South Carolina

Sunday 24 Jun: long hot walk along the Battery and east sea front
This morning we start to look in earnest at the weather forecast, to decide our departure day from this hot steamy place towards the cooler northern climate. We had hoped to be away Monday but of all luck the ever constant SW tail wind is turning into our face in the coming days. The thought of 15-20kts on the nose with the Gulf Stream current giving a wind-over-current situation is not appealing. Additionally, as that front comes in, there will likely be heavy electric storm activity on its leading edge. Wild sea, wind on-the-nose and lightening …. no thank you.
So we decide to stay put for another day or so. If we stay another day we get a weekly rate in the marina, 7 days for the price of 6, so that helps our decision. Plus we still have lots to do. We both need a hair maintenance, we need to ship the broken GoPro and get some pilot books returned that were really not for us. Plus ordering lots of bits and pieces for us to pick up when we go back to Europe next weeks.
And, there is an area of historic Charleston that we have yet to walk in, and some fancy boutiques that Oana is keen to browse, or window-lick as she calls it! So a little after midday we head off with Mr. Uber down town again.
The boutique shops have very nice clothes but prices seem pretty high, so window licking is all that Oana does in the end! Then we head to the Maritime Center dock on the east side of town to see their facilities. If we have to stay for longer we really do need a cheaper dock solution.
From there we walk on the sea front, called The Battery, where there are very pleasant gardens on a promenade. Children are playing in the fountains and families chilling in the shade, giving a very nice relaxed-Sunday atmosphere.
Further on we visit the Charleston Yacht Club. It’s housed in a majestic building, clearly with a lot of history but there are very few people around and their dock seems to have more motor boats than sailing. But we do spot a few J22s which put a smile on our face, and we wonder how our old J22, MaiJay, is doing in Dubai.
The southern end of the Charleston peninsula is where we find huge old classic Carolinian houses dating from 17-1800s. Each with beautiful manicured gardens and large shadey verandas. Each house has a historic plaque mentioning the age of the house, which wealthy merchant built it and a subsequent history of the residence. All very quaint and interesting. You can easily picture Gone With The Wind in this neighborhood where there is not a single building younger than 200years.
A rather hot walk finds us back at the marina. We have walked 14Km in this heat! So back inside we go to hibernate again in the cool and have a very late lunch (7pm!).
The evening is more arrangements while we have internet. We have joined 3 (yes 3!) cruising associations to try to build a network and information base for our future cruising. We also study our new Embassy pilot books. There is a lot of useful information in them but with their multiple adverts included on the pages it feels more like reading a glossy magazine than a serious pilot book!
Finally we roll into bed at 1:30am whilst a thunderstorm rages outside. Compared to being at sea, such a storm seems nothing to us now, as we sit cozily in a protected marina …. with lots of other things taller than us for the lightening to strike!