Owen had a business trip to take care of, leaving me to explore Charleston on my own. This allowed me lots of time to check out the City Market, which I loved and would have bored Owen to tears. I also walked up and down several streets admiring the architecture and tranquility.

The grocery store is just a short walk from the marina, so we went twice. This Publix had no plastic bags, so I was glad I brought my backpack the first time. That was the first time I had done that, so it was just a lucky circumstance rather than a grand plan. The second time, Owen took the wagon along.

On our last night in town, we went to Pearlz East Bay, which we enjoyed very much. If there is tuna tartare on the menu, we order it. This particular version was very boring. The tuna was fantastic and fresh, but the seasoning was blah. However, I also had a tuna taco and a mahi taco, and both were fantastic. Owen had shrimp and grits that he enjoyed. My cocktail was a raspberry something or other, and it was really light and refreshing.

The next morning, we left our slip at slack tide, and now it makes complete sense why our arrival was so icky. Leaving at slack tide is the absolute way to go. It was super simple, and we looked like pros.

Our ride was uneventful. We passed a floating swing barge, which was cool. There was no one around, so we didn’t get to see it in action.

We decided before we left that we were going to spend the night in Jericho Creek. There are two entrances to this river from the ICW. We must have misunderstood each other because I thought we were going to enter the creek at one end, but Owen wanted to approach it from the other. No matter, the biggest disagreement to come out of this misunderstanding was in which perfectly serene area of the creek to drop our anchor. What a beautiful place!

Shortly after we anchored for the night, Owen dropped the dinghy and went for a spin. There are old rice paddies to explore. Some are closed off with fences, but there are paths through.

What a still, quiet night we had on the hook! There was another boat nearby that we could hear faintly but not see. It sounded like they were having a nice little party. It wasn’t annoying at all because they were not close enough for us to discern their conversations. They left before bedtime.