Southbound ’17 – Travel Day 20: Georgetown, SC to Charleston, SC

FROM: The Captain

Conditions: Sun then sun and clouds.  Winds from the northeast 10 mph. Seas 2 – 3′ swells

Distance traveled: 82 statute miles

Time underway: 6 hours 53 minutes

Average Speed: 12 mph

Max Speed: 20 mph

Fuel used: 76 gallons

Another 38-degree morning but nothing but blue skies and calm water in Georgetown, SC.  Next stop Charleston and our plan for this leg was to do “the ditch.”  The only ditch-hitch was a particularly evil shoal on the ICW in the town of McClellanville.  It’s another notorious spot with lots of ominous warnings and various directions on how to get through and keep your boat off the bottom, so we planned a late departure to time our transit through the area at high tide.  Then after speaking to a fellow boater about the perils of that particular spot we decided to forego the stress for what would be a slightly longer ocean run to Charleston.

So with predictions of a flat ocean, we revised our departure time, canceled our reservations at Isle Of Palms Marina just north of Charleston and headed out to sea. IOP was a place that we were looking forward to seeing but we were able to snag a slip at Charleston City Marina’s Megadock which we love and being there will make for a shorter next leg of the journey.

It’s about seventeen miles from Harborwalk Marina to where you clear the Winyah Bay inlet which, for us, took about an hour and twenty minutes in the expected very calm conditions… until we actually cleared Winyah Bay and got closer to the ocean where the inlet narrows up with shallows and then partially submerged jetties on either side.  The inlet is deep, well-marked and safe but it is known that conditions can be particularly bad in this spot when wind opposes tide.  Based on the conditions we saw on our various weather sources pre-departure, what we got was not what we were expecting.  All of a sudden we were faced with closely stacked four to five footers coming right at us as the wind was indeed fighting the tide and OLOH took a saltwater bath in the nastiest head-sea we’ve experienced so far on this boat.

Fortunately, once clear of the inlet, the chop converted to manageable swells as we took a ninety-degree turn to the south before turning southwest on our heading into Charleston Harbor.  We’re glad we took the “outside” route and glad we didn’t know what we’d encounter on our way out as that might have kept us “inside.”

About halfway between inlets when we were about six miles offshore, we caught up with sailing vessel Gratitude which we had passed the day before on our way into Georgetown.  We chatted for a few moments on the radio which is always a nice way to add some interest to an ocean run.  Every boater loves pictures of their vessel and they thanked us for sending them the running shots Tim had taken of Gratitude on the ICW.

As we pulled into Charleston Harbor we throttled back as the tide was still flooding strongly behind us with the current pushing OLOH along, and we moved up top for a leisurely approach to The MegaDock.  Charleston City Marina (ICW mile marker 469.5)  is another first-class operation.  It. Is. Huge.

It has 9,000 feet of linear dock space covering 40 acres of water. The MegaDock extends 1,530 feet and is the longest free-standing floating fuel dock in the Southeast.  The marina was instantly responsive on the VHF with excellent, specific docking instructions which included, “your bow will be to the stern of the 300 foot, three-masted sailing vessel Athena.”  300 feet?  You can always expect megayachts and superyachts at the MegaDock, but I must have misheard the guy on the radio.  Nope.  We were tying up behind this extraordinary vessel launched by builder Royal Huisman in 2004 for billionaire Netscape and Silicon Graphics founder Jim Clark.  It is one of the largest sailing yachts in the world – the 4th biggest at last check – and he reportedly had it for sale in 2012 for $95 million.  At the time of this entry she shows for sale at the relative bargain price of $45 million and can be chartered for around $500K a week.  It is quite something to behold in person.

We love this place and it really gave us a sense of “having arrived,” never before having been here on our own boat.  There’s yachting eye-candy everywhere you look.  The docks, as you would expect from a place that can host a 300 footer, are fantastic and the staff is very friendly and they’re all pros.  Although now Jasper gets excited every time he sees a golf cart because dockhand Drew keeps giving Jasper treats each time he drives by.  Another happy problem to add to our list.

We’ll take an off-day here to catch up on life and enjoy the spot before moving on to Beaufort, SC.  See you there!