Charleston,South Carolina

Well, Emily Grace may well have tried to make us linger in Charleston as she proceeded to let the overboard macerator pump fail on the passage from Georgia.  Since this little pump allows us to discharge waste when 3 miles offshore, it is mighty important and she may have succeeded. The captain, however, thwarted any such mutinous plan by having 2 spare pump impellers aboard.  Although that fixed the problem, the captain was also ready with another complete replacement pump!

 

In any event, we entered the Ashley River and found the private mooring ball that we had found and reserved using Active Captain on our Coastal Explorer navigation software.  Unfortunately the owner had left a decrepit dingy tied to it using copious amounts of rope.  Despite valiant efforts by Captain and crew, we couldn’t get the tangled line free with our boat hook and ended up with the dingy painter wrapped around the underwater stabilizer fin.  A local boater came over and with his help and the swift 2 knot current, we managed to break free unharmed and get temporarily re-attached to the mooring/dingy mess.  The owner of the mooring was then called and he borrowed my knife to cut off the tangled mess he had left us and we were then properly attached to the mooring ball.  It all worked out well, since we paid him $15 per night for a $20 per night mooring.  He got a $45 windfall for our 3-night stay and we got a good deal.

After foiling the mutiny and surviving the attack mooring ball, the crew deservedly went ashore to explore Charleston.  We found the gracious waterfront mansions and well-made but overpriced sweetgrass baskets were still as we left them back in our 2008 visit.  We revisited the oldest museum in America, the old slave market and the historic Nathaniel Russell house.

America's oldest museum happens to be The Charleston Museum right here in South Carolina. It opened in 1773, and from the beginning, displayed geological specimens from its surrounding areas.  Outside there is a replica of the American Civil War H. L. Hunley submarine of the Confederate States of America. Drawing from my vast experience working at the Groton submarine factory (Ha Ha), I explained to Emily that the Hunley demonstrated the advantages and the dangers of undersea warfare. She was the first combat submarine to sink a warship, although Hunley was not completely submerged and, following her successful attack, was lost along with her crew before she could return to her base.  Apparently, the bowsprit containing the explosive charge was not quite long enough!

 

The exhibits inside run the gamut from textile and clothing to silver to lowcountry life, rise of the South, Revolutionary War, Civil War, natural history, and the most impressive arsenal of weaponry I've ever seen. If we only had one of these multibarrel rifles aboard, maybe we could have gone through the Somalia pirate waters!

 

The slave markets only redeeming quality is the ability to see the nicely made sweetgrass baskets.  Since we found and bought these same baskets in Dominica for less than 1/10th of the selling price here, we simply looked and complemented the ladies on their work.  Among the cheap trinkets being hawked here, Emily found some cool resin hair thingy’s she hopes will be OK with the school girls in Ludlow, Mass.

 

Located in Downtown Charleston near High Battery, the Nathaniel Russell House Museum at 51 Meeting Street, is widely recognized as one of America’s most important neoclassical dwellings and was worth the stop. The Historic Charleston Foundation purchased the National Historic Landmark in 1955, and the house served as the Foundation’s headquarters for 37 years. Today, the interiors are restored to their original 1808 grandeur and surrounded by formal gardens.

Nathaniel Russell was born in Bristol, Rhode Island. He settled in Charleston at the age of 27 in 1765, when Charleston was a bustling seaport. By 1774, Charleston boasted a per capita of wealth nearly four times that of all the American colonies. Russell’s career as a merchant involved the shipment of cargoes to and from New England, the West Indies, South America, Virginia, Great Britain, continental Europe, West Africa and Asia.

While most of his profits came from the exportation of staples, such as Carolina Gold rice, indigo, tobacco and cotton, Russell handled a broad range of imported goods. He also participated in the African slave trade both before and after the American Revolution.

The Nathaniel Russell House is an excellent example of the Adam style of architecture. Russell’s house was built when local carpenters had a decade of experience with the light and airy manner made popular by Robert Adam. His house has been called an exercise in ellipses, for from its free-flying stair to the wrought iron balconies, to the principal windows and doors, we found it to be extraordinary. It was the last great house of the city’s post-revolutionary period. Built in 1809, the house was listed in the National Register in 1971 and Designated a National Historic Landmark in 1973.

