Along the ICW - Arrival in Charleston

Day 5 – 441 nm to go This is our fifth straight day of motoring and still no winds outside in the near forecast. Last night was the hottest and most humid yet and we both woke this morning tired and groggy. We were anchor up by 0630. We were like horses getting close to the barn. We're heading into Charleston, South Carolina today and we have a berth reserved at the Charleston Maritime Center, one of our favorite stops since we started sailing back in 2000.

We are getting into more populated areas now. There are beautiful homes set high along the riverbanks. Each seems to have its own personal long pier that stretches over the marshlands and extends out into the channel.

This area of Georgia and the Carolinas is known as “low country” for obvious reasons. Old plantation homes sit side by side with new, humongous, multi-storied, multi-million dollar homes. It's the ramshackle, old boat houses that tend to catch my camera eye though.

The locally-themed weathervanes sit atop the cupolas of the newer boathouses and are very appealing.

Today's adrenaline rush was the Elliott Cut, connecting the Stono River to the Wapoo Creek and the Ashley River. It's very narrow with a current rush up to 5 knots and shallow waters outside the channel. There's a significant amount of trust required to head into a narrow channel based on other people's information and the chartplotter. The anticipation, as is many times the case, was worse than the reality and it was a no-drama event. Thank you, Neptune.

We waited for the opening of the Wapoo Creek Bascule Bridge and glided into the traffic of the Ashley River. We rounded the point into the Cooper River, passed historic Castle Pinckney, and headed to the Charleston Maritime Center. The Charleston waterfront was a beautiful sight to see.

We slid into our berth on a long floating dock just inside the basin and opposite the fixed dock where the Spirit of South Carolina tallship was moored.

All tied up and tidied up, we took a look at the to-do list, planned our day and headed off to do laundry and take showers. We're only here for two days and we plan to make the most of it.

Just in case you thought we might have forgotten … Happy Father's Day to all you Dads out there!