This morning we had two appointments.  First, a guy was coming to clean the bottom at 8:30 am.  As soon as he was done, we were scheduled to call Scott, the tech guy from CatCo, who would help Mark check the chargers.  We have power, but not enough to navigate.  

Before those two appointments, we needed to get Seas the Day from our anchorage which was right next to the Palmetto Bay Marina to a slip at the marina.  The current was very strong and we were going with the current.  As we approached the fuel dock, we seemed to lose power and couldn’t get into the dock.  Instead, we started going towards the 65 ft bridge ahead.  I ran to drop the anchor and stopped us shortly before we would have lost our mast to the bridge.  At low tide, we could probably get under it as the tide is five feet, but this was high tide.  We had to wait for two guys from the marina in their little boat, Creek Geek, to tow us a few feet to the dock.  For that, we had to give them $40 in cash as a “tip.”  We do have Tow Boat US, which we could have called for free towing, but the dockmaster said there would be “no charge” to tow us the few feet to his dock.  Of course we would have tipped the guys, but not $40.  We have discovered that everything in Hilton Head is pricey.  Even a pumpout at the dock was $20.  We have never paid more than $5 in the past.  Luckily, we only needed one holding tank pumped out. 

After fueling up, we walked the boat down the dock and tied up at a spot for the bottom cleaner guy to work.  He came and said our props were “pretty bad.”  Odd that the hulls were clean but the barnacles were only on the props.  This was a good learning experience for us.

Scott helped Mark check the chargers and they were fine. Therefore, the entire problem seems to be the encrusted props. We knew they could slow us down somewhat, but this was pretty ridiculous.   When we motored back to the anchorage, we had full power again.  Amazing what barnacles can do.

We took a long bike ride around Hilton Head and picked up a few groceries at Publix.  Tomorrow we’ll head to Walburg Creek.  It’s about 30 miles there but ten miles out and ten miles in, so taking the outside route, it will be over 50 miles.  The next day, we can take one of our few cruises on the ICW as no bridges are in the way before we get to the stop at St. Catherines/Wahoo River.