Tuesday April 30: Edisto Island and on to Charleston

 So we're sitting at the marina near Beaufort, SC yesterday morning watching the weather map on weather.com. Nice string of storms predicted to roll through ... and we were in the path. Go or not go? Go early and fight the current the whole way or stick to the plan of leaving at 11 am to catch the currents almost the whole way to Edisto Island? We are at the small 2 in the picture!

We ended up leaving just 10 minutes early at 10:50 am and thought we could make it to the south of the South Edisto River to a marina that was just 5 miles from Jim and Linda's home on Edisto Island before the rains and storms hit.


This was easier than traveling the 5 miles or so up Store Creek to their dock. No markers - just a GPS path that Jim showed us the first time in! Quite the nerve racking trip for sure.

Luck. The storm held off until almost 6 pm and we were at the marina and tied up by 3 pm - right on our calculated time! A quick shower to clean up, relax a bit, pack our backpacks for a night away from the boat and we were ready to go.

Jim and Linda (from Selah on the Great Loop travels) picked us up at 4:30 for the short trip back to their home here on Edisto Island. By 5:30 it was pouring rain with thunder and lightening.

It was SO great to see Jim and Linda again. It seems that no matter when we call (going north or south) they always have time to spend an evening with us.

It was an enjoyable dinner out with Jim's brother Jerry and his sister Betty. We had met Jerry before but were never able to spend much time with him. Betty is the youngest and only girl in the family. It was really nice getting to know both of them.

The rest of the evening we spent catching up and finding out Jim and Linda's plan for traveling in their new boat, Symmetry II. We had hoped to travel a bit with them as they head north but with plans not to leave until a couple of weeks, guess we'll have to catch up with them later in the season.

We passed Jim and Betty as they were headed the opposite direction as us on the North Edisto River - Symmetry had a new bottom job so they were headed back home to the South Edisto River and we were headed to Charleston.


 There was a great breakfast place on Edisto Beach called the Seacow Eatery. It had the funnest pictures! We thought about getting Tom (my brother) a t-shirt from here but it didn't have a very neat picture on it. Sorry, Tom .....

Breakfast was great to boot!








Saw an alligator today - a first for us in South Carolina. Just sort of swimming calmly across one of the narrower channels.








The travel here is still on rivers that wind through the marshes but instead of the smaller rivers of Georgia, these are very wide rivers. The day was pleasant though cool and the rain clouds sort of floated around us - especially as we neared Charleston.

It was another fairly long day of 55 miles but with the current we averaged an unheard of 8.5 mph for the day! Saved about an hour and a half of travel. I don't think we could have planned it any better.

Steve made a quick trip to the store about a mile away and then made a wonderful stir-fry.

I even like peppers now! and hot stuff. and avocados. What in the world will tomorrow bring :-)