Oct 19 thru 24
We are spending an unplanned down week in Charleston awaiting the passage of Hurricane Wilma. We are staying at the City Marina, which is the same place we stopped for four days on our way north. The difference this time though is that we are on the regular transient dock, whereas last time we were in a slip next to our friends. The transient/fuel dock is not as long as I had said in my earlier posting. They advertise 3000 feet of dock, but that includes both sides. It is really only 1500 feet long. Still a darn long walk to the showers, since we are at the far end.
It is amazing watching the boats that come and go through here. Since they have this huge dock, they are the preferred stop for large boats. The few sailboats that are here are out on the end of the dock by design, because that's where they have the small fuel pumps. As you get closer to the office end of the dock, the boats tend to get bigger and bigger. Although, sometimes they just have to put them where they fit. On Friday night, a 121 foot sailboat docked right behind us. It's name is Atlanta and it is from Bermuda. It has a red hull and white topsides. The mast is 145 feet tall. Won't see them in the ICW.
Saturday morning, a huge Feadship motor yacht named Detroit Eagle docked across from us. A quick search of the web revealed that this yacht belongs to Roger Penske. If you don't know who Roger Penske is, think Penske Racing in CART, NASCAR, and other series, Detroit Diesel, Penske Trucks, and the United Auto Group conglomerate of new car dealerships. I was chatting with a crew member and learned that they are based in Palm Beach and are here hiding from the storm. Mr. Penske is not aboard. When the crew member learned that we were Parrotheads, he related a story about one time when they docked next to Jimmy's boat, Margaritavich, in Key Largo, and Jimmy came aboard for dinner with Roger and one of his drivers, Rusty Wallace. On Friday, a small powerboat was apparently admiring Detroit Eagle and didn't pay attention to the current and how close he was getting. He rammed it with his anchor and put a five inch gash in the hull along with about a ten foot scratch down the side. Wonder what that will cost his insurance company. My dear departed friend Jack would have loved to have heard about me seeing this boat. He was a Penske Racing fan.
Another huge yacht here is a Trinity Yachts boat named Themis. Themis apparently lives here. Barb's cousin's significant-other, who lives here, runs a limo service. One of his regular clients is a lawyer who owns a yacht here. Themis is the Goddess of Justice, so I'm putting two and two together and believing that his client is Themis' owner.
Speaking of fuel, when we got here, I intended to fuel up. I have gotten in the habit of taking care of that as soon as we dock, when possible, so we don't have to worry about it before we leave. Well, the dock hands we busy and it was already dark when we docked, so I said we'd wait since we will be here a few days. The price when we got here Tuesday was $3.11/gal. On Thursday, I called the office and asked them to send someone down to fuel us. I didn't realize it until we had pumped the fuel, but the price had gone down that day to $2.71/gal. It went down the next day to $2.67, and by the end of the week it was $2.61. I felt sorry (not really) for the mega yacht that I had seen with $8800 worth on the pump the other day.
One day, we took the marina shuttle into downtown and went to the IMAX theater. We saw Walking on the Moon in 3-D. From there we took a cab to Patriot's Point, where the aircraft carrier Yorktown is based as a museum. There is also a sub, a destroyer, and a Coast Guard cutter there, but we too tired after the carrier to visit them.
Friday, we decided to rent a car for the weekend so we can see some sights outside Charleston proper. Saturday we went to Irvin-House Vineyards, Charleston's only winery. This is a small, family owned winery, where the owners run the tastings, and give you the tour. The wines are made from muscadine grapes, and they are fairly sweet, which put them high on my taste meter. The place itself is out in the country and has a nice area where you can combine a picnic lunch with the wine tasting and tour. Since we got there about an hour before the tour, we got a private tasting and enjoyed chatting with Jim the owner.
Sunday, we went up to Summerville to visit Barb's cousin. We enjoyed a nice afternoon with Marsha and Robin and had dinner there. Marsha had given us directions, and we had gotten directions from Mapquest which were different. On the way there we used the Mapquest directions which took us through the old part of the town. On the way back, we tried to follow the directions Marsha gave us, which should have been more direct. Well, not only did we screw up between the house and the interstate and go around in a circle before we finally got on the highway, but then I screwed up on the Charleston end also and took a round-about route to finally get back to the marina. Good thing the car has unlimited mileage.
We were hoping to enjoy watching the Houston Astros in the World Series. We were bummed to watch them loose the close game in the NLCS game the other night, but thrilled to see them win it two days later. So far, they have lost the first two games of the series though. I guess we'll miss watching a few games while at sea. Unfortunately, Major League Baseball is carried on XM radio, not Sirius, so I guess we won't get it that way.
We have been in touch with our friends Nancy & Wayne aboard Dances With Dragons. They are who we visited here on the way north, and saw again in Annapolis. They are on their way south and should be here Tuesday morning. We will still be here waiting on Wilma to pass and the seas to calm down. We may not be in the marina, since we have been told we may not be able to extend past Tuesday morning. If we can't we'll just anchor across from the marina, where there are lots of anchored boats and wait until Wednesday AM to head south.
The only effects of Wilma that we have had here, was some light rain most of the day Monday, and some pretty good winds Monday evening. As far as I know, our party is on in Key West, and we will have just enough time to get down there.
GPS N 32-46.527 W 79-56.953 Miles made good this leg 0. Total miles covered 3252.
Oct 25
It's Tuesday morning. The wind has been howling all night and has been coming from the stern, so the little waves slap against the hull and make a lot of noise in our aft cabin. So, the sleep was not as good as it could have been. In fact, I woke up once thinking we were somewhere other than securely tied up, and jumped up very confused.
About 09:00, we headed up to the showers. After my shower, I went to the office to beg for another night's dockage. I asked if there was any way we could stay one more night, and the girl looked at her paperwork and said "sure". I laughed and told them I had been prepared to beg, and they laughed that they gave in too easily. I then pressed my luck and asked if there would be room for our friends when they got here. They said it shouldn't be a problem. Back at the boat, I called Dances With Dragons on the cell phone and confirmed that they were about an hour and a half away. They said they had tried to call the marina and got no answer on the phone. So, I called the marina on the radio and confirmed that they would be here soon and indeed could stay tonight.
About 11:30, Dances With Dragons arrived and we helped the marina dock hand get them secure. After hugs and greeting, Nancy took off to do their provisioning while Wayne did laundry. I worked on plotting our course for the trip south, so I could pass on the GPS waypoints to them later.
In the evening, we went to dinner at the restaurant here at the marina. We had another good meal there, and then retired to the boats to watch World Series game three. As I write, the Astros have just lost the lead. We still have hope...
GPS N 32-46.527 W 79-56.953 Miles made good this leg 0. Total miles covered 3252.