Charleston to McLellanville, S. Carolina

Days on Cruise :        21

Statute Miles Today:   57.9

Hours Underway:     7.5

Total Odometer:        583 miles

We got a slow start this morning, taking the opportunity of a rare free laundry room here at Charleston Maritime Center  to depart with hanging lockers full of clean clothes and towels.  On the way out of Charleston Harbor, we passed the island containing Fort Sumter, which we visited yesterday.

An oncoming tug pushing a barge took up most of the channel in front of us.

After leaving the city behind, most of the day was spent in rural “low country”, salt grass marshlands. We occasionally saw grand homes, but most of them were modest with much larger lots.

This is an area where migratory birds flyover, but in this case, the flock is just gulls.

Many of the homes are built on much taller stilts than we’ve seen elsewhere, and given how “low” the low country is, we  imagine it floods here somewhat regularly.

Today we celebrate the end of Week #3 on our Great Loop journey. In some ways it’s hard to believe it’s ONLY been three weeks, as we feel we’ve learned and seen so much.

Even the “bad day” last Sunday was, in hindsight, a good learning experience, though we’d not feel that way if we’d done any real damage. We felt badly about that experience, but it helped us to get over it when we got messages of support or encouragement (many of them saying “been there, done that, more than once!”) from Hobie, Mark T, Charlotte, Paula Sue, Jim A, Crawford and even one blog reader we don’t know, Guy, who thanked us for sharing our lessons learned.  We briefly considered leaving that story out altogether, but in the end decided it was “part of the journey” and should be included.

One grump about the day:  As we were going north in the channel,  suddenly a Coast Guard boat came up our starboard side.  We were traveling about 8 mph, they were traveling about 20 mph. N0 radio call warning that they were passing us,  no attempt to slow down to minimize their wake, no blue lights flashing suggesting they were in a hurry due to business, and all 4 of them waved in friendly fashion, despite our disgruntled looks at their huge wake. The result: a broken polarizing filter when Bob’s “big” camera lens fell to the floor, cost $70.  Luckily the crockpot containing our dinner didn’t move.  Maybe we should deduct it from our tax payment that is due tomorrow? Fortunately, this experience was in stark contrast to all the very positive encounters we’ve had with the Coast Guard previously; it just surprised us that professionals would exhibit behavior that flew in the face of common courtesy and all boat training we’ve encountered.

We’re anchored tonight in Little Papa’s Creek, just off of Five Fathom Creek, which is just off the ICW at McLellanville  north of Charleston.  We had the crockpot going all day with a pork roast and peanut sauce served over rice, a recipe gotten from Bob’s sister Lynn. It was so good with a glass of red wine and some edamame on the side that we think we’ll use the leftovers tomorrow night and do it again!