May 19th. We haul the anchor as planned and head over to the fuel dock. The current is ripping along the dock and the potential for disaster is huge but we get on the wall okay. The fuel dock here is called the “Megadock”, its 1530 feet long, that’s over a quarter of a mile long, its pretty impressive. We are the last boat all the way down at the furthest end.

While I fuel the boat and fill the water tank one of the dock boys loads Christy and the dogs into his golf cart and drives her down to pay the bill. Then she walks the dogs to shore and has to walk all the way back to the boat. By the time we get underway its 0810 and we’re running behind.

Just north of Charleston is the Ben Sawyer Swing Bridge. It’s open upon request until 0900 and then it’s only open on the hour, so if we don’t make it by 0900 there won’t be another opening for an hour. We have good wind so we get some sail up but continue motoring and we arrive at the bridge in a nick of time.

The trip is a slow one as the tide is running against us for the better part of the day. But the wildlife watching was extraordinary complete with a few alligator sightings. Not the pelligators of our trip south but actual alligators.



We’ve decided to stop just about a dozen miles short of Georgetown and spend the night in Minim Creek. It’s a nice little spot with an old dock that I can use for the dogs. The dock was scary as hell as the whole structure wobbled and was missing boards.



We didn’t realize it until after we stopped that Minim Creek is actually a mosquito breeding sanctuary where they raise free range mosquitoes. They raise mosquitoes here for movie and television production companies. All the mosquitoes on the series LOST come from the Minim Creek farm.

May 20. Since we’re only about 2 hours from Georgetown we decide to leave at 0830. The anchorage we’re headed to is fairly small and I figure it would give people anchored there a chance to get underway and create some room for us if we arrive in mid morning.

As Veranda and Freedom pull into the tiny, packed anchorage we’re thrilled to see 2 boats pulling their anchors. Perfect planning, 2 out 2 in.