Charleston to St Augustine

Charleston is a wonderful city.  It is charming, picturesque, and historical.  The city is a lot more than Fort Sumter, although the fort and the events leading up to its besiegement played a pivotal role in U.S. history.  Indeed, we didn't visit Fort Sumter.

As usual whenever we are in a convenient location for any length of time, we first had to get boat chores out of the way.  Washing laundry, cleaning the boat, checking systems, etc.  Our second day Maria, Diana and I did a mini-bus tour of the city.  The guide was great; articulate and informed.  One of the stops on the tour was The Citadel.  It is not half as pretty as Christopher's high school alma mater, Valley Forge Military Academy.

After the bus our we then spent the afternoon walking around the city admiring the houses and reading the historical plaques.   

Those of you who have been to Charleston know all about its historical restoration over the years.  The old city is filled with hundreds of meticulously restored houses from 100 or more years ago.  These photos show just a couple of them.  On our mini-bus tour we learned all about 'singles' and 'doubles'.
A 'single' is turned sideways on the lot with the longest face looking sout or southwest.  There is almost always a veranda on both levels on that south face.  The narrow end is on the street and has what one might regard as a conventional facade and front door.  But the door just leads up onto the veranda.  The the true front door is in the middle of the south facing wall.  The interior of the house is then only one room wide.  One room in front, one in back, both up and downstairs.  In the summer months the Charlestonians used their verandas as additional living space, hence the false front on the street.
One other thing Charleston is known for is the former slave market, now a daily 'flea' market.  There are a number of women on the premises weaving baskets from sweet grass.  I include this photo since the sweet grass comes from the salt marshes that we have seen so much of in the prior days.  We got past these vendors without Maria buying a basket, her weak spot.
At the end of our walking tour we came upon a park where Diana made a friend for a couple of hours. The friend didn't want to pose for the picture, being somewhat wary of strangers even with her nanny in tow.
On the Saturday that Maria and Diana left I spent the day preparing to boat to go offshore for the 150 mile passage to Fernandina Beach, Florida.  Since Christopher doesn't get up until well after noon he missed out on all the fun. 

We left Charleston on Sunday morning just after sun up.  Well, actually Christopher didn't have much choice since he was asleep.  All of Sunday I sailed essentially single handed.  In spite of the roll from a quartering sea I sailed wing and wing for about eight hours, averaging about 6 knots.  Christopher showed his face about 3 PM, threw his fishing lure in the water and by 4 PM had the tuna he is holding up at left. 

After dinner we had to motor for a few hours when our boat speed fell to 3.5 knots.  By 9 PM the wind had filled in again from the NE so we sailed a broad reach all the way down to Fernandina Beach, arriving at the buoys marking the entrance to the St Mary's River at about daybreak.

Christopher had been in training all summer to stay up all night for this passage.  What a blow to him to discover that he had eaten something in Charleston that gave him an upset stomach (not seasickness).  He ended up in  bed about 2 AM.  What a blow to me since I had spent all day sailing alone and had slept only fitfully for a few hours before he had to retire.  But all is well that ends well.

At the buoys marking the entrance we had a scare.  The engine wouldn't start.  Finally it caught, only to emit a horrible squeal.  Quickly we decided it wasn't a belt so shut the engine down.  Christopher identified the general location of the noise.  By touch I decided that the starter (it was HOT) had not disengaged from the fly wheel when the engine started.  We tried the engine again.  Now there was nothing.

Before we sailed on to Miami and Cuba I hunted up the Tow Boat/US phone number.  Christopher counseled waiting for the starter to cool and trying again before panicking.  Sure enough the engine caught on the first try with nary a problem.  It was a good thing too since we had gone some distance while sorting things out.  It took us over a hour to motor into Fernandina Beach.

Well, whatever the travel agents say, Fernandina Beach has its seamy underbelly.  From the ICW water front the town is very industrial.  We were too tired to care.

It was so ugly that we resoved to go on to St Augustine in the morning.
It is 11/8 and we are anchored off of the Castillo de San Marcos, shown at the right.  My little digital camera isn't very good for these long shots so you'll have to wait for a later instalment to see more of St Augustine.
The little boat in this photo wouldn't move so that I could get a good shot of St Augustine's water front.  You can see the church steeples if you squint real hard.