Charleston - April 30

The mechanic arrived this morning at 9:15 for the sea trial. It was short and sweet. Everything was well and we are making plans to leave Friday morning.

The marina where we are staying is very nice. The Charleston Maritime Center is located towards the tip of the Charleston peninsula and has beautiful views of the harbor. We can see the USS Yorktown, Ft. Sumter and the Ravenel Bridge, which crosses the Cooper River and connects the City of Charleston to Town of Mount Pleasant. The Ravenel Bridge, which opened in 2005 is the longest cable stay span bridge in the country and was completed under budget and under schedule.

We are next to a port that has many container ships docking and loads and unloads cars, trucks and other vehicles. They are very interesting to watch. There are also cruise ships using the dock. We’ve seen a Norwegian Cruise Line ship there quite often.

Just north of us is the Ft. Sumter museum and the Charleston Aquarium. Thus far we have only visited the museum. It is a few blocks to a 24-hour large grocery store. That is quite a treat if you’re on a boat and have no car for transportation. We are also just a few blocks from historic Charleston. There are open-air markets, stores, museums, churches, and many things to see.

There is also a washer and dryer here for the boaters to use. What is really unique about this is that there is no charge for using them. Even though we have a washer/dryer on the boat, we have been using the one here. It takes much larger loads and washes and dries them in much less time.

There is also a downside to this marina. We are not very well protected and we really rock and roll during the day. It does calm down some at night, but it’s OK if you like being rocked to sleep. There is also only ONE shower, for both men and women. It is also not in the greatest shape. However, the good much outweighs the bad. We would definitely stay in this marina again.

Charleston - April 29

Today has been a very long day. The men arrived at 10:45 to install our transmission. They left at 9:00 tonight. They will be back tomorrow morning for the sea trial.

Beth read an entire book today.

Charleston - April 28

This morning while Darrell was working with yet another boat issue, Beth went walking around the historic Charleston area. Many of the side streets are still the brick or cobblestone of years ago. Some are in pretty rough shape and cars driving on those roads are going very slowly. There were some workers repairing one area of brick road so the city does maintain them.

There are quite a few churches here. St. Michael’s Episcopal church is the white church with the white steeple. During the Revolutionary war people decided to paint the steeple black so that it wouldn’t be such a target. Upon painting it black, it was discovered to be an excellent target against the blue sky. This church was not open so Beth was unable to go inside, but did walk around the cemetery. One headstone in this cemetery was for 6 children from the same family. It wasn’t from an epidemic, the dates of death were many different years.

The Huguenot Church of Charleston was founded in 1687 by French Protestant refugees who fled from France’s continuing religious persecutions. The church is very beautiful inside and the liturgy they use has been translated into English from French. There are many weddings held in this church and you don’t need to be a member or a Huguenot. The fees charged for the rental of the church helps the congregation keep the church maintained.

St. Philip’s Episcopal Church is the oldest church in Charleston. It was established in 1680, and is the oldest Anglican congregation south of Virginia. It also is beautiful inside and has a pipe organ with trumpet pipes in the back of the church. Beth was told it makes a magnificent sound.

The Circular Congregational Church was not open, but the grounds were. The cemetery was well maintained and the church building very unique. Beth wished she could have gone inside.

After lunch, Darrell took the bike and went looking for a hardware store. He found the hardware store but they didn’t have what he needed.

We found out our fixed transmission was sent to the mechanic last Friday, and are now waiting to hear from the mechanic when he will be able to install it. We are hoping tomorrow morning. NEWS JUST IN! The Mechanic will be here tomorrow morning. HOORAY!

Charleston - April 27

We had lunch yesterday at Jestine’s Kitchen, a place we had heard about from a local. There always seems to be a line outside and around the corner waiting to get in, but it goes fairly quickly. We only had to wait about 15 minutes. While waiting we checked out the specials and menu. Darrell had one of the specials, fried catfish and Beth tried another, fried shrimp salad. They were both very good. Every table received a small bowl of homemade pickled cucumber upon being seated. It was very good. Darrell tried their local Palmetto beer and liked it.

