Farewell to Charleston

May 8, 2017

Miles Today:  42.7 NM

Total Miles:  543.1 NM

Slack tide is our friend.

After watching a boat get pushed by the current into docked boats while heading down the fairway to the fuel dock, we were going to be as smart as possible when leaving St. Johns Yacht Harbor.

We waited for slack tide at 8:30am, pulled out and were gone before you could say, ‘there goes Bazinga!’

The ride through Elliot's Cut and swift current wasn’t as bad as we were warned and soon we were cruising down the Wappoo Creek, into the Ashley River and crossing Charleston Harbor.

Arthur Ravenal Jr. Bridge - crossing over the Cooper River.  Opened in 2005 to replace two obsolete cantilever truss bridges.  It is the third longest cable-stayed bridge in the Western Hemisphere.  The bridge spans 1546 feet between the two towers, with 128 individual cables anchored to the inside of the diamond towers to support the deck of the bridge 186 feet above the river.  It was built to sustain hurricane wind gusts up to 300mph and an earthquake of 7.4 magnitude.

Charleston Waterfront

Fort Sumter, as seen from our own boat - so cool!!

As we cruised up the ICW, we encountered the oft-read-about-but-not-yet-experienced big, biting, black flies!  We gave thanks for our pilothouse. 

Our plan for the day was to reach Georgetown, SC – 67 miles north.  However, we kept running into shallow water that forced us to slow down and therefore, lengthen our travel time.

Lots of shallow water sections today.  See the muddy line that runs just below the lighter green boards - that's the high tide mark.  We are about 25 feet away from that dock and the muddy shore right behind it.  The depth sounder said we had 4 feet of water below us.

Approaching McClellanville, about 43 miles from Charleston, we used on our anchoring book that Bev and Ralph Brogdon had given us and found a lovely anchorage on Five Fathom Creek.  (As it never was that deep while we were there – 30 feet – we’re not exactly sure where it would have gotten that name). 

We lucked out again.  The weather was cool, the creek quiet and isolated, only a sailboat joined us and anchored a good distance away.  We watched several shrimp boats across the marshes heading to McClellanville up Town Creek.  Best of all….no flies!

We really love anchoring out.

Shrimp boat coming in to McClellanville.  Yup, he really is on water, traveling up the river!

Radio tower in the distance - which can be used to check our position and ensure the anchor isn't slipping.

A lone dolphin joined us in the creek around sunset, fishing for his dinner.