Another good travel day with the sky clear and the sun shining. We left early not knowing exactly how the tides might effect the travel time. It is hard to predict (for me) which way the water will flow. There are so many inlets and rivers so it is hard to say if the tide going out, or in, will boost our speed or reduce it.
The tide was against us to start the day but for a good portion of the day we got an assist from the tides. We averaged about 1 mile an hour more than what we would travel in still water.
Today was Sunday and with the weather good there was a lot of local boaters out along the way and they all like to have their runabouts up on plane. Those less than 20′ are not much of an issue but those in the mid 20 foot size and larger can cause some pretty good wakes.
There was a lot of traffic on the VHF radio and some was the Coast Guard who had a distress call from a boat about 70 miles out in the Atlantic from Charleston. A lot of talk on channel 16 that was not distress related and I was somewhat surprised that the Coast Guard did not come on and say something about going to a working channel.
As we got within 20 miles of Charleston the traffic was really pretty heavy and my guess is most of these boaters have never heard of a safe boating class and would not attend one. For the most part the larger boats moving north are courteous to each other and call about passing and keep everyone informed of shallow water spots.
Not a lot of scenery today except for the “low country” along the ICW. This is essentially land that is submerged during high tide and out of the water at low tide. The tides we have been seeing since before Savannah are in the range of 6′ to 7′ and that can have quite an effect on the water levels near the channel edges when you get near low tide. We have been fortunate to travel mostly during the rising and falling tides so we have a couple of extra feet to help us along.
We decided to stay at different marina in Charleston this year because we are planning only one night in Charleston and the distance to get Candy to grass was quite long at last years marina. We chose another highly rated marina, St Johns Yacht Harbor. Very nice place with all the amenities and everything is in great repair. Medium walk to get to the grass but Candy is fine with it. They originally wanted to put us on a T head dock and I asked if they had any slips interior to the marina. Within a minute or 2 we were assigned an inside slip that affords additional protection from the boat waked on the Stono River. There were a couple of times that it seemed like we had no protection from the wakes but it finally calmed down late in the evening.