Charleston Rondevous Aug13

All these years and I've never been there. I will definitely give it a try. I'm not sure it'll be good for an overnighter though. Looking at the enlarged map below, it looks like the area you marked--probably the area with sufficient depth--is pretty small. Maybe not big enough for a group of boats rafted up that will need to swing with the tide change. However, charts can be deceiving. I'll head over one day and see for myself. It certainly is very close to the harbor. I've never used my sounder to look for wrecks. That's another thing I'll have to put on my "to do" list. Thanks.

Screen%252520shot%2525202011-08-10%252520at%2525206.39.08%252520PM.jpg

Last time I was there, it was like Girls Gone Wild! Not too family friendly that day. Nice place to boat for the younger folks...
 
I'm at 11'6" sitting at the dock, and that's just to the top of the radar. I will have to remove a few things first. To remove the radar is not an option.

As far as ballast, I recently added an extra water tank to the forward storage under the v berth bed. The total drop in height in the bow was under a half inch. The water tank holds close to a 1000lbs! It's going to take a bunch of you to squash it further into the water!!! It's a beamy monster!!

looking at the numbers I can make it during a low tide setting. I'm calculating how much time surrounding the low tide will be available to pass. This is just one of the factors in our process of making this work.

At least come take the outside slip and join us for our dock party Friday and to Kiawah Sat.
 
Sadler:

I need years to explore half of what I want to see in Charleston!

Have you considered putting a line out on the beach and then a good stern anchor....in line with the current of course? Or bow and stern anchors so the boats would not swing?
 
Yes, I used to do that--anchor up on the beach. And you see lots of folks do it with no problem. But with a boat the size of mine (and probably yours), it begins to cross the line from definitely doable to problematic and potentially scary. When I did it, I was always worrying about the boat grounding or swinging into an adjacent boat, or getting away. I was spending more of my time fussing with the boat than enjoying the time ashore. So, I started looking for a dinghy (not so much to spend the night on the beach, but simply to get ashore) that would work, and finally got one small enough work with my boat, but big enough to be useable. Now, we just anchor in 10-20' of water, dinghy in, and relax. However, I think the double anchor method can work if you set the anchors properly and stay diligent. As for bow and stern anchors to eliminate swing, I've done that in tight quarters and it works. I just don't usually carry two anchors due to space limitations.
 
Last edited:
Doesn't look like we can make the Friday night meeting. Gearing up for an early push tomorrow morning.

Hope the storm didn't flood you all out. Be safe!
 
Rich, Glad you made it sat night, even though the weather didn't cooperate. Hope all is well, with your family and your boat. haha
Very nice to meet you. I hope you can make another trip/adventure with the Carolina Boaters again.

Now, I need to go buy another anchor......lol.
 
Rich, Glad you made it sat night, even though the weather didn't cooperate. Hope all is well, with your family and your boat. haha
Very nice to meet you. I hope you can make another trip/adventure with the Carolina Boaters again.

Now, I need to go buy another anchor......lol.


What happened to your anchor? I need a full report on this weekend! How was the skinny water?
 
Oh boy, what a weekend. Friday night was super. Appetizers everywhere, low country boil to kill for. We ate, drank and was merry. There was a slight mishap with the cooker. Somehow the rubber gas hose to the cooker melted in two. McGiver showed up and did a little repair and we were back cooking. All good. Oh, the pie, Kes made a pie....lemon something.....goooooooood stuff!
Sat morning, up early to go to a restruant to eat breakfast! I don't remember the name, but there was a dog motiff. Great food, the waitresses were very friendly, I was once again satisfied.
Then it was off to the beach, Kiawha? beach. Lazy afternoon, swimming, relaxing, and Lunch! Left over low country boil. Shrimp....whoooo, great shrimp.

Oops, I gotta go to a meeting. I'll continue this later. Or someone can continue for me.
 
Now, I need to go buy another anchor......lol.

Me too! The one I cut loose (stern)ended up high and dry the next morning at low tide. Unfortunately, by the time I got down to it, someone had taken it. The footprints led away from it into the water... Oh well, it was cursed anyway!!!!

Thanks again for the stern pull. Waiting for S.T. would have been too long and that tide had already switched. Looking back, I am glad I made the right decision to not cut loose at the beginning of the storm. Having the group of three spinning in circles due to their anchor slipping, and the other single boat to my south, it could have put both groups at risk. My biggest regret was not pulling up before the storm and relocating for the night sooner. Between multiple welcomed dingy visits, dogs, and kids, I under estimated the approaching storm. Combine that with the worst timing of tides, gail force winds, multiple boats spinning in circles and lightning, made for quite some hairy decision making!!! All is good though!

Sorry to here about your gear! Did you feel it snap? Was it at the height of the wind?

PM me your info, I still want to do something for you. Things may have gotten ugly had we waited for the cavalry! A sincere thank you!

Enjoyed the views and the warm greetings! Sorry to miss the other events, crazy weekend from start to finish. Even our ride home was weather filled. Pulled into our slip with horizon to horizon lightning and wind again. My 7 year old stepped up to her lifelong docking training to help bring her in even! It's definitely a multiple person docking procedure.
 
Last edited:
Boy did we miss out on another Carolina Gang adventure!! Sounds like you guys will always remember this trip!! And how about that 240 pulling that big Cruiser Yacht! Mike were you saying, "I think I can, I think I can, I think I can..."? Oh well, at least Officer Reynolds didn't show up.
 
