Pollen

You might think that pollen and your allergies are only at risk on shore. The truth is, pollen will fly in the breeze for miles, in which ever direction the wind is blowing.

When we left Charleston, SC, the boat was completely covered in pollen and we couldn't wait to get away. We don't suffer from allergies, but there was so much pollen that we couldn't help be be a little sneezy.

We received a nasty surprise when we were about 6 miles out to sea.

We crossed over a river of pollen that was floating along the surface. This road of pollen was thick, and extended from horizon to horizon! I thought we had escaped the clutches of the pollen when we left the city and land behind, but even far out to sea, we still see the effects of this plant dust as it floats out over the ocean!

Snagging Other Anchors

Every time you drop your expensive anchor, you run the risk that you will never see it again! Deep below your keel lurks many unknown hazards that can grab onto and never let go of your anchor. You never know if you will hook onto something that will snag your anchor and never let it go.

Popular anchorages are a double edge sword. This location is obviously a popular spot since amongst boaters, but at the same time, there is more risk of debris being on the bottom to snag your anchor!

In Charleston, SC, the most popular anchorage in the harbor is right across from the City Marina. This anchorage is also famous for eating anchors, and according to the reviews on Active Captain, it will "eat your Rocna." The anchorage is deep, but also full of wrecks, some boats are tossed up on the shore while other masts are poking out of the water.

Since this place was the best location to anchor and reach the dinghy dock and the historical part of town, we decided to anchor on the outer edge of the anchorage and try our luck!

Our holding was great and we had no issues with dragging as the tides changed. Then the day came to leave and we encountered a problem.

​The chain was rather difficult to raise, and I was forced to pull it up with the windlass on low gear. This meant that each stroke that I gave the windlass handle caused 1 link of chain to be raised. Slowly but surely, we raised the chain up into the boat and stowed it in the anchor locker. When we got to about the 140 foot mark, we got a big surprise!

It appeared that an old helical mooring screw has been snagging anchors over the years. These anchors had all gotten stuck and the owners had given up on retrieving them, cut the chain and said goodbye. As the years pressed on, more and more anchors had been snagged, and their chains wrapped around the mass. The ball of dead anchors had grown in size, making it easier for other unsuspecting anchors to get fouled as well.

Our anchor was spared, but it appears that our chain had wrapped itself around the mass with each tidal change. The simple choice was to cut our chain and say goodbye to our anchor.

The not so simple choice is to untangle our chain and retrieve our $700 anchor and 150 feet of chain! To do this, I attached a halyard to what looked like an old rope pendent that seemed secured to the mass and wouldn't come free as I raised the mass. With the halyard secured, I slowly winched the abomination upwards and onto the deck.

Our chain was still leading out of it and off to the anchor, so the mass of dead anchors wouldn't swing in towards the mast. I then secured a line from the mass to the bow cleat so that it wouldn't swing back as the chain came free. I also tied a short snubber line to the chain leading to the anchor so that the chain in the mass would be freed of tension.

With the tension released, I began unraveling the chain from the mass. The chain was wrapped and coiled around the helical screw, as well as tied tightly around the flukes that projected from the death ball.

Luckily, the original ball was full of mud that got washed away by the tidal current, making the chain a bit looser and allowing me to get the tangle undone.

After a few hours, the chain was clear of the snag and we were finally able to get back on our way, leaving Charleston, SC, and heading offshore to Florida!

Dinghy Dock Tie Up

When tying up to a dinghy dock, it is important to know that the line you use to tie up your dinghy will both hold your dinghy in place as well as be tied over and under other peoples bow lines.

When you tie up, you will be tying up to a cleat that is used by many many people; all holding a variety of dinghies up to the pier. Should your tying fail, your dinghy will drift away! This means that not only do you need to tie up well to secure your dinghy, but you risk the holding of your dinghy to the tying skills of others.

If you tie up to a popular cleat, anyone who was there before you will need to untie your line to be able to untie their line. Then, you hope that they tie your line back up in a proper manner. This is where you risk losing your dinghy!

Instead of tying a standard cleat hitch over the cleat and over all the lines of other boaters, why not tie a bowline through the cleat below everyone else? This will allow everyone to tie and untie their dinghies without ever affecting your knot.

Sunset

Sunset is a magical time, when the sun dips below the horizon and the sky lights up with a multitude of colors. I personally like to watch as the light fades away into darkness. 

The colors always seem so rich before the disappear. You can't really appreciate light until you watch it fade away!

Approaching Charleston, SC

While Charleston, SC, might be a major shipping port, its entrance can be rather tricky, especially on a foggy dark night.

When you approach the inlet, you will be faced with a multitude of lights from shore and the darkness of the large stone jetties that extend out to sea. Yes, these large and dark rock walls extend 2.8 miles out to sea, making it very easy to smash into them if you are off course.

Now, GPS makes it easy to know where you are, and the aids to navigation are well illuminated making it possible for you to enter in the dark. Regardless, this is a rather busy port and all the lights can make it easy to get confused as to where you are and make it easy to run into a marked obstacle because you thought you were somewhere else. 

Most commonly, people will see the city lights and start heading straight for them. The issue is, all the lights to warn you about the jetties are actually inside the jetties, so from the outside, they appear dark. There are light houses however, located on the ends of the jetties, but these were not on my charts, making me very confused as I made my approach. 

The safest way to enter the harbor is to find the string of red and green buoys that extend far out to sea and enter the channel out there. Once you are inside the channel, you will see the lights line up and this will allow you to make your way into the harbor.  

We entered at buoy Red16, that way if I miscalculated anything, I would still have another set of markers before the jetties began. When you enter the jetties, it is very beneficial to do it with the tide in your favor. 

The entire harbor and all the rivers that extend up from this area drain through these jetties and the speed of the current is astounding! We waited for slack water before entering and made our way through as the current began to pick up speed. As it did, so did our speed over ground as the current was pushing us along. 

It is best to attempt such new inlets at slack water instead of when the current is rushing as there is no way to stop when the current is pushing you. If you are off course and going to hit an obstacle, you can easily alter course at slack water and navigate around it. When the current is pushing you, there is no slowing down as you are going to be pushed into the obstacle with a fair amount of speed and force. 

Once you make it into the jetties, the journey is not over yet. 

A popular anchorage is right across from the Coast Guard Station. The anchorage by the CG station is full of derelict boats and the holding is poor. Yet right across the river, the holding is wonderful and this seems to be where most people anchor.

Charleston does have many anchorages, but it seems that everyone recommends anchoring here, so we decided to come in and drop the hook in the proper location. We must say, the holding here gives us great peace of mind as we spend our days away from the boat exploring the town. 

Now, once you make it in the jetties, you still have a long ways to go! The anchorage is 7.8 miles away from the inlet, but it ends up being more than 8 miles away when you navigate the harbor. All the lights of the harbor can make it easy to get confused where you are going and where you actually are, so be sure to study the charts ahead of time so that you are more familiar with the waters when you encounter them. 

While I do not like to sail in the fog because we don't have radar, the fog was actually light enough to allow you to see into the distance, but dense enough to block out distant lights. This made the harbor seem much less daunting as the distant lights that are famous for confusing navigators was blocked out by the fog and obscured. This meant that I only saw the lights that truly pertained to us as we navigated.  

Getting here was half the fun, now we need to get off the boat and explore the town!