June 10 — Animals galore

A 70 mile haul from Charleston to Georgetown, SC meant a long day on the water. Happily, the weather was good with a nice bunch of clouds providing an overcast shelter from the sun.

Some of Charleston’s fanciest addresses from the water.

The area fronting the Charleston Harbor is called “The Battery.” It’s exclusive — but it floods horribly.

Heading north from Charleston is all uncharted territory for us. Seeing huge container ships like these was a bit intimidating as we crossed the shipping channel and made our way into the safety of ICW waters.

Along the way, we saw dolphin (we’ve seen at least one dolphin every day of our trip), a singleton roseate spoonbill (close enough to see the spoonbill, but not quick enough to get a picture), lots of blue herons, a green heron, crowds of egrets, lesser terns making their vertical dives into the water, osprey, pelicans, and, amazingly/alarmingly, two alligators swimming across the ICW channel. And, alas, those pesky green flies. I have no photos of any of them except the alligator and you’ll have to use your imagination!

Use your imaginations….that swish of water you see about half-way up the frame is an alligator making his/her way across the ICW channel.

The scenery was gorgeous — sort of a combination of the low country marshes and lusher forests. There is a starkness and silence that is commanding.

Leaving Charleston, the terrain is completely low-country — mud flats and low growing marshes.

Further along, the green colors change and more trees are visible.

The marsh grass is much denser and a completely different color.

The shape of the marshes changes too and the greens become more varied.

The houses along this part of the ICW are few and far between once you get a few miles north of Charleston. There are some gigantic ones, but these seem less astounding and attention getting than the ones we saw in Florida. The architecture changed dramatically too.

Definitely a giant home, but more modest than ones in Florida.

We continued to see hurricane damage but not as severe as in Florida-Georgia area. But there were more than occasional stranded boats like this one. There were two sailboats beached right across from the Megadock in Charleston!

We are eating dinner aboard tonight. Not because we are tired of going out…..but the best restaurant in town isn’t open on Sunday and the next best one closes as 5pm:-)

Off to Myrtle Beach tomor

Leave a Reply Cancel reply