Jestine’s Kitchen is named in honor of Jestine Matthews, who was born in the Low country in 1885. Her mother was a Native American and her father the son of a freed slave. In 1928 Jestine became a housekeeper to the Aleck Ellison family and that was the start of a lifelong friendship. The owner of Jestine’s Kitchen is the granddaughter of Aleck Ellison and the restaurant is her way of sharing the wonderful style of home cooking and warm atmosphere that Jestine provided. Jestine died in 1997 at the age of 112. Jestine’s Kitchen is included in the book “1000 Places to see Before you Die” and we do agree.

They have a very interesting menu with extremely reasonable prices. Southern food ---- fried, of course! Beth took a picture of the menu and if you enlarge it you can hopefully read it. One item is the Blue Collar Special, Peanut Butter & Banana Sandwich, with potato chips….$2.95. The inside is fairly small, but very homey.

While walking to the restaurant we saw some very beautiful homes. Some had ivy climbing on the brick. There were many ‘hidden’ treasures in the narrow area between the homes, including a brick wall that looked like it had trees growing flat against the wall. We don’t know what type of tree it was or how they did it, but it was very pretty. Almost every home with a porch has it on south side of the house. It doesn’t matter which side the front door is on, the porch is always on the south.

Beth went to Redeemer Presbyterian Church this morning. It must be a start up church because there is a building drive taking place and services are held in what was originally a Lutheran Church. There was only 1 service and the congregation was almost entirely made up of young people and young families. The children were unbelievably good during the service.

The service was much different than that of the Presbyterian Church Beth attended in Punta Gorda. This one started out with almost 25 minutes of singing, with the congregation singing along with the choir. The choir was composed of about 10-12 young people singing and playing piano, guitars and flute. There was also an extremely beautiful song played by a bagpipe, guitar and mandolin.

There was a baptism during the service and it is much different from our Lutheran baptism. However, afterward, the mother of the baby baptized sang a solo. She had a beautiful voice. Hopefully singing a solo after your baby is baptized is not a requirement of that church!!

The one thing that was very puzzling was that The Lord’s Prayer wasn’t said anytime during the service.

Darrell changed oil on the boat today and took care of many other chores. We got many parts of the boat put back together and tools put away. For how long, who knows? The day was beautiful, sunny and breezy.

Fuzzy and the Firetruck

Fuzzy was very happy. He was sightseeing with Nana and Papa and they went to a place that had a fire truck! And they let kids look at it and sit in it! Fuzzy asked a fireman if he could go in it too and the fireman said yes!

At one time Fuzzy had wanted to be a fireman when he grew up so he was excited to see a fire truck close up. He sat in the fire truck by himself and with another little boy, and he also got to look up close at all the dials and gauges on the side of the fire truck.

Now he wants to be a fireman again when he gets big. Would you like to be a fireman when you grow up?

Charleston - April 26

We had planned to leave Charleston today but unfortunately our transmission is not yet repaired. We thought it would be done much sooner than this and are rather upset it is not yet back. We are ready to start traveling again and watching Bob and Margaret leave is hard.

Yesterday while Darrell was waiting for the refrigerator to arrive, Beth, along with Bob and Margaret, went on a cruise of the harbor. It was a very good tour, lasting 3 hours, and was very informative.

We got some history about Charleston, including that when it was originally built, Charleston was a walled city. 22% of the present day Charleston peninsula is built on landfill and it sits on one of the largest fault lines in the United States. They are not fond of Abraham Lincoln or General Sherman and there are no streets, monuments or anything else named after them.

Atlantic Bottleneck dolphin live around here and we were lucky enough to encounter a large pod. There were about 10-12 in a group, and we stayed around them for quite awhile. There were many pictures taken, but Beth was never able to get more than a few at a time.

There is a small, bare island with a cross on it. It was put there by a local church and they sometimes hold services there.

We got close to Ft. Sumter, but did not stop there.

We stopped at a small island for about 45 minutes and we were able to get off and look around. Beth found a very large shark tooth and was hoping for more, but no luck.

The crew pulled up a crab pot they had set and we were able to see several blue crabs they had trapped. Their claws are really blue. The males have all blue claws while the female claws are also blue, but have red tips (fingernail polish).

We cruised by Sullivan Island, which is in the middle of the harbor. There are many newer homes on it and we were told that because of hurricanes, there is only 1 company through which they can obtain insurance. Lloyds of London is the only company which will insure them.