We also stepped into the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist. The Cathedral seats 720 people and is noted for its Franz Mayer & Co. stained glass, hand painted Stations of the Cross, and neo-gothic architecture. The cornerstone was laid in 1890, and the church opened in 1907.

The sides of the Sanctuary are adorned with windows depicting the 4 Gospel writers with their winged creatures. Above the High Altar is the Chancel window. The top section is a rose window depicting St. John the Baptist baptizing Jesus with the Holy Spirit above. It is surrounded by 8 adoring angels playing instruments. Above the Rose window is a Sacred Heart. To the left of the Rose window is a pelican feeding her three newborn pelicans, and to the right is the Lamb of God. Below all of this is a 5-light replica of Da Vinci's Last Supper.

In general, Charleston was a nice stop.  They need some free dingy docks and the shuttle busses (although free) were really overcrowded; but those are minor complaints.  After 2 tiring days of sightseeing, Tom started to plot the trip up the ditch towards North Carolina.  When we compared 3 long days of hand steering and bridge openings, we again decided to head for the ocean since we could do the same trip easily overnight.  Come along as our next stop will be in Carolina Beach, North Carolina.

Tom

Florida to Georgia

We grabbed a $20 per night mooring from the St. Augustine Municipal Marina and enjoyed their nice dingy dock and WiFi from the boat.  The town was picturesque but we decided to head straight for Ripley’s Believe it or Not Museum.   It was a quirky collection of items collected around the world by one man.  We explained to Emily that as kids we would read about little bits and pieces of this collection weekly in our local town newspaper.  We were delighted that he had items from the many parts of the world that we had also seen, like Fiji, Vanuatu and Tahiti. Some of the items like this enormous carving from solid ivory were breathtaking.   

 

And many were simply silly.

We toured the Castillo San Marcos fort and enjoyed a guided tour from a knowledgeable historian.  He gave detailed information about the design and construction of the fort and explained that it was never breached although attacked many times.

 

Another day we enjoyed the Lightner museum and Flagler College.  We learned that Flagler made millions in Railroads and built much of this town.  The museum and college were once his hotels and he also built a magnificent church in memory of his daughter who died shortly after childbirth.

 

After 3 nights in St. Augustine, we motored up the ditch (intracoastal waterway) and anchored right off a stately southern plantation.   

 

The Kingsley Plantation has now been taken over by the Park system so the dock and a self-guided 2 hour tour (using an I-Phone) were all free. This plantation was unique in that Kingsley (a white man) had bought a (black) slave girl and made her his wife.  She was ultimately freed by him but owned and ruled over several slaves herself in her lifetime.  We enjoyed seeing the plantation house, stables and kitchen and the slave houses that were arranged in a village-like semi-circle.  This was a lovely, peaceful stop with quiet starlit nights and dolphins surfacing all around our home.

With the wind and seas calm, we headed off shore for the trip north to St. Marys River.  We tucked in the mouth of the river and turned north to enter Georgia and anchor off Cumberland Island.  This is also 90% national park land and free to us cruisers. The island had several mansions built by the Carnegie family (founder of US Steel) and the family horses were set free to roam here forever. 

 

We joined in on a 1 hour guided tour by a ranger that had lived on this island for 31 years. Understandably, she was very knowledgeable about the history and island wildlife.  We saw the Dungeness Mansion that was burned down in the 1950s but was still imposing.

 

We had time to walk to the Ocean side and enjoy the beach and the wildlife.

 

The wind and seas were still light 2 days later and we decided to push out to sea for an overnight passage to Charleston.  I am writing this blog while offshore and out of sight of land.  The seas are silky smooth with barely a ripple. Long period swells are rolling in from Africa and our home is slowly rising and falling as if we are riding on the back of an enormous, breathing creature.   

We plan to be on a mooring on the Ashley river and in sight of the dock where we first saw Emily Grace and purchased her in 2006.  We have a symbiotic relationship, this little ship and I.  I have mended her when she was broken and she has sheltered us from storms and raging seas. I wonder, Dear Reader, if Emily Grace will remember her previous life or is now content in the life she shares with our small family.

Tom