St James Plantation Marina - at a dock

Here's the new addition to Barefoot Landing, notice the complete absence of boats

We had a short run today of only 35 Nm to St James Plantation Marina. We have a dock reserved here for two days to meet with friends in the area. Our big surprise was in passing Barefoot Landing Marina where there was not a single boat docked. We had called for a reservation but received no call back until this morning, which was too late. However, we took the opportunity to ask him about docking in the future. At present, he said there is no overnight docking. They have no water and no electricity. Perhaps in the fall it may be different but for the spring and summer, it's day docking only.

We also saw a lot of new building along the waterfront in the Barefoot area. One structure (photo) really looks out of place and garish It's to be a restaurant with an arcade complete with a rope climbing tower. I guess the new owners are trying to branch out from being just an outlet center. We could see more building in the background but couldn't make out what it was.

The channel in the Rock Pile is fine, just don't stray outside! We went through at low tide, the rocks are usually covered.

We passed through the "Rock Pile" without incident. You just have to be sure to stay in the channel, rock ledges await those who stray. We took on fuel at St. James and we're settled in for the night. On Tuesday night, we've been invited to a dinner with Jim and Eileen McKay. The next day, it's northward again.

I forgot to mention, we passed through Shallotte with a minimum 12.5 MLW just following the buoys and through Lockwoods Folly where we saw 6.4 MLW between R46 and Gt47 on the USACE recommended route. Also, R76 was a little tight at 6.2 MLW. I'll more details in Active Captain and Waterway Explorer.

Marina at Grande Dunes - at a dock

My spring project continues - taking a photo of the height boards on every ICW bridge
I plan to convert the readings to MLW so you can add the tide to get the clearance
Unfortunately, this bridge had no height boards!

Today we didn't have to worry about shallow waters. It was a relief to just enjoy the scenery and the ride north. This stretch of the ICW is one of our favorites due to the greenery and just interesting vistas. It's an area where there are alligators and snakes but we didn't see any. The tide flows north and south through here with tides to 4 ft. There were rice plantations that took advantage of the natural flow of water to irrigate the rice fields with no need for pumps since high tide was enough to let water in and low tide to let the water out. It was fresh water from the river so it was a natural place for a plantation.

Typical marina but this one has a breakwater between it and the ICW to stave off wakes 

We had a foul tide the entire way to the marina so we didn't make good time but we arrived eventually. The Marina at Grande Dunes is fine, well kept and with good WiFi. We will stay here only one day and move on to St James Plantation Marina, one of our favorite stops.

I thought I would start a daily paragraph on cooking aborad Fleetwing but I have to enlist Ann to give me the details. So here goes: The meat was pork tenderloin with a rub of oregano, parsley, lemon zest, and garlic. Then it was brazed in a skillet until done with a coating of flour to keep it moist. The salad leaves are kept fresh in a glass of water until needed. The salad consisted of asparagus (baked to 2min), peas (same), lettuce, with a dressing of olive oil, lemon juice, honey, mustard and topped with feta cheese. Ann served freshly sliced tomatoes on the side that we picked up at a farmers' market. If this is popular, I'll continue it. We eat very well on Fleetwing.

We'll keep moving as long as the spell of good weather lasts and that's been extraordinary the last week or so. Meanwhile, our dinghy continues to deflate, oh well.

Georgetown- at a dock

Georgetown has a harborwalk like many down here. It's nice with ipe wood and lots of shops

We had intended anchoring out tonight at Awendaw but when we reached McClellanville, we had a 4 ft tide and figured we ought to move along even though it would be a long day, over 60 Nm. We reached the Ben Sawyer Bridge just in time for the 10:00 am opening. It only opens once an hour on weekends.

