Maiden Voyage!

Well, we finally left Charleston on Saturday morning, the 17th of May.  It was a beautiful morning with a little chill in the air. A couple we met on the dock two weeks ago, whose boat was in the slip next to ours, wished us well and tossed our dock lines. Thanks Noni & Tim! We'll see you back in Charleston in the fall.

It's always good luck to have dolphins swimming along with you - and this was no exception. Several surfaced in the marina as we left the dock and as we made our way from Charleston Harbor to the ICW, we had a few more visit alongside. Time to christen our new home!  Thanks Jean!

Charleston City Marina (specifically, the Beneteau dock) has been our home for the past few weeks and this has been our view.  We attended the Charleston Boat Show the first week, which consisted mostly of power boats.  I "won" 4 hours of concierge service from one of the boat catering businesses, but won't be able to use it!  Perhaps next time through Charleston.

Bye Bye Charleston.  We're on our way!

This is the "window to our world"!

Our goal the first day (yesterday) was to travel approx. 50 miles; a comfortable distance at 7 knots/hr. Our mast is 63'11" tall plus the antenna on the top, which makes all the ICW bridges a little hairy because the clearance is 65' at mean high water (a normal high tide without the effects of full moon and wind which could add/subtract up to 2 feet). The first bridge we came upon was a swing bridge and opened on the hour.  Since we arrived there 10 minutes past the hour, we decided to test our anchor for the first time.

All worked well and we carried on through the next opening.  The next bridge was a fixed bridge... 65'.

We anchored there for an hour or so - a perfect time for lunch and to wait for the tide to recede to be sure to clear that one.

The approach...

Through that bridge!

We traveled to the South Santee River and found a nice anchorage there.  Since we hadn't been able to grill while we were on the dock in Charleston, we decided it was the perfect time for steak!  Great meal, cool air, and lots of dragonflies. They were attracted to our lights and one by one they lit on my finger and I showed them the door....  Next morning they were still hanging around.  They must have enjoyed our company.  Good thing they weren't the biting kind! They are supposed to bring good luck, as are ladybugs, one of which we had on deck today as well.  I have to think there's something to that...

Our "guests" this morning......... with our coffee. (Thankfully, not IN our coffee)

Blue & Orange!

Today, we ran 45 miles to a marina in Myrtle Beach called Osprey Marina for obvious reasons as you see the set of photos below.  This is a very quiet marina and we haven't seen ONE mosquito.  Probably because there are so many birds in the trees surrounding the marina they take care of keeping the population low.  The songs of the various birds here are absolutely stunning!  Oh yeah, before we arrived here, we had another 65' bridge to pass under.  It was close, and a fellow sailor (the only one we saw all day) just happened to be at the bridge when we were & lagged behind to scope our clearance out with his binoculars.  We cleared by 6-8".  Never saw another sailboat all day.  Dolphins, Dragonflies and ladybugs!

 Looks like this schooner has been here a while... Her name is Steel Away, which may be appropriate!

Not sure about this one....

Tomorrow's another day....