Charleston so far

The arrival :

Four years ago when I did this ICW trip with Riggs, the worst sea conditions we encountered were as we entered Charleston Bay on the southbound trip, hitting strong W winds. This time (on Monday) there were also strong winds in the bay, but this time from the NE, so it was more protected to get ourselves into the Charleston Maritime Center, which is city owned and has a small marina.

The marina :

CMC is mostly great:

+ location near French Quarter and downtown is excellent. Lots to do and see within walking distance.

+ price is very reasonable for a city location. The hotels and inns near here are all quite expensive.

+ its well protected from W winds.

+ laundry is free.

+ good size grocery store, produce market, hardware store are all only 3 blocks away.

+ great lawn for dog play.

+ excellent concrete floating docks. Very strong.

but...

- exposed to E winds and to wakes from passing ships. It can get bouncy here.

The storm :

Yesterday afternoon the E exposure and strong docks came into play as the big East Coast Storm came through. The winds started from NE but then slowly clocked to E, SE, SSE, S,... In the mid-afternoon through the evening the winds pushed waves right into the marina and the boats in here were galloping in place. Luckily we had added extra docking lines to Spray (9 lines total) so while she rolled and pitched, she never banged the docks. I did get a lesson on what chafe can do to a dock line :

That line actually got eaten by a roller that guides the floating dock up and down on a piling. Good thing there were backup lines.

The wind was whipping up good too, with lightning storms, downpours, and a tornado watch. It was a rock-and-roll evening and not much fun. Better here than on the hook in some remote creek though.

Later in the evening the wind clocked to towards the west and today we've just had strong W winds, which leave us in the lee so its not bad. Expecting sun and seasonably cool tomorrow.

The dining :

Charleston reminds me of Portland ME. Similar size, lots of history, and a fantastic restaurant scene, that we want to sample. To keep costs reasonable we are eating breakfast and supper aboard Spray, and going out for lunch. Here's where we've gone so far:

Tues. - small place known as 'Fast and French'. Excellent and a neat scene. Sheila's split pea soup was the best either of us had ever tasted.

Wed. - Sheila was craving real hand cut fries so we ended up at Boones Bar and Grill, which is near the university. Beer and food was very good, and the fries were great.

Tomorrow - We have reservations for a Thanksgiving buffet at nearby Saffron Cafe & Bakery. It's supposed to be good and we'll find out.

 

So far our routine here is a relaxed breakfast aboard Spray, then dog play and walking as we'll as laundry and showers, then the dogs camp out while we venture out for lunch and some shopping. Back aboard Spray we read, feed dinner to the dogs, take them for their evening walk, then do supper and read or watch Netflix. Give us some sunnier weather for longer walks and we'll be all set. Planned departure for points south is on Monday.

 

 

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