High and Dry in Calabash Creek

We spent two nights (10-06-13 and 10-07-13) in Calabash Creek at the South Carolina/North Carolina boarder.  The weather was cloudy with some rain showers but the main reason was that we discovered that our dock neighbor John from earlier this summer in Brunswick GA and quite possibly the worlds most interesting man, was just down the way with his yacht in a marina at Myrtle Beach.  He is southbound after a good adventure up the Chesapeake. 

Emails were exchanged and soon I spied John zooming into Calabash Creek in his zippy center cockpit dinghy - it's so sweet!  We chatted away in the cockpit, getting all caught up.  When a break came in the rain, we hopped in his dinghy and made the trip a mile or so on up Calabash Creek to the town of Calabash for a late lunch.  There isn't a public dinghy dock.  The best we could do was a small floating dock tied to the pilings of the higher up fixed dock.  There was no walkway up but a small board on one of the pilings allowed us to step up the piling - so to speak- to the fixed dock so no worries.  We headed for one of the local restaurants.  $6.95 fried seafood lunch special was good.  I guess Calabash is know for their breading.  With bellies full, it was time to head back to the boat.  But we had forgotten one very important thing.....the tide.  It was going out when we came in and continued to do so.  Since we were in the dinghy, we didn't notice.  Now the floating dock was well below the fixed dock with no way to get down to the dinghy.  We searched and searched for a way.  A-ha, a ladder!  Crap, it was locked up.  No loose lines or ropes anywhere.  Finally John noticed that the piling had 2 large spikes driven into it along the side.  Tom went first and was able to lower himself down using those.  FYI - Tom is 6 ft and has much longer legs.  I wasn't able to do the same.  Then we spotted spikes on the other side but still spaced too far apart.  I ended up putting one foot on one side (on the spike) and then swinging around the piling to put my foot on the other side - basically bear hugging this piling (FACE FIRST into the piling) as I ungracefully climbed/fumbled my way down the piling.  John used the same approach as me but managed much better.  NOTE TO SELF - be more aware of the tide when docking the dinghy.