Monday 23 November –
Charleston to St. John’s Yacht Center – still Charleston
Today’s itinerary was for a very short day, leaving Charleston City Marina and making our way 5 miles south to St. John’s Yacht Center located in the outskirts of Charleston.
The primary reason for this was just to stage our departure for the next day which is going to be our longest planned day so far. But to do that we had to schedule around a bridge opening which doesn’t have its first opening until 0900 which would mean we would be forced to navigate a known shoaling area at lower tide than desired. By spending the night on the south side of the bridge, we would be able to leave earlier in the morning and transit the shallow area with deeper water.
Just past the bridge we encountered Elliot’s Cut which is a small channel known for strong current. And indeed the current was swift. We tried to plan the day for slack water but there was nothing slack about it.
We were glad we didn’t encounter any other boats in the tight quarters with the current making maintaining control of the boat a bit of a challenge.
Once through the cut we headed to the Marina. As Bob was navigating through the channel finding the deep water, we saw a grounded sailboat which because we were at low tide we could see the full hull of the boat sitting on it side. (The photo was taken the next morning at high tide, so you can’t see the hull in the photo.) We decided that was not where the deep water would be found.
When we had called to make the reservation with the marina the dockmaster told us he was putting us in a slip that would be an easy in and easy out. We would not have to contend with the strong current to navigate a fairway – excellent news.
But….we also wanted to top up the fuel and pump out the waste. To do that we would have to make our way down a fairway with a strong current coming at us crosswise. Bob basically had the boat angled at a 45 degree angle and the current pushed us down the fairway going sideways (Imagine how a crab walks sideways and that is what it looks like.)
So much for trying to plan for slack water….these currents are crazy.
Once full and empty we made our way back up the fairway and into our slip with no incident and enjoyed the afternoon at this very friendly marina.
