Cruising Again
05 July 2013 | Graham Creek, SC
Sunny, Air Temp 85F, Water temp 82F, Wind NE@15-25,
Dessert at the Charleston Grill
We arrived back in Charleston late on Saturday and headed straight for the hotel. Sunday we went to church at the First Presbyterian. The service is very similar to ours, and excellent music particularly the organist.
Sunday afternoon we toured the area surrounding Charleston with our rental car and Sunday night we had a five star dinner at the Charleston Grill, possibly the best meal we have ever had. The food, waitress and music (violin and acoustic guitar playing popular music) were all excellent. We highly recommend it!
Monday we headed to the boatyard, put on the canvass and then headed out for supplies. By noon Estelle was in the water again and we were quickly re-commissioning everything with, thankfully no surprises. Monday night we had another excellent dinner at the Old Post House. The food was very good, but not quite up to Sunday's standard, and in the tiny dining room you were seated very closely to other diners, but we still give it four stars.
Tuesday we moved aboard at the boatyard and continued stocking. By Wednesday evening we finally decided we were done and returned the car. Since Thursday was July 4th, we thought about staying another day to watch the fireworks show. But as the boatyard is 12 miles above Charleston, we looked for a marina berth, but with 5 marinas and thousands of berths, nothing found. Not surprising, I guess.
And with the strong NE winds, there is absolutely no protected anchorage in the entire harbor. So with a wind that prevented us from either staying or heading offshore for Beaufort NC, we headed up the ICW. Passing Palm Island, we were doing battle with hundreds of small craft of every description, but everyone was careful. By days end we were anchored alone in Graham's creek, a beautiful anchorage in Romaine Wildlife Refuge. An excellent squall at sunset sent us below to finish our wine and head to bed. Tomorrow, Georgetown and, depending on the weather, perhaps offshore to Beaufort from Winya Bay. But the forecast doesn't look promising.