A view of Bohicket Creek in the Fog

When I woke up this morning, Bohicket Creek was shrouded in fog and so peaceful and pretty. Chris fixed the alternator so we're ready to go at any time. We thought we'd enjoy the weekend here with our dock neighbors and leave on Monday for Beaufort, SC - a beautiful city that we didn't want to miss. We're hosting the dock dinner tonight with spaghetti (with Faye's famous sauce that she packed up for us before we left).

Happy Easter!

We're still in Kiawah and now intend to stay at least until next Friday. Chris has computer problems and Dell is shipping software to him here so we must stay put. It's a great place and we really love it. We'll see about renting a car so we can explore the surrounding areas that we've seen by water via dinghy. We especially loved the Wadlamaw Island area - the scenery was just beautiful and it wasn't as densely populated as the other islands. Hope all of you have a wonderful Easter!

We're in Kiawah Island, SC

We left Charleston this morning at 8:00 am after being beaten up by 40+ mph winds on the dock for 2 days. We befriended an Australian couple that had the misfortune of having their 47 ft. Catalina put on the outside of the face dock. Every boat out there was being beat against the pier. They had circumnavigated and I could only be envious of their adventures. We arrived in Bohicket this afternoon - it's 7 miles up the North Edisto River (which is also a nice inlet). It is absolutely gorgeous here and everything is within walking distance - 4 restaurants, a spa, a gourmet grocery store, etc. Slips here are for sale but reasonable in comparison to New Bern - a 45 ft. slip with all amenities is $158K. Tomorrow we hope to launch the dinghy and explore the upper parts of the creek. Tonight there was a dolphin and her baby that were swimming around our boat right in the slip. Awesome!

We're in Charleston, SC

We didn't travel far today as we wanted to play tourist in Charleston and we did just that. We are staying at the City Marina and their courtesy van dropped us off downtown so that we could wander the streets and ooh and aah at the houses. We walked the 5 miles back to the marina, relaxed for a bit and had the van take us back downtown about 5:00 pm since I had a pizza craving. After indulging in an excellent pizza at The Mellow Mushroom, we hiked BACK to the marina. We're in for the night and gale warnings are predicted for tomorrow so we decided to stay here another day. We're going to stay in Bohicket Marina through the weekend (about 34 miles away) since we are using a friend's slip there (THANK YOU RUSS!!!!).

We're in Isle of Palms, SC

We left this morning at 8:30 am and had winds behind us the whole way so we finally tugged out that white thingie (the sail) and sailed downwind for most of the afternoon. We hit Isle of Palms around 3:30 and pulled into a slip here. The temps have been cool all day - thank goodness for the canvas enclosure. Dolphins were everywhere - especially in a narrow ditch called the Minim Canal. Charleston is only 23 miles away so we'll go there tomorrow, get there early and play.

Stuck in Georgetown, SC

Last night there were tornado warnings here. We had a few folks over for wine and munchies while the the winds howled and lightning was all around. There were 5 pairs of eyes checking for funnel clouds - a little daunting. 20 miles south of here, tornadoes destroyed quite a few places. The wind is still howling today and I can't think of a more beautiful area to be stuck. The waterfront is here is wonderful complete with a boardwalk and little bars and restaurants everywhere. It's very cool today so I'm making my famous chili and inviting the boat neighbors over to sample the fare. Hopefully we'll be on our way towards Charleston tomorow which is 65 miles from here.

We're in Murrell's Inlet

Yesterday was the day for missing bridges. We waited for the Little River Swing Bridge, the Barefoot Landing Swing Bridge and lastly the Socastee Swing Bridge. It was also a day for hitting under 10 ft depths, closing our eyes and holding our breath, but fortunately we never ran aground. We were relieved to finally enter the Waccamaw River into deeper waters and beautiful scenery. We had planned to anchor in Prince Creek but with the wind howling 30 kn, we didn't have enough swing room. Bull Creek was the next anchorage that we had in mind, but with the wind, we just weren't sure about holding so we came into Waca Wache Marina. We only plan to travel 20 miles down river to Georgetown today since there are severe thunderstorms predicted with high winds and large hail. It's time to replenish some food stores and also do some laundry!

We're in Little River, SC

We're tucked into Lightkeeper's Marina in Little River, SC, slightly north of Myrtle Beach. It's a nice place with a restaurant within walking distance and clean showers. One cannot ask for more! Tomorrow is another waterway day most likely since there is weather coming. We're hoping to get to Murrell's Inlet and tuck in there to ride out the rain. Stay tuned. The highlight of the day was the dolphin show we got while waiting for the Sunset Beach Bridge to open. Awesome! One was particularly frisky, jumping completely out of the water right in front of us - our own Sea World!

