Charleston, SC

                                    

We arrived in Charleston, before noon today, having spent last night a frustrating 12nm north waiting for high tide.  There was a particularly bad patch just before we entered the James River so we anchored at 1020 hours yesterday morning with me wishing we had tried to negotiate the bad stuff.  NOW, I am really glad we didn't.  This couple we met about a week ago tried to come down that stretch and had to get towed off when they went aground.  The tow boat pulled them so hard that their steering gave out,  something went wrong with the hydraulics, so once they were off the sandbar, they had to be towed the 10 miles into Charleston and now they have to hauled out.  Whew, glad we waited. 

They were conducting dredging operations in the channel, where the really bad stuff is. It was wild coming up to the thing.  The driver was going back and forth across the channel sucking up the sand, remember this is in the very shallow part.  The guy on deck motions us to come forward and get as close to him as possible. As Barry is inching forward (I always get him to navigate the really tricky bits) the dredge swings across in front of us, Barry just had to keep going and the dredge swung back so we could get by him. I swear we were within 5 ft of the machine, talk about nerve wracking. 

Here are some random shots taken in the last few days. 

                                A place all by itself, out in the middle of a swampy grassland.  

                         A crazy looking craft, Barry figured they built docks??

   A cormorant drying his wings, they have no waterproofing like ducks so they stretch them out to dry 

                                  This is what it is all about for these guys!