Waiting For Another Window!

Now that's what I call a water hole! This golf course was along the ICW between Charleston, SC and Beaufort, SC. The water was on three sides of the tee.

Sunday morning we left Charleston with several other boats and traveled the ICW to an anchorage at South Edisto River. We dropped our hook and only had the company of one other sailboat, Cygnus. Fred and Linda have been traveling South with another boat. Both boats are from the Chesapeake Bay area. Their buddy boat prefers a marina and Fred and Linda, like us prefer to anchor. That evening they came over for a visit and to share adventures.

Monday morning we both lifted anchor at sunrise to travel the rest of the distance to Beaufort, SC. We had some patchy fog but otherwise we had a good, uneventful trip.














This is the Lady's Island Swing Bridge as it was opening for us to travel though. The City Marina is just beyond were we fueled up and took on water before anchoring.

Fred has been experiencing some difficulties with his chart plotter and ask if Larry could take a look at it. While the men worked on the plotter Linda and I went to shore in our dinghy to provision at the Publix grocery on Lady's Island. It seemed to take us forever to get there in the outgoing current but we eventually did get there. It was amazing how hot it was on shore. We especially noticed it because the store was a bit of a walk.

When we got back it was getting late and Larry and I settled down for dinner and a quiet evening. So we thought! It had been a windy day and the currents run swift though this deep anchorage. Several more boats had come in just before dark and set a hook, making the anchorage more crowded and a little uncomfortable. Because of the opposing wind and tidal current boats had been forced over their anchor making it difficult to judge where their anchor was set. During the tidal change several of us were closer than we wanted to be but appeared to be OK.

We went to bed and about 1:00 AM Larry took a peek out side and found the boat in front of us was too close for our comfort. We sat up in the cockpit for a while and watched as they moved back and forth a few times in front of our bow. We were clearing and all seemed OK. We went to bed again.

This time we were abruptly awakened by a bang. We jumped out of bed to see what had happened. ( Sounds like a Christmas Story) The Bayfield 36 in front of us had hit our extra anchor on the bow with his dinghy that was on davits. Larry went forward to fend him off until the owner came above and started to pull up his anchor. We pushed him off again and this time he went down our port side and behind us then up our starboard side. At this point we put out fenders, we were touching as though we were rafted together. As he was attempting to bring up his anchor, it was evident that our anchor chains were entwined. The four of us had to manually push their boat away and work the chains apart. It wasn't until he was away from us that he realized he had been dragging all along, it was the current that made it hard to get his anchor up not that it was set. They at this point went out to the back of the anchorage and reset their hook. The incident didn't appear to have disturbed our hook but had moved our chain.

The Island Packet next to us had a full keel and stayed put for a long time in the tidal change but us being a Hunter (we hunt for a spot) we kept moving closer than was comfortable. At one point we were so close that the owner of the boat and I held hands to push our boats apart. What a night! Larry took up on our chain which seemed to move us apart.

When the tide did it's full switch we were finally a comfortable distance apart and went to bed again. Which was just before dawn. We woke up a few hours later but felt we had not had enough sleep. Our original plan had been to go off shore Tuesday morning for an overnight but the window of weather had changed for the worse and we were to tired anyway.

We spent the morning on the phone attempting to find transportation from Marathon, FL to Daytona, FL for our ride with my Aunt Dot to NY for Christmas. We decided renting a car was the most efficient and now have a reservation.

The couple that we went bump in the night with came to make sure we had no damage. We assured them we were fine, no holes and that we weren't upset and that we also had the same thing happen to us with another boat two year ago. It happens.

Later in the afternoon, Larry and I went to shore for a walk and a shower at the marina.

The anchorage emptied out for the most part and the winds were nonexistent and so we had a great nights sleep. We checked the weather this morning and still don't have a good window for an overnight run so we will stay put today and wait for tomorrow.