Days 134-6 BIG NEWS - read on...

The Admiral took this picture and sent it to me along with some comment about me being vain, but fortunately, I was able to ignore that comment... 

      Anyway, we are finishing our third full day in Wilmington, NC. We rented a car when we first got here since Wilmington is so really spread out. We have seen "Prisoners" and "Wizard of Oz" as well as eating out at least once a day.

     We have come almost 700 miles north up the east coast since Ft. Pierce, FL. The last 2 weeks have definitely been cooler, which is a hint of things to come. Last night it was 58F just inland from us, and the high temperature the last 3 days has been 72-77F.
...and now for the BIG NEWS!

     We have not mentioned it yet, but Wilmington is where we plan to leave the boat for the Winter. We wanted to leave the boat in the water in an area that is unlikely to have hard freezes and at the same time is relatively "safe" during hurricanes. Obviously, there is no place anywhere on the east coast that perfectly fits these goals, but here we are...

     Since the blog is open (public), we have sometimes left off specifics since we do not want people to (easily) know where we live, etc. Since leaving Ortega Landing Marina west of Jacksonville five weeks ago, we have been checking out marinas during our travels north. Until we checked out the marina here in Wilmington, NC, I had "reserved" the option to return to Ortega Landing (Jacksonville, FL). Obviously, no place is immune to hurricanes, but I have been paying particular attention to storm surge. In the case of marinas, the floating piers can literally float up and off of their pilings.

     Until we finally chose a location for winter storage, our plans for the Fall have been pretty much up in the air. Now that we have chosen a "home" for the boat for the winter, our plan is to spend several weeks here putting the boat to bed, etc. We also plan to devote at least part of each day to enjoying Wilmington and the surrounding area. In the meantime, I will fly to Houston next week to bring my truck back here along with the boat trailer for the dingy. The Admiral and I should be back in Texas probably in mid October. Our "original" plan was to return about November 1, which included more time looking for a place to leave Lucky Us for the Winter.

     We plan to have the boat ready to head north no later than March 15, and our grand plan is to come back to Wilmington at some unspecified time in late (?) February. It will take a while to get Lucky Us ready to go. We have already started doing "some" of the odd jobs necessary before we leave, but we have a long way to go. Fortunately we have no fixed time schedule that we have to meet. Man, I am really liking retirement. "No agenda" could become my motto...

       So, the travels on Lucky Us are over for this calendar year. Soon it will be time for some serious "hugging" of the Grandkids, and of course, spending the Holidays with family and friends. I will post a few more times to let you all know how the work (and the fun) is going. For one, I am pretty sure that after 19 weeks of a routine regarding preparations for a day of travel on the water, I am pretty sure that I will wake up one morning and go down into the engine room to check oil and fuel levels, etc...  Take care!

Day 133 to Wilmington, NC

We left the Southport Marina at 8:35 am and headed 26 miles up the Cape Fear River to Wilmington, NC. We arrived just before 11:30 am in a fairly quick trip due largely to favorable tides. The main channel was deep at 42+ feet, and the current was strong when I could keep Lucky Us in the faster water. This bridge is the Cape Fear Memorial (lift) Bridge that is 65 feet high closed and 130 feet when open. The metropolitan area has about 265k people and stretches from the Cape Fear River all the way to Wrightsville Beach on the Atlantic Ocean. The Cape Fear River angles in from the coast so even though we are 25 miles up river, we are only 15 miles from the coast.

This is the battleship North Carolina, and it is up river from the lift bridge. Most of the port area (mainly container ships?) is before the lift bridge, but obviously large (i.e. high) ships can reach the downtown area. The ship appears to be in excellent condition, and we hope to take a tour if time permits.

     After a well deserved nap (my opinion), we called Enterprise and rented a car. While at the rental agency, we inquired about local restaurants, and one of the customers suggested "Elizabeth's Pizza". Even better, he was going to be driving past it so we could follow him. Well, the name of the restaurant is not very Italian, but I had the best margarita pizza since my last one at Fratella's in Bryan, TX.  

