Edisto Island, located approximately 40 miles southwest of Charleston, offers clean launches to the ocean all along its length. The island fronts the ocean in a southeasterly direction for about five miles. Towards the 'southern' end it wraps around to the west, and even towards the northwest. At its southernmost point there appears to be a long sand bar offshore that breaks up a lot of the swell from the south. It is at this point you can look south across St. Helena Sound and see Hilton Head Island in the distance. A southwest wind at this southern point is almost directly onshore, but the good news is one only has to travel a hundred or so yards in either direction to have a side-shore wind. St. Helena Sound is very large so you are provided with a bay on the 'inside' to sail if you need flat water.

The only campground we could find is located at the primary intersection in front of the pavilion and is very easy to spot upon entering the beach area. The campground doubles as a State Park and is probably the prettiest campground I've ever seen. It has some of the tallest Palm trees in South Carolina growing right up to the shore. (Lots of shade for the youngins) The camground ocupies a thin penninsula bounded by the ocean on one side and a marsh on the other. It ends at the easternmost point of Edisto.

When I was there it was blowing southwest at around 18-20 knots. The ocean had about a three foot swell and was a little choppy. At the campground the wind is side-side/on during a southwest blow. This makes for some pretty
safe sailing for those wanting to venture into the ocean for the first time. I couldn't detect much current at all, perhaps due to the offshore sand bar someways away at the other end of the island. The beach at the campground is unspoiled and has no jetties, while the beach further down where the houses are contains countless groins spaced about 100 yards apart. The groins are short so I don't believe there is any danger of hitting rocks, but you still want to give them clearance. We launched between two groins and never once came close to hitting them. Actually, some of my best rides were directly in front of them, maybe due to a build-up of sand. Heck, maybe there ARE rocks continuing out in front of them!

At any rate, the campground has no groins, no rocks, no shipwrecks, and is extremely easy to launch since you are all but camping on the beach itself. The trees and bushes provide excellent cover.It remains to be seen whether Edisto blows harder than Sullivan's Island near Charleston. I intend to sail there more often this summer; maybe I can draw some more comparisons.

Edisto Island is in the heart of 'Gulla', so be prepared to enjoy a foreign atmosphere. There is no nightlife, and, I suppose for the barflies you'd have to go to Charleston. I'm happy just to ride the bike around some of the trails. There are some 18th century churches nearby, not to mention several nature trails.

Directions from Charleston: South on Highway 17 about 35 miles. Turn east on Highway 174. Very easy.

SW will be the prefered direction, although an east-northeast wind would be a lot of fun too. I was told, but I am not sure, that if the wind blows northwest you can go to the bay side. Certainly a south wind would be good on the bay side too.