Doing The Charleston

Yup - off to Charleston today, mainly to go to the Naval Museum.  There are two things I always like to do at Naval Museums.  One is to be staggered at the size of the engines and associated odds and sods and the other is to tour the submarine - my Mum's Dad was in submarines - and be eternally grateful to get off the bloody thing an hour or so later.  Today's big ship was the aircraft carrier USS Yorktown and I thoroughly enjoyed wandering around and chatting to various old sailors who run the place.  I couldn't show off my knowledge of how to negotiate a companionway at high speed and in safety as they've mostly been safetyfied to stop you doing it.  Result being I banged my head twice.  And the submarine was closed.
I'm always on the lookout for old computers for a quick trip down memory lane.  Did I ever tell you that the first computer I worked on occupied a 20'x15' room, had 8k of memory and 2x20 megabyte disk drives?  Yeah, probably.  Well, the Yorktown had that beaten into a cocked hat with this wee beast that was used for aiming the anti-aircraft guns.  Kind of thing the average sailor's cellphone can do now.

I'll probably go back for a nose around the town next week and see if there is a coast road worth taking.  Most of the coastal towns round here are reached by a one road in and out scheme. 

I got back to Surfside just as the sun was starting to set and was somewhat surprised to see that the shrimp boat that was out there when I left for Charleston this morning was still out when I got back - in fact it is now 8:45 p.m. and it's still out there.  I must find where they land their fresh fish and go somewhere else.

I'm knackered - time for bed and a new adventure tomorrow.





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