Day 132 Hello to North Carolina

We left North Myrtle beach at 8:50 am to head north to another new state, North Carolina. We travelled about 45 miles in dark grey skies with plenty of black clouds, but somehow we only got about 4 drops of mist on the windows. The first picture not only shows the typical skies, but we got this close to the Atlantic Ocean at one of the inlets that we passed. We had a (personal) record 9 bridges today as we went under 8 bridges and through one luckily with no wait. 

Our "different" photo for today is of a US Army Corps of Engineers dredge. It reminded me of the sand dredges in my hometown of Lorain, Ohio. You can see the vacuum like hose on the side. Those dredges in Lorain went out into Lake Erie and dredged up sand for construction, etc. Also, it is the weekend so we passed many power boats today. 

Our destination today was Southport Marina in (you guessed it) Southport, North Carolina. We had dinner at a waterfront restaurant that had several pictures on the wall from scenes in the recent movie "Safe Haven". Many of the scenes were filmed in Southport and other locations as "far" away as Wilmington, NC. It just so happens that our destination tomorrow is Wilmington, which is about 25 miles up the Cape Fear River. The Cape Fear River, which empties into the Atlantic at Southport, will be our route to Wilmington tomorrow.

Safe Haven was released last February, and although it is probably a chick flick, I even liked it... This last picture is a view of one of the classic waterfront places. Anyway, we toured a bit of the town on the electric scooters, and it will easily make my list of places to visit again.

Day 131 in North Myrtle Beach

Today began with a quick trip to West Marine to replace the freshwater pump. A man several boats down the dock kindly volunteered to take us in his car. Once back aboard Lucky Us it took just 45 minutes from the time we started getting out tools until  the last tool was put away. The Admiral did all of the work while I acted as gopher. The pump is on the aft, port side (back, left), and once you have gotten back there it works best to have someone hand you tools, parts, etc. The pump runs great and we are back in business... Then it was time for lunch and a nap. After that we hit the pool where the Admiral was VERY disappointed to find that the heater for the hot tub had broken. I guess that a luke warm tub is just not the same? About 5:30 pm we set off on the electric scooters across the bridge to finish our shopping tour. We did stop by Greg Norman's Restaurant (and Shark Bar), but our real destination was a sports bar a short distance away. We knew that we were in great hands when the first thing our waiter said was "Boy, A&M looked good against Alabama." 

We managed to stretch dinner out over 3+ hours, but we did have to leave before the end because one of us couldn't keep her eyes open... Anyway, by that point the outcome of the game was not in doubt.

Tomorrow we are off about 44 miles north to North Carolina! We might have stayed here longer, but with the broken heater on the hot tub that is definitely not an option. we will be at Southport Marina, which is very near the mouth of the Cape Fear River, which (you guessed it) is very near the actual Cape Fear...

Day 130 -full day in North Myrtle Beach

Today we set off about 10:00 am for the stores, etc. at Barefoot Landing across the waterway to the east. To get across the waterway we rode our electric scooters across a swing bridge just north of the Barefoot Marina. This picture is taken from the swing bridge looking back at Barefoot Marina on the west side. There are three 13 story condos (many of which seem to be available for rentals). 

The second picture is from the same spot on the bridge, but I have turned slightly to the left to see the Barefoot Landing area on the east side of the waterway. You are basically looking at the back side of the shops/restaurants. The large building on the very left is the Alabama Theater, which features nightly live shows, including big names like Clint Black (tomorrow night?). 

There are two slightly separate sections to the area, which are separated by a lake with 3 wooden pedestrian bridges across the lake. We only visited one area today, but you can guess where we will be going for part of the day tomorrow. Since the weather has been cooler the past few days, I even broke down and bought a long sleeved, navy blue, Myrtle Beach t-shirt. We checked out two sports bars to make sure that they got ESPN-U, which is where the Aggies versus SMU football game will be broadcast tomorrow evening. We had lunch at the second sports bar, and although the food was good, it was by far the worst service that we have had on the whole trip. My guess is that we will be watching the game from the other sports bar... 

