Story - arrive Charleston, South Carolina

Kalandia Web Diary
Bill Peach
Tue 1 Jun 2010 15:29
Story - Arrive Charleston South Carolina 30 May 2010

We called up Customs before we left Florida only to be told they didn’t want
to know. Our piece of paper says otherwise. They said to report when we
arrived at our destination but the piece of paper does not mention that. A
customs officer passed us smiling on the pontoon (sorry, dock) come to see
another (US flagged) boat which had sailed to Charleston directly from a
foreign port, but he didn’t challenge us. We will not say anything to
anyone and see what happens.

We had great sailing getting here, on beam reaches mainly. Even wind
speeds of 10 knots got us up to 11.5 knots helped by the Gulf Stream which
seemed to run strongest in the afternoon and evening. We did motor for half
the time too because of rolly seas and little wind the rest of the time. It
took two and a half days to cover 360 miles.

Before I go any further, impressions of the US so far are: exceedingly good
customer service, like you are doing them a favour (which I suppose you
are), you can ride motorcycles without a helmet, sports fishing is a
multi-billion dollar activity, people like to be associated with something
(uniform, belonging to an association which is branded on their t-shirts),
you don’t have to dress up to go into posh restaurants, people will talk to
you freely and are very friendly. The difference between Charleston and the
Florida towns is the sprawl that you get in the latter. To go to shops in
Florida you get in a car and drive down a dual carriageway to a single story
building which is a shop, then you get in your car and drive to the next
single story structure you require. In Fort Lauderdale shops of the same
kind (e.g. mattresses) can be found along one long street but are still very far
apart. There are shopping malls however, like Bluewater or Lakeside
although you have to drive to them too. In Charleston the shops are as we
know them, next door to each other.

We have taken subscription to BoatUS which gives us discounts here and there
and also free towage if we ground. Its like the AA and RAC for boats. We won’t
be doing any of the inland waterways because of our draught but it may yet
be useful as we will be entering the inlets which have variable depths.

The City Marina on the Ashley River side of Charleston is very popular and
was full, so we have taken a berth in the Charleston Harbour Marina on the
other side of the town and across the Cooper River. Unfortunately this
marina does not take part in the BoatUS 25% discount scheme. There is a
water taxi to town ($8 round trip) but it shuts at 1800 so an alternative
would be a taxi or there is a trolley bus from the Resort attached to the
marina which we will try next time. Tonight we returned in a London black
cab (albeit with left hand drive).

Today was Memorial Day and so there was a weekend touristy air about the
place. We took a horse drawn ride around the villas and churches which was
very interesting. The organisation of these tours is very well done. 5
companies operate, each with several 16 seater horse drawn cabs and in order
not to have them all plod the same streets there is a central municipal
cubby office where each cab draws up to and only then do they know which
route they are to take. So you as a tourist may ride the cabs three times
and go the same route each time or if you are lucky you might get different
routes, but the drivers do not know until horse, cab and customers draw up
to the starting point. There are also municipal sanitation trucks (small
ones) that go around the routes to wash down and clean up where the horses
have been. The horse cab driver drops a red flag on a cork to mark the spot
so the sanitation people can more easily see it.

Charleston is very low lying and in 1989 was severely flooded when the
Ashley River broke its banks during the hurricane. You can still see the
water mark on some of the buildings – 7 feet high I would say. The town
still has a working port – car imports as far as we can see.

I don’t think I included a pic of the African Pompano we caught, so here it
is looking very cross although I don’t know why as it got a fair dollop of
gin in each gill. I also include a pic of a squall we went through,
although it doesn’t do it justice and a street scene of the residential area
of Charleston.

We are here for a few days and aim to get to Chesapeake by Saturday or
Sunday which means leaving Thursday or Friday. We are keeping a close eye on
the weather forecasts as there are some strong winds and high-ish seas to
avoid especially around the capes (Cape Fear and Cape Hatteras).

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