Next Stop: Charleston

April 6, 2021

Up at first before first light which for us is getting to be like sleeping in. Timing our departure to get through the Ben Sawyer Bridge, no openings between 7-9 then on demand after those hours. Gotta get the commuters to work on time. Somebody gotta pay the taxes!

There is no doubt that Trump carried North, and South Carolina as evidenced by the political signs we saw along the waterway. We saw a particularly submerged deselect boat on the bank with S/V Biden painted in bold letters on the hull. The private docks along the waterway had US flags waving in the breeze. One had a banner that at first glance you could mistake for a Trump flag until you read the caption “Joe Biden Sucks”. My favorite was one that proudly proclaimed deplorables for Trump. Hillary will never live that one down!

Reached the Ben Sawyer Bridge at 1000. A 66 ft motor yacht passed us prior to reaching the bridge, near the Breach Inlet. Nearing the bridge, we came to a screeching halt. The motor yacht in front of us had run aground. Obviously, the inlet had caused shoaling in the ICW. The tide was still dropping so it was apparently the vessel was going to be stuck for a few hours.

Made it through the bridge without a prolonged wait. Did not take us last night to reach the Charleston Harbor. We called the Marina to alert them to our early arrival. We were met on the dock-by-dock hands and came in without drama. Good to see young folks out working. Our diesel was topped off in the slip and we arranged for a pump out.

Unfortunately, we were placed on the outside mega dock as far as you could go without walking off the end of the dock. Sing the Fitbit to keep up with steps, 3 rounds trips to the shower and laundry clocked over 3 miles. Most people staying here use dock carts or bikes. The winds picked up as well as the boat traffic and we were slamming into the dock and being swamped from the rear by wake from passing boats failing to observe no wake. Wrong place to put our tiny boat!

The courtesy van did hourly trips to wherever you needed to go with call for pickup. Again, the young folks working at the marina were super nice to us old folks offering rides on the golf carts and asking if we needed anything.

We looked for a place to eat dinner and decided we would eat aboard. We looked at The Fleet restaurant, one of the local favorites but decided they were proud of their food. Except for being tossed about by the wind and waves we had a very pleasant evening.

Charleston: Day 2

April 7, 2021

Yesterday we shopped at Harris Teeter but found it to be lacking in some basic needs. Extremely disappointed. This morning we decided to walk to Publix, about a mile hike, and have the courtesy shuttle pick us up. Nice Publix!

We returned to the boat, stowed our groceries and proceeded to walk downtown around Battery Point. We wandered through Charleston Market. Lots of people downtown. We returned to the boat and made plans to take our dingy over to the Charleston Crab House on Wappo Creek. The afternoon turned unto a repeat of the previous day. The wind came up, the boats came through and it became very rough. Change of plans. We took the courtesy car downtown and ate at the Charleston Crab House on Market Street. We were seated without waiting and had a wonderful meal. We were picked up by the shuttle and returned to the boat to enjoy a beautiful sunset