Boy did we miss out on another Carolina Gang adventure!! Sounds like you guys will always remember this trip!! And how about that 240 pulling that big Cruiser Yacht! Mike were you saying, "I think I can, I think I can, I think I can..."? Oh well, at least Officer Reynolds didn't show up.

Ha, ofc Reynolds. I'm sure Mike was thinking that along with all kinds of other things as were all of us. A true Chines firedrill Sat night in the storm! Rich, glad you fared ok in the end and sorry we missed being able to interact. We were slipping throughout the storm being pushed towards the beach as well, but with the lack of visibility and seeing the other boats spinning and out of control, we decided we were not slipping enough yet to pull anchor and create even greater risk. Very surprised Nicky missed our anchor line when he was being tossed about and glad he did not fall off trying to manually re set his anchor in the middle of it all after breaking away from the 3 boat raft! But as horrendous as Sat night was, Fri night and the next day on the beach were awesome. All in all, we have lots of memories and stories. Will get some pics up soon!
 
True enough, no officer Reynolds, but Sunday, after the storm, as we sat on the beach overlooking the Morris Island Lighthouse, a person of some authority came up to me to introduce himself. His name was Al Hitchcock, and he explained that he had watched from his nearby house as the lights of our boats spun around the lighthouse inlet during the storm. "We have seen very few boats stay the night here through the years, and to see all of your boats there in the storm was very unusual." He enjoyed hearing the story of our boating group and was glad everyone was safe. I told him this was one of our favorite spots with the beautiful old lighthouse in the background, and then he told me that he was the Chairman of the Board of the group that had organized the effort to level and stabilize the lighthouse:

http://savethelight.org/index.html

I thanked him for his and his group's efforts. Probably, without them, the old lighthouse would have fallen into private owner's hands or worse into the ocean.

We missed the moon over Morris Saturday night, but there were no injuries or serious damage, so I think it was a success. Let's plan on another Moon over Morris soon.

IMG_8690.JPG
 
True enough, no officer Reynolds, but Sunday, after the storm, as we sat on the beach overlooking the Morris Island Lighthouse, a person of some authority came up to me to introduce himself. His name was Al Hitchcock, and he explained that he had watched from his nearby house as the lights of our boats spun around the lighthouse inlet during the storm. "We have seen very few boats stay the night here through the years, and to see all of your boats there in the storm was very unusual." He enjoyed hearing the story of our boating group and was glad everyone was safe. I told him this was one of our favorite spots with the beautiful old lighthouse in the background, and then he told me that he was the Chairman of the Board of the group that had organized the effort to level and stabilize the lighthouse:

http://savethelight.org/index.html

I thanked him for his and his group's efforts. Probably, without them, the old lighthouse would have fallen into private owner's hands or worse into the ocean.

We missed the moon over Morris Saturday night, but there were no injuries or serious damage, so I think it was a success. Let's plan on another Moon over Morris soon.

IMG_8690.JPG

Wow that's neat. He would have had an interesting show had it been daylight! Sorry, but I don't care to to anchor there again if there's even a remote chance of a storm! Pulled up my pics on my camera last night. I took almost 200! So it may take me a couple days to weed out the best ones and then I will load onto a picassa thread and post here and CB.
 
Wow that's neat. He would have had an interesting show had it been daylight! Sorry, but I don't care to to anchor there again if there's even a remote chance of a storm! Pulled up my pics on my camera last night. I took almost 200! So it may take me a couple days to weed out the best ones and then I will load onto a picassa thread and post here and CB.

I don't think it's just where we were. Anytime you're rafted up and a storm of that ferocity hits, it's going to be trouble. Even in a well protected anchorage like Bass Creek, it would have been chaos, and with less room to swing, some of the boats would have likely have ended up aground. I think the key is to do what we did which is to break apart and individually anchor; next time we need to do it faster, but the storm hit just as we were getting settled and it was hard to make that decision. A better protected spot near the lighthouse would be to anchor in Block Island Creek (would take two anchors to keep us from swinging), or well up into the Lighthouse Creek.

Screen%252520shot%2525202011-08-17%252520at%2525208.08.37%252520AM.jpg
 
By the way, our group hangs most of the time on the Facebook CB site linked below. We used to be on Yahoo, but decided FB Groups worked better for us. Unfortunately for some, you have to join Facebook to be able to request entry to the group.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/217268892701/
 
Last edited:
I don't think it's just where we were. Anytime you're rafted up and a storm of that ferocity hits, it's going to be trouble. Even in a well protected anchorage like Bass Creek, it would have been chaos, and with less room to swing, some of the boats would have likely have ended up aground. I think the key is to do what we did which is to break apart and individually anchor; next time we need to do it faster, but the storm hit just as we were getting settled and it was hard to make that decision. A better protected spot near the lighthouse would be to anchor in Block Island Creek (would take two anchors to keep us from swinging), or well up into the Lighthouse Creek.

Screen%252520shot%2525202011-08-17%252520at%2525208.08.37%252520AM.jpg

So where exactly did you guys anchor for the night near the lighthouse? I thought you were going to anchor in lighthouse creek.
 
Kendall, we did anchor in Lighthouse Creek. Looking at the chart I posted above, we were 1/4 mile from the mouth, between where the chart shows 18' and 15' soundings opposite one another.
 
Chris, I did keep looking over my shoulder to see if Officer Reynolds was somewhere around. haha

Rich, glad I could be there to help. You would have done the same for any one of us. That is why "we" boat together. Safety in numbers, and always someone in a position to help.
 

Forum statistics

Threads
112,950
Messages
1,422,834
Members
60,931
Latest member
Ebrown69
Back
Top