Fun times again in the southern city of Charleston.

 

It was a visiting trip to see family so we spent time hanging out and just enjoying the beautiful weather along with Howard’s brother and sister-in-law, Don and Carol (and, eating way too much!).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This time, we stayed across the harbor at the Charleston Harbor Marina at Patriots Point. Water taxi or trolley gets you downtown easily, and while we did not have time to tour the military ships docked there, it was cool to have them as the backdrop of our stay in Charleston.

We got underway yesterday with a very fast  exit from the marina (current was running hard!).  Whew!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It was a tricky day scheduling our transit around tides and bridge schedules. There is some very skinny water (very, very shallow at low tide) along this stretch of the waterway at McClellanville, so we must transit on a rising tide. We barely made it through on our trip south!  Yesterday, all was good.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As we leave the Holy City to the south of us, the Admiral (after being fed, walked, and snuggled) assumed his position for the ride 😴.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We pulled a 12 hour run yesterday, and dropped the hook on the western side of Butler Island on the Waccamaw River. This is a big roomy anchorage and holding was good. We did use a trip line on the anchor though just in case the anchor snags a stump or other obstruction. A trip line will help free an anchor that may get stuck on some hazard on the river bottom.

Today was another long day due to pushing into a strong outgoing tide on the Waccamaw River, but the scenery is beautiful. We spotted a couple of bald eagles and many nesting osprey.

We decided to do a marina stop tonight since it’s only $1 a foot at Osprey Marina. It’s a popular stop on the ICW so we had to “wait in line” upon entering the marina. Given the tight channel, I’m not sure we would have ventured in here a year ago, but we are old salts now so no worries 😎.