We really enjoyed Georgetown but on Tuesday afternoon we decided if we left then we could anchor a couple of hours closer to Charleston and save a whole day. So off we went back to the ICW and ended up in Minim Creek. It was right off our route, and right next to a rice plantation. With our new found knowledge about growing rice we were very excited to see some of the things that we learned about at the Rice Museum. Bill decided we needed to go up the mast to get a better view. He went up first, leaving me down with the mosquitoes! Good thing he managed to get a couple good pictures, including the one above, because neither of us were willing to stay outside with the mosquitoes any longer. Good thing the boat has good screens. Only a couple of the bugs got inside and they didn’t last long.

This morning we headed for Charleston. It was not a lovely day. We were back to hats and gloves. The problem was the cold wind. We did put it to use for part of the day though. Still too cold for putting the main sail up but we put the jib out and got a bit more help for the engine. We were passed by a couple of power boats throughout the day but only heard sailboats on the radio, we didn’t see any. We did have a swing bridge to go through and were a little nervous it wasn’t going to open because the wind was too strong. It did open for us, but it was a little hairy getting through it.

So now we are in Charleston. We found a place to anchor near the Coast Guard Station. We weren’t real comfortable with it but we saw someone on one of the boats we had anchored near and went to talk to him. He was an interesting artist, but a brand new sailor. We decided to see how the boat settled along with the others. We went down below for dinner and then heard a big bang outside. We were banging into the boat next to us – time to move! Now it was dark so we stayed in the same general area, but we were a bit out in the main channel. We decided not to stay there so we pulled up the anchor one more time and went under the nearby bridge and found a new spot to anchor. We think we are OK now but we will see how things look tomorrow, in the daylight. We are planning on spending a couple of days in Charleston. We got a great list of places to see from the couple we are renting our house to, they used to live in Charleston. The interesting artist also told us some places to see. We are looking forward to being tourists for the next few days.