Brunswick Georgia

No report for a few days because we have had no internet. Our mechanical problem was fixed in fine style. Beta Marine in North Carolina shipped the parts (pump shaft, bearings and seals) and Mike Harris (the floating poet) our mechanic extraordinaire stripped the pump down, installed the new parts and reinstalled the unit into the engine - no more leaks! We also changed the oil and filter. Mike's recommendation for the future is to run fresh water through the engine before extended periods of inaction because salt crystals otherwise can collect in the seals and they will score the shaft and render the seal ineffective - which is what happened in our case. I also bought a complete new pump as a future spare because it can be installed without the rebuild process. Mike was first class and very helpful, he works out of Beaufort.

We left the marina early Wednesday morning and sailed outside to St Catherines inlet. Very little wind and we motored all day (lots of dolphin) and anchored just inside the inlet in a completely deserted creek. The next day was more of the same except even less wind. I have never seen the Atlantic so flat calm. We went into St Simon's inlet which is the Brunswick River and anchored in a side creek off the ICW. Friday we motored around into the river proper, under the big new bridge and into Brunswick Landing Marina in the East River, which is where we are now. Today we will go outside again to Fernandino Beach; the winds are forecast 20 to 25 knots from the NE so it should be a nice sail.

We understand the NE is getting snow this weekend - we have had rain but it is very pleasantly warm here.

Carterat Street UMC- pumpkin patch

Dinner at Emily's Restaurant seafood over grits, like nothing you have ever tasted. Lunch was at Plums..( super shrimp salad).

Bill's sister Pat and Dave visited with us on Ariel

Pumkin patch right next to the church raising money for their youth.

They had a nice service with eleven hand bell ringers, a front choir of a dozen members and doxology number 95..my favorite. Beautiful stained glass from 1780's.

Beaufort pictures

Beaufort Bay Street river walk. nice

ICW 536 Ladies Bridge 31 foot clearance.

Beautiful trees,

Bewfort October 24

We arrived here in Beaufort the day before yesterday after a day sail outside from Charleston to St Helens Inlet and an overnight at anchor in Bull River. Unfortunately we have a leaking water pump seal and no repair kit for it (my bad). I did not find the leak - Sue did (my bad again). We will wait here until the parts arrive from Charleston which I hope will be on Tuesday. Beaufort is a very nice little town with a lot of magnificent old homes and even more magnificent old (and very large) live oak trees festooned with spanish moss and resurrection fern. The current in the marina is amazing and leaving on anything other than slack tide will be interesting. Still not a lot of other boats going South but the nmarina expects the pace to pick up soon. Our next destination is St Augustine.

Charleston Oct 19, 20th ICW 467

Call around and there are no slips, try again on another day and here we are at Charlestown Maritime Center. We are on a floating dock across from the water taxi, just over from the big cruise ships. If you go to town there will be tourists pouring out of the ships. We found a wonderful sandwich shop Brent's at 40 Broad street near many art dealers. Locals come for breakfast & lunch. Many lawyers in the area too.

We walked all around town, got steaks at Harris Teeters. I used to go there when I lived in North Carolina. Great place to get stuff. Saw beautiful architecture all around.

Today we went by water taxi across to the war ships and submarine for a three hours self guided tour. Tomorrow we take off again

. My dad was on an air craft carrier in the Navy. I remember stories about catching the planes on these fan tail catchers.

Live oaks.. incredible branches. Battery park.

On the hook- Oct 19th ICW 455

We decided the bridges were working against us today so we dropped the hook off Copahee Sound (off Porcher Bluff / Porcher Creek). It was blowing pretty hard tonight. Rain off and on. We have current against wind where we are in 26 ft of water. 120 ft chain out.

Oct 20th
When I pulled up the anchor she came up clean.. no mud what so ever. Charles made changes to our ground tackle. I used to struggle gettting the 66 lb Bruce anchor launched. It kept catching under the jib furler. He had the furler raised. What a lovely surprise! She deployed effortlessly. That extra foot made a big difference. Next it is off to the Ben Sayer bridge @ 462.2 which stays closed during rush hour (7-9) ( 4-6) but opens on demand.

