Folly Beach!

Who knew there was such a place!    It's the closest ocean access, an island, 30 minutes from Charleston.     That's where we have been these last two nights, getting organized to travel by car to Knoxville, TN.   We've subleased a man's boat slip here for two weeks.   So two days ago, we had to FIND it.  It's two and a half hours down a river toward the ocean from the Waterway.

The bar/restaurant over our marina is the hang out where locals come to watch the sunset each night.  We were there both nights, participating in the local ritual.

It turns out to be a really nice place.     A very tropical feeling place with a long beach with a county park at the end that I biked to and walked yesterday.

Below is an example of the settings of the houses along the river near the Waterway.  Most were under big drapey oak trees.

As we came toward the marina, we passed a couple of islands covered with birds, mostly pelicans

We had eaten all the fresh food aboard, so we HAD to go to a place in town for lunch.

When I walked around the county park at the end of the beach, I came to alongside the inlet where we might sail on out to the ocean when we come back.  We're told it's only 48 hours from here if we head straight to  Palm Beach.   I doubt we'll try that, but we may try something shorter, according to the weather at the time.

I thought that this is just the way these birds stand.  But when one tried to move, he hopped on one leg.   The other must be standing that way just in sympathy.

What is this?  Tom says it's the bottom of a type of crab.

Sunset last night.  Less dramatic, but more dreamy.  Kinda irridescent.

Still no food so we had blackened grouper bits and fish tacos after the sun went down.

Georgetown, second time around

But first, some more pictures of the waterway after we left anchor and motored south toward Georgetown.

There was a fire at Georgetown SC since we were there last.  It took out a few of the many blocks along the waterfront.

Otherwise, the water front and street behind it still looked so fun.  We walked some of the neighborhoods off the main street and saw that most streets were shaded with big live oaks.  Very inviting.

We had drinks at this bar, then went back to our boat for dinner.  We didn't get to eat at Bistro 'cause it was Sunday and most restaurants were closed.

We did have time to catch the sunset.

Now we're motoring on down to an anchorage just north of Charleston so we can get to Folly Beach by maybe the next day.

South Carolina and our favorite anchorage

Yesterday we motored the 25 miles or so down past Myrtle Beach.  South of there, we came back to the area we had considered the prettiest part of the waterway.

And about 2:30, we came to the anchorage we had stayed at on the way up that we liked so much.  It is just a ways down a river that twists back and forth out of the Waterway.  This is all in the middle of a wildlife preserve.

First I took a nap in the sun while Tom made some vegetable quesadillas.   Then we took the dinghy down.   While Tom trolled for fish, I watched and took pictures.   

Now, at about 11 am, we have taken up the anchor and are heading to Georgetown, about 25 miles away.,   I've had several packages sent there.  

Since we were there a couple of months ago, a fire took out several of the historic buildings along the waterfront.  Cruisers are urged to go; by, give them their business so they won't feel like they've lost the world.  We remember it as a very pretty place where we had lunch at one of the best lunches along the way at a place called the Bistro.  Hope to do that again while there.

What a difference a day

makes . . . . .' 

It was rainy and dreary yesterday and today it was clear and in the 70s.

So we dinghyed over through Snow Cut to Carolina Beach State Park and walked the 6 plus mile hike through a  variety of ecoclimates.

We first walked along Cape Fear River where we saw boats going on down the waterway south in the distance.  That should be us tomorrow.

We didn't see the Venus flytraps and other insect-eating plants that this park is known for.

We did see so many things that typically live in dry climates like these dryish clumps that seem related to Spanish moss.

And beautiful grasses that had a horizontal band of pink about midway up.

And a lily pond where ducks were grazing.

And late flowers where butterflies were gathering nectar.

We may have a better opinion of the area today than yesterday.   Many of the buildings are painted happy colors, making the town cheerful.

We'll probably leave tomorrow to motor the 12 miles south down to Southport.  There we can see the historic town or take a ferry across to an island where there is a small scattered community and where all the beaches are public and relatively untrammeled.

it's kinda nice to know we don't have to be to our dock for a week or so.   I can learn to find ways to slow down and see stuff.

North Carolina shore

These birds hitchhiked when we left the anchorage our first night out from Beaufort.



Some colorful machinery/boats as we left Beaufort.



For the last four days we've been motoring and motor sailing south.  It has been mildly raining off and on and dreary.

 We stopped Sunday and Monday nights in Wrightsville Beach.

Wrightsville Beach was not so attractive as we'd hoped.  All three-story-tall plain buildings set for constant visitors to come to the beach.  No charm, no history, and populated by mostly college-aged kids.  

We anchored  along with a lot of other boats that were obviously just stopping on their way south.

Then we took our backpacks, got in the dinghy and walked along the beach.  Then back along a main street to a grocery store and picked up some fruit and potatoes.  Then stopped at a coffee shop/bar/lunch place and had tall frozen shakes/coffee drinks.

Horses and Birds

We got to Beaufort, NC two days ago and are leaving here today to go south.  This turned out to be a good stop in  a couple of ways. 

Yesterday, when we thought we had a day to spend for fun, we noticed that our bilge was way full and discovered that the bilge pump just wouldn't work even when Tom connected it directly to a battery.   While Tom was mechanicing,  I bailing out the bilge, by taking cups of water, putting them into a bucket, then dumping them out.  I bet I got ten buckets.  I eventually got ALL the water out of the bilge by sponge and cleaned it.   Meanwhile, Tom, after calling around, found that the marina, just 200 feet from where we were anchored had the exact replacement bilge pump.   I went over and got it and Tom installed it so by 1 p.m., we had a new pump installed and a lovely clean bilge.

And the sun was out!  So we took our newly refurbishsed dinghy around to the river running through Beaufort.  On the other side of the river is a Rachel Carson Nature Reserve.  Apparently this is a place Carson frequented.    

The first things we saw were about 12 tall white birds with orange hooked bills.  We later learned they are white ibises.

Our most fun discovery was the horses.   About 90 years ago, a man let his five horses roam over here and later just left them.   They have become a herd that is now protected.     We saw two groups of five and the single one grazing by the shore.

 We took the dinghy to shore several times to see what we could, including having lunch out looking over grasses, waters and many birds.