Charleston

613 nm   N32 47.357   W079 55.451

No storms, no wind, no thunder, just light rain on and off all night.  Once again, the rain held off while we got the anchor up, and we were underway.

We soon entered the portion of the ICW, between markers Green 35 and Red 40, where the shoaling was reported.  We had +5 feet of tide, which should be enough to get us over anything, since we only draw 4 1/2!

Still, we noticed at least three spots that registered at 9 ft.  Take away the +5 ft tide and that means that these spots are down to 4 ft at low tide!!  We definitely did the right thing by waiting!

The currents were with us, pushing our speed up over 7 kts at times, and it looked like we would make it to Charleston by 1:00 or 1:30.

Finally, we were in the last stretch before Charleston Harbor, a section called Isle of Palms.  But by now we were at dead low tide.

Suddenly, we noticed a larger sailboat, S/V Gabriel, that had passed us earlier, was now headed back in our direction.  As we passed, he told us that there was a shoal ahead and he had run aground.  With his 6 ft draft, he couldn't make it, and would have to wait for the tide. But he thought our 4 1/2 would be all right.

We slowed and proceeded cautiously, following a large power boat who was feeling his way through.  But he draws a lot less than we do.  He made it through.

Our depth alarm is set to go off at 6 ft.  This usually gives me about 1 or 2 seconds to react before things get down to 4 1/2.  We were creeping along slowly, trying to "read" the shoreline for the best depth. The gauge was reading just over 6 ft when suddenly, without warning, the depth dropped to 4 ft and we ran into a wall of sand!  The boat nosed down heavily and we were hard aground!

So much for getting there by 1:30!

Fortunately, this was dead low tide, so if all else failed, time and tide would get us off.

Our boat has the prop on a strut, positioned directly in front of the rudder.  This means that I can use the rudder as a sort of "stern thruster" to spin the boat around on our stubby, shoal-draft keel and try to get back to deeper water.   At first, this worked pretty well, but it got harder and harder the farther we turned, and the depth sounder, which is just ahead of the keel, was not showing any deeper water.

At last, when we had turned a full 180 degrees, it started to show over 4 ft of water, and I straightened the rudder.

But we weren't moving. 

With an eye on the temperature gauge, I continued to notch the throttle up higher and higher.  We normally cruise at 2200 to 2400 RPM, But the engine can do 3100 RPM (briefly!) at wide-open-throttle.  Finally, as the tachometer passed 2900 RPM, we began to slowly inch forward, and suddenly we were free.

Our trusty Atomic-4 engine and big 3-bladed prop had come through again.

We backtracked to where Gabriel was waiting.  He had dropped an anchor and was going to wait an hour or two.  By this time, we were joined by two other sailboats, both of whom also anchored to wait.

So we did too.  Joan took advantage of the break to whip up a thermos of hot Minestrone Soup which I scarfed down.  And we waited.

After about an hour and a half, the tide tables showed that we should have added an additional 2 ft of water, so one by one, the other boats pulled their anchors and headed through.  One of them reported seeing a minimum depth of 5.2 ft in a couple of spots.  We pulled up our anchor and followed suit, leaving Gabriel to wait for a little more water.

It was nerve wracking the second time through, with the depth alarm constantly going off, but we made it, also noting the same 5.2 ft minimum in a couple of places.

Once into Charleston Harbor, the rain cleared and we headed for the Charleston Maritime Center just before 3:00.  These guys are really on the ball.  As I approached, before I could even grab the VHF microphone, they hailed us, by name, to confirm if we were their expected reservation!

We stopped at their fuel dock for gas and a pumpout, and backed across the fairway and into our slip. This left just enough time to get the boat settled in and take showers before my sister and brother-in-law arrived.

Docked in Charleston

They drove over from Columbia, SC, which is about a 2 hr drive, and got here just after dark.  We drove downtown to a Seafood Restuarant and Raw Bar called "Amen Street" which we had really enjoyed on our last visit here.  It lived up to our expectations, and everybody enjoied their meals.

Barb and Alan at Amen Street

Life is good.