By the time we got back to the marina the refrigerator had arrived. Bob helped Darrell load it on the boat. It was a tight squeeze. The 4 of us bought some food at a local deli and had their farewell dinner together.

Charleston - April 25

Last night was our dinner on the USS Yorktown. We were also able to tour the flight deck and hear about working on an aircraft carrier from a member of our Loopers group who had his navy career on a carrier. He was on the USS Enterprise and Darrell was deployed on the USS Bainbridge, a destroyer that accompanied the Enterprise and provided protection to it when it was underway. Darrell got an opportunity to visit with him for a while one-on-one. They may have in Viet Nam at the same time, early 1971 when both ships were in the Tonkin Gulf.

We had the opportunity to tour more of the ship and saw several more types of aircraft. Many of them had wings which folded up to allow more aircraft to be kept on the carrier. Notice the aircraft with the small Japanese flags and bombs painted on the side. Those represent kills during the war.

On our way to the Yorktown we passed a mock up of a U.S. Naval Support base in Viet Nam. There was also an old submarine and destroyer tied up next to the carrier.

Our dinner was very good, by far the best of the event. Everything was delicious. The speaker this evening left something to be desired. Darrell was lucky enough to win a door prize, a $100 gift certificate to Landfall.

It was a late night and was nice to be able to sleep in this morning. We didn’t have to be up and ready for anything. When we did finally roll out of bed we were able to sit and enjoy a cup of coffee before starting our day.

Darrell worked around the boat. It is true that there is always something to repair or replace on a boat. There are several things needing attention, and Darrell got a good start on them.

This afternoon was a Harbor Tour we had signed up for as an add-on to the Rendezvous. Bob, Margaret and I went on the tour and Darrell stayed to await delivery of a replacement refrigerator/freezer for our boat. The one we had stopped working about 3 weeks ago and couldn’t be fixed. More about the harbor tour tomorrow.

Charleston - April 24

Although the last day of the seminar ran all day we only stayed for the half of the day. The morning sessions were among the best of the week. We listened to a speaker from the Canadian Parks talk about the Canadian Waterways. He was a very good speaker and talked about the Trent-Severn Waterway. There were handouts and videos.

During a portion of this talk, Beth went into a side meeting on How to be a Pinch Hitter. This was about the First Mate (Admiral) being able to handle emergencies such as Captain overboard or the Captain being incapacitated. It was very informative and Beth is glad she went. She now knows about the Williamson turn, and is looking forward to practicing some of these procedures.

After lunch Bob decided to walk back to the boat (4 miles). We, along with Margaret, decided to go find a water taxi which runs between our marina to a marina not far from the conference center. It took us awhile to actually find the water taxi and then needed to wait about an hour for the next scheduled boat. It was about a 15 minute boat ride. Bob ended up getting back before us.

Tonight we go to a reception and dinner aboard the USS Yorktown at Patriot’s Point. One of the attendees of our conference is a former navy pilot who, in his last assignment, had been the air boss (the person in charge of all the aircraft) on the USS Enterprise. He has arranged it so we can have a private tour of the flight deck and aircraft. They will also open the Medal of Honor Museum for us.

Charleston - April 23

The morning session was all about the Chesapeake Bay and we were disappointed in the first part of the presentation. The presenters talked in very general terms about various aspects of cruising and that was not something we were interested in. They did go on to talk about specific marinas and anchorages, which was helpful to us. Unfortunately, neither men were good speakers and it was difficult to keep our attention focused.

The afternoon session was supposed to be about Delaware, NY Harbor and the Hudson River. The presenter again couldn’t hold our interest and did not cover all the areas he was supposed to. Darrell eventually left this group and went into the side meeting room to hear about handling the locks. He thought this was beneficial and the speaker had good visuals.

We have already met some very nice and interesting people. David & Adrienne Cohen, who just took delivery on their boat a month ago, Bonnie & Bruce Daily, who lived on their boat for several years in Ft. Myers before retiring a couple of weeks ago and starting the loop, Lynn & Bob Williamson who have cruised the canal systems in France, Belgium and the Netherlands on their Dutch built steel trawler before bringing it to the U.S., and a British couple from Turkey who live on their boat in the Mediterranean. They are here checking out the possibility of coming over to do the loop. We also met a couple from Brooklyn Park, Mn. who have a boat on the Tennessee River.