The local governments seem to have lots of money for boats like this but no money for dredging

The first hurdle was getting through the shallows just north of the bridge. The stretch has shoaled in again down to 3.8 MLW! I was very surprised since it was just dredged last year. Since we had a 4 ft tide, we made it through without a problem. I thought that would be the worst stretch but then we found several other 3.8 MLW spots including one by Minum Creek where we only had a 2 ft tide. I'll update Active Captain the first chance I get but it keeps getting more shallow every year!

Fleetwing at rest for the night

We pushed on to Georgetown and we're now tied up to Georgetown Harborwalk Marina for the night. We will move on to Barefoot Landing marina or one other nearby on Sunday. We had great trouble getting ahold of Barefoot Landing. No one answers the phone and I'm wondering if the marina is defunct. I know that the new buyer of Barefoot Landing was raising rents and driving many of the businesses out with the higher rates. Perhaps the marina met the same fate.

St Johns Yacht Harbor in Charleston - Last day

The Charleston Maritime Center is still not fixed from hurricane Matrthew!

The marina here has a courtesy car which you can sign out for 2 hours at a time. We took advantage of that to get some last minute groceries which included ice cream, of course. There was a small Harris Teeter nearby and it had everything we needed.

The magnolias are in bloom. A tree full of blossoms makes a stunning sight.

The marina has excellent washers and dryers, four of each and at a cost of only $1 a load. Since we had two weeks worth of laundry, it was a perfect match. Next up was an attempt to add friction to the wildcat (the part of the windlass that engages the rode) on the nylon rope. I had bought a new rode this year and it was infused with a water repellant to increase lifetime and decrease wear. The repellant also had the effect of making the nylon part of the rode very slippery, so much so that it kept slipping in the wildcat when pulling up the 3/8" chain (before the chain could engage the wildcat). So I tried applying a non-slip coating to the wildcat and we'll see how that does at our anchorage tomorrow.

Wow, a full sized pool table. I played a lot during my youth but pool tables have become hard to find.

St Johns Yacht Harbor had a surprise. There are two levels to the dockmaster's house. I found out that the upper level is devoted to a Captain's Room. It has nice chairs and a TV but what made my day was the full-size pool table. Had I known it was there, I would have played many racks and probably would not have gotten much done on the boat. Oh well, maybe next year.

We will leave around 8:30 or so to make the 10:00 opening of the Ben Sawyer bridge which only opens on the top of the hour on weekends. It's on demand during the week. It will be a rather short day with our anchorage at Awendaw. I wanted to make the McClellanville run with a rising tide the next day. Then it's on to Georgetown and points north.

St Johns Yacht Harbor in Charleston - We do downtown

We love the large shopping mall in the middle of Charleston

Ann is really eating grits and smiling!

I was born in Alabama but grew up in Ohio. Ann was born in Massachusetts and lived there all her life until she met me. How we met would be a study in improbabilities, but that's another story. Our dietary preferences were, at first, rather divergent. I liked grits but Ann thought they had the consistency of library paste. When asked how I wanted my steak done, I would reply, "Done." After much give and take, she came to understand that anything red left showing in the meat meant that it was not "Done." After many years of trying each other's cuisine, we converged. I now like my steaks rare and even my hamburger on the rare side. Ann came to appreciate proper barbecue, Alabama style, and southern ham baked the proper way (at 450F) became a staple at all our gatherings. She even appreciated boiled peanuts to some degree (which I love). However, there was one last holdout, grits.

Today we may have put that final disparity to rest. I took Ann out to Hyman's Seafood, a famous restaurant in Charleston for lunch. Ann chose Carolina Delight (see description) but only the appetizer size as did I. It had plenty of grits and so much so that I couldn't imagine eating the full dinner of the same title. Along with the free boiled peanuts, the hushpuppies, and fried green tomatoes - it was enough to feel stuffed. Ann even had the sweetened iced tea (we usually just have the unsweetened tea and add a little sugar). The sweetened tea gives you an overdose of sugar if you're not used to it.

Charleston is famous for its baskets

So now Ann has crossed the last hurdle, she had grits and thought they tasted good, at least the way Hyman prepared them. It only took 50 years but that's progress! On the other hand, I like my steaks rare now so we've both moved from our initial likes.

