Sailing to Beaufort NC USA

Leaving Charleston

We set the alarm for a little after 4am and were on our way from our anchorage in Charleston within the hour. Charleston is a busy commercial port and we were passed by a number of large ships as we made our way out through the entrance.

Glassy calm in the afternoon

The forecast for the day had been for some wind to help us on our way (whereas the previous day’s breeze would have been firmly against us) but instead it was light and variable to begin and then glassy calm in the early afternoon.  So we motored – and achieved quite a lot in terms of catching up with the blog backlog [Ed: the blog backlog will become a bit of a theme!]

Happily the local dolphin population didn’t care about the lack of wind and joined us several times during the passage for some entertainment (theirs and ours) by day and night.  At night we could see them zipping around BV’s bow like phantoms trailing long cloaks of phosphorescence.

The wind eventually materialised at about 1700 and we sailed wing on wing with the genoa poled out to starboard for the next 5 hours or so.  The forecast had suggested that once it had arrived, the wind would remain with us until our expected arrival in Beaufort, so we were disappointed when it died out again and, once more we resorted to motoring.  In the early hours, off the Frying Pan Shoals of Cape Fear we gybed the mainsail but the wind didn’t fill in again enough to sail until breakfast time.

[Ed:  Photo from slightly later in the passage, just after we had lowered the mainsail to approach Beaufort]

From then on in though we had a cracking sail in ever increasing winds.  We’d planned the passage to reach Beaufort before the next front came through, bringing with it a forecast near gale for several days [Ed: hence our enthusiasm to motor through the very light winds].  Those final 8 or 9 hours brought the best sailing of the passage – as well as more bow wave riding fun for the dolphins.

By the time we reached the entrance to the inlet at Beaufort/Morehead City there was a good southwesterly Force 6 blowing, so we took down the mainsail and headed for the channel under poled out genoa alone.  With shallows on either side and a strong onshore wind there was a lot of sea in the approach but the channel is deep and well marked, so it was an exciting approach rather than a nerve-wracking one.

And once we were in through the narrow entrance everything was far more peaceful.

Making our way in towards Beaufort.  Top: Passing Radio Island and the red-roofed apartment block which is a clear marker from a long way out.  Middle: Beaufort ahead.  Bottom: Taylor’s Creek out to starboard

Taylor’s Creek is the main anchorage off Beaufort and the town has recently cleared it of a large number of semi-wrecked and deserted boats.  Even so, it looked pretty busy and the tide runs swiftly through it so that the boats all swing at anchor on the changes of the tide.

Continuing up towards Town Creek with the new fixed road bridge between Beaufort and Morehead City in the background

With the wind forecast to blow a gale overnight we decided to anchor in the less well-frequented Town Creek.  The anchorage in Town Creek is pretty much out of the tidal flow so the boats sit to the wind rather than the tide, which makes working the geometry of anchoring amongst others a lot easier.

Anchored by the new road bridge

But, as it turned out, we were the only yacht in that anchorage so we had our choice of space amongst the couple of moored boats.  And to celebrate reaching Beaufort we cooked ourselves up a homemade pizza dinner and ate it whilst listening to the wind howl through the rigging.

Sailing to Beaufort, North Carolina, USA

Charleston SC USA (Part 2)

The Aiken-Rhett House

Ollie drove us all back to Charleston on Wednesday 1 May and after lunch on board BV we headed out to give them a short tour of the city since neither of them had visited it before.  Nicky was keen to see inside one of the old mansions and the Aiken-Rhett House (c1820), which we visited, is one with a bit of a difference:  the organisation that maintains it has not restored the building, rather it is being preserved in the state that they obtained it, peeling wallpaper and everything.

The ballroom, painted this dark green at some point in the 20th century, the room was originally wallpapered throughout

It is quite odd to wander around the preserved property.  Most of the decoration in the lower part of the house is not from the mid-nineteenth century but is more modern, where more recent owners have updated in the current style.  But in places, glimpses of the 1800s can be seen under a peeling corner of wallpaper and the historic society has several photographs of the property in its prime.

