Sailing the Charleston Harbor

The East Cooper area is full of outdoor recreation opportunities. Many of them are on the water. When the weather is right, which is most of the time, it is great to get out on the water and enjoy it. Living on the coast offers boating, sailing, kayaking, fishing, or just walking along the beach. Most of us can't afford to have all of the recreation equipment to do everything; at least I can't. For large boating adventures I am fortunate to have good friends.

This past weekend, I went sailing in the Charleston Harbor with some friends. Throughout the trip, we stayed East of the Cooper. So, this post will be totally on topic.



My friend Burton keeps his sailboat in Shem Creek. The boat has a 4 foot keel. So even though it was still a fairly high tide, we followed the channel into the harbor. In doing so, we passed by the Pitt Street Bridge, the subject of a recent blog post. We also sailed around Crab Bank and /Shutes Folly/Castle Pickney* (our dog Cassie's namesake) then sailed up the Wando side of the harbor, past the Yorktown and under the Ravenel Bridge. We turned and went back past all of the above. At one point we sailed past Fort Sumter. In all, it was about two or three hours of sailing and a beautiful day to be on the water.



The Coast Guard was out patrolling. I think I have seen them every time we have gone out. They must have a permanent post patrolling our harbor. I like that.






Sailing is a peaceful way to enjoy an afternoon. There is just enough work involved to let one know he is doing something; but not so much that it wears one out. That said, I have been know to hurt in new places the day after an all day adventure.


*On a previous trip we anchored in the harbor, swam to, and briefly explored Castle Pickney. It is a bird sanctuary and stinks worse than almost anything I have ever experienced. It is very overgrown and getting to the Castle is difficult in swimming attire. I don't recommend it. I also don't recommend it because it is illegal. As we were leaving, we saw a sign back in the weeds saying that it is a bird sanctuary and not to trespass. Had we seen the sign earlier we would not have entered and would have saved ourselves some aggravation.