Visiting in Charleston

Isn't she lovely?

A month in Charleston, how lucky are we?!  It’s been a very full and fun month visiting with lots of family. We have absolutely loved our slip at the Charleston Maritime Center. Out on the end we had gorgeous views of the bay, bridge, and dolphins on their daily wanderings. We also had great people watching as tourists loaded and unloaded from the water taxis and tour boats. Huge car carriers and freighters slowly navigated the bay all day. We were also across from the fuel dock so we'd watch pleasure boats, ferries, mail boats and even the shrimp boats fueling up.

Shrimp boat taking on fuel and ice

View from the docks (photo by Makenzie)

Blossom docked at the Charleston Maritime Center

That said, we haven’t been very good tourists because I’m a wimp and I can’t take the heat! But we’ve had lots of social time and I’ve gotten a lot of quilting done.

On one of our first walks out and about we happened by the Emanual African Methodist Episcopal Church which is just down the road from the marina. It was sobering and heartbreaking to see the church, the thousands of flowers and people paying respect to the victims of such a hateful, cruel crime. 

After we had settled, my Mom drove down to visit us for a few days. We enjoyed the view and the breeze from the fly bridge every evening.  When I saw my Mom in May we talked about a new table topper for the salon. I told her what I’d like and this is what she brought down with her – how beautiful is that?

I love my new table topper – coy & cherry blossoms – perfect J

On the recommendation of a cruising friend (thanks Charlotte!) we visited the amazing Callie’s Hot Little Biscuits one day for breakfast – the.most.amazing.biscuits.ever. (in the narrowest store ever!) We also went to the aquarium which is just a short walk from the marina. The highlight was a brief “4D” movie, Coastal Predators (amazing footage of the great sardine run filmed by the BBC). It’s 3D with the addition of the water spraying and chairs bumping – pretty cool.

Calie’s Hot Little Biscuits

Lick-your-lips tasty!

Martin and Frog at the aquarium

Mom and I went down to see the Angel Oak one afternoon too (thanks Kayleigh for suggestion!) It’s a Live Oak, believed to be around 1500 years old. It’s magnificent.

Angel Oak

My Mom and the Angel Oak

Our next visitors were Martin’s mum, Carole, and her partner, Michael. We spent the first few days relaxing (they had a long trip from the UK) and enjoying our ocean view.

Michael relaxing on the aft deck

Once they had recovered from their travels, Carole and Michael were mad tourists – heading out every day to explore the city.  We spent afternoons and evenings together on Blossom, barbecuing and enjoying the cooler evening temperatures.

Of course we had to explore some of the many wonderful restaurants – we were able to go to Circa 1886, Halls Chop House, the Carolina Ale House and Fig. All were great, but Fig stole the show (though it’s loud!)  We went to the Pure Theatre one evening to see the play, Bad Jews. The acting was excellent but we were all a bit shocked.  It was billed as a comedy but was actually a quite serious play. 

On a slightly cooler day we all went up to Boone Hall Plantation in Mt. Pleasant, one of the oldest working plantations in the country. We toured the gorgeous house, enjoyed the coach tour around the property and learned a great deal from the Slave Street exhibit, “Black History in America”.

Michael and Carole on the avenue

Martin and me (with a map)

Martin taking a rest

A heron hiding in the marsh, love the Spanish moss dripping off the trees

Slave quilts

My cousins also came to visit from upstate New York over a long weekend. Amy, Jeff, Kelsey, their friend Renee and her daughter Makenzie came down to visit with their daughter Kayleigh who lives nearby. We had a fantastic time hanging out with them. On Sunday, we had a barbecue with everyone aboard. Our biggest party to date – we were happy to find that Blossom was plenty big enough to accommodate a 10 person barbecue!

Selfie Stick photo - woo hoo! Counter clockwise: Michael, me, Makenzie, Kelsey, Renee, Amy, Carole.

Martin (yes, there were many tvs at the Carolina Ale House!), Jeff, Renee & Amy

Carole & Michael

The girls! Kayleigh, Kelsey & Makenzie

That evening we broke out the molkky game and Michael crushed the competition with an impressive win!

Excellent photo of the molkky field (photo by Makenzie)

Playing molkky

Jeff flexing into his throw

Martin & Michael strategizing (photo by Makenzie)

Things got racy later in the evening when we broke out Cards Against Humanity. There was much laughter and a lot of giggling.

Reading the card

Reacting to the card  J

Two weeks flew by and suddenly it was time to say goodbye. We had a wonderful visit with Carole & Michael and were thrilled to introduce them to Blossom!

Carole enjoying the view from the fly bridge

Our plans were to start heading south as soon as possible once our guests had all headed home. (I have a nagging voice in my head reminding me that every day brings us closer to peak hurricane season.) We’ve ended up needing to delay our departure, however, due to weather. This gave us time to get our satellite phone worked out (see below) and a few days to head north and visit my Mom in Myrtle Beach (where the next blog post with pick up!)

How's this for a cool pic of our Blossom sign? (Thank you Makenzie!) 

Boat Business:  We’ve managed to get a bit done on Blossom during our stay here as well.

• Wash. Blossom got a professional wash and looked her shiny best for our guests. The indoor cleaning woman didn’t come, but that was okay, she was still pretty sparkly from her June deep clean.
• Pilot House Canvas Screens. These get extremely dirty and the forward port canvas has been getting mildew as well. The ac vent come out right next to the window creating condensation on the window.  Over time and in hot humid weather, this breeds mildew. We did some scrubbing and mildew treatments and they’re looking much better now.
• Black water overboard pump. We got our new pump and hired someone to come help install it. Let’s hope that the end of that for a while at least!
• Diesel. We moved across the way, took on 1200 gallons of fuel and pumped out.
• KVH Satellite Phone. What an ordeal!  We go the unit back from KVH and worked for 2 days.  Martin called and they agreed to send a tech out to the boat along with a brand new unit. It took a day of installing, upgrading software and connecting the new unit to our account, but we now have our satellite phone up and working again – yay!
• Support Strut. We received a support strut for the exhaust elbow on the main engine. There have been a few instances of the turbo being pulled off engines like ours (a John Deere 6090) by the weight of the exhaust elbow and riser. The solution is a strut attached to the engine block and elbow that supports the weight. It hasn't been installed yet, but is on the list!