Happy Thanksviging

The boat surgeon was very good.  Reasonable.  Fast.  One reason is that they did the repair dockside, without hauling or "tenting" us, which meant the dust and debris went right into the water.  Never could have happened in Vermont.
Beaufort is very close to Paris Island Marine Base and F-35's were flying overhead constantly.  OMG are they loud!!!  I hope they're capable of throttling back when in BTV.  Down here they just shrug and say "It's the sound of freedom."  I think they cost $1,000,000,000 apiece.  Imagine the waste and lost opportunuity!
From Beufort we came down to Bluffton which is 8 miles up a river from Hilton Head.  We're having dinner today with Roger and Laurel and their extended family and friends.  Roger built a 42' catamaran in his back yard and slid it down a bank into a high tide backwater.  They have just returned from a 5 month trip to Cape Cod and will be continuing with us down to the Bahamas.

Last night they had a low country oyster bake at their house.  They build a big fire and put a 6' X 6' steel plate over it.

When the plate is red hot they dump a bushel of oysters on it and cover with damp burlap or towel.
When the oysters just start to open they fork them on to a big table and everyone stands around and gorges themselves. 

These are cluster oysters, a big bunch of them attached in a clump and they're smaller but delicious.  They come from the local Oyster Company that we're anchored off.

The tides here are 7 to 9 feet.  Yesterday when we went ashore a low tide we put Lacy up on the dock while we secured the dinghy.  Seeing bare ground just off the dock she jumped off...into tidal much up to her belly!  Boy did she stink! 

Hope everyone is spending the day with loved ones.  Happy Thanksgiving.

Christmas decorations!

https://photos.app.goo.gl/JFxCGCpba6Z4C1Sg8

Some pictures

Some "rides" in Charleston...

 A couple more...

A different kind of ride...

1963 Studebaker Avanti!


We anchored in Dewees Creek on the way to Beaufort.  Where's Rosie?  Can you find her?

Moss draped live oaks in the morning sun...

Hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Watch to the end...

https://photos.app.goo.gl/2G7TMRw35ia1RPmdA

Stupidity and a self-inflicted wound.

The currents in Charleston in the Ashley River are notorious.  It's why boats try to get a slip at the City Marina instead of anchoring.  We got a slip.  We went bow in because there were million dollar boats on either side of us and the current was strong when we got there.

That meant backing out when we left.  Not preferred.  I waited an hour and a half past low tide to leave.  There was still some current though so I had to power back in reverse.  When I did that our prop wash teamed up with the current to throw our stern hard to port.

Now we were taking the current on our beam and as I powered forward it slammed Rosie into the dock we had just left and left a 12" gash in her belly.  No damage to the million dollar boats.  Phew!

Really stupid on my part.  If I had waited another hour or so for absolute slack tide this wouldn't have happened.  Never hurry around boats!

We are in Beaufort SC and Rosie goes into the boat hospital tomorrow for some reconstructive surgery.  Please no cards or flowers.  Donations to Amy McGrath's campaign in Kentucky are welcome.

Anchorage

https://photos.app.goo.gl/f7GVNQpQ3kSxELMv8

Charleston

Geography first.  Georgetown, SC to a sleepy anchorage off Dewees Island on Monday.  Tuesday to Charleston, South Carolina's biggest city.

The good news from Georgetown was that we never had to smell the odor of these paper plants.

 The bad news was that the wind blew 20-25 knots constantly with rain.

But Georgetown is a nice town.  The mills must pay well.  And I love the wide streets lined with live oaks, a gorgeous tree that offers shade in the stifling summers.

On Monday it was still cold but the rain stopped and we headed south.  Charleston was too far so we anchored in a typical tidewater creek just off an ocean inlet called Dewees Creek.  Invited Bruce and Judy from PeaPod over for sundowners.

The trip to Charleston on Tuesday was quick and we took a slip at the City Marina which has been purchased by Safe Harbors, which now owns 90+ marinas including Shelburne Shipyard.  They are moving to quickly dominate the marina industry and I've heard both good and bad things about them.

Boats in this marina are huge and don't seem to ever have people on them.  But when we were here in 2009 the current in the Ashley River made anchoring really sketchy.

It's warming up.

Tomorrow concludes our first two months on this journey.  We've traveled 1500 miles and have 550 left to get to West Palm Beach which will probably be our departure point for the Bahamas.  Over 59 days, we traveled 38.  We spent 21 days either visiting friends or waiting out weather.    So we're averaging 40 miles a day.  That's pretty leisurely.

Charleston is lovely of course.  Jack Hurley, an old Burlington restauranteur who lives here now, gave us a wonderful tour.and took us to one of his latest creations - Mex 1.  Also nice to catch up with Mike and Betty Henry who live on their 42 ft Beneteau here at the marina.  Mike and Betty owned a big successful restaurant in Brattleboro and kept a sailboat at Point Bay for years.
A lot of people seem to just get hooked on Charleston.

