Charleston, SC to Stone River

Monday, Nov 8
Charleston, SC

We woke up to warmer weather and another day staying at Ashley Marina.  In the morning, we did boat chores.  Lucky for us, the sky was blue and it was in the mid 60's. We used up the 2nd 10# propane tank (it went out when Phil was making coffee), so after Phil switched the propane tanks, he was taken in the marina courtesy van to get it refilled for about $8.  Phil laid out the anchor chain first thing in the morning so it could dry, and I spent a while applying yellow Rescue Tape to the links, wrapping them around one side so that it could still go in the anchor windlass.  I started at 30 feet and wrapped one link of chain for each 10 feet on anchor chain (ie 3 links for 30 feet, 4 links for 40 feet).  We'll see if this tape stays attached. The yellow paint we did originally is almost off and the black permanent marker is worse.

dock at Harborage at Ashley Marine

After I finished the anchor chain, Jeanne and Ken asked if I wanted to walk with them to the liquor store.  Being that my knees were stiff from kneeling on the docks, I said yes hoping that a walk would limber them up.  Phil went to the lumber yard to get a 8' foot board so that he can attach the jerry jugs of diesel on the starboard side.  I was surprised to find that the liquor store was at the Charleston City Marina just next store on the other side of the bridge.  The walk there and back of was just enough to have my knees feeling back to normal. 

In the afternoon I went with Jeanne from Sail Away to the straw market. This is an open air market that is an upscale flea market.  The locals also sell the famous sweetgrass baskets which are beautiful, but also pricey.   I bought a cookbook of Charleston recipes (will send my cookbook for sauces back) and some other items.  After I had made my last purchase, I turned around and couldn't find Jeanne, so after looking for a while, I called the van and came home.  She made it home later.  After returning home I cooked the shrimp with rice, mushroom and peas for a late lunch.  It tasted good and we had enough left over for another meal.  I really wanted a light meal, but had to cook the shrimp or they would go bad. 

We met up with John and Karen Gaag, friends Phil knew from the Grand River Sailing Club and who he saw recently when he visited Dave and Deanne Hoops in Charleston.  They have lived in Charleston for 10 years now and love it.  They met us at the dock, saw Changes and we drove to Vickery Restaurant on a Creek in Mt. Pleasant, just across the Arthur Ravenel Jr. Bridge that crosses the Cooper River.  The food was very good there, the company was even better.  Karen was kind enough to offer to take us to a grocery store (Phil thought NO) and after we ate, we went to Harris Teeter.  It's kind of like a Heinens, so I was able to stock up on the cereals I like and get almond milk in both half gal and quart boxes that I haven't been able to find for awhile.  Now the cubby under the L shape settee cushion is once again full.  We also visited the Charleston Yacht Club, (John and Karen are members) which is next door to the Ashley Marina that we're staying in.  Karen is an artist and also likes to quilt so you can imagine we had plenty to talk about.  John races sailboats so the guys had plenty to discuss themselves.  We understand that with the different currents in Charleston Harbor, racing is quite challenging.   We had such a nice time and thank them for the great evening.

John and Karen Gaag's sailboat

Tuesday, Nov 9
Distance Traveled:  10. 22nm
Total Distance:   1414.71 nm
Tourist day in Charleston 
Leave for Stone River

Today we woke up a little later than usual to blue skies and a day that promised to warm up to the lower 70's.  After a breakfast of cereal we went to see John and Karen's racing sailboat docked here at the Ashley Marina (F5).  We called the courtesy van and asked them to drive us to downtown Charleston so that we could walk around to see the older homes and buildings.  It started out in the upper 50's and quickly got to the lower 70's with calm winds.  We started on East Bay St and Wentworth so that we could pick up a Best of Resorts map of Charleston to help us decided where to walk.  We quickly got off East Bay St (very busy street) and walked down Church Street to St. Philip's Episcopal Church.  It's a very big imposing place.

We walked through their old cemetary, got crackers by Washington Square Park, and walked down Chisiolm Street to the Old Slave Mart Museum.  We walked through this very interesting museum and then had lunch at the Blind Tiger Pub.  After giving our feet a well deserved rest, we walked down Broad Street to East Bay Street down through the Rainbow Row houses to the waterfront at the tip of the peninsula.  The houses are big, beautiful and old.

Charleston houses by Battery Park on tip of penisula

Looking down the other way on East Bay Street.

Battery Park

After we walked through part of Battery Park, we called the courtesy van and asked them to pick us up at Tradd St and Meeting St.  Charleston has a unique type of houses here called single and double homes.  Check out this web site for more information that explains what they are and has photos.

Charleston "single" home

Iron grating on windows

There are also a lot of black iron fences, gates, and balconies and the doors have their own unique flavor.  It reminds me a lot of some of the homes when I live in New Orleans years ago.

design carried through on gates

We returned to the marina about 150pm and quickly filled the water tank, gallon jugs, and the sun shower and even though there was a hefty current pushing the bow of Changes towards the dock, we got off without a hitch by 230pm.

We wanted to get through the Wappoo Creek Bridge as it doesn't start to open until 9am in the morning and having a long day tomorrow, that's too late to start.  The current in front of the Bridge was 2 knots which stressed Phil, but being the good helmsman that he is, we went through without a hitch at the 3pm opening.  It also helped that there was only a trawler waiting to go through at the same time.  We anchored past the bridge on the left until 350pm hoping that we were timing it correctly for the current to be around 1 knot in the Elliott Cut.  This is a 1/2 mile narrow canal connecting the Wappoo Creek to the Stone River.  We went online and checked a couple web sites for tides and current predictions, but once we got into the cut, we found the current was 4 knots.  We had a low speed at 412pm of moving 2.1 mph per GPS/6.34 knots on the boat meter.  Every 2 minutes we would pick up between 0.6 to 0.7 mph until we were going 3.8mph/6.12 knots at the end of the cut.  We dropped anchor in the Stone River about 1/2 mile south of the end of the cut at 428pm and then I warmed up yesterday's left over lunch of shrimp, rice cooked with mushrooms and peas.  We've been reading or on the computer ever since.

Tomorrow morning we'll have to leave extra early as the sun rises about 630am.  We hope to get to Beaufort, SC to Rick and Carol Butler's home by the end of the travel day.  It will almost be like Christmas for us with all the packages and mail that will be waiting for us. 

Katie is near the end of her quarter in college trying to wrap up all her assignments and prepare for finals. We are looking forward to seeing her after Thanksgiving during her holiday vacation.  I know too she looks forward to seeing us.