We came into Charleston about 10 last night. We called Charleston city marina and were told that no one would be there that late to help us but go inside the 'Mega Dock' and tie up on the inside near the end. They never mentioned the current. As we approached I could see that there was a strong current pulling us to the end of the dock and gave it some throttle to get past it before we ran into it. It was then that I noticed how narrow the slot was with boats on either side and gave the engine more throttle to get the bow pointed toward the in. We managed to get alongside the dock for about 1 second before the current pulled us away. Now I'm broadside to the dock being sucked down the slot with about 20 feet clearance on either end. The current (about 2 knots) along with no room to manage made me jockey the boat solely to keep from hitting other boats as we were sucked fown the narrow channel.

The Admiral was screeming for help but no one came to our rescue. We were approaching a MegaYacht with a collision less than one minute away. With no other option I decided to crash the bow into the dock allowing the stern to swing around hopefully rotating the boat into the current giving us some steerage. I hit the throttle and the Admiral yelled "SLOW DOWN your going to crash into the dock". I looked forward and saw an electrical box where we were going to hit. Fuck it! CRASH!,,, the bow held, the boat rotated, the Admiral jumped off ( must have been a 10 foot jump off the bow ) and got a line on a cleat with 30 feet to spare before we would have hit the MegaYacht. ( missed the electrical also but didn't care )

Son of a bitch that was close!

Wouldn't you know,, now that we were tied up people started walking the dock.

What I don't understand is why the office didn't mention the current and suggest an outside tie up. That would have been really easy as I could have pointed the boat into the current and easily berthed her.

Damn, Damn!