After lunch, it was time for the pool or in the case of the Admiral, the hot tub. They advertise that the pool is 3/4 of an acre in size (or roughly 30,000 square feet if that helps). I was pretty dubious, but after seeing and swimming in it, they may be correct. The salt water pool is maybe 80F so it took me a minute to "ease" into it. However, I did do a little swimming both yesterday and today.

Life on a boat... After dinner, the Admiral noticed that the water pressure in the kitchen faucet was low and getting lower. Sure enough, the pump that maintains the water pressure is dead!!! While we are at the dock, the pump is not a problem since we can hook up a water hose to the city water on the dock. However, while underway or at anchor, we would  have no water. Well, we have not been to a West Marine Store in several weeks, but the one in North Myrtle Beach opens at 9:00 am in the morning. Want to guess where I'll be about then?

Day 129 fun breakfast! Then on to North M.B.

We met up with Pam and Del W. at Osprey Marina at 8:00 am and headed off for a fun breakfast. As I said yesterday, Pam was my date for the 1961 Lorain High School Prom. Del went to the same school though was in a class a half year ahead of Pam and me. Del and I talked about it, but we agreed that we had never met. Not too surprising since it was a big school. If I remember correctly, about 1200 students started the 9th grade, which was still in junior high but only about 350 graduated. Many quit as soon as they could to get high paying jobs at Ford or US Steel. 

Here we are telling "lies" at breakfast. We had lots of memories to share and many friends in common to remember. It was interesting to hear about why they chose this area to retire. It seem that less winter but still having four seasons is what attracted them to the area. Okay, now I know that you have all been waiting for this....

Here is the before and after picture... Pam's mother took the picture on the right in her living room when I picked her up. Yup, that's me about 45 pounds ago...

     After an enjoyable breakfast, it was time to head north from the southern edge of Myrtle Beach to North Myrtle Beach. It is only 20 miles, but it included 8 bridges. 

All of the bridges were fixed with about 65 feet of clearance, except for the Socastee (sock'-ass-tee) Bridge, which opened promptly after calling on the radio. This was one of the nicest looking steel bridges that we have passed. Quite often they are very rusty or painted black at best. For about half of the trip the waterway was very narrow (about 200 feet) and tree lined so that it was kind of "tunnel" like.

One unusual sight was this aerial tram over the waterway. When I first saw the cable car on the right, I thought those look like golf bags hanging on both sides... Sure enough, this is a golf course with the parking on the right (east) side of the waterway and the golf course on the left (west) side. This one definitely goes in the file of "classic" pictures.  

The last picture shows Lucky Us docked at Barefoot Marina on the west (mainland) side of the waterway. Barefoot Landing across the waterway has several large areas of shops and restaurants, and part of this can be seen lighted up to the right.

Day 128 to very southern Myrtle Beach

We left Georgetown, SC, specifically the Harborwalk Marina at 7:50 am and headed for the Osprey Marina, which is at the southern edge of Myrtle Beach, SC. The trip was 33 miles and with very favorable tidal currents we arrived at Osprey Marina at 11:30 am. Shortly after we arrived, Pam and Del W. arrived for a visit. They kindly loaned us one of their cars so that we could tour around the area. The car just happened to be an "Aggie" maroon convertible... Osprey Marina is an excellent, nearly new marina, but it is well away from all amenities. The IntraCoastal Waterway is about 4 miles inland at this location, and of course, most of the development is right along the coast. Thus, the car was wonderful (and very necessary) to see the area.

     Pam and Del had other commitments for the day, but we made plans to meet up in the morning and tell lies... Pam and Del are originally from my hometown of Lorain, Ohio, and in fact, Pam was my date for the Lorain High School Prom in May, 1961... More about this in tomorrow's post.

