Charleston City Docks

Charleston, SC, N32 46.52 W079 56.95

 

(6/10/05) Whew, it was a tiresome day.  We spent the whole day close hauled to make Charleston.  For those of you who aren’t sailors, close hauled means sailing as close as possible into the wind.  The boat heels over a lot, and really pounds into the waves.  It’s exhilarating and fun but after a few hours it wears you out.

 

When close hauled, about one wave out of 10 spilled some water on deck. The water runs out the scupper.  About one of 100 of the 1 in 10 brings so much water that it comes back in the cockpit. On one hand, that means the scupper design in 99.9% efficient.  On the other hand it means that just as soon as the seat of your pants and underwear dry, they get re-wetted with salt water.

 

Today marked the first time we sailed more than 24 hours without a pause or a thunderstorm.  We made 127 nautical miles from 12:30 yesterday to 12:30 today.  That’s excellent.  100 miles per day is considered good.  160 miles in a day is a once in a lifetime achievement.  We spent 33 consecutive hours on starboard tack.  32 of the 33 hours were on self-steering.

 

The entrance to Charleston Harbor is marked by a channel and submerged stone jetties.  It is vital to enter the channel past the end of the jetties.  I had three chart sources, and all three disagreed on the buoy numbers that mark the end of the jetties.  That made me very nervous.

 

The only mishap this trip was a jibe that broke the sacrificial clevis pin on the mainsheet traveler car.  The pin is sawed halfway through to assure that it breaks before anything else.   Now I have to buy more clevis pins and saw them to make replacements and onboard spares.

 

Alas, the engine cooling system work improved things, but when fully warmed up, I can only run 1700 RPM without overheating. The Perkins spec says I should get 2200 RPM.  I’m going to have to find a way to improve the cooling system.

Charleston City Docks are very nice.  We’re tied up among the mega yachts, so I feel Lilliputian.  The marina had to loan me a 50 amp to 30 amp shore power adapter because they don’t have any outlets smaller than 50 amps.  Naturally they have WiFi here, so I’m catching up on email.

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I saw one mega yacht here with fenders 5 feet in diameter and 15 feet long.  Each!  He had about 4 of those deployed.  Unless they deflate, where in the world would one store them onboard, in the fender hanger deck?

 

I’m going to try to look up an old friend, Dave Hamby tomorrow.  He lives near here somewhere.