Ken and Karen’s travel adventures
4/18-19/18: We left Southport with a bit of wind, but once we were out of the marina, it was pushing us along from behind. (That helps with the fuel economy!) Good bye Southport – we enjoyed your hospitality!
This is Oliver’s – we had dinner here one evening. The highlight for Kenny was the dessert, (upon recommendation from a couple of loopers). Bourbon bread pudding ala mode. Yep – it was good!
4/17/18: Captain said that when he read yesterday’s blog, he could tell I didn’t feel good. He called me a Debbie-downer.😳😧. He says – “you usually make light of not-so-fun situations, but you sounded kind of Eyore-ish”. HA! That made me laugh. For forever and a day, he has been Eyore, and I have been Tigger. Oops – I was apparently doing a switcheroo, and that weirded him out. 🙃 He doesn’t really know how to Tigger. So I guess I better get back into my normal role. I do feel better, but it sure is a slow process to get one’s head and face to be clear of all this crud! Yesterday I was all stuffed up, then today my eyes and nose were dripping all day long! So to clarify yesterday’s tone, living on the boat and being a CLOD was really a blessing to save us motel $$, and not a bad experience at all! And Zimmerman Marine and Southport Marina have been nothing but outstanding with their customer service, friendliness and help. So, I’m sorry if yesterday sounded like Eyore was writing.
This morning, first thing even before a run to the potty station, Steve came by and said the boat lift would be picking up Island Girl to take her back to the water. They wanted to get her in with some good tide water, since there would be a minus tide in the early afternoon. Alrighty then! We’d get her in the water, and go dock her next to Sum Escape for at least one night, so that the shafts and everything would have a chance to settle out before they finalize the engine alignment. The sun was hardly even up yet….. but splash we go!
Engines start, props go round and round… all a good sign. But before we tootled over to the slip, we made a little stop at a rest area. We needed to empty the holding tank, please. So we made a quick stop at the fuel dock for a pump out. Had to apologize to Steve and neighbor Tom for taking so long to get to our slip, as they waited patiently to help catch lines for us. Priorities, you know!?
All tucked into our slip – ahhh. It’s good to be floating again. It’s still chilly wear-a-fuzzy kind of weather, but in this particular spot, our bow is west to the wind, and stern is east to the sun. It’s a lovely morning with coffee-on-the-patio spot!
Now that the repair details are taken care of, we went for a walkabout Southport town. There are lots of homes dating back to the mid-1800’s.
This one is pretty narrow looking at the street front, but look how far back it goes!
These aren’t really the plantation southern style home that we’ve seen in other towns, but all very attractive homes. They don’t look as “historic” as some towns – I don’t know if its the style or that they maybe have different restoration rules.
Several movies and TV shows have been filmed in Southport. One big movie was “Safe Haven”, from a Nicolas Sparks book. The museum in town has a big giant display all about it. Our AGLCA Harbor Hosts (Robert & Kay) live across the street from the old town dock and yacht basin where they keep their 43’ boat. They have actually been paid to move their boat to make a clear scene several times for different productions. It was fun listening to Robert talk about all of the production crews and so on that they’ve had experience with over the years.
This is the police station. Complete southern hospitality to welcome you, including rocking chairs on the porch!
This was the Southport school way back when.
And of course, a pretty old church. Double meaning there… it is pretty AND it is old.
We had docktails with several loopers that just came into Southport today – folks that we met way back in Georgia. There was a bunch of loopers that left this morning, and a whole new flotilla came in today. That’s what happens when you get a good travel day finally. Everybody moves! (Except the few of us who are dealing with repair issues.). And then Julie & Tom invited us next door (Sum Escape) for some bourbon tasting. Tom had some McKenna’s and some Woodford Reserve. Oooh baby – Captain liked that Woodford Reserve, served “neat” (in a glass with no ice or anything else). I created a whole new world of taste for Kenny when I insisted we go bourbon distillery touring and tasting in Kentucky last summer! 😏
Tomorrow – we’re motoring on! Each night during this time of year, the Southport Marina hosts a northbound route briefing. It is really well done, and provides a whole bunch of information about the 300 miles from here to Norfolk Virginia, as well as a very detailed weather forecast. It is really nice to get intel about what to watch for, how the tides and winds will affect the various bodies of water, and get a variety of resources for the journey. Thank you Southport Marina and Zimmerman Marine for taking such good care of us.
4/14-16/18: Cruisers Living On Dirt – that’s us. It’s the weekend, so we are sitting and waiting. I have a sinus thing going on in my head, so I don’t feel real great. It’s rainy and warm, so it is sticky humid. We are living on the boat, which saves us some money, and that is a nice thing. When we use the sink, the water drains out on the tarp below our boat, so I try to capture it in a bowl and dump it away from the tarp. If we were to use our shower, it would drain out on the tarp too. So we need to make the trek around the boat yard over to the marina for showers. And, our holding tank for the toilet is nearly full, with no way to empty it. So we have to make that same trek to use the bathroom. We don’t have any air conditioning, because it runs by sucking in the water that you’re floating in, which when you’re high and dry like we are, there is no water. Fortunately, the high temps for the next week are only supposed to be in the 60’s to low 70’s, so that isn’t a problem. We do have heat. And we can cook. TV reception isn’t very good, but we have pretty good internet, so we can watch Netflix.
The boat yard gave us the keys to the shop truck for the weekend.
