Charleston

After Jo has been researching quite a lot about shipping everything back to England it all has seemed to come together today as one of the companies rang back and is coming over to give us an estimate on what we would need.

He came and told us all of the information we needed to know and answered any questions what we had.

Now we just have to sort through everything and decided what  wants  taking  back and put it all into boxes.

We haven't got anything else planned to do for the rest of our day which is quite good in a way as it is too hot to do anything.

 

Alex Penney

Change of Pace…

After much deliberating, Kevin and I have decided to pursuit new career opportunities in the UK and call a slightly earlier end to our travels. We have a fantastic adventure which we will always treasure and memories which will last a lifetime. However, we both feel the need for a change of pace, now that time out of the rat race has given us both the opportunity to decide what we want to do next.

We will be completing our travels in New York after sailing in under the Statue of Liberty with Alex, Donna and Mark and we cannot think of a better end to our trip than to end on such a high.

Therefore, we are putting Invincible up for sale for someone to get more use out of her than we will be able to do. If her new owners have half the fun we have had they will be pleased that they too took the leap.

Charleston

After a late start to the day we all went and had showers before we headed into downtown Charleston we were waiting for the marina courtesy van when the broker Peter called who had a few things to sort out and offered to take us in.

He drove us around the peninsular showing us the residential area and where he used to live explaining how it had changed over time, he couldn’t quite drop us off near to where everything was as there had been a gas leak and some of the roads had been closed which caused loads of traffic jams all along the smaller streets.

We eventually made our way to where all of the restaurants were situated and choose to eat in a smoke house which brewed its own beer. Dad and I shared some chicken wings which were very tasty and then came our main course Dad had smoked ribs which he really enjoyed and Jo and I had a pizza each Jo had smoked vegetable and I had smoked bacon, we could see them making the pizza and putting them into the ovens right near to where we were sat.

After our lunch we went for more of a look around of Charleston so we headed toward the water front where the was a huge fountain with lots of children playing in it.

This sign made us all laugh

Also along the pier were a few swing benches so we all had a seat and a few minutes sat there swinging.

Me and Dad

At the end of the pier we could see over Cooper river.

Jo and I

We then had a quick walk through the park and went back on to the main street and had one last drink in a cafe bar before we got the marina van back.

But on the way back Jo and I had noticed that we had missed the main shopping street so we quite disappointed we hadn’t found that.

We got back to the boat and just was relaxing and as it was getting dark we heard a few shouts and when we went to go and see what it was a huge fish had jumped out of the water, we are not sure what it was but it was about six foot long, but hopefully it didn’t die as Dad managed to push it back in to the water after it flapped around and grunted for a little bit.

After that nothing else eventful happened and we just watched the day the earth stood still and went to bed.

 

Alex Penney

Charleston

As the decision had been made to sell the boat here in Charleston there was then quite a lot of plans to be changed and new things to research and other things to sort out.

First of all there was a yacht broker to be found that we were going to sell Invincible with, and that was going to be Charleston yacht sales.

So we went in to the office to talk to them about selling the boat and sorted most things out and in the same afternoon Peter cam around and took pictures of the boat, so we had to do a frantic clean of the boat to get he looking nice for all the photographs.

The day past very quickly and was soon getting quite late, so we went and had showers and ready for some tea out we went to the office to see if there was any other restaurants nearby but it turned out there wasn’t so we ate in the same place as last night. But we didn’t mind as the food there was very nice.

I ended the night by watching pursuit of happiness which i had never seen but thought it was a really good film.

 

Alex Penney

Isle of Hope sail to Charleston

We set off from the Isle of Hope marina surrounded by dolphins coming right up behind the boat and went down the I.C.W and headed for the Atlantic on our way out we saw two fighter jets.

Isle of Hope marina

We soon got out of the channel and what we thought was the sea but it was still only about six metres deep three miles offshore.

We decided to get the fishing rods out to see if we could catch anything but on the first bite we got was on my line and my reeling wasn’t fast enough and it got away, unfortunately we didn’t get anymore catches after that.

