TripSailor.com® Sailing Blogs

I woke early this morning and checked the anchors, and I noticed the stern anchor was very slack, so I started hauling it in, and pretty soon had the anchor aboard. By the Bob and Gerry were both up, and as the boat started to swing, I politely asked them to raise the forward anchor as well, before the lead line got entangled with the keel – the tide was pushing strongly in an  opposite direction to the wind, which would cause the boat to take up strange angles relative to the anchor.

This was our 4th day of contrary winds from the NE and North, making sailing into the wind out in the ocean very uncomfortable, so we continued on our merry way up the ICW. Pretty soon we came up on the Isle of Hope Marina along the ICW, and requested to tie up for fuel and water. Unfortunately we were not allowed to take a quick shower. Talking to the Dockmaster ,,,, coincidentally there is a young man from South Africa working on the Dock with the same last name as me – Nico du Plooy. We never got to meet him since he was off duty. It’s a small world!

Soon we were past Savannah, and heading into South Carolina. Much more activity, with some really beautiful LARGE homes along the ICW. The first low bridge we came to had to open for us by request, and according to the guide book we had to call them on VHF channel 16 or 13, but for a whole hour we could get no response, and sat waiting at anchor in the channel. Eventually someone took pity on us and told us to use channel 9, and we immediately got a response, and were let through.

About midday, we were rounding a slow bend where the charts were showing depths of around 15ft, and the boat suddenly started slowing down. My first thought was that we had lost the propellor, but Gerry shouted "we’ve run aground!". Bob immedialtey put the engine in reverse, and we backed completey around, sailing the opposite direction. Fortunately we had also put up the #4 Jib sail to help us along, and the wind was from behind after the turn, so we were able to pull the boat out of the mud, and turned the boat and headed back up into deeper waters.

We needed to refuel again and restock our provisions, and noticed there were a few Marinas up ahead in Beaufort, so I started phoning ahead, but the main marina was fully booked due to a Water Festival that was on for the weekend. Fortunately we were able to get a spot at a nearer Marina, the Port Royal Landing Marina, a family-run Marina with VERY friendly help from the owners and their family.

We designated Gerry to do the laundry while Bob and I went shopping, after all taking a nice hot shower. We went to the Marina restaurant for another nice dinner, and tonight we are docked at the fuel dock, and will get an early start in the morning.