Passage's Progress: Charleston chatter.

We've been pretending we're tourists the last couple of days, but decided we can't afford it any more. As we were arriving Friday Sue called marinas to get us a dock. For some reason that we can't really figure out, the marinas near the downtown area were/are all booked. We ended up in a nice enough marina, but it's $15 taxi ride into town. It's also in the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center (FLETC) complex, so not everyone, including some of the cab companies, can drive to the marina. I'm not sure what boat owners do... Because of the location, and having to take a cab back and forth, this area seems more remote than some of the anchorages we've been in.

Yesterday afternoon Sue, Matt, and I took the boat over to Fort Sumter - the start of the Civil War and all. Then we toured the USS Yorktown. Matt treated us to dinner at a nice waterfront seafood place. Really good food - thanks, Matt. Then we walked around the market area a bit, but it was pretty much empty. We found a really nice supermarket so we could stock up again. Charleston has done a really nice job of integrating the new buildings with the old, and we would have never recognized the building as a big super market. The same with all the hotels; even the big well known chain motels blend in with the older historic buildings.

This morning when we woke up it was cold enough that Sue dug out the space heater, one of few times on the trip. It got up to around 60 today, but the north wind make it feel much cooler. Pretty much the same forecast for the next two days, so I'm sure we will be wearing most of the clothes we brought.

Matt left us today - I hope he makes it home OK. For some reason the gal who made Matt's reservation thought he was flying out of Charlotte instead of Charleston. They both start with a "C" but I think only one is near the Atlantic Ocean! Fortunately, Matt found a ride to the airport so he didn't have to take another cab. And the ride left earlier than he was first planning to leave, so he had time to get things straightened out. Unfortunately, he ended up leaving at noon, making 2 stops, and getting home around 9:00, instead of leaving around 4:00 and getting home around 9:00. I guess it's kind of like sailing upwind. It was fun having Matt on the boat for a week. He was also a big help helping with the navigation in some of the tricky and shallow parts of the ICW. The fact that he liked ours cats didn't hurt either. It's interesting to think that Matt will be home in less than a day, and it's taken us almost 2 months to get here.

This afternoon one of the marina staff drove us into town. Not only that, but he also drove us around a bit showing us points of interest, and telling us lots of interesting stuff about Charleston. Then we walked around looking at the wonderful old houses, historic buildings, markets, and parks. I found it amazing how many people were out, walking, shopping, sightseeing, and on bus and buggy tours.