April 20, 2022
We left Beaufort SC after sliding under the Memorial Bridge and were on our way to Charleston SC. Gord had picked an anchorage for the night just outside of a marina. This part of the ICW has some narrow tricky canals which Gord had spent a great deal of time planning. We needed to arrive at high tide and preferably at slack tide to avoid any issues with currents. The two trickiest spots were an hour apart, which if timed correctly, should give travelers lots of time to move through without issue, which is what we did. The amount of thought and planning that went into this stretch of the trip was considerable. Gord had been warned from a few boaters about the spots of concern. Gord had also read some notes on a Facebook group page he's a member of that people had entered the canal the day before and backed out to wait for high tide when they began stirring up silt from the bottom.
When we arrive at our anchorage in the Stono River just outside St. Johns Yacht Club, we were the only boat in the bay besides some derelict sail boats. There are so many abandoned boats through the ICW that Jaxon thinks he should start a salvage and repair business to fix them up and sell them. He tells us all about his plans while we are on route.
When our anchor is set, I called the marina to ask if they had a dinghy dock we could pay to use and to bring the dogs to shore. The dockmaster had actually watched us anchor in the bay and told us they were dog friendly and to bring them to shore and bring them in the office for a meet and great.
All six of us loaded into the dinghy to take the dogs to shore. St. John's Yacht Club is a really nice marina and we were happy to look around a little. The upper dock was long and lead to a large field away from the water. I left the family at the dockmaster's office and headed to the field on my own with the dogs. Brooklyn is limping and really shouldn't be walking on that foot of hers. The field is far enough away from the water that with the spring flowers in bloom, the air smells sweet. For the first time I notice not smelling the ocean. The grass is like home, the day is warm, but the wind is cool and it feels and smells a little like home.
Our exit plan tomorrow is to be anchors up in time to catch the 9:30 opening of the Wappoo Creek Bridge. This bridge is not required to open from 6:00am - 9:29am. We'd like to get to Charleston as early as we can tomorrow. We have a reservation for one night at Charleston Harbor Marine and Resort. It has a pool, hot tub, candy of the day for kids, smores by the fire at night and it's also on the same dock as the USS Yorktown aircraft carrier. We have a lot to pack in to this day, so we rest up Brooklyn's foot hoping she can manage the walking tomorrow.
In the morning, the water is like glass. Brooklyn wants to help bring up the anchor so she is on the bow with me. Off our port side we hear some funny blowing noises. We see three or four dolphins come up for air and dive back down. They don't move from this spot. They keep coming up for air and head back under. It's so quiet this morning, we can clearly hear the air bursting from of their blowholes. There's a crab pot buoy in the middle of where they are swimming, so Brooklyn thinks they are trying to save a trapped crab that may be a friend of theirs. I agreed and we expected they would be successful. As, Gord navigated Holy Cow out of the anchorage and towards Elliott Cut Inlet, Brooklyn and I carefully made our way back to the cockpit. We were on our way to Charleston.
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I believe Jaxon has inherited his parent’s planning skills . With a salvage company, his project calendar would be “swamped” with environmentalists wanting to enhance the waterways. Brilliant!