Friday 4/06 Our original plan was to spend another full
day here in Beaufort, but Saturday's weather is not looking condusive for a long
day of travel.
We decided to make a run
for Charleston, SC today and left our dock at 7:30.
Loopers Lady Bug led the way and Seaquest
& Ned Pepper followed us.
Our
caravan took us 7 hours to reach St. John's Yacht Harbor Marina; it's a
beautiful facility just outside of town but really no where to walk to from
here.
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| Approaching St. John's Yacht Harbor |
Alice called the City Marina
(tomorrow's destination) to confirm our reservation and had a nice chat with
Tray.
After the phone call Tray called
back and "even though this sounds weird" highly recommend we dine at
the Fat Hen just down the road.
Well our
chicken wasn't fully defrosted for our planned dinner on board and how often
does a perfect stranger call you back with an unsolicited restaurant
endorsement.
We called to see I'df we
could get a reservation at the Fat Hen and were told 8:45 (too close to Looper
midnight time of 9:00).
Fat Hen
indicated if we made it down there earlier and were willing to sit at the bar
they'd make it happen. . .and they did just that.
We got one seat at the bar next to a couple
leaving shortly.
We figured out while
talking to this local couple that they saw us go by there house earlier today
"four trawlers in a row".
We
had a drink, ordered dinner and some other folks sat down beside us and we had
a
great time getting to know them as
well.
Southern manners and friendliness.
. .cant beat it.
The food and service
was fantastic; Tray did us right by that recommendation.
Saturday 4/07 We have a very short run this morning over
to Charleston City Marina.
We received a
call from them that we could come over after 10:00.
We left the dock about 9:45 and took about an
hour to get over there.
It is a huge
marina with a number of very large boats.
The largest privately owned yacht, Athena at 295 feet, is often docked here. We are tied up behind a 100' Swan sailboat called Red Sky (it can be
yours for $3.45 million).
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| Charleston, SC |
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| Observer was put on the outside of the marina's Megadock. It was a great view, but very rolly from all the passing boat traffic |
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| Our boat neighbor, Red Sky, a 100' swan sailboat on the market for 3.45 million |
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| We last saw this schooner three years ago n Vineyard Haven |
We settled in
grabbed Millie and went exploring in town.
Once again, very cool downtown properties and trees.
We found a great spot 'Queen Street Grocery' where we shared a fabulous salad and grilled Italian sandwich. Millie met a friend Frankie (6 mo. old Labradoodle who the owners call Frank when they really want his attention or Frances when it's real serious).
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| Dining al fresco with Millie outside the Queen Street Grocery watching these go by. |
We walked over to King Street doing some window shopping when the beginning of the predicted bad weather started. We hi-tailed it back to the boat. We spent the rest of the day on board and grilled up some chicken on the grill.
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| The pouring rain |
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| This photo, taken of a submerged sailboat in the middle of the harbor, was taken off our starboard side during the storm. |
Sunday 4/08 Sunny but cool 45 degrees. We got a ride to the local grocery store by
the marina courtesy shuttle and did our provisioning. Charleston has 'Second Sunday' every month
and it's today. They close King Street
to pedestrian traffic only and it's a festive atmosphere through out where
stores bring many goods outside, al fresco dining, street performers, food
trucks and lots of people like us walking their dogs on a beautiful Sunday
afternoon. It was a great time.
At 4:30 the Local yacht broker St. Barts hosted docktails right near our marina for all Loopers in the area. We must have had 40 of us their as well as some of the staff from the AGLCA. We caught up with old friends and met many new Loopers - thank you St. Bart's!
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| St. Bart's Docktail party for Loopers |
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