Where the Wild Things Are

October 15, 2004
By Amy

Friday - October 15, 2004 - South Port, South Carolina

We spent the day on the boat, writing and reading books. NOAA backed off their prediction of gale force winds today, but it was still very windy. The anchorage was good, not rolly at all. Our anchor held fine, though, unlike the old dude in the steel boat. I think I forgot to mention it yesterday, but he came by asking for a lift to shore. He didn't want to tie up the boat ramp by tying his dinghy to it, so he left it at our boat and headed into town. We agreed to pick him back up at 7 PM, after we returned from Southport. Turns out dude is 83 years old and legally blind and is out here cruising. He brings a crew member along at all times--but still! I'm not sure if that is admirable or just crazy.

In any case, he seemed to be having major anchor trouble today. At last count, he had deployed three anchors, roping in the guy off another boat to assist as well. Glad he's not sitting in front of us, or I probably wouldn't have been in favor of going in to town.

But we did go into town. The ride in was ok. We went back to the same place and got a couple of drinks. The specials were good, so we got food as well. My salad was excellent.

Dinghying back, we learned that our dinghy does not like 2 foot breakers. We weren't able to get up on plane, so it was a very wet ride back. My arms were actually tired by the time we got here from holding myself in the boat for a mile.

We did make it back and are preparing for a taco dinner. NOAA has backed off its predictions for wind tomorrow, so our hopes of going offshore to Charleston are dimming. We will be planning for both possibilities: offshore sail or a motor along the ICW.

Saturday - October 16, 2004 - Calabash Creek, Little River, South Carolina

It was not one of our better days out. It started out alright, but NOAA was right (belatedly so). The wind was not favorable for an offshore run. Therefore, we decided to motor south on the ICW rather than sit in Southport any longer.

At first he ride was relatively uneventful, even if it was very windy. Then the problems started. The depth sounder was acting up all day, and Thomas was constantly trying to wrestle it into submission.

Next problem: We missed the 12 PM opening of the Sunset Beach Pontoon Bridge by about 5 minutes--as in, we could see it closing ahead of us. That left us doing laps for almost an hour. A mega-yacht came in and was having difficulty staying put, so it was a bit nerve wracking.

We got through the bridge at 1 PM and proceeded south. Thomas went below to fight with the depth sounder some more, and I came upon Calabash Creek, where we were debating anchoring. I called him up, and we had some navigation problems. We had decided to keep going toward Barefoot Landing, but then accidentally turned in to Calabash Creek. After touring the area, we continued south....

...Only to find that there was a foul current running. We were making only 3 knots. At that rate, we'd arrive at Barefoot Landing almost five hours later. The book says it is likely to fill up early, and we weren't sure what we'd do if there was no room when we showed up near dark.

So we turned around to Calabash Creek again. We did see high 9's on the GPS for speed with all that current in our favor, which was pretty cool. It took two circles to get the anchor down, but at least it is holding. This is not the greatest anchorage ever, but any port in a storm, so to speak.

Just before calling it a day, Thomas had the depth sounder thing figured out. Apparently the wind generator was overcharging the system, sending the voltage up beyond 16 volts and it was freaking it out. Once we shut the wind gen down, we had no more problems.

Thomas is now fishing. We're expecting to have jerk chicken and rice for dinner. (We mostly munched and ate leftovers during the day.)

Maggie has been especially cute, but has decided to start a rotation of her toys through her toilet. They had had a long break from such treatment, but apparently they began pissing her off. She says today sucked because she only got to come out for about 15 minutes while we were underway. She hopes for a longer playtime this evening.

We took the dinghy in to Calabash. There was a shrimp boat with $3 shrimp for sale, but we decided to get drinks first and they were sold out by the time we got out. It was totally dead when we got to the bar at 4 PM, but the place filled up quickly--or at least the restaurant did. Seems that blue hairs from miles around drive to Calabash to eat at the numerous seafood restaurants there. In fact, there is nothing else there. As we were the only ones at the bar most of the night, we talked to the bartender, Tabitha. She must be really bored because we got her whole life story--meeting a hacky sack player when managing Hardee's at 18, following him to a Rainbow Gathering cult thing, meeting her ex, getting pregnant, etc., etc. She was very nice and quite personable. Tom says she is her favorite bartender yet.

Sunday - October 17, 2004 - Barefoot Landing, South Carolina

Editors note: I caught a Little Tunny yesterday, which I returned to the wild.(Tom)

I Tried to save this log earlier, but Thomas was making changes to our computer logging system. I am doing this one from memory, so the data is a little sparse. We left Calabash Creek as soon as it was light enough to see and arrived at Barefoot Landing early. A couple on a boat in front of us helped us dock.

We spent the day exploring the area and decided to stay another day in case some other cruisers show up. The place is weird. They have a huge pond stocked with carp and other fish and some weird-looking birds; they have tigers and there are apparently several alligators roaming.

