Charleston, SC

Blue Heaven Rendezvous #5
Charleston Visited

November 5th –We were near the end of Mega Dock, with alot of the"Big Boys" such as 100+ ft. boats. I asked the dock hand how we got put there, and he said it is for transients, so that is how we qualified. He said it was named more for how long the dock is. For those familiar with Charleston City Marina, you will understand why the dock hand drove us in a golf cart up to the marina office. It is a long way! Eventually I walked it and wore my pedometer to find it was 1/3 of a mile from our boat. That is also where the bath house and laundry were. Oh, well it was good exercise.

Al, myself, Jim and Jeannie got out our bikes and road around the waterfront and through the streets to see the truly remarkable historic homes. We came back and had cocktail hour and back to our own boats for dinner.

November 6th – Morning was dedicated to getting some chores done. Al changed the oil and I thoroughly vacuumed the cabins. We then treated ourselves to a good breakfast on board.

Later in the morning a friend of Al’s from Lancaster, Paul Pelland, who lives in Charleston now, picked us up and gave us a tour of Charleston, the Citadel and Mount Pleasant where we visited with a mutual friend. We lunched over looking the water where a lot of shrimp boaters tie up their vessels. A seafood store and Harris Teeter’s, which is a good grocery store were the next stops where we stocked up mainly on fresh produce, bread and milk. Back to the boat we went to stow it all away.

We joined the Leas for dinner at the restaurant called SNOB (Slightly North of Broad). I had shrimp and grits, definitely southern cuisine. All of our meals were delicious and the service very good. We highly recommend it.

We got to walk off the calories just walking from where the taxi left us off to our boats!

November 7th – It’s a beautiful morning but we have to do laundry. Luckily, our friends the Mershons told us about another laundry right off the docks of the marina. There were a lot more washers and dryers than the marinas laundry so we were able to get done in record time for 3 loads- 1 ½ hours and everything was dry! (It is amazing how these menial chores we do at home with hardly a thought, become major events when cruising.)

When Jeannie and Jim got back from grocery shopping, Jeannie came to Blue Heaven to learn the Strong Women exercises. She had read the book so it wasn’t too difficult. By the time we finished, it was time for lunch which was when Al was finished with some maintenance from the cockpit locker. (Yes, those are Al's legs! Doesn't it look like fun!)

After lunch Jeannie and I biked into town to do some shopping while the men, filled water tanks and cleaned the outside of the boats. They eventually got to go biking as well. The men were happy when we returned with one $20 purchase each, and not the hand dyed or painted $1500 jackets and $400 scarves we saw in the one store. I guess Jeannie and I should have known when we had to ring a buzzer to be allowed to enter.

November 8th – We rode our bikes to the showers. (These folding bikes have been a great asset.) After breakfast we planned our strategy on how to leave the dock. We were a tight fit in between a catamaran and another sailboat. Al was hoping the catamaran would leave first, but I finally convinced him it would be easier for us to go first rather than the wide catamaran. Al had just assisted another sailboat to dock which had three men on board, so they reciprocated and helped us get away. It is very tricky when the current is going one way and the wind another. Our plan of having the captain of the catamaran take our bow line out past his boat while we used a stern spring line worked perfect. We had a much better exit than entrance to City Marina!

A lot of boats leave Charleston and go outside and sail directly to places in Florida, thereby passing up all the winding ICW of Georgia. However, Estelle and Blue Heaven chose to go the slower route along with many other boats.

We got through the Wappoo Creek Bridge which was about 30 minutes from the marina. We made the 9am opening along with five other boats. In Elliott Cut we were motoring at 5 knots and only making 2.9 knots. Now that’s a current!

We motored through five rivers today with marshes on both sides of the waterway. If you like marsh land, you would love the waterway! We arrived in Rock Creek around 4:30pm. It seemed a long 40 miles! Looking forward to getting to Beaufort, SC tomorrow.