We arrived in Charleston, SC after an uneventful 22 hour run overnight from Fernandina Beach although it did get kind of busy off the inlet to the port of Savannah, where at least 10 large freighters showed up as AIS targets at 2:00am. Charleston is everything our friends told us it would be – beautiful architecture, great restaurants and pubs, and a great friendly atmosphere. We spent Friday and Saturday walking around the beautiful ante-bellum houses, we took in the Farmers’ market where we got to snack on all the samples that were on display, we ate in a couple of great restaurants, and even got to see an art festival held on the common in the evening, where they had a band and great food! We really enjoyed our stay. The highlights were the “Charleston ice” which is a cross between a slush and a sorbet, in mango and peach (our choices), and, in true Simmons character, we found the only Irish pub in town, Molly Darcy’s, and managed to stop there twice in a 32 hour time span!
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| Fort Sumter, at the entrance to Charleston |
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| Architecture in Charleston - a feast for the eyes! |
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| Wrought iron gates are everywhere... |
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| We could have had 20 photos like this...! |
We left Charleston on Sunday early, and headed for the Waccamaw River on the ICW. This is truly the most scenic part of the ICW, with wooded banks and cypress trees lining the way, as well as nesting ospreys on nearly every single mile marker!!
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| The Waccamaw River |
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| Pelicans guarding the dock |
We also passed a barge, which looked ordinary as we were approaching it, but once we got closer we saw it was towing almost a quarter mile of dredging gear behind it! Wow!!
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| Barge approaching |
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| A quarter mile later...! |
On Monday, we left our secluded and quiet anchorage, and headed for Carolina Beach in NC. This is a very busy part of the ICW, and we crossed the Cape Fear inlet and river, which is a pretty big shipping port going to Delaware NC. We were “chased” by a huge ship, the Socol 6, and managed to get a VERY close up shot.
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| Socol 6!! up close and personal! |
Today, Tuesday, we have decided to spend the day in Carolina Beach. This is a very quiet and relaxed beach community. The real reason for our decision though, was last night, as we were anchored in the harbor, we heard on the news that Michael’s Seafood Restaurant, right here in Carolina Beach, just won, for the third time, first place in the Newport (RI) chowder contest! We couldn’t resist the temptation to head over there today for lunch, so we will report out to you our conclusion about the chowder!
Tomorrow, we will head off for Beaufort, NC, and then plan to be at the bottom of the Chesapeake by Saturday evening. We have a busy few days coming up, since there are lots of bridges to go under! The good thing is that this time of year, the ICW is much quieter, since all the cruising boats have already stopped moving around for the summer.
We’ll report back in a few days.
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