11/8/15
Charleston Maritime Center, Charleston SC
Position: 32 47.344N, 79 55.459W
Posted by Bill

We made it to Charleston, one of our favorite cities. Yesterday, we needed to time the tide to get from Isle of Palms to here, and that meant we couldn’t leave until 1:30 PM. It was an absolutely beautiful day and we enjoyed watching all of the boat traffic going in and out of the marina and surrounding area. I also snapped some pictures.

Island Bound at dock in Isle of Palms Marina:

The view at the marina:


There were a lot of people coming in and out of the restaurant and marina store and we saw some strange vehicles park in the 60 minute visitors parking area, including this John Deere tractor!:

I was shocked to see this parked here. First of all, Isle of Palms is a posh resort and beach area. There are no farms here. There are some eccentric residents, so that might be it…not sure.

The passage from Isle of Palms to Charleston is the worst shoal area in the ICW, with low tide depths under 3 feet. We need 5 1/2 feet to float, so we had to time the tides. We pulled in to the Charleston Maritime Center around 4 PM and went out for a pizza at D’Allesandro’s. It was outstanding. Last night around 2 AM the expected weather front moved in and the winds were howling. The wind was making one of the lines on the mast slap the mast at rapid fashion, sounding like a machine gun. Can’t sleep through that racket so I get up and try to adjust the tension, stick a foam noodle between it and the mast, and fend it off with bungee chords. After an hour or so of messing with it I got it to shut up. If I got it too loose, it would slap. If I got it too tight, it would make a loud hum. Finally pushed the noodle up the mast with a boat hook and got back to bed around 3 AM. We will be here until Tuesday. The weather may stifle our usual exploration of the city…we shall see.

If you are interested in Charleston, here are some of our older posts when we were here. Lots of pictures:
Chillin’ in Charleston
Chillin’ in Charleston part deux
Chastown…one of our favorites