Note the hideous marble and tile fireplace surround.  Not an original feature but an addition to try to make the fireplace more efficient

Left: original wallpaper

The veranda (though it has another name in Charleston).  Note the traditional curved lovers’ seat on the street-side.  The potential couple would start at opposite ends of the seat and gradually shuffle in towards the centre

Around 2 sides of the building, on 2 levels are wide balconies overlooking a narrow verdant garden and the street.  This feature of southern architecture helps to catch cooling breezes and funnel them into the house and the balconies were as much a public room of the property as the ballroom and dining room.  Here friends would be entertained (perhaps over a mint julep?) and potential suitors courted on the curved lovers’ seat.

Steps into the house from the rear courtyard

Whilst much of the inside of the house has been changed over the years, the yard, the coach houses and the other buildings at the back are almost as they would have been in the building’s prime.  In fact, this is one of few houses in Charleston with essentially original slave quarters and this reason alone makes it an important historic structure.

Courtyard, coachouse and slave quarters.  Top left: Looking along the courtyard back towards the house.  The coachouse is on the right of this picture with slave quarters over.  On the left was the laundry and a kitchen with further slave quarters above.  Top right: Looking down the courtyard away from the house.  Note the high walls and gates surrounding the property

On the upper floors, the original nineteenth century decoration is more in evidence.  Here though, the water damage resulting from the ravages of hurricanes after the house was left empty is more obvious.

Just one room, the art gallery, has been restored and air conditioning installed, and that to maintain the fabric of the paintings and the sculptures that came with the property.  The artwork is impressive and very much of the period but not greatly to our taste – the paintings are generally quite dark and over dramatic and the sculptures, whilst fabulously detailed, have a bit too much ancient Greek mythology and tragedy about them.  But all the items, including the furniture, were inspired by their owners’ trips to Europe; a European tour was de rigour for the wealthy in the mid-nineteenth century.  Some pieces were acquired there and brought back, others were commissioned in the style, for example the sculpture and the paintings of the lady of the house.

House visit complete, we showed Ollie and Sheen some of our favourite parts of old town Charleston, including the craft market and some of the more beautiful mansions (from the outside only).  And Sheena was delighted when we came across the ‘Christmas in Charleston’ shop and bought some souvenir decorations for their tree, though it seems a bit early in the year to think about Christmas to us [Ed: but then anything before about mid-December does, by which time it’s almost too late!]

Civil War submarine, HL Hunley – truly a deathtrap

Not far from the Aiken-Rhett House we came across a model of the HL Hunley, the first submarine in history to sink an enemy ship.  It was a vessel of the Confederate navy and was designed and built to try to break the Union’s blockade of Charleston.  The bulb on a stick at its bow was a bomb and the idea was to ram an enemy vessel and then set off the bomb to sink it; a risky business for the fledgling submariners!  But the HL Hunley achieved her aim and on the night of 17 February 1864 sank the Federal blockading vessel Housatonic, in the process becoming the first submarine in history to sink an enemy ship.  But she never returned to port after the event.  The wreck was eventually found in 1995 and raised in 2000 and it was then realised that the original vessel was 17” shorter in height than this model which was made in 1967.  ‘Cramped’ really doesn’t do justice to the description of the real thing!

Ollie and Sheena left us in the late afternoon for the drive back to Myrtle Beach and the rest of their holiday relaxing and recovering from their busy jobs.  We spent Thursday 2 May busy with a big supermarket shop (the marina shuttle-bus gave us a lift there and back), laundry and filling up with water.  Tasks complete we took a final wander around the city.

It’s worth saying again:  the historic part of Charleston is beautiful with huge numbers of elegant buildings…..

….quiet side streets, verdant courtyards and a ‘thing’ about gas lanterns [Ed: we overheard one of the carriage tour guides talking a bit about the gas lamps but we didn’t get the full detail.  However, they certainly appear to be a decorative feature on many of the older houses and more than you would expect have real gas flames].

Some of the properties in the old city are just huge.  Clearly the original owners had them built with an eye to demonstrating their vast wealth and to show off just how successful their plantations and other various businesses were.  Equally clearly, there is still a significant pool of wealth in this city today.  The amount of money required to keep these properties going (general everyday buildings and gardens maintenance, heating/cooling and lighting), let alone refurbish them in the first place, must be immense.  But for those of us who get to enjoy the views they create it’s a wonderful use of that wealth.