This evening was ‘on your own’. Some of the Loopers in our marina decided to get together for hor’derves before all going to “The Boathouse” for dinner. We had a nice evening.

Charleston - April 22

We had to be ready to board the bus at 7:45 this morning. Very early to be getting up and getting ready with only 1 very poor marina shower for at least 12 people going to the rendezvous. (Many more boats were in the marina). The problem, at least for us, was solved with Darrell showering on the boat in the morning and Beth showering on the boat last night.

The seminars began this morning with breakfast. There was then a presentation about the next segment of our trip, Charleston to the Chesapeake Bay. Darrell went to a talk on engine maintenance while Beth sat in on the Lake Erie and Oswego Canal portion of the trip. Luncheon was served, then Beth went to listen to Ways to Record your Loop Memories and Darrell on the St. Lawrence Seaway and 1,000 Islands. Some of the information given was very helpful and at other times, it seemed too basic. Still, it is nice to meet other people either having done the loop, doing the loop, or planning to do the loop in the future.

We were back to our marina for a couple hours before being picked up again for a reception and dinner. We were then treated to a very good speaker; a couple had sailed the world (the large loop) and had some wonderful memories to share. The husband gave the presentation and was oftentimes very humorous in his talk of their 5 year trip.

Charleston - April 21

This morning Darrell and Bob repaired the aft railing and Margaret and Beth walked to the open-air market. Several years ago Margaret had purchased a sweetgrass basket and had it with her on the boat. It was getting a little battered and Margaret wanted to replace it. She found that the price of the baskets had skyrocketed but was able to find a woman who would repair her basket. The woman didn’t charge for the repair and really needed to be cajoled into accepting something for her time and talent.

The Loopers Rendezvous started this afternoon with registration at 2:00. The number of people attending this year is down considerably and we wonder if it has anything to do with the price of fuel. The increases in prices certainly take a toll on any budgeting that has been done.

Today was the meet and greet part, with registration, reception and dinner. The Loopers who are currently doing the loop introduced themselves, the Loopers who have completed the loop were honored and the rest were those who anticipate doing the loop.

Beth discovered that she apparently has an accent. Three times during the course of today she was asked if she was from Canada. When she said no, she was then asked if she was from Minnesota! She can’t figure out how they could tell.

Our speaker tonight talked about the history of Charleston. He was a very good speaker and it was a very informative talk.

The bus taking us back to our marina dropped several people off at another marina first. Those boaters had been talking about going to a store near to their marina to get some ice cream after they got off the bus. On the way to our marina, several people on our bus started talking about ice cream and how good that would taste. The next thing we know, the bus driver is pulling into a Baskin Robbins! Almost everyone enjoyed an ice cream cone. We think that speaks to the southern ‘hospitality’ that seems to be prevalent down here.

Fuzzy and his Cousins

Fuzzy was so glad he was able to come along with Nana and Papa when they flew home to visit everyone. He really missed his Aunts Keely and Heidi and his Uncles Tom and Greg.

He was so happy to see all his cousins. He thought that Jackson, Emma, Hayden and Halle had really grown so much since he saw them last. Fuzzy got to have his picture taken with all of them.

Fuzzy is also happy that there will soon be another cousin who will enjoy his stories. Aunt Heidi’s nephew Hunter is coming to stay with them while his mom is deployed overseas. Hunter! Fuzzy says “hi” to you and hopes you will follow his trip.

Charleston - April 20

Today was our Plantation Tour. We were picked up by bus at 9:30 and along with 18 other Loopers were driven first to Drayton Hall. Drayton Hall is a National Historic Landmark and is the oldest preserved plantation house in America which is open to the public. It is “preserved”, not “restored”, so it has not been made to look like it did when it was first built in the 1700’s. There is no electricity and no indoor plumbing, even though 7 generations of Draytons have lived there, the last in 1974. A lot of the tour talked about the architectural style of the house. We much preferred the personal references, which talked about life during those times.

