Charleston Maritime Center at a dock

The Maritine Center is a small marina - but very close to the center of Charleston

We wanted to catch the high tide which was at 7:00 but fell the rest of the day. The water south of the Awendaw Creek anchorage on the ICW is very thin with many shallow spots and narrow so I wanted the most water under the keel I could get. So we set out to get Hoolie ashore before the sun rose and found that the tide was even higher than the previous night! As we approached the spot we used before and Hoolie jumped out, he immediately sunk in up to his belly! He was not pleased. He jumped right back in the dinghy without doing any of his business. We tried another place, same thing - this was not working. Eventually we gave up and came back to the boat, pulled anchor and started down the ICW. Hoolie was unhappy. Eventually we came to a public boat ramp and as Ann "hovered" the boat in the channel, I took Hoolie in the dinghy and rowed to shore, tied up at the launch ramp and took Hoolie to grass (the relief was audible...) Rejoining Ann by rowing back out to the boat, we continued our way south. What a way to start the day.

A boat ramp, a welcomed sight for Hoolie!

We suffered through the shallows without hitting bottom and reached the Marine Center around 1:00 pm with a 2.5 kt current against us. We made it in okay and just chilled out for awhile. Later that afternoon we got groceries at Harris Tetter, one of the reasons we like this marina so much, it's less than 1/2 mile to the store! The store is a cross between Adam's at home and a full fledged supermarket, a great place to reprovision without having to rent a car. So tonight we had sesame crusted tuna steaks with fettuccine with zucchini and pecans, a typical meal prepared by Ann - we eat well.

Our dock at night

The weather is warming up with temps in the high 70's over the next few days. We're going to spend three days here before moving on south on Friday. We're somewhat concerned over the hurricane off the Mexico coast. The forecast movement shows it passing through southern Florida and then out to sea. But then there's another one forming further east with a similar path predicted. If nothing else, it's going to produce a lot of rain, at worse, something more. You know we'll be watching it carefully!