And finally…Charleston

After 33 days and 1,138 miles, SkipStone is now safely docked in Charleston, and we are home for the holidays.

Several weeks ago, when we were in Portsmouth Virginia, we had two separate dockside conversations, with more experienced ICW travelers. Both members of both couples were visibly disturbed when we told them that we had not yet made plans for leaving SkipStone, while we fly home for a few months. They had made marina reservations at their destinations months ago, and were very clear that we could get frozen out of dockage, if we waited any longer before booking (particularly in the more southern ports). A little time on the internet and a few “Sorry, can’t help you calls” later we found a spot in Charleston. This was on the short end of our itinerary, south enough that we didn’t have to winterize the boat and close enough to be comfortably within our range (although we had yet to enter the ICW and didn’t know how many miles a day we could actually complete). We have also spent time in Charleston and looked forward to returning.

Entering the chaos of Charleston harbor from the tranquility of of ICW, was like landing in A big city after a long flight. Everyone seemed to know exactly where they were going (except us) no one was extending the usual maritime courtesy of separation between boats (except us) the harbor was being dredged, there were tankers, tugs & freighters all navigating with great apparent proficiency (except us). We picked our way through the crowd and tied up to a (self proclaimed) mega dock amongst a stunning array of mega yachts. We were the smallest boat on the dock and and felt like a pebble in a stone wall. However, the facilities were impressive and there was a shuttle bus into town.

Charleston is great city for dining and we enjoyed she crab soup, baked oysters, bouillabaisse and the best Ruben I have ever had. It’s also has a Faneuil Hall type open air market (we did a little Christmas shopping) and streets lined with colonial architecture and monuments to all the wars fought here (revolutionary, 1812, Civil and WWII U-boats). All this layered with southern hospitality and sunny days in the 70’s made our time here one of the best stops on the trip. We plan to spend more time here when we return.

And so we close this section of our blog, for now. We will startup again when we return this winter and will send out an email to let you know when we are back aboard. Thanks for following us and for all the comments submitted. We enjoyed receiving your news & advice and look forward to continuing our communications, when our voyage continues.

Spanish moss in a Charleston pack…kinda weird