Exploring Charleston

On our past trips south we bypassed Charleston being far offshore on direct passages to Florida. This year because we didn’t expect to be back north for several years we decided to make additional stops along the way. We had planned to be in Charleston almost 2 weeks although part of the time we would be leaving the boat there while we visited Chicago. But, along came Hurricane Matthew and we ended up getting to Charleston after we expected that we would be leaving there. But we allocated 4 days to explore one of the treasures of the southern US.

When we got to Charleston we had some important work to accomplish. We needed to get the radar working, our in-cabin chart-plotter working, fix our autopilot and replace the TV after suffering damage during the wild ride of the trip here. Replacing the TV was time sensitive as Tuesday was the first game of the World Series for the Chicago Cubs on network TV. So we made a trip to Best Buy and got a replacement TV that fit the installation for the old TV thereby making the replacement easier but the screws needed to be replaced but at least we had TV.

Our first view of Charleston coming in the harbor just after dawn.

Our friend Dave Sikes came in just before us and anchored across from the marina for the first night. He then came in the marina and had to leave but we got together for dinner and happy hour on Friday night.

We used an Uber to go to Best Buy that turned out to be a treat. Our Uber driver was a French born woman that had lived in Charleston about 2 years but lived many other places around the world. She was an absolute delight with giving us ideas for local sights to see. She waited for us while we bought our TV and then drove us back to the marina. Having heard about prices of cabs in Charleston the fare was very reasonable. 

Sunset our first night.

The next morning (Wednesday) I contacted the Charleston Boatyard at their office on-site about making the other repairs. After waiting all day an electronics guy came and found the problem with the in-cabin chart-plotter to be a broken wire but couldn’t find the radar issue. After he left the radar worked. I suspect there is an issue with either the network bus or our cockpit chart-plotter which we will only find when it fails. He did come back and install a software update to our chart-plotter which still has us confused and has really messed up our Bahama charts. It’s not enough the hurricane changed the landscape, now we have charts that screwy. The tiller pin in the autopilot sheared off from the stress and it was able to be welded together to work but I have ordered new ones from the factory.

We came to Charleston for fun and we really enjoyed the visit. Walking around the streets of the historic district was quite fascinating as so much of southern US history and culture is rooted there. Charleston was a key city during the American Revolution and a key colonial port. The first shots of the US Civil War were fired at Charleston harbor attacking Fort Sumter, still a landmark in the harbor. Charleston’s market dates back to just after the revolution and is a lot like historic markets in Boston and New Orleans.

View of the yard of a home near the marina.

Another yard in the same neighborhood.

The front of the Charleston Market.

The historic US Custom House.

We found several wonderful places for enjoyable dining. In the French Quarter is a wonderful patisserie. The almond croissants at Christophe’s Artisan Patisserie were outstanding along with everything else we had there. We had dinner Thursday night at an excellent farm-to-table restaurant, The MacIntosh, where the food was all supplied from local farmers and producers with everything well prepared. The truffle fries were addicting.

Christophe's Artisan Patisserie.

Enjoying happy hour at the Republic Garden.

McIntosh's Restaurant.

Queology an excellent "Que" place down by the Market.

Iconic Charleston.

Additional antebellum homes.

Interesting Hallowe'en decorations.

Another beautiful home.

So after completing our repairs and experiencing a short but pleasant stay it was time to head further south to Jacksonville. We left our slip just about slack tide on Saturday 29 October and were able to catch the outgoing current all the way out to sea and get a good start on our trip south.

The passage to Jacksonville was fairly benign without the trauma and tragedy of the passage to Charleston.  We entered the St John’s River in the dark but it is a wide commercial channel and easy to navigate. We had the current with us going in and made the 30 mile trip to our marina in what seemed like very quick time. We had to wait for the Main Street lift bridge but we still got to the Marina before it opened at noon and got into our slip in time to nap before getting to work.

We arrived in Jacksonville on October 30 after leaving Oxford, MD on 23 September. But much happened on those intervening weeks and now in Jacksonville our last US port of call to prepare for our overseas adventure.