Sunday, May 18, 2014

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


Thursday, May 15, 2014

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

Sunday, May 4, 2014

Back to America…after 6 years

We had a perfect 24 hour passage from Great Sale Cay in the Abacos to Port Canaveral, Florida.  The winds were less than 10 knots (many less than 5 knots), calm seas and we arrived on time, 20 minutes before the marina opened at 8:00 AM.  We tied up at the fuel dock and 30 minutes later we were pumping 300 gallons of diesel into the tanks.  This fuel purchase got us 2 free nights at the marina which was hard to pass up.

Although we did have to catch a cab ride to customs and immigration, they did not board us or inspect anything.  The next day we met my cousin Nancy who informed us that she would be loaning us her car for our stay.  That was a very generous offer and we made good use of it over the next week finding and buying parts and provisions.  We now have an AT and T working cell phone and internet for our trip up the coast.  We arrived with almost empty freezers and now they are jammed full.  

We had several dinners with Cousins Barbara and Nancy and Barbara’s daughters’ family.  As they did in 2009, they fed us delicious meals and wanted nothing in return.  Connie and Bob have a daughter, Katherine, almost the same age as Emily.  She is smart as a whip and Emily quickly renewed the friendship started as we passed through in 2008. 

One night we bought take-out Chinese for everyone and we watched photo and video highlights from our trip while we ate.  We were so happy that Cousin Barry also joined us as we thought he would not be traveling north to see us.  Emily wrote a nice thank you note inside a book that Barry had loaned Emily back in 2008 and returned it to him.  It became one of her favorite books and now Barry has a book that has travelled around the world.

We managed to spend an entire day at the Kennedy Space Center and found it very enjoyable.  Emily did not recall much from our earlier visit and they had added several exhibits and well as the chance to see the Space Shuttle Atlantis up close.  Emily really enjoyed the simulators where we experienced the thrust of a shuttle launch and could try our hand at docking with the space station and manipulating the robotic arm.


We even got to drive the rover on the moon.  Really...can't you see the earth behind us?

Despite requests that we stay longer, we have now pushed away from the Marina and are creeping slowly north up the Intra Coastal Waterway.  It is slow since we have to call ahead for bridge openings, or time our arrival to fixed opening times.  It is a refreshing change for us to have such calm waters and to enjoy the sights along the way.  We go through a few locks and some areas require planning for high tide so we do not run aground.  My line handlers also are good at pointing out manatees in the lock!  


We stopped overnight at a free dock in New Smyrna which is certainly in our budget. 

 

Kim is looking forward to stopping in Saint Augustine for a few days since we missed this lovely town on our dash south in 2008.  We were told to expect forts and museums and quaint shops and restaurants.  Come along and share our trip up the coast.


Tom