October 28. It has been a busy week since my last entry.

On Sunday morning we moved the boat over to the Charleston Maritime Center on the banks of the Cooper River. We’ve taken a slip for the upcoming week because several of Christy’s family members are coming to Charleston for her parent’s 50th wedding anniversary.

The marina is very close to major shipping and as a result is extremely rolly. Our assigned slip is one of the more protected in the marina but is still pretty uncomfortable in the right/wrong circumstances. On the bright side however, is the price. Between the low per foot rate and the fact that we’re getting a weekly rate we’re paying less than a third of the cost of a stay in Saint Augustine for the same length of time.

We were in the slip a couple of days early so we could take advantage of our remote slip and unlimited fresh water to do some boat cleaning. We have a 10 by 70 foot concrete floating dock all to ourselves. In short order we had all of our cockpit cushions, teak cockpit grating and interior rugs spread out on the dock for washing and vacuuming.

There’s also a laundry mat here on the premises. Oh yeah, and it’s FREE. It’s only 1 washer and 1 dryer but they’re clean, work well and are FREE. We got 3 loads done and were caught up on everything.

Once the family and guests of honor arrived we pretty much did the tourist thing all over Charleston. It’s kind of a funny feeling for us as we’ve just come from Washington, DC. The museums and attractions are all free, while here in Charleston they charge you pretty handsomely for everything except breathing.

The main event of the week was the party celebrating Christy’s parent’s 50th wedding anniversary. Christy, her brother Dave and their accomplices have been busy trying to make the event a very special evening. It’s been a real challenge finding the right restaurant, flowers etc. while arranging special surprises since none of the conspirators are from Charleston. In the end everything was perfect and it was realized that having all the attendees together was really the best part of the evening.

There was a horse drawn tour, a tour on a bus and attractions such as Fort Sumter, the Yorktown aircraft carrier at Patriots Point Park and the Hunley civil war submarine exhibit. We’d been pretty busy everyday seeing one thing or another.

The tour of Fort Sumter started and ended with a forty minute boat ride out to the fort. It was news to me that the fort sits on a man made island that was built over the course of 15 years by bringing granite from New England and dumping it onto a sand bar in 9 feet of water. This first battle of the Civil War lasted 34 nonstop hours with over 4000 projectiles being fired. It’s hard to believe that nobody on either side was killed in this battle while during the course of the war over 622,000 Americans would die. It’s a very impressive story and was a great tourist stop for us.

The Yorktown sits straight across the Cooper River from us in our slip. Everyone tells you to plan on spending at least 4 hours when you decide to go over and see the Yorktown. I’m thinking an hour and a half max. I was wrong.

The complex at Patriot Point Park houses an aircraft carrier, a diesel submarine, a destroyer, a large Coast Guard cutter and a re-creation of a naval support base straight from the jungles of Vietnam. The Yorktown is divided up into a half dozen self guided tours that lead you through the labyrinth of passageways that crisscross the huge ship. The flight deck and hanger deck are full of vintage warplanes.

The Clamagore was a post World War II diesel submarine. The companion ways offered a lot more headroom than I had envisioned although the hatches between compartments were pretty tight to navigate. It was definitely a tight fit for the eighty man crew.

The destroyer, “Icantrememberthename” was a pretty nice vessel as well. It was designed to be fast, maneuverable and to be able to deliver a pretty good punch as well. It surprised me that there was a dedicated chapel on board. The “church” had room for 6 chairs and a small altar; it even had 2 small stained glass windows.

The Coast Guard cutter had sunk a submarine in WWII and had stopped eleven drug runners in its latest role in the war against drugs before retiring to Patriots Point.

We spent about 4 hours at Patriots Point and easily could have spent the better part of the day there.

The Hunley was a civil war era submarine that is credited with being the first submarine to sink a warship. Interestingly enough, the next successful submarine attack wouldn’t happen for over fifty years when the Germans started using U-boats in WWI. The Hunley sank the Union blockade vessel the USS. Housatonic. She was an eight man deathtrap, err, vessel that was powered by 7 men turning a hand crank to spin a propeller. The eighth man, the captain, controlled the direction and depth of the sub. Illumination was provided by a single small candle. It also served as the low oxygen warning system. When the candle went out due to lack of oxygen then they had to surface, get some fresh air and submerge once again.

The vessels weapon was a single bomb that was attached to the front of the sub on a long spar protruding from the bow of the boat. She attacked by ramming the spar into the side of her target leaving the bomb impaled under the waterline of her victim. As the Hunley backed away a 150 foot long line unwound until they were far enough away to be pulled, setting off the explosive charge.

Under the cover of darkness, and after dealing a mortal blow to the USS. Housatonic the Hunley surfaced to show a blue lantern indicating to the Confederates on shore that they had completed their mission. Then they disappeared without a trace for 137 years.

The Hunley was finally located in the year 1995 in 28 feet of water, just 4 miles outside the mouth of the Charleston Inlet. She had made it a good portion of the way home before mysteriously sinking with the loss of all hands.

The Hunley was raised intact in 2000 and now rests in a state of the art restoration tank and is slowly being saved from rusting away. The crew was found, still at their battle stations and were given a full Confederate military funeral after complete identification through the use of DNA testing.

This week has been a whirlwind of activity. We’ve eaten way too much and need to lay down for a bit.