For the past week we have been staying in downtown Charleston at a marina, living in relative luxury for us - free laundry, showers whenever we want them, power, water and it is a short walk to groceries, shopping and the beautiful streets of the Charleston peninsula.
Our original plan was to stay here for four days, but when the skipper found out we could stay for a week for the price of five days it wasn't difficult to convince him to stay. Charleston happens to be one of my favourite places, and I have friend here, Candice, that we planned to visit, so we figured we wouldn't run out of things to do.
How right we were. Somehow it seems like Romana knows when you want some 'time off' and she picks that time to act up.
Last Saturday morning we left the anchorage in Winyah Bay in the dark to get an early start and after fighting the incoming tide out of the bay, the currents were with us for the rest of the day. We had a great day at sea even though there were big swells and no wind and fog for a while in the morning. After the fog lifted it was sunny and warm and we were both very glad to be out of the ICW so we could get a break and let Ralph (our autopilot) steer. Being on watch at sea is so much easier than in the intracoastal. We saw porpoises and dolphins and a few birds, but not much else other than a few other boats which passed us. Because of the favourable currents by 4 p.m. we had arrived in Charleston and tied up at the marina we had reserved.
There was a bit of trepidation when we arrived and the marina staff told us we would be backing in to the slip, especially since the currents were really strong. Romana does not back very well, but we managed to get a line to the dock on the second pass and soon we were snug in behind Leeloo, one of our buddy boats. Slow Waltz was tied up at the marina on the west side of the peninsula as they had booked it earlier in the week since friends were coming to visit them. Our marina is on the Cooper River, in the shadow of the beautiful Arther Ravenel Jr. bridge.
After getting a shower, enjoying Happy Hour on Ellie Belle (a trawler from Maine who we keep meeting up with) and sharing supper with the Slow Waltz crew who had walked over from their marina, we headed in to town for a walk around with Gwen and Guillaume from Slow Waltz. As luck would have it we stopped in at an Irish pub for a drink - I found it kind of funny that we came all the way from Nova Scotia to Charleston and ended up listening to Irish music in a pub the first night!
On Sunday we spent the morning doing chores like cleaning the dinghy so Dave could apply the keel guard and emptying the cockpit locker so he could disconnect and plug the lines to the aft holding tank. That afternoon we went for a big walk with Francine and Mario from Leeloo, down along the waterfront to the end of the peninsula. The peninsula is full of beautiful historic homes and buildings, with all kinds of fascinating gardens and ironwork and it is a beautiful place to walk, especially on a Sunday when the streets are really quiet. It is almost overwhelming how many little back allies and gardens there are and the cameras were clicking non stop. Since I worked here for 8 months with my first job, Charleston is familiar to me, and I have seen much of this before, but I still love to stroll around downtown.
Monday morning we took advantage of slack tide and minimal wind to move Romana over to the fuel dock where the pumpout station was located. We managed to get the aft holding tank completely emptied and got a few rinses of fresh water through and then a bleach solution to get it cleaned out before Dave opened it up. When we attempted to go back to our slip we had some problems with the current so we ended up tying back up to the end of the fuel dock to wait until later in the day when we had slack tide again.
My friend Candice had kindly lent us her car for the day, so mid morning we set off with the Leeloo crew on a grand tour of big box stores. Starting with Walmart we went on to Best Buy, Office Depot, Bed, Bath and Beyond and we finished at West Marine. We made it back for slack tide and another attempt to get back to our slip. As we were leaving the dock Dave figured out that the transmission wasn't working, which was why we had so much difficulty earlier. Luckily we were able to use the wind and current to get back to the dock and tie up while he had a look. Turned out the transmission cable was broken. We had to pick up Candice from work so we decided to stay at the end of the fuel dock for the night and fix the problem the next morning.
We had a great supper at Candice and Steve's house that night but it was a late night for everyone as Steve dropped us off at the marina at 10:30 (way past our bedtime!). Tuesday morning Dave replaced the transmission cable with a spare he had and managed to get back over to our slip, but we didn't back in this time, as the wind was pretty strong and the skipper didn't think we could do it. That afternoon we went on another big walk downtown with the Leeloo crew.
The next morning I went to the Aquarium while Dave put the keel guard on the dinghy, put a swivel on the anchor chain and helped Mario measure his anchor chain. In the afternoon we did some shopping on King street (they have a Lululemon and an Apple Store) and then we met up with Candice and Steve for supper at Fleet Landing, which is a restaurant in the old control room where they used to demagnetize the submarines. It doesn't look like a control room any more and the food was delicious! After dinner we dropped Dave, Francine and Mario off and I went to an Improv show with Candice and Steve which was a lot of fun.
Thursday and Friday were working days. I got laundry and groceries done and filled the water tank and propane tank and Dave worked on the great holding tank project. This involved taking the lid off and then ripping out all of the rotten plywood and fibreglass from the old holding tank, going to get lumber and stainless screws (he had already bought fibreglass and epoxy from West Marine) and cutting and fitting the wood while we had access to power and a wharf. Luckily we were able to borrow Candice's car again which made things a lot easier but Dave still worked most of both days on this project to get it to the point where he can finish it at anchor along the way.
The plan is to set off on Saturday morning back into the ICW, once Dave does the last of the fit up so I don't know where the next blog will come from but we should be somewhere south of Charleston. The weather has been really up and down with us alternating between shorts and t-shirts and fleece and jeans, so who knows what the next week will bring!