Leaving Cumberland Island in South Georgia, we traveled up the ICW, came out the inlet between Jekyll and St. Simon’s Islands and cruised along the Georgia coast all the way to Beaufort, South Carolina where we headed in and wound our way along the ICW avoiding the shoals to an anchorage in the South Edisto River.
On the 23rd we motored 35 miles in the ICW following bouys, the electronic and paper charts, consulting waterway guides and following ranges again to avoid the deceptive shallows and arrived in Charleston at 1400 hours (2 PM). We fueled up at the MEGA dock and got assigned a slip. The walk to the showers and laundry seemed like a mile away in the Charleston afternoon heat.
On the 24th we did a gallery crawl along Broad Street and walked South of Broad into the neighborhoods. We paused for lunch at Blossom, a terrific restaurant as it turned out. Randy had a duck confit grinder (imagine a BLT on toasted french bread stuffed with shredded duck confit) with rosemary french fries ($9). It was superb. Suzanne had grilled tuna in a port wine reduction accompanied by coconut flavored sticky rice and seasonal veggies ($13). It was perhaps even better. 
After lunch we did some more gallery hopping where we met some very interesting artist/owners, including Victoria Platt Ellis who does some very imaginative abstract work using collage, oils, and stories as inspiration. She focuses on shapes and color making her work boldly captivating.
By 3:00 it was time to get back to the marina and get cleaned up for dinner. This was Suzanne’s birthday dinner and for it we went to FIG. This is an award winning restaurant on Meeting Street and it was worth every penny, and trust me there were lots of pennies spent. Suzanne started with a terrine of coddled egg and cream with stone crab and morel mushrooms, while Randy had the Wagyu beef tartare with walnuts, parsley and asiago cheese. The main courses were pan seared grouper for Suzanne and pork confit, with creamed potatoes, roasted onion and beets for Randy. Notice a theme here? It was divine, as was the sorghum cake with ice cream we shared for dessert.
Today we are provisioning the boat. A courtesy van heads out at 11:00 am for Harris Teeter and West Marine. Tonight we are headed over to Jeff and Margie Graham’s boat berthed two docks away for drinks, then out to dinner with them at La Fourchette, a French bistro recommended to us by one of the gallery owners we met yesterday. Margie is the daughter by a previous marriage of Randy’s brother-in-law Don. I suppose that would make her our step niece. She and Jeff are headed north on their sailboat to spend the summer on the Chesapeake after having spent last winter in the Keys.
Well, the grocery van leaves in 45 minutes, so we had better start getting ready. More later.