Coossaw Sunset and an easy day to Beaufort, SC

11/1/11
Halloween found us leaving  Charleston City Marina where we stayed for two days.
We had to pull out of our slip at 7:00 before the sunrise with running lights in order to take advantage of the slack tide. There are intense currents in this marina and the location of our slip made for a challenging exit in all but slack conditions. Since the next bridge(only 15 minutes away) didn't open until 9:00 am we had to drop the hook out in front of the marina in order to start our journey around 8:30 ...could have waited til 8:45 because with  8-10 boats all milling around in front of the Bridge with a 2-3 knot current it was rather tricky. Playing the tides, currents and bridge openings seems to be a cerebral, as well as, a skill challenge on this Waterway trip. This was a day of cautious, attentive narrow channel travel. We anchored off of Red #195 Fish Creek after a beautiful cavu day. It was a hard bottom, but the anchor dropped after careful letting out of chain to give it time to grab before backing it down. The area is one of great current and the wind picked up to 25 knots at times during the night. We did swing a lot, but the Manson anchor held well.
This morning we planned to travel 27 miles to get to Beaufort where we would time our passage through the Lady's Island Swing Bridge. It is always a luxury to know we can sleep in past sunrise even though we wake up automatically anyway. With anchor up at 10:10 am we were fortunate to have a short stretch with good sailing until we needed to turn into a narrow channel and keep to the range markers going by Brickyard Point.
Going under the bridge was a bit interesting with a tug in front of us going only 1.5 knots.....We pulled into Beaufort Downtown Marina 12:30...this was one of  the shortest days we have had. It has a convenient dock with easy access to fuel, laundry and shopping (Piggly Wiggly here we come). We immediately  headed to Luther's (a place familiar to both Carey and Ron) for lunch. Sometimes it feels like we are eating our way down the Waterway. We will stay here for 2 days and then plan to head out  Port Royal Cut with Catspaw to go offshore for a day and come back in at St. Catherine's Inlet. We'll keep an eye on weather and see the town of Beaufort tomorrow.