Charleston SC

 I can hardly believe we’re in Charleston… Ever since we discussed doing the loop Charleston has been in my sights and on my bucket list. It was a long, hard day to get here, but we are safely tucked into our slip in the marina and can breathe easy.

We stayed for a few hours this morning at the B&B Seafood dock because we couldn’t leave before 11 am since slack tide here in Charleston was to be about 6 pm. The tide changes produce such strong currents, boats like ours, which are slow and heavy get pushed around like a bobber in the bathtub when the currents are strong. Factor in the 25 knot winds that kicked up just as we approached our marina as well as the rain that started and you can imagine what a fun time it was!!

The trip was a winding path along a couple of different rivers and as we got closer to Charleston there were big, beautiful houses to look at along with the big yachts parked at the docks in their back yards. As we got within an hour of the marina it was clear that we would be early and we did not want to deal with current, so I phoned the the dock master and he informed us that slack tide was actually closer to 6:30.  Bummer - that meant we had time to kill and we either had to cruise back and forth on the river in all the boat traffic, or anchor outside the channel and wait. Steve and Kathy dropped their anchor and we rafted up to them for an hour before making our final approach and that’s when the fun started….

A storm front started to move in, the winds kicked up and so did the waves. Steve docked first and there was a delay getting into his slip because there was a boat in there that didn’t belong. It was a small runabout that someone just tied up in that slip while they went to the restaurant, but Steve had to get creative about killing time and finally was tied up.  All of this time we were circling outside the breakwater waiting our turn to enter the marina and the weather was getting worse by the minute. I think we made 3 complete circles, dodging a freighter leaving the harbor on the last pass and finally were able to come in.  But wait! There was an unauthorized small boat in our assigned slip too!  Really?!?! Due to Tom’s piloting and prayers we got into the slip in the wind and rain without hitting a darn thing!!  LOL! We were in our slip at 7 pm and starving.

Kathy had purchased some of the fresh shrimp we saw arrive last night at the seafood company and she had boiled shrimp with Old Bay and rice.  Yummy dinner! We plotted some of our day tomorrow which starts with the free water taxi ride over to downtown Charleston and we plan to see Fort Sumter and maybe a plantation.  So much to see and do…


The Oyster Company right above our dock.  We watched them clean a fresh load of oysters this morning.

B&B Seafood Company.

Shrimp boat that arrived last evening with the shrimp we ate for dinner.

Orion docked in the background behind the Oyster shed.


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