1.27 – Sunday

I’ve always known this part of the Cooper River is very industrial, but we’ve never been farther upriver than the marina so we saw lots of new sights today.

We went under the newly painted Mark Clark bridge, look at how blue it is!

These mooring balls are slightly bigger than the ones I’m familiar with.

As we passed the Naval station, I knew we were getting close. There was a guard boat that made sure to keep us on the gun side of the boat, obviously a catamaran doing a max of 4 knots is pretty threatening.

We had a nice, easy motor 17 miles up the Cooper River, but we arrived at peak flood tide so we had a challenging cross-current to deal with when trying to enter the very narrow basin at the boat yard.

Kyle took it really slow and crabbed in, while I fended off the rough part of the basin wall and we tied up. This should be the last time we have to dock with one engine! Almost as soon as we tied up, we hailed our friend Jim, who shuttled us back to Cooper so we could retrieve Sarah’s Element, which she is very generously still letting us use.

The boatyard is not a comfortable place – no power, they have water but I wouldn’t fill my tanks with it, nasty port-a-potties, and no internet. Since it’s cold and we can’t heat the boat here, we’re going to look for an alternate place to stay tonight, probably an airBNB.

Jim and Frances hosted us and another couple for dinner, it was great to catch up with friends and do something “normal!” Both couples have had a baby in the past few months so we chatted about the trials and tribulations of being first-time parents.

After dinner we headed back to the boat to see how she was sitting – we arrived at high tide and tied up to the sea wall, so we needed to check on the docklines at low tide and make sure they all had enough slack in them. The tidal difference is about 6 feet, which is quite dramatic. When we arrived, we had to step up to board the boat. In order to board the boat at low tide we had to step down onto the highest part of the boat – the seats on the bows.

Satisfied that our lines were properly tied, we headed to the airBNB, which is just a few houses down the road from where we lived prior to moving aboard.

1.28 – Monday

We arrived at the boat yard around 9am and still had to wait for the manager to come in. Before we found him, we ran into the boat lift operator and he let us know that they were going to try to get us out of the water around noon. They needed to wait for the tide to come in.

We assisted the boatyard staff in moving Hobbes to the travel lift by hand, since we had to squeeze her between three other boats in the tiny basin – believe it or not, she fit between the boats in the picture below, but only just. I had to push off a couple times to make sure we didn’t make contact.

They were surprisingly efficient at getting the lift set up and pulling Hobbes out of the water. I was running around taking photos and videos and I barely got the shots I wanted.

Of course the first thing we checked when she came out of the water was the port prop, which was very much not there. So that explains the propulsion issue! It’s nice to know the answer, and we’re stoked it’s not a saildrive issue.

We couldn’t board the boat while she was in the sling, and the boat lift operator had to leave early, so they weren’t sure how far they’d get with putting Hobbes on blocks today. With nothing to do at the yard, we went out to celebrate Kyle’s birthday!

As we sat down, the phone rang and Kyle stepped out to talk to his dad. While he was away, I asked the waiter if they had any birthday specials. He said no, which was disappointing, but oh well. We ate our meal and he drank his giant birthday beer, but as we finished up a group came out with the big sombrero and a plate of dessert! Kyle was a good sport about it and in the end we were both surprised at his birthday treat!

Tomorrow the yard will start sanding off the old bottom paint.