Michelle Obama's home church

This AME church is the church home of Michelle Obama's family who originated in Georgetown. Her grandfather five generations removed was a slave and now she has become the first lady. Only in America. This church was very instrumental in teaching slaves how to read using the bible. First passages were memorized then the words were pointed to during the weekly three hours services. Many slaves who became free and left for jobs up north have this church to thank on their road to independance. Historically, people from all over have been sending tithes to this church to help others in their new beginnings.

There are many churches in Georgetown. The first was the church of England which later became the Episcopal church. The large jewish population sprang up here. Every faith is really represented.
This was inside and old hardware store with beams between floors. Hardware stores were the center of town life. Records were kept for tabs selling everything from nails, pots to laundry detergent.


The Browns Ferry flat bottom boat was found in sand shoals nearby. It was fifty feet long by about 14 feet beam , draft of 3 feet and had sails with a 14 foot high mast to power it as well as being moved by poles. It could carry 3 tons of ballast bricks. A type of sextant was found onboard so it probably did more waterway/ coast line than initially thought.





Divided front stairs. Columns. Frequently the ceilings outside in porches were painted pale blue to discourage insects from making nests. Works well for mud daubers too.

This board rocks to Charles delight.

Monday Touring Georgetown

This is the main Harbor which has boats and restaurants to make a lovely walk.
On Monday we decided to tour Georgetown. We did a jeep pulled touring car which showed us many of the Georgian style houses built back in the 1770's. The brick was obtained from the discarded ballast when boats came to port and unloaded their light cargo, taking on heavier cargo. There were no means to get bricks except through this exchange as a port town.

Georgetown had 15 large plantations which grew rice ( Carolina rice) and at that time were the largest port exporting rice in the world. The many slaves they had were mostly from rice producing countries from west Africa. They were very good at growing rice and brought their talents here. The population was about 15 % white with the rest being slaves or blacks. One might expect racial unrest but the slaves were treated humanly. In many cases the plantation families took their slaves to church with the whole family as they slaves were in charge of their children's care and values.

If a slave was able to pay for their passage from Africa and what ever debt was owed they could actually become free and eventually owned homes in the same neighborhoods with the plantation owners.

Early on the plantation owners did not stay out in the fields where the rice was being grown because it was dangerous to them. Malaria was rampid in those marshes, but the blacks in some case had sickle cell anemia so the malaria did not affect them.

The low lying ground was perfect for growing rice as it could flood easily. It was imperative to keep salt water out of the fields or rice would not grow for three years.

There were many gorgeous Georgian style homes on the tour. One design featured a divided stair case so that a gentleman could walk a lady to start up one side of stairs and then he turned and quickly ran up the opposing stair then down her stairway to assist her up the remainer of her stairs. This dance was to preserve any immodesty that might occur as she adjusted her hoop shirt to manuever up her set of stairs. He should not see as much as her ankles in those days,. so he could not walk behind her up the same set of stairs. Frequently there was another entrance to the house under those two opposing stairs for the slaves to come into the lower level at their quarters.

This is the area where the wooden boat show and other events are held. We missed it.

Restaurants with nautical designs. Great grouper sandwich!

One home on the tour.

Georgetown SC- ICW 403

It is Sunday and we have made our way just off the ICW slightly to visit the town of Georgetown (Front Street) , about four hours trip by boat from last night's marina. We have a slip at the Harborwalk Marina We missed the wooden boat show which was yesterday for one day. That would have been nice.

Lunch was super - a blackend grouper sandwich with sweet potato fries.. Umm.. (Buzz's Roost) Walking along the riverwalk is nice. We even made it a good mile away to the Piggly Wiggly to re-provision a little but took a taxi back. The marina was empty with one other boat when we got here. Now there is a 110 foot mega yacht in front of us, and four trawlers and two smaller mega yachts. It all works well with floating docks to accommodate everyone. Two yappy tiny dogs are nearby on boats, claiming their territory, at passersby.

We may stay another day to tour the area.

Fresh Shrimp

Wonderful trees with moss , fresh shrimp and oysters. Delightful night.

Witches ready for Halloween came too! I believe they raised nearly $6,000 for the cause.

Wacca Wache Marina- Raise Money

Wacca Wache Marina-- Murrells Inlet SC.

Friday night the marina had their second annyal fund raiser for Breast Cancer Research Foundation as October is breast cancer awareness month. We were just looking for a slip for the night.

