Last night we knew it would be a short trip to Charleston so planned an early start without taking Fritz to shore.  So we secured the dingy up on the davit last night and were set to go this morning.  Up and ready to leave, we looked at the anchor rode and saw it had a huge sludge of reeds surrounding it. Hanging over the bow we tried loosening the pile with the boat hook, but no luck. The anchor rode was as tight as a drum and would not budge.  Our only solution was to get the dingy down and try to loosen it by hand.  It appeared the pile was about 2-3’ deep and 10’ in diameter.  After about ten minutes of pulling the mucky reeds apart with our hands, and pushing with our feet it finally gave way.  Another new experience to add to the cruising firsts.

We then had a pleasant trip up the ICW to Charleston, arrived here around 11:30 and tied up to the City Marina Mega Dock.  The dock is 1,530 feet long and they say this is the longest floating dock on the East coast that has complete fuel service the entire length of the dock.  Speaking of fuel we walked passed a yacht filling up and it was still filling at 1500 gallons (at $4.50/gal….).  I said something to a dock hand and he said they once filled a yacht that took 17,000 gallons!  Tucked in among the many yachts was a Hinkley, the sailing world’s answer to the Rolls Royce.  On Friday Charleston will host the starting lines of the Atlantic Cup featuring 40ft. monohulls with 2 person teams racing on the first let to New York City by late Monday.  Many of these sleek sailboats from all over the world are already docked here making last minute preparations and giving interviews to news media.  Their excitement is contagious.   

 As soon as we got the boat settled we headed in town on the marina’s free shuttle.  We had a great time stopping at the Old Slave Mart Museum (where domestic slaves were bought and sold), The Powder Magazine (oldest building in South Carolina), and enjoyed the beautiful old homes and how well they are kept up.  Our town trip ended with a stop at the grocery store where the free shuttle again gave us a ride back to the Megadock.  We are now sitting on the boat and for the first time since we left home watching TV as the marina has cable service.