Georgetown to Charleston

We've had a friendly running argument with Pete about whether to use knots and nautical miles or MPH and statute miles when discussing and planning our travels. The ICW is measured in statute miles,Pete has always used MPH, etc. but the rest of us have had our knot meters and GPSs set to record knots and nautical miles! Well we had to do some hard calculating for today's trip because we had 60 statute miles to come and we had to make sure that we arrived at the Ben Sawyer bridge (about two miles from the entrance to Charleston Harbor) before it closed at 4 PM. Usually it is closed from 4-6 for rush hour, but the guide books were saying that it would be closed from 4-12 for maintenance! There is no way to accurately predict the currents (once you leave the Georgetown area) as they change constantly with each new creek or inlet you pass, so we pushed hard and used jibs whenever possible and made to the bridge by 2:40pm. A big sigh of relief. It took us another hour to reach our slips as we were fighting an outgoing current of 1.5+ knots all the way up the river! We decided to join forces and all ate together aboard Brunelle. Tomorrow night is Italian night - - in honor of CCYC's Italian night that we will be missing, so John and Betty are hosting us all. Doesn't look like will starve anytime soon....or lose any weight!

~~~_/)~~~M&D

I missed this series of pictures when I unloaded the camera after we arrived in Georgetown. This fishing boat was hovering at the sea buoy at the entrance to Winyah Inlet and I was fascinated to see a guy working out on one of the booms. They set out the nets as we skirted them to enter the inlet and then steamed off to the north.

The 6:45 departure from Georgetown had as witnessing yet another beautiful sunrise. We powered out past Georgetown's paper mill and joined the continual parade heading down the ditch. There are more boats this year than we encountered on our trip two years ago. We also saw several different birds. I neglected to get a picture of several Ibis, but did capture hordes of sandpipers that took over several of the long piers that jut out into the creeks and waterways of SC. I also captured this kingfisher (he was barely visible in the dead tree on the shore) and was pleased that our new camera allowed me to blow it up enough to actually identify him!

Here we all are nestled comfortably at the Charleston Harbor Marina and Resort. We are across the river from Charleston proper, but there is free shuttle service into town for marina guests. As peaceful as it looks, there is quite a current ripping through here, but there are breakwaters all around that keep the wakes and chop from bothering us. This IS a busy harbor.

The USS Yorktown is our neighbor. We hope to get a better look at her tomorrow.