South Carolina
18 April 2016
Monday, April 11th - More sunshine, but still very cool temperatures especially at night. Todays run got us to Beaufort, South Carolina, a very favourite stop. We picked up our mooring early and spent the afternoon in town. It is quaint and very historical. We returned in the evening for dinner at Panini's - shrimp and grits for Ron, peel and eat shrimp for me followed by a gourmet pizza - enough for breakfast next day!
Tuesday, April 12th - We have been trying to buy fresh local shrimp along the way without much success so when we read about B &B Seafood, we decided to head that way. We had some challenging shallows along the way, timed with the tide, they were fine and docked at the B&B dock. Well the store was closed and no one ever showed up at the shrimp boat. There were folks cleaning oysters on shore which attracted lots of flies and vultures and the smell was not pleasant! This is not a stop we would repeat!
We had rain overnight and it is cool and gray this morning. We made our way through several shallow area, using the tide to get us through. We docked at St. John's Harbour just outside of Charleston. This is a beautiful marina and they have a courtesy car you can use for 2 hours so we took advantage and restocked at the nearby grocery store.
The weather has turned with a front bringing strong north-east winds and cool temperatures. It is raceweek in Charleston and we cannot get a dock, but we are able to use the courtesy car again, so spent the afternoon in Charleston at the historic Charleston Market.
The cold and wind lasted a few days but finally on Saturday, April 16th we were able to leave the Charleston area for Isle of Palms. This meant crossing the harbour while the sailing races were underway - quite the challenge! At times we had race boats much too close for comfort! Isle of Palms is a lovely spot - close to the beach on the Atlantic, but well protected on the ICW, good docks and an excellent store and restaurant. We treated ourselves to dinner at the restaurant which was quite a happening place on Saturday night!