It was a long way to go "not too far" today. Left just after sun-up this morning and meandered our way through all of the winding creeks and rivers of the ICW south of Charleston. Many sailors bypass the ICW south of Charleston to Florida because of the constant winding of the path. Sometimes your compass shows you heading back north. Crazy. On top of that are the crazy tidal currents. When we left the harbor we had a nice push from the tide going out to sea, but when we had to turn into Wappoo creek on the ICW, we were pushing against the tidal current. One area called Elliotts Cut was pushing against us at 5 knots basically cutting our speed to 1 knot which is almost standing still. At one point the creek narrows to around 40 yards across which is a bit unnerving because if your bow gets caught in the current, it could spin you around and you would not have enough room to correct and get back pointing back up the creek. You would just have to take the ride down the creek to find a spot wide enough the turn around.

FBG did plow though and got us through that part. Very stressful. I think the 1st mate should give me a shoulder rub for that. Eventually the tide turned and we got the benefit of a nice push to our marina here. With all the meandering we did today we thought we had pushed a fair distance from Charleston but when we asked the marina people what things we could do in the area, they mentioned that we could Uber it to Charleston ! Well I guess we really didn't get that far today.

One of the things we have to do during the trip is planning. Selecting and booking marinas based on where we think we will be. This of course is also greatly affected by the weather. Up until now it really hasn't been too bad, but with the upcoming US Thanksgiving weekend coming, the marinas we wanted to stay in when we reached Beaufort SC and Savannah GA were completely booked. Because of this we have now extended our stay at this marina ( just outside of Charleston ) for 6 nights. The local restaurant here will even serve turkey dinner on thanksgiving. Going forward, staying these extra nights will make marina slip space a little easier to obtain, we believe. We have also decided that when we stay at a marina, we stay for at least 2 nights. Staying for only 1 night and taking off the first thing the next morning does not give you enough time to visit, restock provisions, do laundry and rest up for the next segment of the trip.

More dolphins on the way as well today. One actually swam right beside the boat as we entered Bohicket Creek. I guess it was simply giving us an escort up the river! So nice to see dolphins swim freely in their natural environment.

Direct views of the marina from our boat !