Last night was well below freezing and we wrapped the engine up with as much padding as we could find, along with a couple of hand warmers tucked in among the folds. We didn't want any damage. We woke up to frost on the inside of all the hatches,and along the side of the bed and shelves. Pretty cold, but neither of us were too uncomfortable. I guess it pays to bundle up.
We had another bridge opening to make, so wanted to time it right. We had forgotten it was a holiday - Martin Luther King day - and the bridge was opening on different hours. After treading water, and trying to keep to center channel in a strong current, we were positioned for the 10 a.m. opening. The bars went down on either side of the bridge to stop the cars, we gunned our engine, but the bridge never opened! After a long time, the bars went back up and the cars started moving over it again. I radiod the operator and was told that the bridge had malfunctioned, they would need to call a mechanic, and would get back to us once they had any information. It wasn't a good place for us to wait, so we moved over to a nearby creek in sight of the bridge, and anchored there. It was a tricky entrance to the creek, but once we were in it was a pleasant place to anchor, with beautiful blue skies. It was still cold though, and for the first time we saw rows of herons lining the banks of the shore, huddled up and looking miserable. Normally you only see one heron at a time so row upon row of them was something new.
We have been anxious to get south as quickly as possible because we have a couple of deadlines to make. Not a good thing when you are on a boat. One is that we need to be out of the U.S.A. before the 24th of April. Our cruising permit expires then, and we HAVE to be out of U.S. waters. In order to re-enter the States we have to be able to prove we were in another country for a minimum of 15 days. But our insurance is requiring us to be north of Norfok, Virginia (where we have just come from) by the first of June. So, we need to get south quickly in order to get to the Bahamas, spend a minimum 15 days, and get back north for the insurance deadline. It's going to be doable,but just. Of course, moving south to get warmer is a good incentive too!
Some time after 12 the mechanic radiod to let us know the bridge was fixed and that it would open for us. This was pretty nice as the bridge schedule didn't allow for that. I guess he was wanting to test it out on us :-). We told him we would be right along and after raising the anchor I started to take the boat out of the small creek to the larger channel. The tide had gone out while we were waiting, and I was anxious to get to the bridge, so I cut the corner of the creek. Our port keel with the depthsounder read 4 feet, but our starboard keel ran aground into thick mud. We obviously need to get a depthsounder on our starboard keel too! I thought I could move through it, but just got stuck deeper, so we had to radio the bridge that we were stuck. Take your time, said the mechanic. We called Boat U.S., who came pretty quickly and started to get us out. "How much water do you have over there?" he asked, "because there is almost 12 feet over here!" Ouch!
We were ready to go through the bridge at 1:15 and requested an opening, only to be told that they would not now open until 2! I guess we missed getting the special treatment from the mechanic. We begged a little, but they were adamant, so we once again sat in the channel with the current until the 2 p.m. opening, which went without a hitch.
We crossed Charleston harbour, and Fort Sumter, trying to stay within the markers and avoid the crab pots. They are beginning to get a little too plentiful. There is a lot of boat activity here, and Charleston itself is very picturesque from the water. We rushed through to make the Wapoo Bridge's last opening and anchored, a little later than usual, in Church Creek.
No comments:
Post a Comment