Charleston Maritime Center - at a dock

 

Hoolie’s beach at Awendaw (minus Hoolie, he’s in the dinghy). The waves are from a powerboat that just went by.

We waited until 10:00 am to leave the anchorage in order to have a comfortable tide through Isle of Palms. Everything was as expected until we past the high bridge by Isle of Palms. In the spring, I found 4.9 MLLW water but today is was only 3.3 MLLW and I needed the tide I had waited for to get through! As I recall, the Isle of Palms is not on the list of inlets to dredge so it’s going to be a game of playing the tides there to get through.

The marina here is small and exposed to easterly winds but it’s calm for the next few days, we like it here.

Other than the excitement at Isle of Palms, the rest of the trip was uneventful. We arrived at the Charleston Maritime Center with a raging flood tide and were afraid we were going to be put into a northern dock - with the tide behind us. As it turned out, Ann docked Fleetwing into the current at a southern pier, much better! 

We’re snugged in for the night. People ask me, “Why do you put out so many fenders?” I reply “Where do you think the fenders will do the most good? On the boat on hanging over the side?”

This marina os one of our favorites due to its convenient location to downtown and the nearby Harris Teeter supermarket for provisioning. Saturday, we’ll explore downtown Charleston, only three blocks away, and have a late lunch at Hyman’s, another of our favorite restaurants. We both get a shrimp and grits appetizer which is plenty for a full meal for us. 

So it’s time for a layover day and then we’re off to Steamboat Creek for an anchorage there on Sunday. It’s starting to warm up but the nights are still cold!