We were then driven to Middleton Place, about 4 miles away. Middleton Place is also a National Historic Landmark and was a self-sustaining rice plantation. It is also the site of America’s oldest formal landscaped Gardens, laid out in 1741. Prior to our garden tour we had lunch at their inn. Traditional southern food was served. Beth discovered she didn’t like collard greens and Darrell was smart enough not to try it! The corn pudding was very good, as was the pecan pie.

Then on to the garden tour. The garden was originally planned to be green gardens only, but eventually some blooms were planted to highlight and accent different areas. The various shades of greens were very beautiful. Streams were utilized and man made ponds had also been built. There were many different areas to see including the Reflection Pool, South Green Walk, Parterre, Terraces, The Butterfly Lakes, Octagonal Sunken Garden, the Secret Garden and many other areas.

There were a lot of very large trees called living oaks. One was estimated to be 1000 years old. From their limbs hang light green, airy, heavy cobweb looking plants. These are Spanish Moss, which are neither Spanish nor moss. They are air plants and use these trees to grow on.

There were Banana Shrubs, which smell like banana taffy and Tea Olive Bushes, which had a very light fragrance. There were Magnolia trees and Camellia bushes.

We were then able to go through the Middleton House. The original house and the 2 smaller homes that flanked the main house were burned after the Civil War. One of the smaller homes was rebuilt and the family used that when they returned. This home had been restored with almost all Middleton family furnishings and was interesting to see.

Charleston - April 19

We're back in Charleston after a nice visit home. We saw many friends and a lot of family. Celebrating Darrell's dads 94th birthday was a high point. Most of Darrell's family attended and it was nice to visit with everyone, especially those we don't see very often.

Of course the highlight was seeing our kids and grandkids. The grandkids change so quickly and grow up so fast. There was such a change after just a few months.

We had a hard travel day yesterday. We had used frequent flyer miles for our trip and our return was Minneapolis - Detroit, Detroit - Atlanta, and Atlanta - Charleston. We landed at 11:45 last night and unbelievably our luggage did also! Beth was very surprised.

We rented a car at the airport because we had some errands to run today. Bob and Margaret had arrived at the marina on Wednesday and joined us today as we went to Sam's Club, Wal-Mart and West Marine. We also stopped at a Farmers Market which is held every Saturday. It was more like a craft fair with crafts, food stalls and some fresh produce for sale.

We returned to our marina to find that a wedding and reception was to be held here. Luckily the weather was nice and we got this picture from our boat. We are close enough that we can enjoy the music from the reception.

Margaret and Bob have invited us over for dinner tonight and we are looking forward to it. Tomorrow is our all day plantation tour.

Charleston - April 10

Today was spent cleaning, packing and getting everything ready to leave the boat for a week.

We also went through our clothes and determined we don’t have the kind of clothes we will need for the weather which is forecasted for Minneapolis and southern Minnesota. As an example, we didn’t bring our winter boots!

We are very anxious to get home and be able to see family and friends.

We return to our boat late on Friday, April 18.

Charleston - April 9

We rode our bikes around the area today. This was the first time we tried our new bikes and they worked fine. We saw a bit of historic Charleston. We are in a marina which is located on the Charleston Peninsula and is nice and close to some very interesting sites.

We went by some historic buildings and museums and stopped at an open air marketplace where Beth purchased a small sweetgrass basket. The coiled sweetgrass basket is a historically significant example of African cultural heritage that was transported across the Atlantic by enslaved African people. It is one of the oldest African crafts in America, is handed down from generation to generation and is usually learned from childhood.

We had lunch at Charlestons Crab Shack. Beth had shrimp and Darrell a trio of flounder, shrimp and oysters. It was all good.

There are trolleys and horse drawn carriages and also a lot of tours available. In the next couple of weeks we will be going on a harbor tour and an all day tour of 2 plantations, Drayton Hall and Middleton Place. We will also be visiting the USS Yorktown, the aircraft carrier.

We stopped at the Fort Sumter exhibit on our way back to the marina. It was very interesting and informative. Opening shots of the civil war were fired here in 1861. If we have time we may go visit the island.

The mechanic came today and pulled the transmission.

Darrell's Dad is 94 today. We called him and will be seeing him this week-end. Nearly all of the family will be getting together to celebrate.

Church Creek – Charleston Maritime Center, April 8

We pulled anchor at 7:15. It was still cold and overcast. Another day of long pants and long underwear.

