Wrightsville Beach was a great place to be, but we had to
move south. One day we decided to do a long run down the coast, all the way to
Charleston South Carolina. We both stayed up with a few cat naps here and
there, and anchored in the Ashley River. The nearby Charleston City Marina was
a safe place to leave the dinghy while we explored the historic city. One
shocking sight as we anchored, were the boats beached from the remnants of hurricane
Irma earlier this year, locals attributing the mishaps to be from poor anchoring
for storm conditions.
Charleston, S.C. was once home to one of the main slave
markets in the southern United States, and it was here where the first shot of
the American Civil War was fired. We visited the Boone Hall Plantation, where a
mansion was preserved, along with a number of slave cabins, each portraying a
different theme of slaves and their daily lives. This plantation was also used
in Hollywood movies including Queen, North and South, and The Notebook. Beautiful giant Live Oaks with Spanish moss lined the long driveway. On
September 22, 1862, President Abraham Lincoln finally put and end to
slavery in the United States, and declared that on January 1, 1863, all slaves
would be freed. We felt terribly sad about the whole slavery thing, but were
proud to be Canadians, from a country that was the final safe haven for runaway
slaves through the “underground railroad”.
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| Live oaks and Spanish moss line the driveway to Boone Hall |
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| Boone Hall |
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| A few of the slave cabins - each housed two families |
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| Tour guide of the Boone Hall Plantation, still a private residence. |
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| Beautiful buildings line the streets in downtown Charleston |
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| Historical plaque in downtown "Old Charleston" |
From Charleston, we sailed 4 days to the Bahamas, Spanish
Cay to be specific, in the northern Abacos Islands. It was a long tough sail,
with favourable winds, but stronger than either of us liked, resulting in
mountainous seas. It was hard sailing in the day with everything reefed, but
much harder at night, when you couldn’t see a thing. Karen had packed a "goodie bag" filled with all sorts of delicious, easy to eat snacks, and it proved to be invaluable to keep us going through the worst of the passage. Needless to say, we were
overjoyed to drop the hook in a sheltered anchorage and catch up on our sleep.
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| Flying the "Q" flag, awaiting entry into the Bahamas at Spanish Cay Marina |
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| Karen at one of the beautiful beaches on Spanish Cay |
We cleared customs at Spanish Cay Marina and enjoyed a day
visiting several beautiful beaches, swimming in the pool and relaxing!
