Monday 13th April, it was time to get unstuck from Charleston!! We had an early ride to the airport to drop off the rental car and get a taxi back to our Marina. We made good time and on our return singled up our lines, tested the engine again and left the slip without too much excitement at slack low water. When the tide is running in this area the currents are fierce, you can hear the water rushing past the boat! We passed under the 57 foot bridge (our mast is 53 foot) uneventfully and proceeded out to the harbor.

Shortly before we left we made up our mind to travel up the ICW rather than offshore as the boat has been sitting at the dock for 3 months! It just seemed more prudent.

Having left at low tide to get under the bridge we had to wait for a rising tide to safely navigate the very shallow water on either side of the Ben Sawyer Bridge. As we were stooging about waiting, we happened upon a Canadian sailboat heading in our direction. They confirmed that a boat ahead had given them depth readings and there should be enough water at the current tide state. We were going to wait a while longer to be sure, but we tagged along behind Suenos who periodically called back on the VHF when they encountered "thin" water. They touched bottom once but we did not, it's always good to be the following vessel!

By the time we reached the dreaded extreme shallow water near McClellanville it was nearing high tide and we had at least 8 ft under us, we draw 5 ft. It was blowing about 10 knots and we didn't fancy the exposed Five Fathom Creek, although we knew it would be remote and beautiful in marshes. We followed Suenos into McClellanville and took a face dock.

We had visited McClellanville by car during our Charleston stay. It's a shrimp boat port. All the shrimpers were in port as the season has not yet begun. The dock we stayed at is primarily a fuel dock for the commercial boats but they are glad of the transient traffic at this time of year.

We had a beer with the crew of Suenos and cooked dinner and had an early night. Pleased to have made a start on our way home.