     The first picture is from the beach closer to "downtown" Myrtle Beach. The second picture is of the Admiral wading in the Atlantic Ocean. Her comment was "It's cold." We knew that sooner or later as we progressed northward that the Atlantic would cool off, and I guess that we have reached that point. Myrtle Beach is a vacation spot with lots of hotels and condos.Of course there are also lots of golf courses. In addition to "regular" golf courses, we saw at least 6 putt-putt golf courses. We also drove through one amazing mall with a real amusement park -like really big ferris wheel and roller coaster, Ripley's, etc.
   After dinner out, we drove back to Lucky Us for an early bed time...

Day 127 (very) relaxing time in Georgetown, SC

We are staying at Harborwalk Marina in beautiful downtown Georgetown. The marina is at one end of the restored downtown, which is also along the waterfront. The boardwalk is on the waterfront (or back side of the stores/restaurants). There are small parks like the one in this picture that connect the main street to the boardwalk at each intersection. 

The second picture is looking down the boardwalk. There are 15 restaurants downtown and most of them have patios/decks outback that also connect up to the boardwalk.



We spent about an hour and a half exploring the shops and then had dinner at one of the restaurants. We chose the air conditioned inside with a view of the boardwalk and river. I had the "Catch of the Day", which was grouper. It was the first grouper that I have had in more than a month. I had it almost every day for a month or more in Florida, but lately it has not been on the menu??? 

     Tomorrow we are headed 33 miles north to Murrells Inlet, SC. This is at the southern end of a long stretch of the coast that seems to be loosely referred to as Myrtle Beach. Anyway, Murrells Inlet is referred to as the "Seafood Capital of South Carolina". Well, that sounds promising!

Day 126 off to Georgetown, SC

We left the Mega Dock at Charleston City Marina at 7:50 am this morning. We had spent 5 nights tied up on the other side of these beauties. The "small" one is 90 feet long while the others are 125 to 130 feet long. The bad news was that our view of the harbor was blocked. The good news was that we had plenty of shade in the afternoon...

       We had a fun time in Charleston, and unlike the Admiral's multi-day birthday celebration last month, mine was limited to one (very fine) day.  

We travelled 67 miles along the IntraCoastal Waterway to South Carolina's second largest port city, Georgetown. We are at the Harborwalk Marina, which has about 15 restaurants and a number of stores in the restored downtown on the waterfront.  The scenery of coastal swamp and tree covered islands was very similar to the rest of our travels along the coast in Georgia and South Carolina. 

Our "oddity" of the day where the lead tug was actually being pushed by the rear tug...  We had probably a third of the trip where the water was pretty "skinny" with only 1 or 2 feet under the keel. At one point the depth gauge actually read -0.8 feet. When if gets really shallow, the props kick up sediment and that throws off the depth sounder...

     After the long travel day today, we plan to stay here for two nights to get a bit of a rest. Plus, we plan to do some touring around the local historic homes and the maritime museum downtown.

Day 125 Today was all about the Captain's Birthday

Today is my birthday, and I had a GREAT day. This is our fourth and final full day in Charleston, SC. It also happened to be a "big" birthday as I turned 70 years old. Anyway, I love birthdays and certainly want to keep having them...  First, there were cards and gifts.  

One of the gifts is a remote control for the autopilot. Wow, now all I need is a captain's chair that reclines... Hopefully you will realize that is a bad attempt at a joke. However, the remote will make the skipper's job much easier. Now, with the autopilot turned on, you have to reach over and punch a button to change the course one degree at a time. The remote has an option where you can also change the course in 10 degree increments. That will make life much easier while travelling on the winding portions of the waterway and rivers! 

Then it was off to the Star Restaurant in downtown Charleston where the Admiral had made a reservation for a marvelous lunch. The brunch had a large selection including some local Southern favorites. One was a version of Eggs Benedict with deep fried chicken breast (instead of ham), a biscuit (instead of an English muffin), poached egg and topped with Hollandaise sauce. Another local favorite was grits with cream, 2 cheeses and shrimp. Anyway, I ate a lot and ate some more, and then I went for the desserts.  Now that's a way to celebrate! Thanks Admiral!

