Monday June 11: Charleston Revisited

What we had reinforced today: You can make all of the plans you want but the bottom line is the plan isn't always going to work! We left Charleston about 8:00 or so headed off to Georgetown - about 47 miles up the coast of South Carolina. With less than 4/10 of a mile out, the alternator quit putting out voltage and the RPM gauge was sort of stuck at 500 rpm.

Have we seen this before? Yep - the last time it happened the fan belt had broken. So I called down to Steve to check the engine compartment to see if the fan belt was turning. No problem, he said, the belt is intact. But there is antifreeze coming out from somewhere at a somewhat alarming rate.

I wanted to just drop the anchor and check it out but Steve insisted that we go back to the marina we just left. This MAY be one of those times when I MAY have muttered "guess you were right" under my breath. Oh well, he has to be right every once in a while to keep him happy :-)

After much investigation (a water leak is SO HARD to pinpoint), the culprit was the water circulating pump on the front of the engine. Easy fix - drain antifreeze, remove fan belt, remove 4 bolts and put the new

pump on .... except we didn't have a replacement pump. So we have a pump coming tomorrow before noon - might as well enjoy the afternoon here in Charleston.

So off we headed on our bikes. We've ridden around some of Charleston before but last time we came through Steve wasn't riding a bike yet because of his arm. The battery - a point at the south of Charleston overlooking Fort Sumter (start of the civil war) is a really nice park with many monuments and cannons.

The monument that is most usual to us northerners is the one dedicated to the Confederate soldiers who defended Charleston during the war. It's nicely done and is a reminder of that we are in the south. I don't recall ever seeing any monuments to Union soldiers in the north but I'm sure my brother Pat would know if any existed!

The streets around the battery are surrounded by many, many homes on the National Registry of Historical buildings. Most have at least a small plaque as a designation but others have some history about the building.

One thing I have noticed is the shutters along the coastal homes - real shutters! In the north you have shutters for windows but they are just for looks as the shutter is typically screwed to the side of the house. Down here they really are hinged and can shut - and locked from the inside. There is also always a 'hook' at the bottom that holds the shutter open.

Anyway, it's now raining quite hard so it must be time to read. The power keeps going off and on so the satellite won't hold a signal ... not that there is much on anyway!

Tomorrow: up early, clean up the engine, wait 'til the water pump arrives, install it and head to Georgetown - again :-)