We took a rental car and explored downtown Charleston, which has become our favorite city along the ICW. The downtown area is compact and easy to negotiate although the parking is more like NYC, $25 to $30/day unless you can find a street parking space (bring lots of quarters), unlikely during the day. Ann got her shopping fix at Chico's and I bought another iPad at the Apple store (you can never have too many iPads...)

But don't park where you're not wanted!

Then it was a quick stop at Harris Teeter, Ann's favorite supermarket and home we came. I'll drop off the car tomorrow morning and do some boat chores to get ready for our departure Saturday morning for Isle of Palms and the Awendaw anchorage. So far, the dinghy seems to be holding air enough, although I have to pump it every day now.

St Johns Yacht Harbor in Charleston - at a dock

Farmer's markets are always a hit with cruisers - this one had outstanding vegetables! 

We didn't have far to go today so we got a lazy start around 8:30 am. We didn't have any shallows until we reached Watts Cut but then we had a 5 foot plus tide. As I called out the depths, Ann reduced all the readings to MLLW and today we saw a minimum of 5.3  MLLW on the southern part of the cut. However, you had to be very careful to stay in the channel which was much narrower than depicted on the charts. I used Navionics SonarCharts to ensure staying in the deepest part of the cut and I found it accurate.

We then went through the east exit of Dawho River where we've seen 3.8 ft MLW in the past but this time I took the new route as listed in my entry on Active Captain and saw no less than 8.0 MLW all the way, mostly deeper. The entire stretch from Ashepoo-Coosaw Cutoff to a little beyond the east exit of the Dawho River is due to be dredged over the next 6 months. It's been long overdue and hopefully, in the fall, we won't have to worry about shallows in that area.

The boats are all raised up out of the water, but just on this dock.
It's a very slow process on the way down but it keeps the bottom clean.

We are in the St Johns Yacht Harbor marina and we have a car reserved with Enterprise for all day Thursday. Ann needs a shopping fix and I want to browse through the Apple store downtown. Ann will carry her $30/year phone which we use as walkie-talkies. Her phone uses the Verizon network at a very low cost. I'll have our regular iPhone so we're always in touch. Earlier today we met two couples that knew me from my Active Captain postings and we took one couple's offer of a trip to a local farmer's market. Ann loaded up on fresh vegetables, the hardest thing to come by on a cruise.

We plan on lunch and after Ann's shopping spree, getting groceries at Harris Teeter, Ann's favorite grocery store on the ICW.

B and B Seafood - at a dock

It's a beautiful sight, at least for ICW cruisers.

We left Windmill Harbour Marina this morning when the lock opened for business at 8:00 am. As luck would have it, we had the tide with us all the way to the Ashepoo-Coosaw Cutoff. We were greeted by a wonderful sight, a dredge doing business in the Cutoff! This stretch of the ICW is one of the worst of them all for being shallow. It is virtually unpassable at low tide and now, finally, they are dredging it.

It's really not a marina, just a shrimp dock that they rent out two at a time to cruisers

However, it is not dredged yet. The lowest water we saw was 3.8 MLW in one spot. We talked to the dredge operator and he said the dredge was headed north through the cut but would then double back to do more dredging of the southern part which is the most shallow. Perhaps in the fall, they will have it all done and we can stop worrying about this part of the ICW! I sure hope so!

Here we are, secure for the night

We pushed on and we're now at B and B Seafood for the night. It's a two boat marina but today all they had available was one slip. There's no electricity and the store where we usually buy fresh shrimp is closed during most of the week (opened Thurs - Sat). The price is right at $25 and it provides easy on and off for Hoolie relief - especially with a dinghy that's not in the best shape.

On Wednesday, we headed for Charleston for a three day stay. Ann is ready for a shopping fix and downtown Charlestown is one of the best places on the ICW for that!