White Point Garden.  The Battery, just out of view in this picture is the most southern point of historic Charleston

View north up the Cooper River towards the bridge

With the tides and the weather conspiring to require a very early start for us on Saturday 4 May, we moved out of the marina on Friday 3 May.  Marinas in the US are very expensive so, with our week’s deal expired, we saw no point in paying a full day’s charge for half a day’s use of the marina when we could anchor off, east-southeast of the marina and nearly due south of the White Point Garden and The Battery, with great views across to the old city.  We had a very settled afternoon and evening swinging on our hook to the tide and it was by far an easier place than the marina to get going from the following morning when we were looking at a 4am start!

View across the Ashley River to the old city.  White Point Garden on the riverside left of centre to the left side of the picture

Charleston, South Carolina, USA

Myrtle Beach and Georgetown SC USA

Several months previously, Ollie and Sheena, who are good friends from our time in the RAF, had said they were planning a trip to the USA to see other friends in Chicago and could they meet up with us somewhere on the east coast as a part of that holiday?  Which was the reason that we were in Charleston at the time we were.  Oli and Sheena took an apartment in Myrtle Beach for a few days and then ever so kindly drove down to Charleston to pick us up.  We’d not fully appreciated how long a drive it is between the two locations.

We took with us the last of the marlin steaks to share on our first evening with them, which went down very well with a glass or two of wine and plenty of catching up.

Myrtle Beach isn’t really the most photogenic of places but Ollie and Sheena live a fair distance from the sea so a morning walk along the beach, collecting shells and paddling in the (rather cool) surf was a must.  And then we took a trip to Georgetown, which came recommended as a place to visit.

Georgetown’s main street

Our first impressions of the place weren’t overwhelmingly positive.  But as we wandered around, the place started to grow on us.

At first glance the clocktower is fairly modern brick building.  But a nearby Historic Society plaque told us otherwise.  The ‘Greek Revival’ market and town hall was built in 1842 after a fire destroyed much of Front Street.  The open-air market was at street level, with the Town Hall above and, much to our surprise, the clock tower and belfry were added in 1845.  It was from here, in 1865, that the town council surrendered Georgetown to the US Navy.  It never fails to surprise us just how recent the US Civil War was.

Georgetown was formally founded in 1729, which makes it the third oldest city in South Carolina (after Charleston and Beaufort).  Three years later it became an official port of entry, allowing foreign exports and imports to come through Georgetown rather than Charleston.  Consequently, the city grew and thrived with traders, merchants and planters being key to wealth production.

Georgetown Town Docks

Whilst the town docks are now primarily leisure boaters’ territory, just a short distance downstream is a woodmill and paper pulping factory and the inlet which links the ocean and the ICW is an important one for commercial shipping and leisure vessels alike.  We enjoyed strolling the boardwalk along the town docks, though we were surprised to see so many baby alligators and terrapins in the shallows underneath it.

Houses of some of the wealthiest early residents

And one of the oldest surviving properties

Kaminski House – one of over 60 pre-Revolutionary War properties in Georgetown, now a museum.  It was built by Paul Trapier, a prominent local businessman who was considered to be one of the wealthiest citizens of the colony.  The house is typical of the ‘single house’ construction of the period and was built to catch the breeze coming off the river

The shrimp dock

A little blurred and out of focus – much like the end of the evening!

Down at the commercial dock the shrimp boats had just got in when we arrived.  We debated our options for dinner and decided on cooking in.  We bought a good quantity of shrimp from the fishing co-op right next to the dock and, on the way back to Myrtle Beach picked up some large steaks.  Back at the apartment, Ollie and I did the ‘man, fire, beer’ thing whilst Nicky and Sheena stayed in the warm (even late April evenings are surprisingly cool in South Carolina) and ‘fixed’ the ‘sides’ [Ed: and drank wine!].  And we had another great evening with fab friends.

Morning views along Myrtle Beach

Myrtle Beach and Georgetown, South Carolina, USA

Charleston SC USA (Part 1)

We thought it rather nice that Charleston celebrated our arrival with fireworks

With 2½ days in Charleston before we were due to meet our friends Ollie and Sheena, we had a mixture of admin to do as well as wanting to do some sightseeing.  Our first priority was to buy an American SIM card for our phone to facilitate communications and then to do something about our meagre wine stocks so that we could celebrate our return to the USA.  We got a taxi from the marina to the AT&T shop which turned out to be in a large mall area along with a Harris Teeter supermarket and the city’s West Marine [Ed:  had we known that we’d have cadged a lift with the West Marine van we saw at the marina as we were ordering the taxi!].  Sim card purchased we bought a few items at West Marine and the all-important wine (and some food) from Harris Teeter and then tried to get a taxi back to the marina.  But to no avail.  It seems as if the mall is too far out of town for any self-respecting taxi driver to wish to visit.  An hour later we were still waiting so we blued some of the sim card’s data on setting up an Uber account and ordering an Uber, which took all of 5 minutes, and 2 minutes later the car had arrived and we were en route back to the marina.  Lesson learned!

