Our plan....
Move our 36’ SeaRay from southern Chesapeake Bay (Crisfield ,MD) to New Burn, NC the first week of November.
We have to be house bound until December 26.
Heading south from New Burn, NC in January. Planning to spend January and February living on our 36’ SeaRay. We are thinking about staying in Charleston,SC for the month of February.
No plans for March.
We have to be back in the Southern Chesapeake by the first of April.
Your wisdom will be much appreciated.
We went from near Annapolis to Charleston for this last winter. It was always warmer than here, sometimes only 5°F or so, but more often 10-20°F throughout the period from mid-January to mid-March. Usually quite comfortable, actually, but not T-shirt and shorts weather.
OTOH, the last leg of our southbound trip started near Myrtle Beach on about 12 January, and it was 22°F when we left there. Luckily the greenhouse effect on our bridge helped, since it was bright and sunny.
We understand this last winter was unusually cold in that part of the southeast; our dock neighbors in Charleston told us several times that what we were seeing wasn't really common. They actually had snow there a couple weeks before we arrived, apparently VERY uncommon.
The trip back, mostly in late March saw comfortable temps all the way north.
We found Charleston to be very pleasant, lots to see and do, friendly people, plenty of decent restaurants, the marina offered shuttle service, and there are three free city bus routes we could use for most of our downtown (peninsula) travels.
FWIW, we stayed in Ashley Marina, a "condo" marina next door to the city marina, nice enough, decent location relative to the city (grocery shopping/resupply was easy enough), with decent monthly rates. We didn't need a car at all. WiFi access there sucked; the marina management said they were experimenting with OnSpot at another marina they manage, and that could likely fix it.
Our travel, both directions, was fairly leisurely. Mostly short hops, sightseeing along the way, but with slightly fewer stops on the way back. (There's only so many times you need to see McClellanville, SC, even if it was a nice place.) OTOH, we left here in mid-November and it was too cold for anchoring -- at least for us (don't like to run the genset over night) -- so our marina bills were higher than what might normally be necessary. OTOOH, that gave us an excuse to stop in some decent places, do more shore-based sightseeing than we might have done if we'd anchored most of the time.
-Chris