Charleston to Georgetown, SC.

Today:    66 miles, 10.4 hours, ICW

Total:     2222.4 miles, 347.5 hours

MY ELYSIAN as we were leaving Charleston

A collapsed building

Another dredging "city"

     We were underway by 7:40 am.  There was no rush this morning as we had to wait for the 9 am opening of the Ben Sawyer Bridge.  It will not open on weekdays between 7-9 am and 3:30-6:30 pm.  We were the second of 3 sailboats that made the opening. Unfortunately, it was low tide and the first boat went hard aground about a ½ mile north of the bridge. He said he would wait to float off with the incoming tide. The boat behind me passed and pushed his way through the skinny area.  We touched bottom, backed off, then found enough water to continue. We found out later that it took anther 2.5 hours for the tide to rise enough for the first boat to continue on their way. We tapped bottom again passing through Isle of Palms and then at Red 86 I went wide into what I though was deeper water according to the sonar charts, but ran aground.  Thankfully, we were able to back off.

Isle of Palms

A Ketch that is high and dry!

     Pete had work that took up the morning and part of the afternoon, so I really enjoyed this part of the ICW.  The scenery is beautiful and a number of inlets, where there is always a chance to spot of dolphins. Of course, all the inlets control our boat speed.  If the tide is going out, one side of the inlet will increase our speed (1-2 miles per hour) while the other side of the inlet slows us down by the same amount.

Within 15 feet of the muddy
bank, but still in the channel!

     McClellanville is always a concern.  It has notoriously skinny water a low tide.  Now, with the sonar charts, we know where the deeper water is, and we made it though at low tide, with no problems! The current finally stayed in our favor for the last 3 hours of our day.  As we made the turn from Estherville Mimin Creek Canal onto Winyah Bay, we were doing 9.2 mph!  The current gods were kind and stayed with up until we were docked in Harborside Marina in Georgetown.

Friendly clouds above the banks of the ICW

Dolphins!

       This is a great marina.  It was rebuilt and just reopened last fall.  It is right in town, $0.25 less per foot than Georgetown Marina and the current isn’t nearly as strong.  They are still working and expanding the docks to accommodate more boats.

~ ~ ~ /) ~ ~ K & P