We spent a couple of hours first thing on Saturday 27 April rebuilding the water pump for the generator which had failed down in the Bahamas, discovering in the process that the problem was a failure of the impeller.  Not that the impeller’s vanes had broken, rather the impeller’s central hub which connects with the pump had become detached from the main body of the impeller.  Thus, the hub turned with the water pump but the main body of the impeller (including the vanes) didn’t which meant that the impeller didn’t push water through the generator’s cooling system.  Not exactly useful but it took very close inspection to find the fault.

Old town Charleston.  Left: The old market.  Previously a produce market (not the slave market as many people think).  Now a centre for crafts and artisan produce. Right: Carriage rides are a big thing

The Municipal Marina runs an hourly shuttle service into the centre of town, so we hopped onto one of the runs and were dropped off by the old market.  We wandered through enjoying the wide array of crafts, artisan products, delicatessens and other food outlets before ranging further into the old city centre.

Charleston’s US Custom House, though we’re not sure that CBP operates from here these days

The US Custom House is one of many, many very impressive buildings in the city and we enjoyed wandering the streets drinking in the architecture and the atmosphere.

Charleston also seems to be a city of churches and, being a springtime Saturday in a beautiful city, there were wedding parties everywhere we looked.

Bottom left house, 36 Meeting Street

Charleston is home to many stunning, very old buildings and some of them have additional historic significance too.  Number 36, Meeting Street is one such building.  To precis the Preservation Society of Charleston’s plaque: ‘Built by a Huguenot carpenter in 1743 it was later the family home of Captain William Hall, a naval hero of the Revolutionary War, who was imprisoned by the British when they took Charleston in 1780.  The house was later bought by another Revolutionary War veteran, Col Lewis Morris, who was aide de camp to Gen Nathanael Greene when the latter liberated Charleston.  The house still retains the original kitchen fireplace with a rare surviving beehive oven.’  It’s a pretty impressive history but, to be honest, we’re more impressed by the fact that it’s wooden and didn’t end up burned down when the city was taken by the British or retaken by the Americans.  And it’s an awfully large house for a Huguenot carpenter – he must have been doing very well.

Walking around, the wealth that created the old city is clear to see.  That wealth was based on trade in tobacco which, in turn, was based on the slave trade.  Whilst by no means swept under the carpet, that part of the city’s history is hardly visible today.  It’s very easy to wander the streets and take in the beauty of the architecture and almost entirely forget how much misery and cruelty generated the money to create these elegant streets.

In the days before air conditioning, balconies and verandas formed an essential part of a southern mansion’s cooling system and frequently doubled as one of a home’s many public rooms.  Top left: Calhoun Mansion, a famous Charleston landmark, still a private home but which is open to the public at certain times.  We had hoped to visit but ran out of time to do so.  Bottom right:  A typical Charlestonian architectural feature can (just) be seen in this picture.  The mansion has a false façade on the street front, which shuts off the view that a passer-by would otherwise have onto the balconies.  On the ground floor this end wall incorporates the building’s front door, which opens directly onto the balcony rather than into the main body of the house.  Bottom left: Rainbow Row.  Now elegant (and expensive) town houses, in the city’s youth these buildings were in the dock area and were warehouses, bars and brothels

Cleaning the water tanks.  The tank’s inspection hatch appears white because of the bubbles created by the (foodsafe) cleaning agent

After a day of leisure, Sunday was a day of work.  Chief among the jobs was to flush and clean the water tanks, a job that can only be done with a plentiful supply of fresh water on tap, hence our desire to so the job whilst we were in the marina.  But it wasn’t all work.  Having scoped the city on foot the previous day, we decided to return in the evening for a meal out in one of the restaurants we had seen, and an excellent dinner it was too.

Charleston, South Carolina, USA