We wish you a merry christmas and a very happy new year!
Monday, 24 December 2007
Merry Christmas from Brunswick, Georgia
We had planned to be in Florida for christmas, but we "got stuck" at the Brunswick Landing Marina, which is just 40 miles from the Florida border. There is a great bunch of cruisers here with quite the social life, so we decided to stay for a while. We expect to be here until the new year. Below are some views of boats in the marina at night decked out in christmas lights.
We wish you a merry christmas and a very happy new year!
We wish you a merry christmas and a very happy new year!
Monday, 10 December 2007
Photos uploaded to Flickr.
It's been a while since we've posted photos so a large number have just been posted over at Flickr for your Tuesday morning enjoyment.
Dolphins and Presidents
Our trip from McClellandville to Charleston was a dolphin-filled day. We saw dolphins at least six times with the best "sighting" being just as we entered the Charleston harbour area. Geoff saw two dolphins leap out of the water. They seemed to head off, but then Ruth walked to the front of the boat and saw that one of the dolphins was playing just under the surface of the water. He (or she) first swam under the starboard (right) bow, then crossed over to the port (left) bow, and then pulled ahead of the boat in the center to come up for a breath. The dolphin then started at the starboard bow again and repeated the game several times. The dolphin was large - Ruth says about her length. What an incredible experience!
Charleston is a wonderful city, probably our favorite stop yet (being finally warm may be enhancing our views). It's a town full of old southern historic buildings with palm-studded courtyards between them. The people here are very friendly and the city is just beautiful. We have a panoramic view of the greater harbour area from the marina we are staying at.
On Saturday, while we were exploring the market area of Charleston, we noticed a large group of people and TV cameras appearing. It turned out that Bill Clinton was in town for a campaign stop for Hillary. He was walking down the street signing autographs and chatting with people. Ruth even got to shake his hand! Definitely an unexpected event on our Saturday walk.
Dolphins (not sharks!)
Street in Charleston
Charleston Maritime Center Marina (Geru front left)
Bill Clinton
Bridge in Charleston
Christmas lights at the marina
Charleston is a wonderful city, probably our favorite stop yet (being finally warm may be enhancing our views). It's a town full of old southern historic buildings with palm-studded courtyards between them. The people here are very friendly and the city is just beautiful. We have a panoramic view of the greater harbour area from the marina we are staying at.
On Saturday, while we were exploring the market area of Charleston, we noticed a large group of people and TV cameras appearing. It turned out that Bill Clinton was in town for a campaign stop for Hillary. He was walking down the street signing autographs and chatting with people. Ruth even got to shake his hand! Definitely an unexpected event on our Saturday walk.
Dolphins (not sharks!)
Street in Charleston
Charleston Maritime Center Marina (Geru front left)
Bill Clinton
Bridge in Charleston
Christmas lights at the marina
Friday, 7 December 2007
Into South Carolina
We had a few days of relatively uneventful travels from Wrightsville down to McClellanville. The crossing of the Cape Fear River was a complicated section as there is a huge number of buoys and side channels, so picking the correct channel is difficult enough. This is then made worse by the changing of the buoy colours (the buoys flip sides red/green) for the Cape Fear River section. The colours logically make sense (the ICW has a consistent colour scheme, and the Cape Fear River, being a large shipping river with an inlet from the ocean, follows the convention for such a river), but traversing this section is a bit of a navigational mind-bend.
Our first stop in South Carolina was at Cricket Cove Marina. We might not have stopped here were it not for an interesting connection. When Geoff was in the hospital with his leg injury, he shared his room for a day with a police officer suffering from a kidney stone. Ruth ended up talking to the gentleman for a while (Geoff was too drugged at the time to remember any of this), and when she told him our story he mentioned that his father runs a marina on the ICW in South Carolina. Ruth got the name and address - and three months later, there we were. We met the officer's father and had a pleasant stay at the marina, which turned out to be one of the nicest places we've stayed at so far.
One evening we anchored in Thoroughfare Creek, just off the ICW. The anchorage was very picturesque and very isolated - or so we thought. Although there was no sign of civilization on land anywhere near it, shortly after our arrival several small local power boats appeared, and people walked their dogs on the sandy beach. One boat was the best camouflaged duck hunting boat we've seen so far. You could just see the outboard motor sticking out of a huge bunch of reeds (see photo below). We really knew this wasn't an isolated anchorage when a fast motor boat came through pulling a water skier! Nevertheless, we spent a nice quiet night at anchor there.
McClellanville is a small town full of large old trees, including one oak that is over a thousand years old. Most of the trees are dripping with Spanish moss, and the vegetation we are seeing is starting to feel quite lush. There are northern trees that are in fall colours next to large bushes that we normally think of as indoor tropical plants. We are now seeing palms trees that are growing wild - not just ones used for landscaping around people's homes, as was the case a bit farther north. We dropped by the local fish processing plant and bought some local shrimp for dinner - they were just wonderful!
Houses along the ICW south of Myrtle Beach
Cape Fear River
One of the markers on the ICW (or is it a bird's nest ?)
Cricket Cove Marina at night
Thoroughfare Creek anchorage
Hunting boat at Thoroughfare Creek anchorage
McClellanville 1000-year old oak
McClellanville - palm trees, Ruth is happy!
Our first stop in South Carolina was at Cricket Cove Marina. We might not have stopped here were it not for an interesting connection. When Geoff was in the hospital with his leg injury, he shared his room for a day with a police officer suffering from a kidney stone. Ruth ended up talking to the gentleman for a while (Geoff was too drugged at the time to remember any of this), and when she told him our story he mentioned that his father runs a marina on the ICW in South Carolina. Ruth got the name and address - and three months later, there we were. We met the officer's father and had a pleasant stay at the marina, which turned out to be one of the nicest places we've stayed at so far.
One evening we anchored in Thoroughfare Creek, just off the ICW. The anchorage was very picturesque and very isolated - or so we thought. Although there was no sign of civilization on land anywhere near it, shortly after our arrival several small local power boats appeared, and people walked their dogs on the sandy beach. One boat was the best camouflaged duck hunting boat we've seen so far. You could just see the outboard motor sticking out of a huge bunch of reeds (see photo below). We really knew this wasn't an isolated anchorage when a fast motor boat came through pulling a water skier! Nevertheless, we spent a nice quiet night at anchor there.
McClellanville is a small town full of large old trees, including one oak that is over a thousand years old. Most of the trees are dripping with Spanish moss, and the vegetation we are seeing is starting to feel quite lush. There are northern trees that are in fall colours next to large bushes that we normally think of as indoor tropical plants. We are now seeing palms trees that are growing wild - not just ones used for landscaping around people's homes, as was the case a bit farther north. We dropped by the local fish processing plant and bought some local shrimp for dinner - they were just wonderful!
Houses along the ICW south of Myrtle Beach
Cape Fear River
One of the markers on the ICW (or is it a bird's nest ?)
Cricket Cove Marina at night
Thoroughfare Creek anchorage
Hunting boat at Thoroughfare Creek anchorage
McClellanville 1000-year old oak
McClellanville - palm trees, Ruth is happy!
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