It is also an outlet mall that features House of Blues and other chain-looking places that due "shows" of one sort or another. But it's free dockage and after a long day yesterday was a welcome break. We watched football at California Pizza after going to T-Bonz. T-Bonz didn't have any football specials, but I did notice their happy hour menu for tomorrow includes $3 steak quesadilla's. We may have to come back.

Merganser has shown up. Also met Bill on an old Hunter and a couple on Goldie, which rafted to us for a very short period. Spent time talking to them, touring their boat and petting their dog.

We had a late dinner of homemade pizza, which was excellent. Thomas made a breakthrough in the crust technology, which met with rave reviews from me.

Monday - October 18, 2004 - Barefoot Landing, South Carolina

I spent the afternoon writing while Thomas went out to the hardware store and liquor store. I took the job of riding over to the convenience store for soda and ice. We had more showers with warm water and no further problems with the drain, so that was nice.

By 2 PM Thomas was ready to go, so we wandered around some more, wandered into Stool Pigeons for a pretzel, but they were out, so we had a couple of drinks. By the time we returned, there were lots of boats around and people were out and about. We met a bunch of folks, most of whose names I didn't get or don't remember.

We hadn't planned for dinner, so we ran over to T-Bonz for $3 appetizers, which were very good. Then we hurried back so we wouldn't miss the festivities. We walked the docks and even talked to Bob off Merganser. We saw Jason and his wife and son, Aaron, off Nikita Rose; they're young, but then they had friends come in (another young couple that had cruised last year), so we didn't get much time to make friends.

Everyone was pretty much headed out for dinner, but we were invited to meet up with folks at Stool Pigeons, so there we went. We talked to George and Jackie Carson off Sea Otter II; both very cool, kinda older, been doing this for like 12 years and still haven't made it to the Bahamas. There was another couple whose name I don't remember and a weird guy named Richard off a racing boat.

I scored some movies in trade with Jackie, which was mega-cool, then we invited everyone back to our boat. By the end of the evening, we had about 11 people aboard. It cleared out by about 10 PM, but by then I'd been drinking since 2 PM and was mighty tired. The day did, however, re instill our confidence in meeting people we'll like out here.

Tuesday - October 19, 2004 - Georgtown, South Carolina

Left Barefoot Landing as soon as it was light enough to see and had an uneventful motor down the ICW. We fought a 1 knot current all day, so that kind of sucked. We had looked at the tides, but who knows?

The NOAA forecast for tomorrow evening and beyond is getting better and better, so we hope this will be the last long day of motoring for a little while.

I was kind of tired from last evening's festivities and didn't do much today. Thomas made bread and we used the rest of the previous loaf for "pizza bread crisps," which were very good.

None of the other members of the flotilla we were with most of the day turned in here. Wondering if we'll see some of the smaller boats closer to dark.

Expecting to have chicken quesadillas and fresh bread for dinner and get to bed early. We have errands to run tomorrow and then we'll hit the high seas.

Wednesday - October 20, 2004 - Georgtown, South Carolina

We did chores today. Among which included running out to Piggly Wiggly to stock up, taking showers, etc., in preparation for an offshore jump. Went back to the same bar in the evening, although we didn't stay real long. Bumped into Bob from Merganser again.

Later we returned to the boat for steak, which we had picked up at Piggly Wiggly. It was excellent--especially considering it cost $2.50 and we still have enough for quesadillas. We should have bought more. The wine I got there was also good.

Oh, and on the maintenance front...The shower drain did act up, and Thomas got to take it apart and unclog it. Hopefully that will end the problems on that front.

Not much else to report. Praying that NOAA is right about the weather, for once.

Thursday - October 21, 2004 - Charleston, South Carolina

Well, NOAA does it again. We got fuel in Georgetown and got underway as soon as possible, expecting good winds to get all the way to Florida. I ducked below to make bacons and prep steak quesadillas so we would have plenty of easy-access fuel.

The inlet was pretty scary. Well marked but very rough. Many boats were turning around and heading back in and we had to do a serious gut check to see if we still wanted to move today. Tom was feeling ok, so we decided to head as far as Charleston and duck in, as we were expecting lotsa wind, perhaps more than we were ready to handle on our overnight in the big ocean.

But all that was just a hoax, really. We decided to head south and weren't able to make any headway under sail. We were doing about 3 knots and getting rolled around pretty good. So we put in one motor. Still couldn't make it, so dropped in the other. Winds were essentially nothing and went down from there, and NOAA later changed their predictions for the next couple days to about nothing. Thanks NOAA.

We did see a couple of huge fish jump, although none of them decided to catch on our lines. Also saw mucho dolphins as we were coming up on the Charleston inlet. We got through the inlet while it was light, but it faded by the time we got in toward the city. We picked our way along the lighted buoys without much trouble--I was more relaxed than at Wrightsville Beach, but that is not to say I was relaxed.

We are now anchored in about 11 feet of water. I am doing this log and Thomas is preparing a late taco dinner. Not sure what to do about this offshore business; we are a bit discouraged.

More to follow, end of line.