Tried It and Came Back!

Well....we left at 3:15 pm yesterday to catch the ebb tide in the inlet. The winds were "predicted" at 10 (they were 22-25), seas were "predicted" to be 2-3 (they were 5-7 ft.). After fighting offshore 3 miles for almost 2 hrs., we made the decision to turn around. Neither one of us could have taken the abuse for 12 hours. I thought one wave was going to tear the anchors right off the front of the boat. We're leaving today and going down the waterway to Little River. One of the boats that came in here last night experienced exactly what we did from the Little River Inlet and they too, turned around and came down the waterway. Another captain told us that he has tried 3 times this week to get out and came back in. The winds have just been honking and the tides have been lower and higher than normal. More later...we're about to leave!

Leaving Southport Today

We decided to stay an extra day in Southport to plan and rest up for our overnight trip to Georgetown. We'll leave this afternoon about 3 pm to take advantage of the falling tide. Winds are predicted about 10 kn this afternoon with 2-3 ft. seas. Once we arrive in Georgetown tomorrow morning, we'll head south to Minim Creek along the ICW and throw out the hook and get some rest. Weather looks like it will deteriorate on Saturday so we want to be tucked in somewhere safe by then - probably Isle of Palms in Charleston or if we're really ambitious, Charleston Harbor.

Southport is Great!

We left Harbor Village Marina about 8:15 am to try and make the Figure 8 Island Bridge Opening. We lucked out because we would have missed the 9:30 opening, but there was a piece of equipment that broke down on the bridge so it was delayed by 1 hr and 45 minutes. When it finally opened 4 sailboats went through--2 northbound and 2 of us southbound. For the rest of the day we followed Rennaisance through Snows Cut and onto Southport. We stopped at Southport Marina because the City Anchorage was low tide and everybody was aground and in the mud. The "excitement" of the day was when a container ship was gaining on us - boy he was big!!! I called an old sailboat racing friend of mine from Wilmington and he met us tonight. I haven't seen him in at least 10+ years so it was fun to catch up although he didn't stay very long. Here's a photo of the Figure 8 Bridge - where we hung out today for well over an hour waiting for them to open and another photo of the container ship that passed us by today.

We're in Hampstead

The Figure 8 Island Bridge is only opening 3 times daily now and we missed the 1:30 pm opening so we are in Harbor Village Marina. It's beautiful and quiet. Hopefully we'll make the 1:30 pm opening tomorrow in Figure 8 Island. Stay tuned!

Stuck in Swansboro, NC

The weather guys were right on track with this storm. We headed out of Morehead City this morning at 8 am and by 9 am it was lightly raining. We pulled into Casper's Marina in Swansboro by noon to wait out the storm which is supposed to worsen tonight and all day tomorrow. We just "explored" Swansboro, but the heavy rains drove us back to the boat pretty fast and we are using the dryer aboard for the 1st time to dry our soaked blue jeans. Hope to be moving again and heading south on Sunday.

Day 1 - Morehead City Yacht Basin

We made it through day #1! We left New Bern at 9am, arrived Morehead City at 4pm. We had great winds, unfortunately all on the nose (go figure). We filled up the fuel tank, the water tank and the wine glasses. We waved and blew kisses to Donnie going past the bridge. Wish you guys would reconsider the cruising thing. Pack the boat with beer and come catch us! Here's the view of the bridge on our fantail.

Tomorrow we leave!

Wow...our last night in New Bern! Tomorrow morning we head south on the ICW and plan to stop in Cedar Creek (not far I know). The food is loaded (and it seems like A LOT!), clothes are aboard and I think I packed triple the amount that Chris did. We have enough wine thanks to our friends to last at least until the South Carolina border and perhaps even beyond (well maybe not that far)! I looked at the charts today and the ICW cruising guide and made a tentative itinerary for us for the first 5 days. Of course, the weather report isn't looking great at the moment for Friday and Saturday as rain is forecast so we may just duck into Beaufort and spend 2 days playing pool at the Royal James and listening to music at the Back Street Pub. For all of you keeping up with this blog, if rain truly does materialize, give us a call and we'd love to meet you in Beaufort! Here's a photo of the wonderful table that Lee Gerl made for us - we have an original work of art in our salon and touches like this make the boat feel so homey!