Charleston Harbour

The day got off to a bit of a rocky start - Blair and I got up early to prepare for an 8am start as we all agreed to last night. However, at 7am, Andy and Isabella sailed past us, sounding their horn to alert us - given that we didn't have our radio turned on. Once again, we were scrambling to keep up. Fortunately, things improved quickly and we ended up having a great day. The winds were very light - I even managed to bake muffins while underway!
There were so many dolphins along the way that it is almost getting tedious to continue reporting on their sightings. There was another sailboat close by us that reported a sighting of two whales. They reported this to the US Coast Guard as apparently NOAA has an interest in tracking their whereabouts. I finally peeled off the long johns and long-sleeved shirt - enjoyed the sun and the day covered in suntan lotion and sunglasses! Blair studied the manual for the generator and narrowed down the problem we are having - the generator wouldn't start earlier in the day, but Blair eventually managed to get it going.
As we were approaching the Charleston Harbour, Andy radioed over, excitedly reporting that he had almost hit a whale in the water. We were a little envious as we couldn't see it despite a concentrated scan of the water all around - with both Blair and I trying to steer the boat and use binoculars at the same time. We certainly looked like a ship of drunken sailors as we were lurching all about trying to find a whale that, for all intents and purposes, could probably cause some serious damage to our boat if we struck it. Common sense prevailed, and we went back to paying more attention as we steered!
As the day wore on, we had a bright idea - we put on our "marriage saver" headsets and began a mission to study the hydraulic steering in an effort to sort out the autopilot problem. I took over at the helm and turned on the autopilot. Blair went down below to watch the hydraulic steering mechanism stuff under our bed in the aft cabin. Of course, true to Murphy's Law theory (if there is such a thing!), the autopilot held its heading for all the time he was down below. The idea was that Blair might be able to observe what happened to the steering when the autopilot kicked off. Shortly after we abandoned the project, Blair returned to the cockpit, and the autopilot kicked off - go figure! We will try again tomorrow. At least the headsets work well!
We arrived in the Charleston Harbour on a flood tide - screaming in at 7.9 knots - it felt like we were were on a carnival amusement ride as we were going along faster than we have this whole trip! The Harbour is quite stunning - the bridge and an old vintage sailboat under sail in front of it with the full moon just appearing behind it all - breathtaking!
We set the anchor, enjoyed a glass of wine - had showers (how decadent!) - barbecued a couple of steaks - and generally felt pretty pleased with ourselves. Even the generator started tonight with no fuss. We watched the Carnival Cruise Ship leave the Harbour on the ebb tide. As I was staring out over the Harbour, I was fantasizing about Rhett Butler and Charlotte from the epic novel, Gone With the Wind, as we floated about on the anchor in the Ashley River near Wappoo Creek.
Some interesting facts about Charleston, South Carolina:
The Harbour is the fourth largest shipping port on the East Coast. Charleston was named for King Charles II - it has been written that the king was "one of the most hedonistic of English monarchs" and that the colonists came "to recreate the luxurious, cosmopolitan, pleasure-filled world of Restoration England...inhabited by a landed gentry."
The British founded Charleston in 1670 on what is now Charles Town Landing on the western bank of the Ashley River. The colonists aboard the English ship "Carolina" originally planned to settle at Port Royal, but the chief of the Kiawah Indians convinced them to move farther north. Within 10 years, they had relocated to what locals refer to as "the Peninsula" on the site of current downtown Charleston. The culture is a melange of influences. The English ideas blended with those of the French Huguenots fleeing religious persecution. Many came by way of Barbados and added a Caribbean flair to the city's lifestyle. The Spanish were here, and slaves certainly had a huge impact on the population from food to the arts and language. Gullah, a patois of all the languages, is still spoken on the sea islands today.