Day Tripping to the Boat Yard!

Well, it's time for Summer Breeze to get hauled out of the water and have the bottom painted. Yep, one of those continuing maintenance jobs that has to be done, is costly and not fun. But a requirement! It has been absolutely beautiful here and now we have several days of good, hard and steady rain. And just in time for the Piccolo Spoleto Festival too! Dejavu my artist friends?  

But the rain was off and on and just a steady rain, not t-storms, so this was our window to take her to the boat yard. Since it was to be a short trip out to N Edisto River and Bohicket Creek and into Adam's Creek where Marine Propulsion has their yard, we decided to invite friends for the day trip and stop at Bohicket for lunch, then drop the boat off (where we had already shuttled the car to the day before).  James and Beverly joined us for the day and we brought breakfast to have on our way since we scheduled to leave at 7 am. 

Sunrise on the Toogoodoo Creek

Well, like all well laid plans... not all goes so well at first. As we got ready to unplug from shore power and the engines are warming up, Bruce notices that the starboard engine is not spitting out water like it's supposed to. So after cleaning out the sea strainer and checking absolutely everything he could, it worked better but still not great. Then a light comes on that we have never seen before with that engine. Well, that was enough warning for us! We knew we could get it to the boat yard on 1 engine but that creek is not a wide one and we would be entering as the tide was going out so we didn't think we could maneuver a turn around and docking with 1 engine so our vote was to not go. But then he talked to our personal captain and boat mechanic advisor, Bryan and he convinced us that it was ok. So after an hour delay, the tide and current was still good for a smooth departure so we are back on. And it was again a pretty good departure. We still don't have it down 100% but we are close! We did pop (another) fender ball off the dock. Pop! There goes another! But we are off with plenty of deep water to cross the sand bar! Departure was around 9 AM with an audience from the Nipper dock!

Beverly and I set up breakfast on the flybridge.

James enjoying the bit of sun that came out in between rains

Beverly learning how to be a captain

We travel in a light drizzly rain down the creek, Wadmalaw Sound and the N Edisto River.  The rain was to hold off until the afternoon but no, it was raining. Just a light steady rain but we are dry in the enclosed flybridge and enjoying the view. We looked at the weather radar again and the afternoon rain had changed to red and yellow bad weather cells to come over us by 1:00.  So we decided to abort lunch at Bohicket Marina, take the boat over to the boat yard and drive to lunch. Good move! The rain did stop enough for us to get the dinghy back on top. 

Well, I'm happy to report that we got into the creek and boat yard before the storm hit and we were ready with lines and fenders for a port side docking on the face dock, like we had planned with them the day before.  Easy peasy.... BUT the large sailboat was still there.... they hadn't moved it yet...  So, they meet us over at a slip instead. And we have never docked her into a slip before. That was actually something we have been thinking that someday (hopefully never) we would have to attempt. So not only did we have to turn her around in a tight creek but also back her into a slip. We had not planned on putting Beverly and James to work but I moved lines and fenders while Bruce sweated out on the fly bridge and gave them each a job of holding a fender and a line to throw, which they did very well.  And I want to say, that our new head phones work really great. 

Like my rope around the neck? They keep slipping off my head!

Bruce and I can talk in a normal low tone voice to each other and give instructions or info, without yelling... mostly. Thanks to our friends, Roger and Kathy Tatum for insisting we get them! They work great! Bruce did a fantastic job of backing Summer Breeze into the slip! The men on dock were helpful and got us set as soon as we threw the lines. One of them told me what I a great job I did talking the captain through the docking. Bruce can't see the back of the boat or swim platform from the where he stands so I have to tell him where and how much to go. The men were very complimentary of my handling that. I was proud! And our crew did a fantastic job of moving the fender where needed and throwing a line. Though the hard work was all on the Captain! He did a great job! Arrival was about 11:30 AM.

In the slip at the boat yard.

So Summer Breeze is there for a while. She'll have her bottom painted among a couple of other things to look at. We may not get her back before we leave on a trip in a couple of weeks so it may not be until July. It's amazing how empty our dock at home looks. We miss her already! And now that the floating dock is free again, perhaps we can use the Grady for a bit before she sells. 

