The last time I was in Charles was when I lived in Sumter, SC in 1978. By car, not boat. This time, we came down the ICW from the north into the busy harbor. The two marinas on the riverfront city side were full. The one with space was on the other side of a bridge with 56' clearance, which was 2 feet short of what we need. So we opted to dock at Patriot's Point, across the Cooper River from the city. This turned out to be a wise choice. The marina had great floating docks, nice facilities, a view of the town and harbor, and a free trolley into the city. Oh, and did i mention, the Yorktown aircraft carrier was a dockmate?

We took advantage of the trolley to spend a day in historic Charleston. Most of the dilapidated faded buildings i remember have been replaced by shops and restaurants. The market is still there but part is enclosed and air conditioned. The Daughters of the Confederation Museum however, is still the same.... a step back in time to the 1860s with memorabilia from the war encased in simple cases and frames (a button, a lock of hair, a scrap of fabric) with handwritten notes to explain the significance. We walked along a narrow street of Charleston style row houses to the battery, where we could see Ft Sumter off in the distance. Our day ended at a pub with half priced oysters and other seafood delights.

The second day we took the opportunity to tour the Yorktown where we explored the ship from flight deck to bridge. They have some great interactive displays including one of the space ship Apollo where you see and feel the take off and landing of the capsule.

We found the College of Charleston sailing team facility was two docks away from our slip. They appear to have terrific program with a large fleet of boats. We watched their sailing instructor, Ned, fly by on his moth as we docked. OMG.