After a lovely week in Beaufort, the 2nd oldest city in South Carolina, we were headed to the Oldest City, Charleston. Originally founded in 1670 as one of the original 13 colonies, it has a rich history of prosperity and struggle. With it’s prime coastal location, Charleston played key roles in the both the Revolutionary and Civil Wars and almost one-half of slaves imported to the US were said to have arrived at their ports. We were excited to get to tour the city and continue our walk through history.
For this passage, the weather pattern kept us traveling in the ICW (InterCoastal Waterway). There was a 20-30% chance of rain/thunderstorms each afternoon. If we were to sail offshore, we could get hit by a sudden storm/squall which could produce big gusts of wind, very suddenly and if you’re not prepared, can quickly damage your sails and rigging. Wanting to avoid this, we opted for motoring up the ICW. We left Beaufort before the sun was officially up and headed north through narrow channels, strong currents, and under bridges to get to our spot at Safe Harbor Charleston. It took us roughly 10 ½ hours to travel 58nm.
We’ve stayed at a few Safe Harbor marinas along the way and have always been impressed by the friendliness of the staff and the cleanliness of the bathrooms/showers and laundry facilities. This marina was quite large and we were put on the MegaDock with all the big Yachts making it a long walk to/from Nymeria. We used our bikes to get around the marina as well as to explore historic downtown Charleston.
We were lucky to spend 18 days in and around Charleston and, once again, we were blown away by the history and architecture. We loved taking various routes into town just to see a new area each time. During the heat of the day, we visited the Charleston Museum and The Old Exchange and Provost Dungeon. The Old Exchange building is one of 4 other structures remaining where the US Constitution was ratified. We wanted to tour the newly opened International African American Museum but tickets had been sold out for weeks. We did get to experience the Tide Tribute, which represents the men, women and children who laid shackled in the bellies of ships during the Transatlantic Slave Trade.
We were able to visit Fort Sumter, where the 1st shot of the Civil War was fired. To get there, you have to book a ferry with Fort Sumter Tours and enjoy a 30 minute boat ride to and from the fort. We also took a water taxi across the Cooper River to tour Patriots Point Naval and Maritime Museum. We went through the USS Yorktown Aircraft Carrier (CV-10), the USS Laffey Destroyer (DD-724) and wandered through numerous aircraft on the flight deck. I would highly recommend visiting in the morning as it can get quite warm inside the ships during the summer.
Charleston also has a wide variety of restaurants, shopping and attractions. It also boasts 15 different breweries within the city limits. We limited ourselves to the range of our bikes and were able to hit maybe 5 or 6 breweries before our time ran out. One evening, the rain unexpectedly cleared and we went to watch the Charleston RiverDogs, a Minor League Baseball team affiliated with the Tampa Bay Rays. Even though they lost that night, we had fun with hot dogs, cold beer and people watching.
Because of the weather and afternoon thunderstorms, we ended up being in Charleston for Independence Day. We were able to get reservations for dinner at The Watch, a rooftop bar/restaurant in the middle of Charleston. We were able to see a full 360 view of fireworks all around us and get a wonderful birds-eye view of the city.
We were watching the weather and trying to make our escape to Georgetown, SC but the afternoon thunderstorms weren’t letting up. We decided to head up the ICW a couple of hours to the Isle of Palms for a change of venue and a beach day. We enjoyed recharging at the beach and visiting the quaint downtown areas of Isle of Palms and Sullivan’s Island. However, we do not recommend staying at the Isle of Palms Marina. The floating docks themselves seemed to be in good shape and the onsite restaurant was expensively “ok” but the marina store and cafe were both closed for repairs. Also, they seem to operate more as a boat launch for fishing boats than a cruising marina. With that means that the bathrooms were dirty and often without toilet paper and the showers were downright filthy. The biggest positive of this stay was that it got us almost 3 hours closer to our next destination, Georgetown, SC.
Even though we spent 2 full weeks in Charleston, we didn’t even come close to taking it all in. It is definitely on our list of places to go back to for a short or, potentially, a long stay.
Never pass up new experiences [Scarlett], They enrich the mind.
– Rhett Butler, Gone with the Wind
