We waited until 10:45 to cast off the mooring line so that we would make the 11:00 opening. Unfortunately, the mooring line had become wrapped around our keel. So, with time pressing down on us, Brad jumped into the dinghy, untied the mooring lines and I allowed the big boat to just drift back off the mooring. Brad caught up with me, jumped on the boat and we revved the boat up to head to the bridge, praying we would make this opening. Luck was on our side and we made it just in time! This was to be the only luck we would find today, however, and perhaps when the mooring line was wrapped around our keel we should have taken it as a sign and stayed where we were….
Once through the bridge, we pointed the bow North and headed up the ICW towards Charleston, our next *INTENDED* destination. After about an hour of motoring, I told Brad that something didn’t feel right and that we were moving entirely too slow, even motoring against the current we should have been moving at a steadier clip that what we were. Brad ran downstairs and took a look at the engine, but nothing appeared obviously out of the ordinary.
Brad took the helm a bit later and I went downstairs to tidy up and get a few things done in the galley, when suddenly the boat lurched forward and then came to a dead stop. Immediately I knew we had run aground so I ran outside and while Brad put the boat in neutral, I let the jib sheets fly so that we would not be pushed farther aground. We checked out our surroundings and realized we must have just barely gotten out of the channel and were probably just sitting on top of the mud. As Brad went to the bow, I saw a trawler approaching from the other direction. I hailed him on the VHF and asked him to speed up and throw some wake our way in hopes that we could bounce off. He gladly obliged and sent a large wake our way. I threw the boat into forward, hard over to the right and felt us bounce along on top of the mud….and come to a stop again, still stuck. Luckily, the very nice people on the trawler flagged down a go fast boat coming up behind us and told them to come see if they could help. They were a very nice couple about our age and were more than happy to help. He ran his boat just off our bow and told us that we must be on a small hump of mud because about 4 feet in front of us the water was 12 feet deep. So, we tied a bow line on our boat and tossed him the other end. It took about three tries, but finally we were off and floating freely in the channel again.
**Side Note: While we were sitting stuck in the mud for those 20 minutes, we were unfortunately directly beside a marine air strip, where very loud fighter planes were doing touch-and-gos every few minutes. They were literally flying directly overhead and the sound was deafening!! The first one was neat to see so close to us, but the ten more after that were just too much for all our ears!
As we motored on again, I realized that whatever was happening with the engine was getting worse – we were going unbearably slow –about 1 knot. Brad went downstairs and took a closer look at the engine and realized the transmission wasn’t running as quickly as it should be. We motored a bit farther, hoping to gain speed, but to no avail.
So, with a large storm cell hot on tail and us barely moving forward at all, we opted just to throw out the anchor and figure out our options. After a few phone calls and a closer inspection of the engine, we soon realized we didn’t really have an option. There was a marina, with a yard (repair guys), just a few miles up and we could be towed there and have them check out our transmission. There was no way we were making it to Charleston. So, hopes dashed, we checked in with TowBoatUS and the marina and made arrangements to be towed in on Sunday (no sense paying for dockage when no one can look at our engine until Monday).
As soon as we got off the phone, we looked outside and there was a huge black cloud approaching. By this time, we had been through three small rain storms, with just heavy rain, but no wind. One check of the radar told us that this was a doozy and that the winds were forecasted to be 40knots. Brad ran out and let out more anchor line and I pulled all our things out of the cockpit just as the wind and rain hit. Within minutes we were laid over on our side from the force of the wind and there were two foot waves - in the ICW! We drug anchor a bit, but luckily the ICW is very wide here so it wasn’t a problem. Once the anchor set though, we were fine. The storm lasted about a half hour and was brutal – heavy rain, strong wind, lightning, thunder.
Once the storm passed, we decided that was the last straw – we were tired, wet and stressed out. Under sail, we moved a bit closer to the marina that we were intending to go to on Sunday and then dropped the anchor and called it a day. Tomorrow will be a “Snow Day” or a day of relaxation and then Sunday begins the fun of being towed and figuring out what exactly is wrong with our engine and how much it will cost to get us back on the water again….
After this long and very eventful day, we had only made it 10 miles up the ICW and were still in Beaufort, just North of Ladys Island. What a slap in the face.
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