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Position: 32°47’08.0″N 79°54’23.9″W
For the past month and a bit we’ve been battling delays with repairs and refitting. Then there’s the weather, dealing with tides and ICW planning. But the one thing we were confident about was getting to South Carolina where we wouldn’t have to worry about our late start or the big winter gorilla on our backs. From Charleston on out it would be smooth sailing into warm waters. Or not.
We arrived December 30th intending to stay a couple of nights. We looked forward to visiting our friends Lynn and Chris and their boys, and ringing in 2018 in style. With the new year celebrated we planned an early departure on January 1. We should have known by now not to make plans. Isn’t that rule #2 of the cruising life? Don’t Make Plans!
With Lynn’s help we found a slip at the Charleston Harbor Marina, a nice spot on Patriot’s Point across from the center of old Charleston. The Marina is part of a resort that has great facilities when it’s warm enough to use them. The USS Yorktown, the decommissioned World War II, Korean and Vietnam era aircraft carrier, is permanently moored at Patriot’s Point along with a submarine and small destroyer. It wasn’t not our usual drop an anchor in an out of the way place like vagabond’s spot, but it was only for two nights and it was the holidays after all. We decided to splurge on a slip and spoil ourselves a bit.
Puppy Dogs
Our friend Lynn came down and collected us and took us to their lovely home for dinner, long hot showers, a much needed puppy dog(s!) fix. Staying the night, we slept soundly in a warm bed that didn’t rock once.
New Year’s Eve and temperatures plummeted. A bomb cyclone had hit the Northeast and winter struck with a vengeance. Undeterred, we took a very brisk insiders tour of Charleston. Lynn is a professional photographer and knows the city like the back of her camera. She showed us the most picturesque spots and shared stories of serendipitously meeting local celebrities as a side benefit of her work. Later that evening Lynn’s husband Chris joined for a great dinner at the Granary restaurant. But by the time dessert arrived we realized our stay ashore had to end abruptly. The forecast called for wind chills near zero overnight and we needed to get back to Aleta and keep the heater running for fear of broken pipes and split tanks.
Arriving at the dock, a New Year’s Eve celebration on the USS Yorktown was in full swing. We fired up our trusty, dusty, Dickinson diesel heater and bundled up. Sounds of revelry drifted across the marina while we huddled under our sleeping bag and toasted the new year with friends back in Portland via Skype. At midnight we ventured out into the bitterly cold, but clear and starry night and watched distant fireworks sparkle away. We lasted about three minutes.
The next two days was more of the same frigid conditions, only without parties and fireworks. It was far too cold to safely head out on the water, so we decided to stay put. Things started breaking, too. Not on Aleta, but the pipes serving the dock’s restrooms and showers had frozen and split. We negotiated with the dock master for an shower inside the resort and then spent most of the time managing our heater while sipping soup and playing cribbage. Despite running the heater continuously, we never shed our down jackets. It felt more like we were in a mountaintop cabin in the Rockies than on a sailboat.
Snowmageddon!
Then Snowmageddon arrived. We woke up to several inches of snow with everything encased in ice. Walking the long distance down the docks was perilous. Our only break was walking the 18 holes of the resort’s golf course, pausing to make snow angels and follow animal tracks.
Generously, Lynn loaned us a car, but the roads were too icy to venture out and almost everything was closed anyway. Four days later I was going stir-crazy. This was not what I had signed up for! Lynn was a dear and checked in each day offering emotional support. We chuckled about having the shortest 10-day visit ever.
Eventually, the sun came back and temperatures rose, but it took another couple of days for enough ice to melt that we could escape Aleta for a hot shower. We did a last load of laundry and with grateful thanks said our goodbyes to Lynn and Chris and headed south warmer waters.
