Our trip to Osprey Marina was a little over fifteen miles. The marina is known for its cheap fuel and dock rates. We departed after my swim and made our way to the marina. We had called for the reservation the day before and they were pretty full but had made room for us. As we were on the way the dock master called me and said we should come to the fuel dock and he would show me the dock. Apparently it is going to be a bit difficult to get in the slip. Great. We continued north on the ICW and finally got close. As we were getting closer I could hear another boat on the radio talking to the marina about their reservation and also getting fuel. Apparently the marina only has one fuel dock and it was currently occupied, so they had to wait out in the ICW until they called him in. As we got closer, I too called into the marina and was told to wait as well. No problem- we would just hang out here and wait until it was out turn. We waited about forty five minutes until they finally called us in. We maneuvered to the fuel dock and tied off. I told them we needed a pump out too, since we were there. I went about filling the fuel tanks and pumped a little over three hundred gallons- at least it was only $1.39/ gallon! The marina is also known for its low cost on docking- the first three night were $1.00 per foot, then it was .26 Cents a foot for each additional night. So it cost us $37/ night for three night and $9 for the fourth night. What a bargain! After I was finished pumping the fuel and settling up, the dock master showed me the dock we were going to. It was third in from the end, and the wind was really howling. He wanted to make sure we could fit and manage getting in the tight spot without hitting anything. I told him I would do my best and we should be okay with a dock hand assisting us. At this point there was nothing else to do but give it a try. The wind as I said was howling around twenty mile per hour with occasional gusts of up to twenty five/ thirty. This was going to be interesting. We fired up the engine and prepared to leave the fuel dock. There wasn’t a lot of room and we had to try to back out of the spot. As we were backing up the wind stared pushing the boat, but not in the direction I wanted. Shit. I was going back and forth between forward and reverse, throttle, then more, then less, trying to get the boat to turn, but it wouldn’t turn in the direction I wanted due to the wind. We were now clear of the dock but getting close to a boat tied to the side dock. I continued the maneuvering and we stayed clear of all boats tied off to the docks. Eventually we were facing the long entry way in and out of the marina and decided to just go on out and turn around in the ICW and come back in to get to the dock. We made our way out to turn around and there was a tow boat with boat in tow waiting to come in. I radioed to him my intentions and he replied but his radio wasn’t working right. I heard a garbled jumble but couldn’t understand him? Did he need to come in now? I called to him on the radio again to let him know I could not understand him and he gestured for me to turn around and go in. In the mean time the marina had called the tow boat and also told him they could not understand him either, so at least I know it wasn’t just me! We turned around and made our way back into the marina and toward the assigned slip. As we came down the fairway I could see there was someone waiting on the dock to assist us. I came in a slow as I could, adjusting with the wind and executed a clean turn into the dock, allowing Lauren to toss a line to the waiting hand and getting us in the spot without hitting the boat next to us. Once we got secured it was time to breathe a sigh of relief!
Now that we were in the marina we could relax. The next few days were spent hanging out, walking Frank by the goat farm that was next to the marina, and going into town on the bikes. The ride to town was not fun, as it was along a country road with no sidewalks or bike lanes. We made it to a hardware store where I was finally able to get the part I needed to fix our sink. No more holding a bucket under the drain and emptying a gallon at a time! Lauren did some laundry and we got the boat cleaned up a bit. We stayed away from people as best we could, even having groceries delivered to the marina. Otherwise we stayed on the boat and I watched our neighbor boat fish. He caught some large catfish, about twenty pounds or more! One night he was not attending his pole and a fish took the pole from the boat and into the water while he tried diving to save it! He luckily did not fall off the boat, but the fish won as he was never able to find the pole. The next day he had a new fishing pole…
Our next destination will be another anchorage at Calabash Creek, about thirty miles away…