We saw a deer swimming across a narrow portion of the ICW. Unfortunately Beth couldn’t get a picture of it.

We arrived in Charleston Maritime Center at 10:30 this morning. We will be docked
here until April 26. Tomorrow we are expecting a mechanic to come and look at our transmission.

Today is the third birthday of our grandson Hayden. He is growing up so fast! He had his party this past Sunday. Here is a picture of Hayden, our granddaughter Halle, our daughter Keely and the caterpillar cake Keely made for Hayden. Our son-in-law Tom took the picture.

Beaufort – Church Creek, April 7

We got underway at 9:40 this morning. It’s 67 miles to Charleston. We planned to go the majority of the way today, anchor for the night, then get to Charleston tomorrow morning.

It was cold and overcast. In fact, Darrell wore long pants and Beth put on her long underwear. Again, we are so glad we enclosed the flybridge.

The Intercoastal Waterway in Florida is relatively straight. In Georgia and South Carolina the path is bit more tortuous. We traveled a totaled 47.8 miles today – but as a bird flies it probably wasn’t more than 30 miles. Just today we journeyed on the following rivers, creeks and cutoffs, almost always via a crooked route, hitting every point on the compass. The Beaufort River, Coosaw River, Ashepoo Coosaw Cutoff, Rock Creek, Ashepoo River, Fenwick Cut, South Edisto River, North Creek, Dawho River, North Edisto River, Wadmalaw River and Church Creek.

Needless to say, a good chart plotter and chart books are a necessity.

We anchored at Church Creek at 4:45 p.m.

Beaufort - April 6

Last night we had dinner at Luther’s, a sports bar that seemed to cater more to locals than visitors. We sat at the bar and watched part of the UCLA-Memphis basketball game. A local sat next to Darrell and struck up a conversation. Beth doesn’t know how it happened, but the two of them ended up talking about the movie “Chicago”, and the acting abilities of Madonna and Cher!!

Sunday morning Beth went to church while Darrell took care of boat issues. She found a very beautiful, old Episcopal church, The Parish Church of St. Helena. It was established in 1712 and had its cemetery surrounding the church and a brick wall which enclosed all of it. This was the first Episcopal church Beth had been to and she was surprised to find how similar the service was to a Lutheran service.

After a quick trip by both of us to Lowe’s with the marina’s courtesy car Beth explored some more of the town. Darrell’s knees were bothering him so he stayed behind. (He has an appointment scheduled for cortisone shots when we’re home).

Beth found 7 churches within a 2-3 block radius close to the downtown area. A Presbyterian, Episcopal, a large Baptist church, 3 small Baptist churches and a synagogue. She took a lot of pictures of the Episcopal church, with its grounds and surrounding wall. The cemetery, despite its age, is beautiful. It appears there are family plots and many above ground vaults.

Most of the old mansions seem to have been turned into Bed and Breakfasts or are now businesses such as attorney firms, real estate companies and insurance companies.

Beaufort has the most beautiful riverside park and walk. It appears to be recently completed and has many places to sit and watch the world go by.

Notice low tide and high tide. Tides are typically 8’.

Port Royal - Beaufort, April 5

We pulled anchor at 9:30 this morning and arrived at Beaufort City Marina at 10:30. We took on more fuel (109.8 gallons) and were tied up at our dock by about 11:15.

The forecast called for rain starting about noon, so we took a walk before doing anything else. The marina is in downtown historic Beaufort so we didn't have far to go.

Here is main street.

Truly a laid back atmosphere, the owner's cat is sleeping on the store steps.

They actually serve fried green tomatoes!

We found a little cafe for lunch, not Kathleen's. Darrell had Marilyn's Shrimp and Sausage Gumbo, which he really liked. Beth had a Pimento Cheese Sandwich, which she was told is a southern favorite. It was made with cheddar cheese, pimento and hot sauce on white bread. It was pretty good.

Darrell is sitting on chair made of welded scrap parts - for sale at an art store.

The marina had a courtesy car which we used to go to the grocery store.

It started raining about 3:00.

Moon River - Port Royal, April 4

We had thunderstorms during the night and woke up today to heavy fog. Beth took a couple pictures, of the sun trying to burn through and a boat which was anchored near us.

