Charleston to Georgetown, SC - Beth's Dolphin encounter

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     We waited for low tide before leaving Charleston.  This would give us an incoming tide when we started back in to the ICW an hour away.  It once again paid off.  Some of the shallow areas were passable with 3 feet under the keel thanks to the extra depth provided by the incoming tide.


                                                    Reluctantly leaving Charleston.
                                                                                                                                                                         
     It was a lazy relaxed trip.  Beth driving the boat long enough for me to take a nap in the laz-y-boy chair. Ahhhh!... This is cruising......until....thump "What was that?", I said  as I rubbed my sleepy eyes.  "I think I hit a dolphin.  There was a pod of 7 or 8 coming right at the boat and I couldn't turn or slow down fast enough!" exclaimed Beth.  I quickly checked the boat for vibration and damage and found nothing. It was really just a mild thump, so the fun began.  "You ran over "Flipper!" I teased.  "No maybe it was just a small log under water." pleaded Beth.  "No. You ran over "Flipper!" I heard it.  I even heard a pathetic EEE! EEE! EEE!"  feigning my most pitiful dolphin cry.  At this point Beth began laughing and shouting, "Stop it. Stop it. I didn't kill Flipper!"  I had fun with this all day, not saying much, just occasionally letting out an almost imperceptible eee! eee!

                                                                           
                                                  Happy Face for a dreary day!!       

     As we were joking, we noticed some black clouds gathering along the western sky.  Looking at the computer weather system, it quickly became evident that we were in for a thunder storm.  This system is great, even showing the lightning strikes.  It was closing in behind us as we wrestled with the decision to find a spot to anchor or just continue powering on through the storm.  The computer didn't indicate a lot of wind and there were few places to get out of the ICW, so we continued forward and decided to cut the day short and safe by heading to a marina in Georgetown, SC (only 56 miles from Charleston) .  Besides being safely tide up in case the storm worsened, we were able to pick up 400 gallons of the cheapest fuel we have seen since leaving Carrabelle, Fl. ($3.68/gal).
     A few other boats were also heading to port.  The VHF radio crackled to life with a request from a 38 foot sea ray rushing up behind us.  "Docs Holiday.  Would you like a slow pass?" said the Captain. "No. Just keep it up on plane and come by my port side." I responded.  I have so many of these idiot sea ray owners slow to half speed and plow a huge wake, that I prefer they just let their testosterone flow and get away from me.  Besides, they make less wake if they are up on plane.  At least this captain was considerate enough to let me know he was passing, and that's doing a lot more than most of the sports fisher boats and most sea ray captains.
     Interestingly this boat was already tide up at the same marina we entered... waiting for Sea Tow!  They burnt out a transmission. The captain told me as he turned to approach the dock he had a great deal of difficulty pulling the transmission shifter out of gear.  When he checked the transmission it was red hot, melting some of the grounding wires!  Ouch! As much as I dislike sea rays, I couldn't help but feel bad for this owner.  It was going to cost him mucho bucks and lost time to get repaired.

                                                                                    

                                                                                    

       We had our fill of dining out, so dinner was on the boat.  Beth made a kind of stir fried chicken with fresh sweet corn on the cob and potato salad.  Hmm! Hmm! Can't beat a good home cooked meal.
     We will stay put until this front blows through than continue north to at least Myrtle Beach or possibly Southport and the Cape Fear River if time permits tomorrow.