Good to be leaving Charleston

Ahhh good to be on the move again. “Ships and men soon rot in port”.

Charleston is nice but the Mega Dock with all those MEGA yachts is just tough to take. Theirs is an existence far removed from our situation.

The departure today was going to be difficult. The current was roaring from ahead and I would have to perform a maneuver to either motor into the current and let it carry me backwards between a couple of million dollar boats and marginal control, or wait till near slack tide and then pull from the dock and turn around and leave in a lesser current. I opted for the second option but the dockmasters cautioned me not to try and turn around in this limited area amongst all these high dollar boats. Hmmmm I thought I would try the drift back option. Once away from the dock the charge and turn maneuver beckoned me so I did. Much to the aghast faces of the 2 dock hands on the pier who let go my lines. The maneuver worked very well and I didn’t come close to any boat and felt in full control the whole e time.

We then reentered the ICW and made the 12:30 opening of the Wappoo Creek Bridge. Then Elliot’s cut – ohhh she was a roaring in our faces. It is a narrow cut that empties into the Ashley river. We hit about 1 hour before slack tide and still had a 5 KT current against us. The best I did with even the Turbo running was 3 kts against the current.

The rest of the time was a slow slog through shallow waters until we reached Church Creek. I have never anchored here before but I would highly recommend it in any conditions but a strong west wind. Very wide, holding is excellent – the anchor set IMMEDIATELY on deployment, but a bit buggy if warm.

It’s warm this afternoon but I understand it will be cool if not cold the rest of the week. Yesterday there was a very favorable weather forecast for the whole week but now they are predicting Gale conditions possibly Wednesday and Thursday. Wind picks up tomorrow afternoon and we have to run the entire length of the ICW across the Coosaw River (about 15 miles) tomorrow. We will get an early start then look for an all weather anchorage – either the Brickyard or Factory Creek. Charleston broke the bank so it’s on the hook for awhile now.