how tense he gets, I remember last night as we were casually walking to the restaurant, Jim’s arm was up in a “sling” position, almost as if he were escorting me down the aisle! I mentioned it to him and he laughed not even aware of it, but admitting, “yes, I’m tense”! We are headed toward Myrtle Beach or just south of there. We arrive at a cute “rural” marina called Hague Marina close to dark. Two nice college kids, Seth and Devin help us tie up and we take on 80 gallons of fuel. We borrow their courtesy van and drive up the road to the grocery to get a sandwich and some other supplies. Jim putters in the engine room and I read. We are too tired to shower and decide to do that before getting underway in the morning. Tonight it is supposed to get down in the 30’s, burrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!!
Yep, it is cold, but this place is beautiful! It is behind a little island off of the ICW and there’s beautiful trees surrounding us. I take pictures as the sun is rising and there’s a soft fog on the water. We grab a hot shower and then we’re off … until … Jim starts the starboard engine and all is well, then he goes to start the port engine and NOTHING!! No sound, no hiccup, no nothing! After scratching our heads for a minute, Jim diagnoses the problem as electrical, something in the starter. We are not sure what is in store, whether we will be docked here while we order parts from England or what??!! I have learned the best thing to do in these situations is to grab my book and keep quiet and let the “genius at work” do what he does best. After 2 hours (and several obscenities later) I hear both engines start up!! It’s 11am but we are finally underway again!! I declare Jim, the genius he is and we’re off!! Turns out Jim took the starter apart, cleaned it and put it back together and that’s what did the trick!! This part of the journey is very beautiful but barren. The coast is full with trees and sea grass and that’s about it! We admire two pelicans flying in unison, very smooth and low over the water. We decide we will anchor out for the night otherwise we will have to stop in a marina early or go into the night to make the next one. We arrive at our anchorage, the South Santee River at 6pm. It’s a beautiful clear night and there are 3 other boats anchoring here as well. We have a glass of wine and admire the view! The sun has just set in the west. In the east, we see the moon has risen and we have this wonderful moonglow shining in the water. Jim tunes the radio to an oldies station and we slow dance to an old song by Chicago, “Colour My World”. For a moment, all is right with us, and the world!! These are definitely the moments we live for!!
We depart the Santee anchorage at 6:15am (the time changed so it is actually 7:15 by our body clocks), quite early still. The sun is just peeking over the horizon. We needed to get an early start to make it to Charleston and still have time and energy to drive home to Atlanta!! We see some beautiful old shrimp boats along the way. They are so classic, I take pictures of them because it could be a scene from 50 years ago! We arrive (around 1:30pm) at our destination, which is 4 miles south of Charleston at a place called the Buzzard’s Roost Marina. It’s nice, the people are pleasant, and we are glad to see there is a restaurant here too, since we are out of provisions now! We eat a nice lunch and get packed up and catch a taxi to the rental car office in downtown Charleston. When we arrive there, the attendant informs us there are no rental cars available (even though we had one reserved there)!! Jim rants and raves while I contemplate how we are going to get a rental car. Turns out there are cars at the airport so we ask our taxi driver if he can accommodate us. Forty dollars later we arrive at the airport to pick up our car. Needless to say Jim is on the phone talking to customer service and getting us a discount before I can say “let’s go”!! Finally, we are on the road at 4:30pm with an eta for Atlanta of 9:30pm. I plot the four day cruise plan for the next and final trip when we take her from
Charleston to Jacksonville, finally!!!!!
