Charleston, SC

Charleston, SC

We left Monday morning as planned and traveled 60 some miles to Charleston, it was a little bumpy along the way at times but nothing horrible.  Arrived at about 1:30 and they put our little Passport on the MEGA dock, we were by far the smallest boat on the dock.  Some of these mega yachts have bigger tenders than us.  Oh well, we all have one thing in common, our love for the water.  So we have something in common.  

Passport at the Mega dock Charleston SC

Our neighbor at the Mega dock

After giving our "yacht" a quick rinsing off we headed to town.  This marina has a shuttle that leaves every hour to certain spots in town.  We headed to the Visitors Center to see what options we had as far as exploring Charleston.  We then did our own walking exploration, covering the Old City Market area.  It reminded us of the market area in St. Louis called Sulard Market.  Different vendors along a common market place.  We then took the courtesy car back to the marina and had a quiet dinner on board.  It had turned cooler and the wind had picked up, so it was nice and cozy in our little cabin.

View of Old City Market

Views of Charleston

Tuesday we woke up to 45˚ long pants two days in a row.  We were out by 9:00 am for our tour of Charleston.  We had decided to do a 90 min. tour of the city that included a separate tour of one of the Charleston homes and then a boat trip to Fort Sumter.  We enjoyed each of them. 

Joseph Manigault House

Replica of H.L Hunley used in the Civil War

Garden at the Calhoun Mansion

One of the many iron gates seen through out Charleston

At Fort Sumter we had a National Park’s intern give a 15 min. talk about what had lead to the start of the Civil War and the impact it  had on our country.  I think this was the best part of the day, because she did such a good job in explaining this in such a way that by the end of the talk most of us were in tears it was so moving. We then took the bus back to the Visitors Center and walked, heading towards the Battery Park area.  We came across the Calhoun mansion along the way. We were able to take the last tour of the day.  It is the largest privately owned mansion in Charleston with an extensive collection of antiques.

Cannon ball imbedded in the brick

We then took the free city trolley and joined Ginny and Craig at Hominy Grill for some authentic low country cooking.  Christy and Eric had suggested this restaurant and it was some of the best shrimp and grits we have had so far.

Wednesday we were lazy and decided to stay put for another day. Mary gave John a much needed hair cut, cleaned more salt off the boat.  Took the courtesy shuttle to West Marine and Harris Tweeter which is one of the nicer grocery stores we have seen for a while.  We then took the shuttle to get the propane tanks refilled, unfortunately one of the new tanks has a bad valve and won’t accept propane.  It may be a bit of a challenge finding a place to have the tank repaired.  Luckily we have three aboard.

By staying here an extra day and due to a three day bridge closing just south of Norfolk means we will have to take our time getting to Norfolk.  Which may work in our favor as the winds have picked up this afternoon and leaving tomorrow might not happen.  If we stay in Norfolk the three days as planned we will only have four days to get to Washington DC.  This should not be a problem as we will be arriving two days before Christy and family arrive.  So we still have a couple of weather days if we need them.  We are very much looking forward to that visit!

All for now, love to everyone,

Mary & John