   The last event of the day was a bus ride to a local mall for some shopping and a movie. We saw "Ultimate Life", which was both thought provoking and entertaining. However, we are experiencing a our own different version of the ultimate life or experience on the Great Loop. To top things off there have been many messages on Face Book, a call from my brother and 20 minutes of Face Time on the iPad with the grandkids. A very busy but GREAT birthday!

     However, tomorrow it is back to reality as we are heading out 67 miles north to Georgetown, SC. 

Day 124 -day #3 in Charleston, SC

It is Saturday, which means Farmer's Market, and of course, Aggie Football! We wore A&M maroon shirts in honor of today's game with Alabama. Just for the record, mine was "Geology & Geophysics" while the Admiral wore one from TAMU-Qatar. We took the marina shuttle downtown at 8:00 am. The market was in a park that covers a whole city block downtown, but the actual market covered only part of that today, probably since most local produce is long since gone. Anyway, there were plenty of produce vendors (left) and art/jewelry stalls (right). 

The big plus for this Farmer's Market was the number of food stands. This picture shows my personal favorite name - "My Big Fat Greek Tent".  Yes, they did have a tent. We had breakfast from another one that specialized in omelets. I had a "St. Johns" omelet not because of the name, but it was basically a veggie omelet topped with sweet basil.  The Admiral kindly shared her 2-cheese grits with me as well. After some (vegetable) purchases, we walked down the street where we had coffee at Starbucks while waiting for the stores to open at 10:00 am. We had chosen this particular street based on previous walks around downtown. I love browsing around upscale shops, and before we knew it, it was lunch time. We had lunch at the King Street Grill, which quite by accident also happened to be a sports bar.  For one 10+ minute period of time, the Aggies were featured on three different stations at the same time. What a hoot!  Well, we got back home to Lucky Us with 2 hours to go before the game came on TV so we both enjoyed a nice nap. Unfortunately, the Aggies lost (49 to 42) to # 1 ranked Alabama, but they could just as easily have won. Anyway, it was a great game to watch!

My final picture for the day is a bit of "local" color here at the marina. As I have mentioned before, for some unknown reason we are on the Mega Yacht dock, which must be 2000 feet long. During our stay here there have been up to 10 yachts in the range of 90 to 130 feet long. All are cleaned and polished everyday by their crews. Several of them obviously do not have the owner or guests aboard. How can I tell? For one, they are not wearing their uniforms, but the real give away is that they all take off their sandals and leave them in clusters on the dock before boarding the yacht.



Tomorrow, it is (Birthday) Party Time! It is the 41st time that I will celebrate being 30 years old... Before you get too confused, I will be 70 years old. You figure it out... It is just one of those math things.

Day 123 Second day exploring Charleston

We started the morning by taking the marina shuttle over to the ferry to Ft Sumter where the first shots that signaled the start of the Civil War were fired. The National Park Service maintains four forts in Charleston Harbor (3 on land plus Ft Sumter). It was a nice way to spend the morning with an hour at the fort and a half hour ferry ride on either end.

The fort was designed to withstand bombardment from the sea side. So, it did not fare well when the Confederates bombarded it from land. The walls were quickly reduced to ruble, the barracks caught on fire and the munitions bunkers were in danger of exploding. So, the Union forces surrendered, and they were graciously transported to New York by boat. The remainder of the war was far less friendly... The taller dark portion in the middle represents later modifications to the seaward side along with adding modern rifled canons to protect the port during the Spanish-American War.  

Here I am standing next to one of the large Civil War canons. Wow!

The Admiral and I are posing next to one of the canons mounted on its carriage. It could be rotated about 90 degrees and changed in elevation. The reconstruction of the original part of the fort seemed very realistic. 

On the way back to Charleston, we got a nice view of the waterfront. You can also see something of the architectural control at least in terms of building height. There are also over 20 church steeples that can be seen. There are a lot of old churches (more than 400). This started with a ruling in early Colonial times that 7 or more people could start their own church. We were back at the dock just before Noon, and you know what that means -LUNCH. Then it was time to take the shuttle back to the marina. The marina was all abuzz that 5 more large yachts (90 to 130 feet) were due to arrive today.

