So after a few days of short hops, we took a longer one today. We went a little over fifty miles to make it to Charleston. The rain and storms had been on and off, and more rain was coming. We wound our way up the ICW and finally made it to the Ashley River, which is on the west side of Charleston, and northwest of Fort Sumter. We came up the river and past a couple of anchorages. The first anchorages we passed looked kind of exposed to us, so we kept going past them. We passed under the James Island Expressway Bridge and saw more boats anchored. The anchorage between the US 17 (Ashley River) Bridges and the James Island Bridge. There were several boats here, and we circled through trying to find a spot with enough room for us to let out a good amount of scope (anchor line) so we could swing with the wind and current and not be close to other boats. We finally found a spot at the back end of the anchorage, fairly close to the Ashley River Bridge. Once we dropped anchor and let out the line, we were probably about a hundred feet from the bridge. This was kind of close, but we had confidence in our anchor and felt we were secure. Obviously if the anchor would drag, we wouldn’t have too much time before we hit the bridge, but that is part of the ‘what-if?’… We did our routine of making sure we were secure, then finally took Frank to shore. The wind had picked up and was causing pretty good size waves in the anchorage. We saw there was a park next to The Citadel with a dock, so we headed over there in the dinghy. Once we were close, we noticed signs and barriers blocking off the dock. Due to the virus, it was closed. Ughh. We turned the dinghy around and headed toward the marinas that were across from the anchorage. Unfortunately, once we were turned around, we were now running straight into the waves, which were splashing overboard and getting us soaked. We were trying to get ot the municipal marina, but the waves were too big, so we ducked in to a private marina across from where we anchored. I pulled up to the gas dock and saw there was an employee coming over to us. I asked if we could walk the dog quickly and he said yes. We walked out to the parking lot, but then I turned around and retreated back to the dinghy to wait so we all didn’t get locked out if they closed the gates. Lauren and Frank returned after a short walk and we departed back to Klondike for the evening.
Day 2- The rain had started overnight and didn’t let up. We spent the day on the boat, staying dry and hanging out. We couldn’t really get to shore, so the day was uneventful. We watched the boat swing with the wind, and reverse with the current which was stronger than the wind. The anchor was holding well whichever way we turned, so we were happy with our overall situation, even though we couldn’t get out and explore. We have been here before and everything is closed, so it wasn’t too bad. We decided tomorrow we will carry on to our next destination: Price Creek, which is only a little more than twenty miles away, but has potential to be a very nice anchorage…