32:46.116ZN 076:56.596W
We moved to the Ashley River and found a nice spot to anchor a little bit further from the dinghy dock than we would like but not too far and amongst other boats. The first thing we had to address was our petrol outboard - with 2 knots current on the ebb tide we didn't fancy using the electric outboard! It has been playing up - we hoped it was the old hose and tank fitting - both being 20 years old and disintegrating a bit so we now have new ones, however when Steve started it up it was clear there was more of a problem, it wouldn’t run on both cylinders, spark plugs changed - still not right, it turned out that the fuel filter hidden in the casing was pretty dirty - once cleaned as we didn't have a spare the engine was much happier.  We braved the current to go ashore to stretch our legs - take the rubbish - we had forgotten to get rid of it before we left Oriental so it was mounting up and of course go to a supermarket for fresh food. However the outboard problems are an ongoing issue, it wouldn’t start when we went to go ashore a couple of days later so obviously we need to have another look, maybe some dirt had got through to the carb? we will see but for now it's not working again and so we sadly couldn’t go ashore to explore Charleston this time!
We have been kept busy with maintenance jobs - took the water maker high pressure pump partially to pieces and cleaned the valves etc up - success it now pumps water - whatever bit was stuck is now hopefully free and happy - the water is too dirty in the river to run the water maker but we are hopeful it will work when we do run it up on passage next, it seems the more jobs we do the more there are to do, we found a leaking seacock when sorting the water maker out so that was next thing Steve had to fix! It seems we are having our share of little hiccups so far this season - let's hope we get them all out the way and no new ones pop up. On the bright side, a couple we met in Oriental 5 years ago are anchored near by and emailed us - they still have our boat card and details 😃, I couldn’t find theirs  though but do remember the boat name 😬. They are heading to St Marys and on to the Bahamas (as is the boat behind us who came over to say hello, so I am sure we will get to meet up again sometime soon. Tom and Sabrina and another boat we have met went by on their way south down the ICW, we should see them in St Marys in a few days, were heading off shore for the passage hoping to leave in the morning for another overnight sail.