Georgetown to Charleston, South Carolina

December 2, 2006

Although the majority of people will contend that tides and currents are a matter of science, on this trip down the ICW we’ve found that they’re purely a matter of luck. Usually, we’re unlucky and have the current against us, whether the tide is going in or out. But, for the trip from Georgetown to Charleston, we got lucky and had the current with us the whole way. We were able to motor for 11 straight hours and go 70 miles—at one point we were speeding along at 9.1 miles per hour.
Along the way we saw various kinds of wild fowl, including snowy egrets and pelicans, as well as Santa Claus on a flying inflatable dinghy! You wouldn’t believe it if we didn’t have the pictures, right?
A snowy egret on the banks of the ICW
Pelicans
Santa on his sled
Santa landing his "sled"

Anchoring in Charleston was a little tricky since the depth was 25 feet and the current ran in and out of the river at over 1.5 knots. We set two anchors on a Bahamian mooring for the first time, which inevitably ended up with some midnight (or was it 2AM) modifications to stop the clanging on the hull and to keep the level of paranoia at a minimum for Whisper’s crew members. We’re a little on the conservative side when it comes to anchoring and although we’ve never dragged an anchor before, we are both hyper-sensitive to the fact that it could happen. Some say imagination is a good thing, although at 2AM it’s best left for kids playing in forts in the woods.



A boat in Charleston all decked out for Christmas

Traffic stopped as the bridge opens for us to pass.