John's best friend from middle school, Kenny, and his son, Kaleb, came to the boat to visit. We went to dinner with them at Carolina Seafood. While at dinner, the marina called and said that our boat had been hit and there was some damage. They got all the insurance information from the other boat and since it was so late, they said they would see us in the morning to explain everything. Not the kind of phone call you like to get. Needless to say, it kind of ruined our first night in Charleston.
The next day (Monday), we talked to the dockmaster and he explained how a sailboat was coming into his slip and overshot it, so he was turning around to go back out and try again when another boat was coming in. The current there runs 2-4 knots and his boat got away from him. His anchor punched a hole in our bow pulpit and scraped a few places on the port side. John called the man and advised that we were going to call his insurance company. He was very apologetic. We called the insurance company and they said they would call us back later that day, so we went to town. Why wait around, right???
We caught the marina's shuttle van to downtown and met Gay (John's sister) and Terry (her boyfriend) for a short time. We got a text from Pat and Jack, who asked if we wanted to meet them for drinks. Of course, we're always up for that. In the meantime, we received about four phone calls from Progressive Insurance about our boat. The first one was from Maryland, the second was from Virginia, the third from North Carolia (they're getting closer), and finally the fourth was from an adjuster in the Charleston area. He said he would be at the boat at 8:00 a.m. the next morning.
On Tuesday, bright and early, the adjuster came to the boat right on time. He surveyed the damage for about ten minutes, said he was going to his car to do an estimate, and returned a half hour later with a check for $2,646.77. How's that for service? We were quite amazed at how easy it all was. He said if we get to where we are going and have the boat fixed and it costs more than he estimated, call Progressive and they will send us a check for the difference. I would definitely deal with this insurance company again.
We had only planned on being in Charleston for two nights, but the weather was predicting gale force winds, so we decided to stay an extra two nights until it blew out. Good decision. And, as stated at the beginning of this post, glad we were on the Ashley River side of Charleston. We rocked and rolled, but nothing like they did on the other side. Pat and Jack are on that side and they said they were up all night.
On Wednesday, we awoke to a very cold and windy day. We took the marina van to West Marine (couldn't miss going to West Marine in Charleston, could we?) and bought a Florida cruising guide since ours only covers the Chesapeake Bay to Jacksonville, FL.
Later that afternoon, we went downtown and toured the Old Customs House/Provost Dungeon. A very good tour that I would recommend. The building was the social center of the city when it was built. The second floor was very elegant and many influential meetings were held there. In 1791, Charleston entertained George Washington there with an elaborate ball.
Second floor of old Customs House
The Provost Dungeon located in the cellar was originally used to store goods waiting to be shipped or delivered. But when the city fell to the British, they took over the Customs House and used it as a jail. They also took control of the finest homes and buildings for their headquarters and then arrested their owners and threw them in the dungeon. Some died there of disease before the British evacuated the city.The walls and ceilings are very unique. The tour guide told us that they would stack sand bags in a mound and then lay brick over them. When the mortar dried, they would remove the sand bags and the bricks would remain in place. They've been there for well over 200 years.
The Dungeon
Later that night, we met Pat and Jack to listen to music at a place called Queology. A young man named Kevin Church was playing. He was very good and we didn't leave until 11:30 p.m.
We'll be leaving in the morning, heading to Beaufort, SC. We are now 672 miles from the Bohemia River.
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