Yesterday (Tuesday) we left Georgetown to anchor in Minnis Creek to wait out a passing front. The marina we were at in Georgetown is right on the river, parallel to a wicked current. After consulting with SV Infinity, we decided to leave a few hours after the max flood current, figuring we wouldn’t have to fight the current too much when we were in the Canal when he would need to tow us.

Based on the current, SV Infinity (who is single-handing at the moment) decided to get help with his lines from the dockhands when he left, so we asked him to send them over to us when they were finished. Normally we would do this ourselves, but we decided since we were babying the engine, it would be better for Jeff to be on the boat when we cast off the lines.

We should have done it ourselves.

The dockhands came over and we explained that we were having engine trouble, so we wanted some help with our lines so Jeff could stay on the boat. We had one sailboat docked several boat lengths in front of us, and the current was running towards the sailboat – the opposite direction from where we were heading.

Jeff was literally opening his mouth to tell the dockhands what order he wanted the lines released when all of a sudden they were letting lines go (we had four lines – a bow, a stern, and two springs.) Some lines were in the water – if they had tangled in the prop we would have stalled, which is not good. The boat had immediately turned sideways with the current and was swiftly moving towards the sailboat docked ahead of us, our bow pointed into the dock.

We are always VERY nice to dockhands, but this was beyond the pale. Nice was not happening, nor deserved, amidst this chaos which was quickly spinning out of control. Not with our engine situation that they knew about. Let’s just say there was a lot of yelling and swearing on our part. It was basically a clusterfuck.

We were sideways to the dock and rapidly approaching the sailboat so I had no choice but to drastically increase the throttle, listening to the engine hammering away, hoping it wouldn’t stall, to get the hell away from the sailboat in front of us. I will give credit to the younger dockhand who gave our bow a mighty push upon Jeff’s instruction, which allowed us to move away from the dock.

Disaster was averted, and we motored away with four people VERY unhappy, judging by the sourpuss on the dockhand – easily 15 years older than me – that I had been yelling at. I’m sure they were muttering “Damn Yankees!” as we left, still swearing and thoroughly pissed off.

In talking to SV Infinity on the VHF after we left, his experience wasn’t that much better. They dropped his line with the idea that he would pivot and motor away, but he found himself moving VERY quickly towards the bridge that was not too far in front of him.

Trying to give the dockhands the infinitesimally small benefit of the doubt, it does seem to be a marina that caters to large motorboats with very huge engines. Those engines laugh at the current, whereas sailboats with engines the size of Infinity and Pegu Club need to “make friends with the current” (to quote the dockmaster at Delaware City Marina our first year south, when they were warping us around.)

Once the adrenaline dropped off though, we had a very nice sail for most of the trip. We had wind from behind us to start, but it was strong enough to push us along despite the adverse current. As we made our way towards the canal, the current continually eased and the wind angle changed as we rounded the bend in the river, so we trimmed the sails until we were close hauled going over 6 knots.

Based on the wind direction, we radioed Infinity and told him we were going to try sailing down the Estherville-Minim Canal. The wind would be behind us and the trees were definitely going to interfere with the direction and strength, but we wanted to go as long as we could before he needed to tow us.

We hung a right into the canal and began doing everything from wing and wing to switching the main and jib back and forth as the wind direction changed. As predicted, the trees were making the wind squirrely. We went 4+ knots, we went 2.5 knots, and we were having a lot of fun. Jeff and I jokingly call it “fancy sailing.” SV Infinity joked that we might be the first people to sail wing and wing through the bridge area. Just goes to show you can sail more of the ICW than one would think, as long as you aren’t in a hurry to beat feet south.

The whole time, Infinity was patiently coasting along behind us, and although I had fantasies of sailing to the anchorage and anchoring under sail, I figured he had to be going nuts just drifting along (I would have been if the situation was reversed.) Infinity graciously said we could do whatever we wanted, but we knew that a big stand of trees was coming, so rather than make him suffer we decided to call it a day and he towed us for the last 20 minutes.

We thought about what we would have done if we had been alone, deciding we would have dropped anchor on the side of the canal, lighting up the boat so other boats could see us, and then moved to the anchorage today when the wind is gusting 25 knots. Always good to go through the mental exercise!

Now both boats are anchored in a good spot for today (Wednesday’s) blow, and we are going to enjoy a marathon session of Mexican Train Dominoes before we take off tomorrow. We should have pretty good wind to sail the next two days, so we’ll get as close to Charleston as we can before we call TowBoat.

It’s always an adventure!