Day 162: A Different View of Charleston

Port Royal to Charleston Maritime Marina, Charleston, SC (docked)

June 26, 2022

It’s a hike from Lailia to the showers at the Port Royal Marina, especially since we were tied at the fuel dock at the very end.

The trip from Port Royal to Charleston was one of our longest yet – over 65 miles and 10 hours. Since we never stayed at this marina in Charleston, it was important to us to get there before they closed so we could get assistance from the dockhands there. This meant leaving very early.

One of the few swing bridges on our route is just outside Port Royal. Although this is an “on-demand” opening, we had to wait for a bit to get an opening.

A wonderful thing about traveling on this stretch is the big sky views. Sometimes it looks like we’re in a movie set.

As we got closer to Charleston, we began to see familar landmarks like bridges we used to travel daily. Since our former marina was unable to accomodate our timeline, we only saw it in the distance before following the ICW towards Charleston Harbor.

We have crossed our wake and are now further north than I have ever been on Lailia.

Elliot Cut connects the Stono River to the Ashley River. It’s a narrow creek that can have currents flowing as fast as 4 knots. On summer weekends, there’s a lot of powerboat traffic in the area. We had a pretty rolly time heading through this cut.

Those of us who live in Johns Island or James Island are very familar with the Wappoo Creek Bridge. I have probably waited for the bridge to close a minimum of 50 times in the past five years even though it does not open during morning or evening rush hours. This time, we were the ones holding everyone back! The bridge tender here was very friendly. She was a great representative of Low Country charm!

The Maritime Center is close to the Ravenel Bridge and the SC Aquarium. There’s a lot of fetch here so it was pretty rolly. A benefit of this location is that downtown is easily accessed on foot.

Our friends Missy and Ali took us out for drinks. We have missed our people so much!

John will be staying on Lailia while I travel to Tahoe to lead a workshop. This is the first time since January he and I have been apart for more than a couple hours. All of the hours we have spent in our little living space have pretty much bonded us for life.