Leaving Charleston for Middle of Nowhere Marsh

We were glad we had waited another day for the rain to disappear out into the Atlantic. It was a wild day, that's for sure. I don't think I have ever heard the wind howl that way before. I am guessing this is because the land is all very flat? Opinions are welcome!

We had returned the car the day before, as I think I said. This meant that we were free on Friday, to just leave the marina  at around 8.45. We cast off the lines ourselves, with the tide coming our way which meant the bow went out on itself and we only had minimal push off at the stern. Easy Peasy!

The day dawned cool, which was a blessing. We had experienced unprecedented heat and humidity while in Charleston, and the weather forecast was for a week of cooler temps. Thank You!
Ok, I got done pulling the fenders in and the ropes in time to take this parting shot of the St Johns Marina. Waz promised to keep the speed down so that I would get this one in before making a right angle turn into the channel taking us past the center of Charleston.

Here we are going back down the river to take the channel at middle  top.

Waz made the right hand turn into this little, fast moving channel. The tide was on our side, but when you get narrow channels, water rushes to get out, obviously. The water sure wasn't kind to us, being a bit of a washing machine. We had to be ON, going forward.

Looking back to the red pole that we turned right around. It wasn't a long channel, but enough water was coming through there to make it challenging for the Captain.

Of course some of the homes along this little channel are quite substantial.

Not far up that channel was our first bridge...at 32 feet we romped under.

Then the second bridge, which was 62 feet:) This bridge took us into the main Shipping Channel going in and out of the Port of Charleston. The channels were at angles to each other...the one we were in, and the one coming at us a bit like a wishbone, with us at the wide end.  In the middle was a mix of obstructions, shallow water, shoaling and blessed be...a dredge!! Of course the dredge was right where we had to cut across the top of the wishbone to get into another skinny channel taking us away from the seabound channels.

Coming out of one channel and looking left towards the city of Charleston. That is the city marina this side of the bridge. Charleston, like many cities on this coastline, is one of many bridges.

Some of the 'hardware' sitting at the City Docks. Not bad!!:)

Old homes...these are part of the French Quarter along the waterfront.

Including this lovely home.

We had been over this stunning bridge..me driving of course and Waz taking photos. I don't have those ...yet! Yes, that is a Cruise Ship

On the other side of the bridge was the USS Yorktown. Nice to see it from the ocean.

 Fort Sumter, out in the middle of the Harbor.

The dredge that was kind of in the way for us turning left into the channel taking us out of the main shipping channel.

 ..and bearing down on us was an empty container ship.  We pushed the Revs up to make it across the shipping channel ahead of this ship which was hoofing it down the channel.

 Here, on our right, is the first house on the point of the Atlantic and Sullivan's Island. We had turned into this little channel which took us inside the Atlantic Ocean, on the other side of Sullivan's Island.

 Looking back at the channel marker, and the ship has motored on through.

I forget when Sullivan's Island became some other Island and that channel turned into yet another channel. It doesn't sound very good, does it, lol...too many rivers and channels.


Some of the lovely homes along the channel...were huge!!!

This one on the corner of a channel that lead to the following...

 an indent in the river...homes all along this little channel...but a dead end.

This was the smallest house we have seen anywhere, lol.

Looking back, we were being followed, and this part of the channel was beside Isle of Palms.

As you can see, we weren't that far from the ocean. Look at the depths just off the beach.

We are always amazed at where Civilization appears...always in the middle of nowhere. This house is only accessed by boat!

The channel wasn't too deep and we obviously were stirring up enough fish for the gulls (who are VERY noisy, by the way) to fish. We noticed that the boat in front also had a stream of gulls out back

 again...civilization in the middle of nowhere...well, not really...this was Sugar Cane country. We just weren't sure how they harvested it, seeing that the water was everywhere:)

We turned into our anchorage for the night around 2pm..early, I know, but good anchorages are hard to come by in this area. We were glad we chose this one after viewing the others further on, the next day...they were all a bit dodgy, shallow at the entry and not much room for us...and one of them already had a boat in it!

 Just across from us, this little island with pine trees. Crab Pots were everywhere which annoyed us no end. Hard to park when you have to consider crab pots at every turn.

Sunset was so pretty...and you would be amazed at how noisy the marshes are at night!