4/12-13/18: I noticed today that the days are getting longer as we get closer to summer, and the sun hops out and shines earlier every day. And then add to that, we are moving north, so that makes sunrise even earlier! It doesn’t sound like much, but just the 100 miles from Georgetown to Southport, sunrise was 6 minutes earlier. We pulled out of Myrtle Beach Yacht Club on a nice sunny morning, with very calm water and calm wind – how nice! It was only about 40 degrees outside, so we were all prepared to be downstairs most of the day. It was only to be about a 36 mile trip to Southport, North Carolina. But with no wind, it was quite nice at the upper helm, so we just stayed up there. We were in North Carolina within just a few miles. Too bad they don’t have “Welcome to…” signs on the ICW! We saw all kinds of homes, and it seemed like we were hardly ever in a waterway without docks.
4/11/18: It would be a 60 mile day, with no real issues. Yippee! We were up and atum and ready to go before 8:00. And my phone said it was 39 degrees outside. Seriously?! Good grief, it needs to warm up already!! Captain started out driving from upstairs for the best visibility, although all of the windows were soaked with dew inside and out. As soon as we were out of the marina basin and into the ICW, we headed downstairs. The chief cook Karen hadn’t even made coffee yet! But that is easy to fix while underway. We actually use a single serve Keurig, which works out great for us. And we have a huge pack of mini cinnamon rolls from our trip to Costco a few days ago.😋
Our scenery keeps improving! In Georgetown, we learned about how prevailiant the rice crop was prior to the 1900’s in this area. Well, there is still a whole lotta acreage of abandoned rice fields here along the Waccamaw River. We wondered if there are gators in these here waters. Captain went down to the engine room to check in with Engineering, and found that the water flowing through the engines was less than 60 degrees. That seems chilly for gators. So I looked it up. Shore-nuff, there be gators in these waters, but they’re probably a little chilly today.
4/10/18: This was a short travel day – only 28 miles to Georgetown from McClellanville. No crazy shallow shoaly spots to plan around. Tides were not a big concern. Although, if we had planned a little better, we might have had the tide working with us instead of against us all day! We fought a 1-2 knot tide the whole way. It was COLD again – the high today was only 57 degrees. So as soon as we were out of the creek and into the ICW, we headed downstairs to the warm and dry comforts of our living quarters. Some people might think that two helms are not necessary. And for a long time, Captain refused to drive from down here. But on this long journey, we both are thankful for the dry and warm place to be! He still docks and undocks (good word, right?😉) from the flybridge for better visibility.
4/9/18: McClellanville is … where we are! It is a tiny town with a population of just over 1000 people. It is a fishing/shrimping village, with not much town, but they do have fresh seafood!
We woke up to rain. Not blowing nasty hard rain – just drizzly get-you-nice-and-wet rain – like Seattle gets. Our journey today started around 10:00. It was another day that had to be timed with the tides. High tide was only going to give us an additional four feet today around 4:00pm, and we would need it about 4 hours after departing the marina. (That’s a lot of 4’s in one sentence!).
We cast off our lines, with Captain at the upper helm for better visibility getting out of the marina. Here is a look back at Charleston, as it appears if you were arriving from the ocean. In fact, a Carnival ship was in port! These buildings/homes are absolutely stunning to see up close along the battery (sea wall).
4/7 & 8/18: We weren’t sure when the rain would start, but we knew it was coming. Swab Kenny wanted to wash down the boat, but was hoping the rain would do it for him. We have found with the various swabs that we’ve had on board in the past, that they will work and do chores if needed, but mostly they’re pretty good at drinking beer. 😋🍺. In the meantime, Louise (that’s long been the name of our housekeeper …me) got out the cleaning stuff and spiffed up the bathrooms, while Kenny cleaned the upholstery in the salon. Then R2D2 (our little mini shop vac) got out of his cubby and vacuumed all the carpets (with some help from Louise). I changed the sheets on the bed…. but then, I didn’t want to walk the mile long dock to the laundry station. Usually I just take them off, wash them, and put them back on, but today I’m glad I brought more than one set along. I’ll get around to doing laundry at a more convenient (read as – short dock walk) location.
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4/6/18: We stopped at Church Creek yesterday, because we want our arrival in Charleston to be timed with slack tide – which would be at about 1:15pm today (Friday). Navigator Me also discovered that just a mile or so prior to Charleston, is Elliott Cut. This is a very narrow channel with the potential for very swift current. The current can run up to 5 knots with rock walls on both sides of the channel! Holy tidewater, Batman! We definitely want to be there at slack tide. Since it is close to Charleston, slack for both places will be timed together, which is great!
We had a leisurely morning watching dolphin swim around the area. Hopefully this little video works – I was able to capture a little glimpse of them on camera – including hearing them breathe. (Kinda hard to hear through the breeze on the speaker, though.)
click on the link:
http://lattitudetravel.com/travelblog/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/F450AFF1-A3D0-4C9C-8A44-2EF3CA9FDFA8.mov
4/5/18: We had three areas of interest to deal with today. They were all discussed at docktails the last couple of nights, including some insight from a couple of locals. The biggest concern is 40 miles away, called Dawho River. (They call everything around here a river. I guess its for lack of any better term. In my learnins, a river runs one way. The “rivers” around here run both ways because they are tidal.). Anyway, Dawho is a challenge with shallow water and a narrow channel that you have to S curve your way through. It shows only 2 feet of water at low tide on the charts… How can that be a navigatable waterway? But before we get there, we have Ashepoo Cut in 19 miles, Watts Cut in another 13 miles, then Dawho 10 miles from there. Along with all of this, we are headed to Charleston. The City marina where we have reservations, is on a ‘river’ that has extreme current. Geeze. Again? Another one? They advise arrival be timed with slack tide. We can’t leave Beaufort at sunrise and get to Charleston for slack tide. So Navigator Karen picked a spot to anchor about 18 miles prior to Charleston. Read more