They had a two man band, raffles, silent auctions and a vote for the best bra. The bras are competing for bragging rights. For two dollars a vote you could put money on your favorite one. Charles like the " tin man" with metal funnels. It WON first prize. The creator won a gift certificate .

"Nice knockers! -knocking on the door of a cure"

Dedging rig

This rig was HUGE. A front tug, with three tiny tugs along side. Pipe everywhere.

Bridges

I always hold my breath as we go under these 65 foot bridges. It does not look like the boat will fit but somehow it does.

We did not know what would have happened if another boat insisted on going through at the same time with this tug/ barge. Give way.

This is an 11 foot high bridge for the rail road which is fortunately usually open.

Covered a lot of miles

Strange to see a high rise on ocean side among two story homes.

Nice looking boatel. Impressive marina.
Diesel was less than gas!

Interesting.

Lots of group track houses and condos along the way. Many still for sale.

Finally Pictures from ICW 315 to 383

Leaving at first light. We have noticed the days starting later and ending earlier.
Some places show scars of past hurricanes. Houses still boarded up, torn up docks like this one. It must be hard living under threatening weather conditions to all your property.

This man is catching shrimp from his boat in a net. The bag probably holds three pounds of fresh shrimp. Note to self: order shrimp here. They will be great !

We saw a few trailors together in a huge trailor park at ICW water's edge. I guess this is one place the snow birds go to escape the winter.

Made it to SC finally. ICW mile 383

(Charles): Well today was one of those days. We left the dock at 06:30 am with the full moon still up and dawn only a hint on the Eastern horizon. We motored for 10.5 hours -- my least favorite thing to do, but through some interesting parts of North and South Carolina. The current reversals as you get past the inlets are remarkable.

We passed two northbound tugs boats with astonishing trains of equipment ( mostly for dredging). Sue has pictures.

But the best and most magical part of the day was Wacca Wache Marina ( Murrels Inlet, SC). We arrived at 16:45 and were helped onto the dock by Lance who insisted on coiling our dock lines in perfect coils. Hannah Banana is the marina's restaurant and they were having their second annual promotion event raising money for a breast cancer awareness and cure with raffles and a decorated bra contest. Sue has pictures. We ate outside and listened to "Duke" and his young guitar accompanist playing oldies- the sort I like. It was a magical evening and the shrimp and oysters were out of this world. It is amazing how, just by chance, you can come a really great place with no prior planning involved. We will see what tomorrow brings.

( this internet connection is slow so pics may follow tomorrow.)

Back Inside - Mile Marker 315

Inside St James Marina

We are tied at D dock looking down this row of boats. They claim to have a five foot tide so you have to put a line on the HIGH pole at your stern. We decided it would work just tied to the end if possible. This place is directly off the ICW and very calm because it is part of a gated community with tall condos surrounding the harbor. That makes for a calm water basin.

There is an outdoor bar, restaurant with palm trees and beautifully landscaped well planned buildings. I believe there are three golf courses too !

***********

We had a good day earlier in Southport. We went to Taylor's restaurant on the main road (Howe) and thought we would be gone by noon. I sewed a bag to contain all the paper charts we have so they stayed together and actually fit in the chart table. Then another bag for the spiral bound guides which wanted to fly across the floor every time we had any bouncing during our sailing. It is handy to have a sewing machine onboard.

This time I decided to take the cheap $100 machine and leave the good one back home. Rina's wonderful metal sewing machine had a frozen bobbin and was rendered useless because we had a little salt spray in a closet where it was stored when we did our last trip south. It surprised me because the machine was in a wooden case and the bobbin was several inches off the bottom of the case so it never got standing water so to speak. Lesson learned. Everything can freeze up on a boat like zippers to computer cases, and tool bag closures.

Charles helped with the installation of a padded back cushion across the combing . I had some had sewing to finish before that got done. He had re-installed lee cloths so we could have a proper bunk bouncing around out there but the weather forecast looked like it was better to leave later. So we hung around for lunch in town. When we got ready to leave it was nearly three pm.

We got outside and the winds were right on our nose. Charles did not like that and felt we should go back inside and head down the waterway. Now instead of being in Charleston by ten am we will likely be there in a few more days.

Tomorrow will be an early start. We have miles to cover. He is disappointed, but we will get there. So we went from mile marked 309 to 315...