Isle of Palms 32 48.330N 79 45.574W

It was dead calm all night and we both had a great nights sleep. The only disappointment of the morning was that sometime during the night the inverter tripped out (so the frig stopped running) with the batteries still at 63%, suggesting once again that we will be investing in new house batteries when in Charleston. We "solved" the problem by starting a generator, and then we were on our way by about 10AM.

Elliot Cut

 The Isle of Palms is a few miles north of Charleston harbor, but all up we only had about 25 miles to travel for the day. We were pretty familiar with the area, having boated hereabouts when we lived on the IOP. It was a pretty straight forward run, the only interesting bit being Elliot Cut on Wappoo Creek where the tidal current can get up to 5 or 6 knots if you don't time it right. We arrived an hour or so before high tide and the current was only a knot or two against us, so it was no issue.

Charleston skyline from the west

Once through Elliot Cut we started to see the skyline of the city and the familiar land marks. The new cable stayed bridge looks fantastic, plus there was a cruise ship in town.

Crossing the harbor took about 1/2 an hour and then we were back on the ICW. First landmark was Tolers Cove where we used to keep the Rybovich. Then Gold Bug Island where the rehearsal dinner for Kylie and Ryan's wedding was held. The IOP Marina was only a few miles further.

Tolers Cove Marina

We have rented a private slip in Morgan Creek on the IOP for the month, but we were 2 days early. I thought the slip was unoccupied and so arriving early would not be an issue, but Kylie checked and there was still a yacht in the slip. So we reluctantly decided to rent a transit slip for Sunday night, anchor out Monday night and claim our slip Tuesday.

We docked at the Marina and enjoyed our reunion with the kids and Oliver their dog. We did the boat tour and enjoyed some beers before going ashore and catching up with old friends on the street. Then back to the boat for barbecue dinner with the kids. We were docked right next to the IOP City launching ramp, and it was a nice warm Sunday, so we were treated with a stream of boats and sunburned humanity all afternoon and into the evening.

Cooking the burgers

Looking west into Morgan Creek from the marina.