Our two months in Charleston passed like lightening, but it was a wonderful visit. How lucky we are to live this vagabond life! We saw many of the local sights and enjoyed visiting with the kids as much as we could. Since the grandbabies are all still so small (3, 2, 2 and 7 months), we mostly used the marina pool to entertain them, but I saw toddlers move from barely sticking toes in the water to swimming across the pool and back alone (with life jackets, of course) and jumping in with no fear of going underwater. I had the wonderful experience of helping three-year-old Caleb take his first underwater swims without his life jacket on, teaching him how to come up and take a breath, then keep swimming. The satisfied look on his face when he made it by himself four or five feet without sinking was amazing to experience. Hilary often cooked dinner for us, and Greg entertained everyone from the miracle of his Big Green Egg yesterday. Funny that my kids are such great cooks--I guess they had to learn because I never was that great at it.

We also made new friends of the liveaboards and transients at the marina. One couple came in last week on a Manta 40, 9 Lives, a two year newer version of our What If. The only difference between the 38 and 40 is extra length in the sugar scoops in the stern. The layout is identical to ours. They very graciously allowed us to walk through their vessel and compare notes. They are fairly new liveaboard cruisers so we shared some tips with them as well.

The marina at St. Johns Yacht Harbor was amazing--clean, fabulous facility and that wonderful pool--all at a very reasonable price. It was not where we could walk into town, but we did have a car that allowed us to get around. We were only about 10 minutes from downtown Historic Charleston by car, and about 15-20 minutes from the kids. Charleston is a lovely city, and we very much enjoyed visiting downtown often. We didn't see everything, but we will get back there again I'm sure. Oh, and the Ye Olde Ice Cream Shop was on the way to everything--we highly recommend that one.

Now on to the St. Johns River aboard Sea Soul. We will then complete our work on What If, get her back in the water, and then move her next door to Sea Soul so we can move aboard. We will stay nearby to care for Sea Soul and show her to prospective buyers. It's a bit bittersweet because I love this boat so much, but I am sure we will be very happy on What If, too.

Unfortunately, I went swimming with my phone where most of my Charleston pictures were, but I do have a few left.

Charleston May 2014

Charleston June & July 2014