Short Wave Sportfishing wrote in
:

Where's a good launch ramp in the Charleston, SC area? I don't
mind
paying for a good launch.

I'm thinking about cruising around the harbor on this trip just
to get
the lay of the land - so to speak.


Pay for launch? How silly! We got lots great free launch ramps!

It's pretty dangerous to come boating here. It's hard to
leave....(c; I came here in 1966, left 4 times, always came
back. Just a warning.....

Wappoo Cut Boatramp is a great start:

Take Folly Road off US 17 on the S side of the Ashley River
Bridge by the big round Holiday Inn. Coming from downtown,
you'll go over the bridge with the Holiday Inn between the N and
S lanes. Get in the left lane and it bears off to the left
towards Folly Beach just after passing the Holiday Inn.

Stay on that road but now get in the right lane. Just before you
start climbing the Wappoo Cut bridge on the ICW, take the right
at the bottom of the bridge apron with the boatramp sign. It's
paved. This driveway goes down the right side of the bridge
apron then turns left under the drawbridge. The launch ramp is
on the downtown side of the drawbridge with plenty of free
parking, nice floating docks and clean ramps, compliments of us
Charleston County Taxpayers. You are 1/2 mile from Charleston
Harbor to the north, and can explore Elliott's Cut to the
southern ICW, or turn to port AFTER you pass WAY out from the S
end of Elliott's Cut towards the sea and Kiawah/Seabrook Island
resorts down the Stono River, about 10 miles to sea.

If you find yourself hungry or in need of some libation, The Crab
House is on the other side of the ICW from the ramp...just on the
other side of the drawbridge....Floating dock, outside deck (with
band at appropriate times)....

The nowake zone at the ramps are STRICTLY enforced by no less
than 5 different watercop departments, so when you see the bouys
they are NO JOKE! It's expensive! Going out to the Harbor, you
come out of Wappoo Cut right at CG Base Charleston on the Battery
where the Citadel Cadets started the Civil War (Or "The
Unpleasantness of 1861" as Charlestonians prefer to call it.)
Take a right down the Battery Wall and you'll be at the point
where the Ashley and Cooper Rivers merge to form the Atlantic
Ocean!

If you go left at the CG base, Charleston City Marina is on the
seaward side of the James Island Connector tall bridge with The
Harborage At Ashley Marina upstream, both places have gas and
diesel, at outrageous prices, of course, for our snowbird
friends. Either marina is the best place to dock a yacht in very
calm, but ripping tide currents, nowake zones. All docks are
floating with our 5-6' tides. Above the US 17 Ashley River
Bridge on the other end of Ashley Marina is a new marina attached
to a condo development. Beyond that is a city waterfront park
with nice dock/pier before you get to The Citadel, the military
college of SC, where the aforementioned cadets started it all.
Up the Ashley about 7 miles past two more bridges and a railroad
swing bridge you're in the Ashley River Historic District where
you pass by our big ol' plantations, turned tourist traps. Just
past the Magnolia Garden Plantation nowake zone, you come to a
huge bend in the river (260 degrees) right in front of my house.

Of course, from Charleston Harbor, the center of it all, you can
go up to Lake Moultrie about 35 miles through historic rice
plantations and through the FREE 75' lift of the lock at Moncks
Corner, after passing Mepkin Abbey where the good fathers have a
huge egg operation torturing thousands of poor hens to death.

Go across the harbor and follow the ICW north behind Sullivan's
Island (across the ship channel from Ft Sumter, the Yankee fort)
and the Isle of Palms, you get into some of the most desolate,
unspoiled wild sea islands left in America all the way up to the
Sampit River at Georgetown, SC. I'm partial to Capers Island,
just N of the Dewees Island Billionaire Resort. Capers is cut
off from the developers by 8 miles of protected wetlands. It has
a fine Atlantic Beach you only have to share with a few boaters
and fiesty sand crabs. The shelling and artifact hunting are
great!

There's 3200 miles of navigable waterways within 50 miles of
home, without being lined with Florida condos. Plenty of room
for all. You can boat for hours around here and never see
another soul....kinda scary if the engine burps...(c;

Towboat/US and Seatow monitor ch 16 24/7 if you need them. CG
does, too.

Larry
--
http://www.coastaltravelguide.com/So...SouthCarolinaB
oatRamps.htm

http://sciway3.net/outdoors/ct-cha-map.html

Charleston County Parks:
http://www.ccprc.com/
The boat ramp people, here.
http://www.ccprc.com/index.asp?nid=64

Here's the boatramp map...without the spam this time...
http://www.ccprc.com/documents/maps/Boat%20Landings.pdf