Tonight this issue comes to you from Charleston, South Carolina and I am at the Downtown Municipal Marina of Charleston. I am on what is known as the Mega Dock which is 3000 feet of face dock for transients in Charleston at this particular marina. It called the Mega Dock because it has room for yachts as large as you can dream of and the power facilities and all to handle them. It is really funny as I am between a 60 foot Kadey Krogen and a big but beautiful 63 foot Hatteras Sport Fishing Yacht and with me at 26 feet I look like the stepchild of one of them. In fact there is a yacht here tonight I am told that has a 37 feet sport fishing boat as its tender. The Friday night thing to do in Charleston if you have a way to get on the water is to drive past the Mega Dock in your boat and view what is there. As they come by they point at me and smile and some laugh at what I am doing in such a place. Well I will tell you Shorty and I don’t give up any ground to any of these big boys. They even started not to take me because they have a 30 feet minimum. But I sort of hinted that was pretty much discriminating against us small folks who are doing the same thing they are, traveling on the waterway. I like being on the face of the dock other than the constant bounce of the waves but even the big guys bounce so I am not alone.
This morning I left at 7:30 AM just as I was able to see the markers and the numbers on them because I had about 90 miles to go. As the sun came up I was treated to a rare spectacle for me so far. There was a light coating of fog in the air which burned off shortly after sunup but it made the marshes and the waterway look so beautiful as you were going along. The water was like a mirror because the wind was calm and we were the first disturbance of the day. The tide was out and the birds were walking along the waters edge, egrets were fishing, as were the herons. Up ahead of me were some dolphins doing the morning hunt. And for the first time I started to see pairs of Canada Geese working the tide flats. As you know they pair up for life and even though they travel in groups when flying when they were in the marshes this morning they were just in their pair status. As the sun came up further the markers were a little easier to spot and after a few miles I crossed one of the large sounds and could barely discern the markers in the distance as the haze and fog obscured them some. The chartplotter was kind enough to give me the path and then the markers would eventually come into view so I could stay away from shoaling water. The route was the usual twists and turns and double backs, bridges, slow down for no wake signs which were official ones. Most of the trawlers start real early so about the second hour into my day I begin to pass them one at a time as I continued on. I even saw a couple which I had seen before on the trip and a wave and a smile makes your day when you see a friend doing the same thing as you are. As the day wore on I ate my snacks which I set out before I start and I continued to check markers and what the tide and the crab traps are doing. You won’t believe this but I was in Charleston and tied up at the dock by 12:30 noontime today. When I came around the last bend and saw Charleston downtown I could not believe my eyes. I had done the ninety miles in five hours at 3000 rpms and even two official slow sections and a lot of adverse tide. Is that a day you could love or what. If they are all this good I don’t know how I will handle it. I could sit in the cockpit out back and eat my lunch with a nice easy breeze blowing and watch the traffic go by on the river. Tomorrow I will start taking up the tourist side and I will be here Sunday as well and then Monday it is back on the waterway again. I had planned to get here by four this afternoon and not noon. I even had time to get a mile walk in before I made my dinner tonight
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