     In the middle of the afternoon we walked less than a mile to a bus stop to go to the movies! We saw "The Family" with Robert De Niro and Michelle Pfeiffer who uproot their children and export their mobster ways to Normandy while in witness protection. Lots of of killing (mainly bad guys) but really quite funny. Thanks to expert planning by the Admiral, we only had 10 minute waits for the bus on either end. Well, it was a busy but fun day!

     Tomorrow? Well, we do plan to watch the Aggies BTHO Alabama.



Day 122 First day exploring Charleston, SC

     We left the boat at mid-morning and took the marina shuttle to the Charleston City Market. It is several blocks long with small booths on both sides. Lots of art, souvenirs (both tasteful and tasteless) and baskets. I specifically mention the baskets because they were in many shops, and there were people actually weaving them on site.

We then walked around the area and saw a lot of restaurants and (upscale) art and antique shops. For lunch, we went to Poogan's Porch Restaurant, and yes, they did have a small dining porch. However, we chose the air conditioned inside after having walked around for a while. The menu was really interesting. I chose the "Calabash Shrimp and Oysters", which came with "housemade chips and pimento cheese slaw". The "housemade" or made in house potato chips were excellent!

     After lunch we walked around the corner to the Gibbes Museum of Art, which specializes in art from the South Carolina Lowcountry. "Lowcountry" (one word) seems to be the local term for the low lying coastal plain with its marshes, rivers and barrier bars.

Much of the art from the 18th and 19th centuries consisted of beautiful, large ancestor paintings of members of prominent local families. Most of the art on display told little about life during this period (in my opinion). Charleston has always been a center for the arts, and the art from the 20th century was very diverse and interesting. Then it was time to call the marina shuttle and head back to the boat to pursue our other agenda for the day -REST.

     Tomorrow we are off early to take a ferry to Fort Sumter for a tour. 

Day 121 onward to Charleston, SC

We departed Edisto Island at 8:30 am on a 49 mile trip to Charleston, SC. Luckily, our first 8 miles of the trip was mainly west, which helped us avoid a line of storms coming in from the Atlantic Ocean. We started in pleasant 74F temperature, and it was very slow to heat up to 85F. The clouds slowly built up, but there was no rain so we had a great trip. As our recurring theme, the scenery was dominated by grassy wetlands and pine tree covered islands.

We did pass a small shipyard seemingly out in the middle of nowhere. I do not know if this landing craft was new or whether it was just a new paint job. Seems like an outdated warship in this high tech world.

We did not have to wait for this bridge to open, but we did "hang out" for about 5 minutes while this tug with 2 barges strung out. "Strung out" is barge talk meaning that the barges are in a line as opposed to side by side. We have seen such little commercial traffic since the northern Gulf Coast that it was kind of strange to hear the chatter on the radio. Very soon after going under this bridge, we entered Charleston Harbor.

When I called the Charleston City Marina on the radio, they said that we would be on the inside of the mega-yacht dock. Well, they were serious! The dock is over 1000 feet (300m) long so they really can handle mega-yachts. My picture of Lucky Us at the dock is a little misleading in that those "small" boats astern of Lucky Us are both about 125 feet long! I did have a problem docking as the strong side wind caught us just as we were about to finish passing the boat behind us... Fortunately 3 of the yacht's crew and the Admiral were able to fend us off. Once we were past them maneuvering returned to "normal", and the rest of the docking process was straightforward. It took me a little while to stop shaking -yeah, like about an hour! As the Admiral later remarked, I have now mentally re-docked the boat enough times that I could do a much better job the next time...

     Tomorrow, we will begin to explore this very historic city. Much like Savannah, GA, Charleston was spared destruction in the Civil War, and they were the first city in the U.S. to designate a historic area to be strictly preserved. It looks like we will be here for 5 nights. There is plenty to see plus the Aggie vs Alabama football game is on Saturday, and oh yes, Sunday is my birthday.

