Saturday, November 9th

Burrrrr!  It’s 44 degrees out when the alarm went off.  Chuck jumped right out of bed….not me….I was enjoying being under the nice warm covers!  I had to force myself to get up because our departure was at 8:00 am.  Raising the anchor was nice and easy this morning because the windlass raised a clean anchor and chain.  So we actually motored away from the South Santee River, West ten minutes early. 

The sun is up which makes the view of the surrounding low country spectacular.  Winds are very light , 5-10 kts, coming at the stern of our boat.  Once we really get underway, we’ll  probably help our speed again by popping the jib open.  We know we have 2 areas that are flagged as ‘trouble spots’ ( and we’re not even in  Georgia!) and more than likely we need to pass through them 2 hours after low tide. 

We’ve gotten use to phoning either Tow Boats US or SeaTow about trouble spots.  They’ve been very informative about how to navigate through these areas.  As for the 4.9 stretch at McClellanville, SC, we were told to favor the red cans and we shouldn’t have any problems, even at low tide!  We stayed 40’ off the mainland shore to enable us to stay away from the G35A and G37 cans…yikes, when we motored through, there weren’t any red cans in sight!  Nice going Tow Boat US!!!!  The other trouble spot was at the Awendaw River.  We pretty much hugged the eastern shore and the lowest water we saw was 7 feet.  Most of the shoaling through these areas seem to change from day to day. 

 

The rest of today seems to be pretty easy….wide water….on our way to Isle of Palm Marina.  We really wanted to stay closer to Charleston, SC so we could sightsee but that’s not going to happen.   Yesterday, Colette called 3-4 different marinas in Charleston and they were all booked.  Everybody heading south seems to be staying at the city’s docks.   As we were nearing the Isle of Palm Marina, Kathy from   sv/Dancing with the Wind radioed and said that they were staying at the Cooper Marina up the Cooper River and they still had some docks available for 38-40 foot boats. However, they have no fuel!  It’s time for both Euphoria and Happy Hours II to fuel up so we decided to stick with staying at the Isle of Palm.  We know that we’ll be getting into the marina early, so we were hoping to take a taxi or shuttle into Charleston. 



Rita and I

Colette & Rita

 

We pulled into the marina at 1:00 and fueled up and wanted to pump out before we docked.  Of course the pump out wasn’t working….  L  As soon as we settled in, Rita from sv/Whisper (MA) came running over to welcome us and we caught up on each other’s adventures!  LOL   We met her and her husband in Elizabeth City.  They’ve been ahead of us on our travels by about a day or two.  It sure is nice to see a friendly face….and sailors at that!  

  Since we wanted to shuttle into Charleston, one of the dockhands recommended we call Crazy Carl.  Supposedly he only charged $20 for the four of us.  Yeah right!   It turned out to be $11 each…..there and back.  Eighty-eight dollars is a far cry from the $20 we were told! Was it worth it?  I guess so.  The driver dropped us off and picked us up by the Market.  We walked through that and most of the vendors were making and selling ‘sweet grass’ baskets.   The workmanship by both male and female was beautiful.  I was so tempted to make a purchase but the baskets were very expensive! 

Tours

Slave mart

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

From the Market we walked to the visitors center to get maps of the town.  We walked down Church St and King St to look at the Antebellum houses.  I was fascinated with the fact that the houses were built with their sides facing the street front.  We were told this was because the owners would not have to pay as much money in taxes.  Apparently taxes were based on the length of the road frontage of the house(the side) while the front of the house with their two sets of long porches faced the side of the property.   From there we walked over to the Charleston Bay break wall, which has a nice cement walkway, and then to Battery Park. 

Battery Park

Porches facing the side

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Houses facing the Charleston Bay behind break wall.

Heading back  we came upon Market St with its stores and restaurants.  We no longer were in Charleston’s Historic District and we soon discovered that we were lost!  I asked a street cleaner directions back to The Market.  The man straightened us out and all was good!  Once back to where we started from, Al called Crazy Carls to pick us up.  With all the walking that we did, all four of us were starved but decided to try a light dinner at the grill at the marina.  The yard beside the restaurant was packed with people enjoying an oyster roast.  They had campfires and outdoor heaters and a live band.  The band was good but loud and we were thrilled when the partying rapped it up about 8:00.  We were all hoping for a good nights sleep.