We realized we were within a couple miles of Isle of Hope Marina, which is pretty close to Savannah, so we called to see if we could get a slip there for tonight. They were full so after checking charts and weather forecasts we decided to skip a Savannah stop and go to Beaufort. We will anchor tonight, then get to Beaufort early tomorrow.

Darrell did a little maintenance this morning, then we got underway about 10:30. The weather today is much nicer, warm with little wind.

The ICW was very narrow. At times, especially with low tide, it seemed to be no more than a creek. It was also extremely shallow at times. Can you tell by the picture it was low tide?

We got into South Carolina waters at 1:15. We went past Hilton Head. This is the Hilton Head Marina.

We also passed Parris Island, the USMC training center. Note the water tower. It says 1-800-Marines. We also met, and were passed, by some large passenger ferrys. They don’t slow down for pleasure boats and we really rocked at times.

We anchored at Port Royal at 5:45. Beaufort is only a few miles away.

Fuzzy and St. Augustine

Fuzzy was excited. He went on his first outing with Nana and Papa and their friends Bob and Margaret.

He went to see the city of St. Augustine, which is the oldest city in Florida. It is also the oldest city in the country!

Fuzzy also saw the Castillo de San Marcos, which had been a real fort a long time ago. It was built by Spain many years ago and protected the city of St. Augustine from pirates and other enemies.

Fuzzy got to sit on a real cannon. He really had a nice time and is looking forward to more trips.

Darien River - Moon River, April 3

Slept in a little and got underway about 8:15. The day was totally different than yesterday. Overcast and cold. We are so happy we had the flybridge fully enclosed.

About 5 miles into our day we got to Sepelo Sound and later St. Catherines Sound. The wind was blowing about 20-25 mph and it became quite rough. We were taking spray up on the flybridge and were pretty uncomfortable for a couple of hours.

Most of our trip today was past uninhabited, marshy land with very little traffic. We did come across these fishermen checking their crab pots.

We went past Blackbeard Island. The island was named for Edward Teach, who was better known as the pirate “Blackbeard”. Legend has it that pirate booty is buried on this island, however no treasure has ever been found.



The birds are following us again. Now we are wondering if they are just drafting and getting a free ride.

Anchored about 5 p.m. at Moon River, which is pretty close to Savannah.

Amelia Island - Darien River, April 2

It was a clear, calm and beautiful day. We got underway at 7:45. We went up the Amelia River and had a favorable current for a while. We were traveling at 8.6 mph and got up to 9.2! Then it was back to reality, down as far as 5.1 mph. It did continue to go up and down, depending on the current.

We hit the waters of Georgia about 9:45 a.m. We passed this Railroad Trestle bridge, which remains open unless a train is coming.

We went by Cumberland Island, which is the home of wild horses. (You'll have to click on this to enlarge it)

This is a Navy Degaussing Station. It demagnetizes ships, making them less susceptible to mines.

We passed by Jekyll Island and St. Simons. We do have to pay attention to the tides. Jekyll Creek was down about 5 feet. You could see the boats sitting on the bottom and mud all the way to the shoreline that is normally covered with water.

Notice all the birds following us. We think they were looking for fish scraps. They followed us for several miles before giving up.

We anchored at 5:30 at Darien River. Long Day

St. Augustine - Amelia Island, April 1

We left Comachee Cove Yacht Harbor, St. Augustine about 8:30 today. The first part of our trip was through barren, marshy looking areas. There was a lot of boat traffic today. We were passed by quite a few boats. We were going faster than 2 sailboats we passed!

We then were in the Tolomato River where there were newer homes and every home had a dock. Some of the homes were beautiful, some for sale and the occasional very run-down and neglected property.















All of the bridges have protective barriers around the bridge pilings, just in case. Here is a picture of what happens when a boat hits the barrier. Better that than the piling!!


Notice how long the dock is. That's how far out it has to be to have any kind of water depth.




We anchored about 3:45 by Amelia Island. We will get to Georgia tomorrow.

More of St. Augustine, April 1

The slide show above is what we had planned to put in the blog yesterday. Unfortunately, Beth had "operator" issues and had to get in touch with Greg to find out what she was doing wrong. Here are more pictures of our time in St. Augustine.