Day 120 North to Edisto Beach, SC

We departed Beaufort, SC at 9:15 am on the way 31 miles north to Edisto Beach. Normally, part of the process of "waking up" Lucky Us involves opening all of the windows on the fly bridge enclosure. The water temperature is still about 84F so it does not get that cool at night. The boat was going about 10 mph (with the tidal current) and into a 14 mph breeze. We soon found ourselves closing some of the windows in order to get out of the breeze and warm up. A (very) small prelude to cooler things to come. The first picture is one of a dolphin riding in our wake. This happens so often that we rarely pay attention, but his dolphin caught out attention with the very loud noise it made when breathing. Call it paranoia if you want, but on a boat you notice "strange" noises and try to locate the cause... The dolphin kept us company for almost 30 minutes. 

One of the many beautiful (and different) sights today was this older yacht probably headed south for the winter. We went across two different passes out into the Atlantic as well as seemingly endless salt marsh with pine tree covered islands. We arrived at our destination of Edisto Beach at 1:15 pm after having lunch on the boat.

This is the view looking out over the bow of Lucky Us at the dock.On the right (East) is the landward side of Edisto Beach and on the left (West) is a huge area of salt marsh. Our main reason to stop here is to break up the 80 mile trip from Beaufort to Charleston into two easier days. Of course, we were once again very pleasantly surprised at how lovely the area is.  In Edisto Beach the houses not only have addresses but they have names too such as Bird's Nest, Granddaddy's Place, On a Whim, etc... as indicated by artistic name plaques. 

Once again, we are in a bike friendly area with a combination of bike lanes, sidewalks and isolated bike paths such as this one. The picture was taken in bright sunlight in the middle of the afternoon, but the tree canopy was so thick that it was hard to get a picture.

The last picture shows the Admiral pointing to the water level at high tide. The picture was taken at low tide, and the water level is a full 2 feet below her feet. Thank goodness for floating docks, which make dock lines MUCH easier to handle.

Tomorrow we are off to Charleston for a multi-day stay. Just how many remains to be seen (and experienced).

Day 119 Hilton Head Island to Beaufort, SC

As we said goodbye to Shelter Cove Marina on Hilton Head Island, we had one final view of a really interesting 60+ foot wooden motor yacht. Day 119 Hilton Head to Beaufort, SC.  The "interesting" thing about the boat is the dozens of fern plants covering the back half of the boat and part of the dock...

The trip was 31 miles, but like always we went  on a winding path. We started out by heading almost due west for 5 miles, and near the middle of the trip we went due east for 4+ miles along with many other bends in the waterway. We passed Parris Island where where the water tower says "We Make Men".I was surprised to see only a couple of people walking around this big (U.S. Marine Corps) training base. I guess that they were all out in the swamps???

 

We arrived at the Downtown (city) Marina in beautiful Beaufort about 12:30 pm and walked a short distance to a restaurant in the restored downtown. Note: in South Carolina they pronounce the "Beau" in the name "Beaufort" just like the "beau" in "beautiful". Speaking of beautiful, this picture is in the city park. You can barely see two boats in the background in the middle, and Lucky Us is the one on the left.

In the late afternoon, we took the electric scooters to tour historic homes on the edge of downtown. This is just one of many that we saw along the way.

The tree lined streets with the Spanish moss hanging down added a great deal to the setting. They have quite a long list of movies that have been filmed here at least in part. 

To complete the perfect setting, many of the homes also had really lovely gardens full of ornately trimmed shrubs, brick or gravel walkways and sculpture(s).

After our self tour, we headed back downtown for dinner and of course, let's not forget shopping!

We had dinner in a restaurant in a former bank building. Like most restaurants, they had their menu posted, but beneath the regular menu, they had this sign...  We have seen plenty of "pet friendly" towns with water bowls on the sidewalks and even water fountains for dogs, but this is the first restaurant that actually had a menu for your pet...

Lastly, I will end with this (computer enhanced)picture of a profile of a Great Blue Heron that the Admiral took at the dock this morning. We will probably leave in the morning for Edisto Island, which is close to Myrtle Beach, but then again, I have not slept in for at least a day...