Osprey Marina

We spent the morning being briefed on the next leg of our journey (Osprey Marina to Charleston and on to Beaufort).  We will encounter several “trouble spots” and increasingly high tides and swifter currents.  This section of the ICW can be particularly challenging as there is no easy way to negotiate all the problem areas without facing some challenges due to tide and current.  We have basically been charged to develop our own plans for negotiating this 165 miles or so of the ICW.  We get to decide which potentially bad spots we want to take on under less than perfect conditions.

After the briefing, Janet went with some of the other women to Food Lion to get items for the pot luck dinner.  Dwayne met Mike and Robin of Sea Change which is another Catalina 380.  They are well equipped, experienced cruisers and have been living aboard their boat for almost 2 years.  Mike showed Dwayne how to wire Foreign Affair’s anchor wash down pump to the windlass switches which eliminated the need for a small dedicated battery for the pump. Recharging the small battery every time it was used to wash down the anchor was really a pain in the butt.  Dwayne wasted no time in rewiring the pump and tested it to make sure it worked properly since we will be anchoring out tomorrow and more often in the future.

Southern Cross, a Beneteau,  pulled into the slip next to us this afternoon.  She hails from Bear, Delaware but spends most of her time on the Chesapeake harboring in Rock Hall.  Foreign Affair also hails from Bear, DE and we have spent quite a bit of the summer in Rock Hall.  Co-captains Bruce and Darla are headed to Florida like most of us and this is their first trip down the ICW.  We spent some time discussing the SAIL Rally and our journey south.

The afternoon was dedicated to planning our passage to Charleston.  Most of the group will attempt to reach McClellanville and take on the shallow water south of the city the following morning.  Foreign Affair will stop ten miles short of the city and anchor on the South Santee River to be in position to negotiate the trouble spot the next day and still reach Charleston well before dark.