Friday 11/17 -  Georgetown to Charleston

I was up at 6 am and planned on leaving at 7.  Again, I wanted to catch several shallow areas at something other than low tide.  I was surprised when 3 or 4 other boats left before me.  It turned out the current was with me almost all day and the tide was fairly high so I didn't really have any problems.  That made it a long day but I ended up motoring about 55 miles.  I anchored in some marshes that showed two good anchorages on Active Captain.  A catamaran already had the first one so I went to the second.  It was narrow but I figured the current would keep me centered - WRONG!!  One thing I didn't account for was the tide.  When I anchored, I was in 11' (MLLW).  But when I started hearing lots of little rippling and ticking noises at 11 pm, I decided to go out for a look.  I was shocked when I was the bow was over exposed mud and about 5' from the shoreline of reeds.  The anchor line was against the hull, leading aft - under the boat.  I assumed the tide had changed and the anchor line had wrapped around the keel.  What a MESS.  And it was still 2 hours from low tide.  By the way, I forgot to mention this area has an 8.5' tidal range.  I went back to bed and got about an hour's sleep the remainder of the night.   Hi tide was at 9am the next morning so my plan was to get up at 6, and haul the dinghy out of the quarterberth (where it is all neatly packed away), and take a spare anchor to the other side of the channel so I could kedge myself off.   I prayed that God would help me get out of this one.

Thursday 11/16 -

OK - it's Saturday and I'm a little behind.  Having been at a dock for two weeks caused me to to get out of my "on the go" routine.  Hopefully, it will come back quickly. 

I left Osprey Marina at 8 am sharp.  I wanted to time my pass through some "skinny" water to the south of Osprey.  I don't know who came up with the word "skinny" to describe shallow depths but I don't like it.  However, I'm trying to be more open to new things so I thought I'd give it a try here.  I only had 30 miles to go to Georgetown so it was a slow day.  I made it there around 3pm and anchored out just off the waterfront (Riverwalk).  What a picturesque town it is.  It was a cool night (which I was not used to).  

Wednesday 11/15 - Osprey Marina

I was sad to have Joan leave today and I know she was too.  She left around noon for a 3pm flight home.  I did laundry, got the boat ready, and made my preparations for an early departure tomorrow.  

Wednesday 11/15 - Osprey Marina

I was sad to have Joan leave today and I know she was too.  She left around noon for a 3 pm flight home.  I did laundry, got the boat ready, and made my preparations for an early departure tomorrow.  

Tuesday 11/14 - Georgetown SC

We got up early since we had a full schedule of things to do before returning to the Marina.  First was a drive up and down the three or four blocks that parallel the waterfront, looking at old homes.  Georgetown is the third oldest town in South Carolina (behind Charleston and Beaufort).  Many of the houses date back to the 1700s.  It was sunny but pretty cool out so we decided to drive vs. walk.  Then, at 10am, we went on a one our drive around guided tour that provided lots of the town's history.  Then we toured the county historical society museum.  And last, but not least, the Rice Museum.  It was surprising to me that rice was such an important crop in the area.  What made it do so well was the 5 fresh water rivers that flow into the flatlands near the mouth of the Winyah River.  What made it so profitable was that 90 percent of the people in the area were slaves that were first used to clear the land, build the fields with systems of dikes, and then farm the land.  When the slaves were freed, the industry in the area died. 

We left Georgetown around 1pm and drove about 20 miles north to the Brookstone Gardens.  This is a sculpture garden with hundreds of stone and bronze sculptures - all by American artists.  We went on a guided tour and then walked around a lot on our own.  This place is huge - about the size of Longwood Gardens near home.  It was definitely worth the time and the entrance fee.  There are not many flower gardens but many many shrubs and beautiful live oak and other trees. 

We returned to the marina around 6pm and then went out for my final grocery shopping.

Monday  11/13, 2017 -  Day trip to Georgetown SC

After spending much of the morning going to various stores around the marina, Joan and I left for Georgetown.  It was about a 45 minute drive.  We did several touristy things and had a real nice day.   Georgetown has a really nice board walk along the riverfront.  At the north end is a beautiful home that we toured.  

Sunday 11/12 - Backtrack to Southport and Carolina Beach

This morning, Joan and I had an unrushed departure from our hotel in Southport.  Our goal was to catch the 10am ferry from Southport to Fort Fisher (south of Carolina Beach).  From where you exit the ferry it is about a mile to the Fort Fisher Memorial.  Fort Fisher was important to the South during the Civil War since it was used to protect the Cape Fear river from blockades that the Union was using to prevent the Confederates from moving supplies up the river to Wilmington. 

There are some pretty ocean side beaches there but it was cool and windy so we didn't spend too much time out of the car.  We drove up through several miles of beach communities to the more developed city of Carolina Beach.  We went to the Carolina Beach Marina where I had kept the boat 2 weeks before at the State Park Marina.  We hiked on some trails in the park that were supposed to have venus flytraps.  As hard as I tried, I never did see one.  It reminded me of the exiting times I had with my grandson Jaylen watching many youtube videos of the flytraps catching bugs (when he was 4). 

Then we went over to Michaels Seafood (restaurant) just outside the park.  It was the place I had gone to watch a Penn State game and had the owner of the restaurant take me to a friends house to watch the game.   Unfortunately, she was not there so we missed thanking her again.

We caught the 1pm ferry and did a little more walking around Southport before leaving to return to the boat.