South Carolina Cruising

On Saturday, we had a great day on the water running from Southport, NC to Charleston, SC. The seas were cooperative, the winds moderate, and the Admiral was in a good mood (I consider two out of three as a good day).

Upon arriving in Charleston we were faced with very strong currents at the city "mega-dock" marina (4-6 knots), but with a really good dockhand crew, the Admiral adeptly handling the lines, and the ever-wonderful Zeus pod drives, we docked with ease, refueled and got settled in for a couple of days.

Now there is a reason they call this a "mega dock" -- not only because it is HUGE (you actually need a golf cart to get from one end to the other), but it routinely docks MEGA yachts. Just to put it in perspective, ENCORE is 45 feet long and 14 feet wide (beam). A typical mega-yacht is over 110 feet long and close to 30 feet wide with a Captain, first mate, engineer and cook employed FULL time!! It's easy to get "boat envy" in such circumstances, but I subscribe to the old adage that "it's not the size of the ship, but the motion of the ocean" that matters. (no comments please)

We spent two wonderful days in Charleston. Shopping along Market Street, enjoying horse drawn carriage rides through historic old town, a day-long visit to Magnolia Plantation & Gardens and their "Autumn on the Ashley" craft fair, and of course lots of delightful "low country" southern cooking including fresh grilled fish, shrimp 'n grits, fried chicken, collard greens, homemade biscuits and fried greens tomatoes.

Charleston charm

"Welcoming Arms" stairway - Charelton old town

Through the marshland of Magnolia Plantation

On the front porch - Magnolia Plantation

This morning, we awoke to an overcast sky with brisk winds out of the North. Since most of of travel today was "inside" and a fairly well protected section of the ICW (and we were going a relatively short distance), we left Charleston this morning at a very leisurely 9 am. The only downside, was we would traversing some of the narrow and shallow "cuts" between the rivers at dead low tide. Keep in mind the tidal swing in this section of the ICW can be as much as 8 feet! In fact, one such section of water that connects two rivers is called the Ashepoo - Coosaw Cutoff. After SLOWLY passing through water in as little as 5 feet (ENCORE has a 4 foot draft), Rachel decided to rename it the "Assapucker Cutoff". Indeed!

Our destination today was the historic and beautiful waterside town of Beaufort, SC (pronounced "Bew-fert"). Home to some of the most amazing homes (Antebellum style) from both the revolutionary and civil war periods, Beaufort is a real step-back-in-time town. The people here are friendly, proud and very down-home southern. Beaufort is where they shot the movies "Forest Gump", "The Big Chill", "GI Jane" and "The Great Santini". After another horse drawn carriage ride, a little shopping and a delightful dinner along the waterfront, we ended another great day on the water.

Tomorrow we plan to head to Savannah, GA.