Carolina's, here we come!

We have been on the move! After spending the better part of 4 months in Florida, we arrived at Beaufort, South Carolina on March 28th. Since we had spent the previous week on the hook, we were delighted to find ourselves here in this wonderful historic, quaint, story book-like town for a well-deserved break.

After a couple days in Beaufort, we were off again to Charleston 50 miles north. Neither of us had visited Charleston before, so we were very much looking forward to this stop.

We had lost our auto pilot feature earlier in the week (this is a big deal when you are spending hours and hours on the water). Eric found a boat yard near Charleston that could help us out, but they made it clear they were not a marina, as in no facilities or dockside water. Not a problem as we bring our own heads, shower & water :) So, when they said we could stay there for $20/night while they sorted out the problem, we signed up immediately (we had done our homework earlier and knew that to stay at any of Charleston marinas would cost us between $80-$100/night).

We had a productive 4 days at the Ross Marine Boatyard. It was a basic dock with power, and the friendliest staff we've come across. The security at the marina was top notch, so we felt comfortable and safe. The auto pilot issue was quickly resolved. Eric had coordinated the delivery of a new battery isolator to the boatyard and subsequently swapped out and installed a new battery isolator (an issue we had addressed previously on our trip, but #2 crapped out and now we're on to #3). Eric also coordinated the delivery of a new starter solenoid (our current one is slowly failing). All of this was conveniently coordinated during our 4-night stop at Ross Marine, just a 15 minute drive from downtown Charleston!

Enough technical stuff, more importantly we rented a car for 3 days and were able to enjoy some memorable meals out as we explored the local area. We took in a great game of golf in the near by town of Summerville on Saturday. On Sunday, we ventured into the historic market district of Charleston. We walked around for a few hours, had an amazing lunch at a local spot on a patio, and re-provisioned some of the heavier items (like bottled water). Charleston was a bit over rated (and a bit disappointing). Too touristy, expensive and commercial. But, we can cross it off of our list!

Today, we travelled north, past downtown Charleston (and the expensive marinas), to a small little fishing town called McClellandville, SC. We decided to pull into a marina since a nasty storm is arriving overnight. We are docked amongst a fleet of shimp boats in a sleepy little town where everything is closed on Monday's. Not to worry, we are well provisioned and enjoyed fresh corn & hotdogs for dinner. As we settled in for a relaxing evening, we were visited by two other boats (one couple was a gold looper couple, who have done this 'loop thing' before), and we ended up having after-dinner cocktails aboard one of their boats, amidst a wicked thunder storm!

As we contemplate moving further up the ICW, Charleston represents an ICW milestone of sorts. From this point north the salt marshes diminish, the actual channels of the ICW tend to be considerably more straight/direct, and the tides heights start to diminish. Myrtle Beach is under a 100 miles away and I am looking for a marina adjacent to a golf course!

Stay tuned for more adventures!!!