Me fishing

But Dad and Jo did see a loggerhead turtle whilst we were on our journey and it was about a metre long but i missed it.

We also managed to get the sails up which is quite rare for around here as there isn’t much wind and mostly motoring along the rivers and canals.

We approached an inlet which looked like it had appropriate shelter of where we could anchor off for the night. It was just off Spit island.

When we got there it was just in time to watch the sunset.

The sunset

We all enjoyed our night eating our tea outside under all the stars and the full moon and in almost silence apart from the noise of the water and the occasionally pesky insect.

In the morning we decided to go up the I.C.W for the rest of our journey we kept our eyes out for otters because they are meant to live around the area of Charleston but we never saw any and we were disappointed, but we did see lots more dolphins and a lot of pelicans.

We then had to wait for the Elliot cut swing bridge to open so we dropped the anchor and waited for a little while but it was soon open and we were approaching Charleston.

From first views it looked very nice and when we were coming in to the marina there was boats everywhere.

We moored up along the mega dock (which every time you walk down it seems to get longer each time!)

Once we settled down we went and found the nearest restaurant as we were all starving and not long after we had eaten we were back to the boat and fast asleep in bed.

 

Alex Penney

Isle of Hope Marina

Today Jo and I set off for our shopping trip we had previously seen that there was a big mall near to where we were staying so we decided that there would be a good place to head to.

When we got there it was around dinner time so we stopped of before our shopping begun to get some dinner we both had a wrap from the food court and set off ready to shop.

We headed straight for Macy’s because Jo had seen they had some nice suits to buy on the internet.

We wondered into the huge shop not knowing where to start as we walked around a few of the corners we found the right section and as well as there being lots of suits to choose from there were a lot of suits in the petite section for Jo.

After we spent a while looking through some of the suits the pile had grown quite a lot and it was getting hard to carry so that  is when Jo started to try on, from the first lot we didn’t find any which were right, so straight back out again to choose some more to try on that time we were successful and we found 4 and later on picked up an additional one making 5 one for everyday of the week.

Next job was to find tops to wear this one also took some time and lots of trying on until we found a few that we liked.

We looked for some shoes to match but didn’t find any appropriate ones they were all summer shoes which wouldn’t be quite right in English weather.

We then decided that we didn’t want to carry all of Jo’s new clothes around with us whilst doing the rest of our shopping so took them back to the car to then go back to Macy’s. This time it was for me because i had seen they had a choice of jeans. I saw some very nice Levi jeans which was very confusing with the sizing but after trying them on i got the right ones.

We were a bit exhausted after all of that shopping so we stopped for a smoothie which we both enjoyed.

We then did a last look around for some shoes but yet again they were mostly sandals and open toed so no luck there.

When we got back to the marina we were surprised at the time because we didn’t think we had been that long and dad was amazed at how much Jo had got.

Meanwhile whilst we were out shopping dad stayed on the boat just tidying up.

Afterwards as we still had the hire car we thought we would make use out of it and would go out for tea at a nice grill that we had seen a little up the road from where we was at the marina.

It turned out to be extremely nice for appetizers dad had blackened tuna bites and Jo and I shared the peel and eat shrimps which are caught locally, the main course was just as good we all chose of the specials as they all sounded so nice, I had tilapia, dad had flounder and Jo had seafood pasta but she got given so much they gave us a box to take it home in and we planned on having it for our dinner tomorrow along with some of the dough balls which they gave us to start with.

Isle of Hope Marina

Today is Sean’s last day in America as he flies home today.

Jo has hired a car and is driving him down to Orlando airport from here which is going to take most of the day.

Dad and I are now giving the boat a good clean because it is surprising how dirty it can get and very quickly too.

We have done the laundry and just getting everything tidied away before Jo gets back.

As we have the hire car i think we might be driving to a nice restaurant tonight for some tea.

 

Alex Penney