We ended up spending three nights in Charleston as a very strong front came through with high winds. However, we were happy to have 'been forced" to spend more time in this wonderful city. We spent two separate afternoons wandering about this old city.

Charleston is on a peninsula and there is a major street which cuts across called Broad Street. The really lovely places are South of Broad (SOB); and there are many of them. Charleston is also called the City of Churches and we did, indeed find a fine old Catholic Cathedral and decided to go to the 5:15 Sunday service. We took the Marina shuttle to the service and another couple in whose company we had been travelling but not met were also going to mass. It was very impressive; to those Catholics, the service was what we would have known as a "high mass" and it has nothing to do with wacky incense. It was very formal and included some parts of the mass in Latin. It brought me back to my youth and it was quite moving.

After the service we and our new friends Brad and Mary, decide to go out to dinner at a very nice restaurant. A fitting end to a nice day.

Forgot to mention, we had another visit this morning from the Customs and Border Patrol guys this morning. Another pair like the pair from the day before. The guy in charge was officious and corpulent; the "sidekick" was proper and quiet. The guy in charge proceeded to dress us down for not checking in. He gave us a formal citation and warned that if we were caught again, we would be subject to a $5000 fine and could forfeit the boat. Anyway, once they had done this whole procedure they gave us some documents (including the citation) intended to help us with the mystery of "calling in". It is no clearer now than it was before but the stakes are higher now; we don't want to lose our boat!

On Monday, we had hoped to leave but the wind had us pinned to the wharf. The winds blew 20 to 30 with higher gusts. Fortunately the fetch was not nearly as bad as Oriental so while it was noisy and a bit uncomfortable, it was not potentially damaging. So we made good use of the day, again going on a great hike SOB (South of Broad). Judy had found several "house tours" and picked one. Talk about a spectacular visit; an amazing house build in the early 1800's. A few relevant facts; the lot on which it was build cost $40,000 and the construction cost $200,000. Pretty hefty numbers for this era. Anyway, it was an amazing tour and to top it off, one of Judy's favourite movies,"The Notebook"used this house for many of the sets.

We had Brad and Mary for dinner and had a very enjoyable evening. The wind abated and tomorrow promises to be better.