October 21. We were anchored in Georgetown, SC for 2 nights. I know I’ve said it before, that the waterfront here is kind of depressing to see from the water, but it’s a different story once you’re on land. The waterfront has a nice boardwalk that runs for several blocks behind the businesses along Main Street. Walk around to the front of the shops and the town is a scene from a Norman Rockwell calendar.

While in town we walked around a bit and spent an evening with a guy from an internet sailing board that we had met there last year on our way south. So after spending a night near Georgetown and then 2 more nights actually there, it was time to move on.

We pulled anchor and got going around 0800. We had a full day of tidal flow alternating either for or against us. There’s a bridge just above Charleston that is closed from 1600 to 1800 hours. We were not pushing hard and if we didn’t get to the bridge before 1600 hours we were just going to drop the hook and arrive in Charleston the next morning.

It was a grey day with intermittent cloud bursts during the early part of the day. Some of the rain was hard enough to warrant the use of the radar as visibility was reduced to near nothing. With the stormy weather all around us it brought with it enough wind to make the bridge by 17 minutes. These clouds did have a silver lining.

So we were anchored in the Ashley River in Charleston on Thursday evening. The Ashley is a fast flowing tidal river. The anchorage was fairly empty as we are still well ahead of the bulk of the southbound cruisers.

We spent Friday and Saturday tooling around town on our bicycles. Saturday on our way back to the boat we stopped in to the local Coast Guard station.

You see there was a boat anchored next to us and in the morning it looked as if it was bow down. We hadn’t noticed this bow down attitude before that morning and it had even developed a slight list to starboard. We did notice that nobody had been to the boat since we’d gotten there so we were a little concerned.

So we stopped in to see if they’d run a small boat past to see if there was a problem. The guard at the gate told us that they don’t do that type of thing. I was astonished. I told him that we thought it would be an easier problem to address before it sank, rather than later. He advised us to stop at the marina office and tell them about our suspicions.

So off we went back to our boat, but we did stop at the marina office. We were not sure why the marina people would care since the boat wasn’t in their marina, but we gave it a try.

We rode our bikes out to the marina office and told them of our concerns. The girl looked at us and said “That’s really got nothing to do with us”. Alright now I’ve got to start lying, I told her that the Coast Guard sent me over to get them to start the ball rolling, that they’ve got to be the ones to call the Coast Guard. We gave a vessel description and name and left.

We were back on our boat for 10 minutes and guess who rolled up? That’s right, the Coast Guard Auxiliary. 3 retired guys in a private powerboat with temporary Coast Guard markings. At least it’s somebody.

These guys circled slowly while on the radio with headquarters. They could see that the boat was in trouble and after 5 minutes came over to our boat to ask if we had seen the owner. We told them no one had been around and that we reported the boat that morning. They told us that there’s a note on the companion way door but headquarters forbid them from boarding the vessel, so they were unable to read it. WTF? They asked if I could get in my dinghy and board the boat and read the note for them. If I ever say that I understand the Coast Guard, I’m at the point where my brains are Jell-O so please have me committed.

So I got in the dinghy, went over and climbed on the boat and the note said that in case of an emergency call such and such. They said thanks and went off to notify the owner that there may be a problem.

About 2 hours later there was a dinghy tied to the boat so we figured that the owner must be there. It wasn’t until the next morning that the water started pouring out of 2 separate bilge pumps.

Boat Name of the Day: Knot Say’n……..the bridges all want to get your name and hailing port before they’ll open the span. Can’t you just hear the exchange when they ask his name and hailing port and he replies….I’m Knot Say’n. Fine, then I’m not openin’. It’s got potential to turn into an Abbott & Costello routine.