Goodbye America

Monday 27th
A quiet sea day, disturbed by something going wrong down the corridor about 3.00 this morning. I think it was water again!  Wyn, Mark 1 & I attended the lecture "Designation Writing & Culture Series: Journalling your trip #1". Turned out to be the comedy of the day. This guy puts himself out as a travel expert, so we learned that you need a ringbound, lined, hardcovered book - preferably with musical notes on it and that pencils can break, so a ballpoint pen is preferable.  Plus so many other gems that I can't repeat them all.  I think he must work for a paper distribution company, as his further advice was to label a large envelope each day to contain anything collected that day,..... 

After that Wyn & I felt that we needed to walk it off, as did Vivian & Maureen.  We had lunch together before bridge as usual. Pleased to say that our coughs have pretty well gone and we are feeling almost 100%. The temperature today had been 32+, so quite pleasant.  Tomorrow they are predicting higher temperatures as well as humidity

Tuesday 28th
Sailed up the river to Charleston before sunrise. Our room service breakfast arrived early at 6.20, so we were all done and dusted before we tied up at 7.00. It is a little smelly and clearly the water is shallow.  The gulls and other birds love it when we use our thrusters as we come aside as we stir up the muddy bottom and their food source.  Also noted half a dozen small dolphin meandering around.  Our tour doesn't assemble until 8.10, so we are just sitting on the balcony watching the sun rise.  Yes, it has the feeling of a hot day coming up.

The tour was to Boone Hall Plantation & Gardens, which is one of the oldest plantations, although cotton is a thing of the past due to the bowl weevil, which wiped out the area many years ago.  They are actually growing peaches now!  The setting is magnificent and has been used in many period films & productions, but unfortunately the homestead is #4 built in the 1930s. The first burned down, the second destroyed by hurricane and the third just didn't suit the then new owner. 

The slave cabins and old cotton gin have been retained & the outer grounds are original.  We really enjoyed that part.  The tour of the homestead was really a waste of time as we only saw 3 rooms (one of which was in state of renovation) and given the age, it wasn't very exciting.  The upper 2 floors are where the owners live and was obviously off limits.

Following this we had a pretty substantial drive around Charleston and saw the old sector, with the traditional houses which have the front door to one side, opening onto a porch running the length of the house. I can only assume that this was because it always rains, allowing guests to drip dry outside first ☺☺ It certainly wasn't raining today, it is about 37 degrees and a bit sticky, although great sitting on the deck in the shade. 

We also went through the new and more wealthy areas and drove around the universities, one which is a military one with great facilities.  It was explained that Charleston is very much a place for young 18 to 22 year olds. I'd have to agree as we walked through town later.  Charleston is not what I expected, much better and certainly smaller.  The people are great and much of the infrastructure and buildings are also in good order, but there are areas which have stagnated and show signs of neglect.

It turns out that my earlier comments about shallow water etc. are sightly incorrect, as the Cooper River, which is the main one, is the deepest in all southern America and the Polaris Submarine base is a further 9 or 10 miles up the river.  There are also 2 major shipping ports on the river and their main exports are planes, huge jet engines and BMWs.  We were told by our guide (tongue in cheek) that that translates to "Bubba Makes Wheels"!! Seriously though there were literally 1,000+ BMWs on the wharf to be exported to Amsterdam, from where we will buy them as European vehicles. It is a global economy after all.

Back to our tour.  We jumped off in town rather than going back to the ship and found town to be very small, predominantly strip shopping.  Having said that, major brand shopping though.  Found a little cafe off the main street and had a lovely coffee and quiche for $17, which we thought was good value and tasty. The place was empty when we arrived but filled up with Uni people and locals while we sat in the window.  He was South African and the girl was American, but didn't have a southern drawl. We had a good chat and once again, extremely friendly people.

After a further walk through town (it's only about 1 km), appreciating the shops with doors open and air con flowing out, we headed back to the ship via the markets, which cover the equivalent of a couple of blocks.  Had an iced coffee on board and retired to the cabin to update this blog.

We sailed away on time at 5.00 and were escorted all the way out by US Coastguard.  They don't fool around, there is one of the crew manning the forward machine gun all the time and as we sailed out through the channel there were 3 or 4 times when they sped ahead to cut off pleasure craft who may have been a little too close.  I think that if we were in Kawau Bay and someone with a machine gun came up to us, I'd be off to. The only time I had a doubt about them was when they moved off a boat where 2 bikini clad girls were fishing - ummm a bit too close ☺😊😀😁😂

So here we are on our way to Curacao in 4 days.  The Caribbean is looking good and the Captain has reported that on our way we will be travelling through the Bermuda Triangle, so if there are no further posts to this blog..............