Report From Onboard Jenny

[Da...@schramm-family.net]

Wednesday, May 11, 2011 11:19:09 AM Location: Ross Marine, Charleston SC Latitude is 32 degrees 46.356 minutes north. Longitude is 80 degrees 3.817 minutes west. This weather observation was taken on Wednesday, May 11, 2011 11:03:29 AM local time. Observation location: Charleston, SC. Observation position was not recorded. The air temperature is 74, and water temperature is 73 degrees fahrenheit. The forecast is Overcast. The current weather is dry. The sky is overcast (more than 90% clouds). The wind is 7 knots from the northeast. The visibility is 5 nautical miles. The wave height is 0 feet with 0 foot swells. The barometer is 1016 millibars and falling. We came over to Ross Marine yesterday to have our gel coat repairs done and have the plywood panel over our AC box replaced with a teak one. Ross Marine is on the ICW just west of Charleston, so it was a convenient, one-hour trip. There is a stiff tidal current here as it seems there is everywhere on this coast. So, docking is a challenge to be mastered. We learned some tricks about using ropes to maneuver Jenny in tight quarters that we have use here to great effect. The docs at the Harborage Marine are aligned with the tidal currents. They put us at the end of one of the inner docks and the fairway was pretty narrow. When we came in, we had to dock on our port side because I did not want to attempt to turn her around in that small space with all the nearby hazards and the current. Even at slack tide, the space limitations were daunting, especially since I just had a bad experience. So, we broke out a one-inch line at took it around the bow to the starboard side bow cleat. We tied that line to a dock cleat just even with the bow cleats. Melinda took a flat fender and stayed on the dock by the bow. The tide was going out, pushing Jenny on her stern. So, when we cast off her port lines, the current pushed her against the starboard line. With a little nudging from her motor, and the rudder hard over, she swung her stern into the current. I kept adding a few nudges so that her bow was held against the flat fender Melinda was holding against the dock. And so, Jenny spun around in her own length without any chance of mishap. Ross Marine completed the gel coat repairs this morning and she looks better than new. The buffing really brought her shine out. The AC panel is coming next and we should be out of here tonight. The next two days look like good weather, so tonight we will anchor by the Charleston entrance, and tomorrow morning we will hop up to Georgetown, SC. Then on Friday we will hop on up to Cape Fear, NC. From there we will go on the ICW up to Morehead City. And finally, we plan to go to Oriental, NC and stay for a few weeks. While there we will be taking a road trip back to Florida for my daughter's wedding!!! Life is good! David Powered by BoatExec http://www.BoatExec.com

[Da...@schramm-family.net]

Sunday, May 15, 2011 11:16:42 AM Location: Wrightsville Beach, NC Latitude is 34 degrees 12.438 minutes north. Longitude is 77 degrees 47.98 minutes west. No recent weather observation is available. Well, we finally got out of Charleston. We left last Tuesday and went over to Ross Marine to have some repair work done on Jenny. She needed some gel coat scratches fixed, a new salon window and a cabinet door made. We caught the tide perfectly and covered the short seven miles in less than an hour. The folks at Ross were ready for us and went to work right away. We wanted to be back in Charleston, at anchor by Wednesday night so we could catch a favorable tide and weather for an outside passage up to Georgetown, SC. Since we had been over the week before, the glass was ready and the cabinet panel was too. They just had to be fitted in. The gel coat worker started right away. By 16:00 Wednesday, they were all done and the work was excellent. Better yet, the price was about half what I expected. Big smile. We went back over to Charlestown and anchored by the city marina. In fact, we anchored three times. The first time we were too close to the channel, and the coast guard asked us to move. Then we moved and because the tidal current opposed the wind, ended up too close to some other boats as we all danced with the fates. We hauled anchor again and went down by the bridge where there were only a few boats. I was a little concerned about being so close to the bridge, but our Rocna held as usual. In the morning I found the bottom was nice gooy clay. No worries. We headed out a 06:00 to catch the outgoing tide and saw 9 knots all the way out. The channel was very choppy, almost like rapids from the current. Outside was choppy too so we ended up with the birds in the water, all the way. It was necessary to go out because of ICW shoaling. We got into Georgetown around 15:00 and fell in line behind six other boats coming out of the ICW. The Georgetown anchorage was replaced by a floating dock, we we headed further up the ICS to Butler Island, which turned out to be a wonderful anchorage in a wild, quiet spot. We had it to ourselves. Friday, we headed up the ICW. This section, along South Carolina's coast is pretty wild, just marsh grass and cypress swamps. It was beatiful. At the end of the day we entered a little creek for the evening. It was very shallow and we had to drive Jenny off the bottom twice as the tide fell. We won't go there again. There was a potentially better spot just about a mile up the ICW. Maybe next time. Saturday we went along the ICW in North Carolina, on up to Cape Fear. Some spots were very shallow and tight with rock walls. While ICW travel is really comfortable, it can be a high anxiety experience. The further north we went, the more mansions showed up along the shore. We arrived at Cape Fear river around noon and found an outgoing 4 knot tidal current. So, we threw the anchor down and had lunch and a nap. Melinda connected to an open WiFi spot and got on FaceBook. We waited there for the tide to change to flood (incoming) and around 13:30 we raised the anchor and headed on up the river. Little did we know, there was another source of water ahead of us. The Snow cut is a narrow channel that connects Cape Fear river to the next portion of the ICW heading north. There was another inlet on the other side, and water was rushing in rapids through the cut, against us. Another sailboat was ahead of us and they came almost to a stop. We slowly caught up, but there was no room to pass, so we also had to slow down, which gave us less stearage in the swirling currents. The worst was under the bridge, as usual and I brought Jenny's RPM up to 1800 RPM to get through safely. Whew! Now I know to look ahead to see what inlets are along the way and do a better timing job. We arrived at Wrightsville beach and anchored in a nice spot with other cruisers. We decided to take today off to rest and plan our next steps. I did some calling around and found a new marina in Oriental with a slip for us at only $375 / month!!! Wow. It is new and right downtown. What a deal. We should be there on Thursday, and get settled in. We'll rent a car there for the trip back to Florida for my daughter Laura's wedding. Tomorrow night we stop by Camp Lejeune. I hope they are not having any live fire exercises! David Powered by BoatExec http://www.BoatExec.com