Anyone interested in a 225 Freedom Grady White? 
http://gradywhiteforsale.blogspot.com

Summer Breeze cruising in our back yard!

May 10, 2017, Wednesday. 

In the Lowcountry, there are plenty of beautiful spots to explore and for us to continue to learn how to handle Summer Breeze. So we decided to head out for a couple of days.  We left the dock at 8:30 am right at high and slack tide with a successful and easy launch. 

😄👏😄  

We've been out of town and I've had a sinus infection and finally I'm on some good drugs so we decided I could recuperate on Summer Breeze for a couple of days. This is our 2nd voyage since bringing her home. The dolphins even joined us and swam at our bow on our way out. Unfortunately, I didn't get a perfect pic. All you can see here is their splash but it was pretty awesome!

2 dolphins swimming along our bow as we head out the creek

1st mate Bella

We decided to go the S Edisto River and explore up the river past the cut where we hadn't been before. It took us about 2 hours to get there and after cruising up and down a bit, we decided on an anchorage. The big annoying horse flies had been out so we were also looking for a bit of a breeze to help with that. After chilling out there for a bit and having lunch, we realized that we weren't as comfortable there as the water (we were up river a bit) had tons of cloudy silt and sand going by. Probably not good for the engines if we ran the generator later. So we picked up anchor and moved down river where the clouds of silt weren't. We anchored again at Raccoon Island anchorage spot (Active Captain) where there were 2 other trawlers already anchored up for the night. We had noticed a steady parade of sailboats and motor yachts cruising north as we headed south. It was a beautiful evening with a bright orange sunset followed by a perfect full moon. 

After a little happy hour and a nice shrimp and pasta dinner, we settled in for the night with the port holes and doorway all open as there was a gentle summer breeze blowing. Well at midnight, the current changed direction, the wind stopped and a swarm of mosquitoes flew through the boat! So up starts the genny and the AC and Bruce spent the next half hour killing mosquitoes! Then we had a quiet night! 

Thursday morning, we hung around the anchorage but after another weather check, we saw that the rain forecast for Saturday morning was even stronger so we decided to move closer to the Toogoodoo for the night so we could come in at high tide around noon on Friday. We pulled anchor at about 11:00 am and had some trouble with the snubber getting tangled up in the chain and of course, the swivel shackle was twisted again. Captain vowed we wouldn't leave the dock again without getting that fixed!  The wind had also picked up quite a bit. 

We had a smooth ride though at low tide, we encountered shallow water in the ICW, not only in Watts Cut but also on the north side of the 174 bridge. The lowest we had was about 2' beneath our keel.  We entered Steamboat Creek and found a suitable anchorage for the night at about 2:45. We had a great afternoon and evening enjoying some warm gentle breezes as the winds slowed down a bit.  

Friday morning, we took the dinghy down and went for a short spin. We had been needing to get it off and get the motor in for a checkup. We can't get it off at our dock because the crane would set it on the floating dock and not in the water! We then weighed anchor at 11am in order to get back home with an manageable tide. I'm happy to report that we had a successful and 95% perfect docking arriving home at about 12:45. The tide was just starting to run out at a faster pace and we struggled a little bit getting the stern of the boat close enough but we managed just fine! Yeah!!!👏👏👏 

And I am getting ready for an art fair at the Tall Ships in Charleston so I was able to get more work done on one of my last paintings for the fair. Though I need a name for this one! It's a boat I took a photo of at Bowen's Island. Almost done!

Bella wants to know if she can "go" on her grass now...???

A little bit about voyage #1:

I didn't log our 1st voyage as it was quite traumatic for us so I think I can talk about it now. About 3 weeks of having her home and realizing that we had 3 weeks of travel coming up, we really wanted to take her out. The weather was good but it was windy and gusty. So against any good Captain's judgement, we decided to go anyway. The tide was rushing out, the wind was blowing and our dock departure was not pretty. Ok, that's all I'm going to say about it except that we do have a little bit of repair (paint and swim platform trim) to take care of - all can easily be fixed. We spent the night mid-way in our creek as we we realized it was not ideal for us to be out. And we couldn't get the GPS to work on the nav system. Turned out it was a simple switch we had not realized had been turned off. Details! We had a great evening despite all that, and the next day we returned to the dock with a perfect docking. Yeah!