Charleston, SC

We awoke this morning to what was going to be yet another "heat advisory" day -- the southeast U.S. was in the grip of a heat wave that was expected to last through tomorrow.

This "blackbird at the helm" greeted us this am -- he was eating dead insects off the dinghy !

Despite our being slowed down by the "trouble spot" yesterday, we had made almost 50 miles -- what the Intercoastal took away by slowing us down in shoal waters, it gave back by giving us helpful currents much of the way. This meant that we would only have to do 20 miles to Charleston -- we would be there by lunch time. Our plan was to stay in a large marina on the Ashley river -- convenient to the center of town, it would make it easy for us to tour the city and for me to visit with my friend, John.

Like the day before, we saw a number of dolphin pods feeding along the way -- we also encountered a mercifully short trouble spot that again forced us to pick our way through very shallow water. As we got within a few miles of Charleston, the shores of the Intercoastal became more populated and there were many weekend boaters on the water -- we were traveling through the seaside suburbs of a good sized city.

The trip involved (short) waits for both a swing and a bascule bridge and dodging a freighter as we crossed the shipping channel in Charleston harbor. Our "welcoming committee" was a flock of pelicans and a pod of dolphins, the former floating and the latter feeding in the warm still waters of the harbor.

Swing bridge opening for us -- feels very "special" to have them open a bridge just for you :-)

Coming into Charleston harbor

Part of "My Weigh's" welcoming committee

Walking on water to take off -- ungainly to watch but graceful once aloft 

We took a slip at the Charleston City Marina -- our neighbors included a couple of Mega-yachts -- we had inadvertently stumbled into "lifestyles of the rich and famous"(but of course, we are neither :-)

The sun was shining -- a brutally hot day, the heat index hit 111 in the afternoon. We immediately hooked up shore power and got the A.C running, so the boat became a safe haven for us. After grabbing some lunch on board, we decided to spend the afternoon doing some chores and leave the touring till tomorrow.

On my to-do list was to diagnose a problem with the electric hatch -- it had refused to come up after our swim the previous evening. After making some voltage measurements and fiddling with its up/down switch, I discovered that the motor and gear mechanism was fine -- I could get the door to go up and down by swapping wires on the switch -- it appeared that the switch itself might be bad. Fortunately, our "high end" marina had a parts shed, and while they didn't have the switch on hand, they offered to get it to me by late afternoon -- pretty nifty service.

Of course the switch arrived, I hooked it up and alas, the problem persisted. I will need an email consult with Tartan to figure out what is wrong.

We were both pretty worn out from the chores and the heat so we  stayed in our air conditioned home for the evening -- among other things, we watched the first episode of "Orange is the New Black" on Netflix -- great show.