So off again tomorrow.  Changed the oil and fuel filter, filled the water tanks, stocked the larder and we're off.

BUT....most importantly, Lacy, who just turned 11 on the 16th, is starting to do her morning duties on the boat!  We'll see.  T'would change our routines for the better for sure!

Weather

Weather was and now is the biggest concern for Rosie and crew.  Unpredictable, constantly needing attentioon and often violent.  Like a bratty child.

We left Southport on 11/12 into warnings of record cold and gale force winds.  We made it to Myrtle Beach and tied up at a marina just before the front came through.  We try to limit our marina stops but in this case, we wanted shore power so we could run our AC heater.  It was a hellishly cold night, below freezing with 20+ knot winds.  (I know, I know.  But you're all in houses.  We in a boat!)

The next day was cold but clear and we continued south into the Waccamaw River that flows through swamp and whose water is the color of coffee.

Once again we decided to stop at a small marina in Bucksport.  Dockage was 75 cents a foot and power was $6.  So we could plug in and run the heater.  (We have a big generator but it's noisy and uses diesel).  This marina like so many had been decimated by Hurricane Florence last year and was still recovering.  It had FEMA bathrooms and not much more.

The impacts of violent weather are everywhere down here.  The waterway is strewn with wrecks of all sizes.  Sailboats sitting 100 yards from the water.  Shrimp boats sunk just off the channel.  Climate change is real.

From Bucksport we made a short trip to Georgetown, SC.  It's a nice town when the wind isn't blowing the paper mill smell at you.  We're anchored in the basin with easy access to shops and bakeries.  But the Weather Channel headline as we arrived here said "Strong Storm to Lash Southeast."  Is is and won't let up until Sunday.  Steady rain with winds 20-25 knots.  So we'll stay here.  Charleston, which is closer to the ocean will see storm surge and strong currents.

So we hunker down and wait.

It's cold but comfortable.  And if you look carefully you can see that we have the means to self-medicate when necessary.

Southport and south

Geography first.  Beafort to Swansboro to Wrightsville Beach to Southport all in N. Carolina.  Leaving tomorrow for Myrtle Beach South Carolina.
Tied up at Swansboro for 2 nights because of gale warnings that never happened.  Strange little town.  Muscovie ducks wandering the streets.  Everyone hanging Christmas lights, big tree lighting on a giant fake tree.  Chowder cook-offs and fishing derbies.

 We got a bunch of wind but we won't be so cowardly next time.d

Left Swansboro with some good tide and wind and decided to go for Wrightsville Beach, about 50 miles but to do that we had to make two bascule (draw) bridges exactly right.  We didn't. Both 8 Mile and Wrightsville bridges only have to open on the hour and we didn't make them.  So we had to find out way through the channel into the anchorage in the dark and the searchlight on our pilot house decided not to work.  Just a little stress we didn't need.  Got Lacy ashore and had a quiet night.

From Wrightsville to Southport we had to go down the Cape Fear River upon which we encountered a crazy rage 9 years ago.  We  planned this trip just right and rode the ebb tide into Southport doing almost 10 knots!  Sled ride!
Two friends of Kathleen's from the Bahamas live in Southport,  Ed and Cass.  We agreed to meet them at one of their favorite watering holes, The Provision Company, where we would get free dock space if we ate there.

It's a wonderful funky old restaurant that serves 4,000 people a day in the summer and we arrived on the day they were closing for 4 months.  So a pretty wild party erupted and Rosie was the guest celebrity.  A lot of fun.

Today, Monday, Cass lugged us all over town to buy food and hardware and let us do laundry at her house.  SO appreciated.  Thanks Cass.

Lacy fell in the water today while trying to jump to the dock to find Kathleen.  Not good. Whenever Kathleen is off the boat, here is where you find Lacy.

Mindy Donnelly, who has coaxed an old Perkins diesel to the Bahamas several times, told me long ago that I shouldn't baby a diesel.  "They like to run hot.", she said.  Well Mindy is usually right and the more I run this engine the better it gets.  I'm now running at 2400 rpm getting 6.5 knots if flat water.  I'll take that.

Gale force winds predicted again for tomorrow and yes, it has been cold here. 30 degrees predicted for tomorrow night.  And we're aware of what's happening in Vermont.  That kind of weather in November is just plain cruel.

So we'll push on south.  Rosie is rarin' to go.

 



 

Beaufort

First, a quick update on the Halloween storm.  Got to talk with the sailor that rode it out next to us at Pungo Ferry.  He said he saw winds of 65 knots and 50 sustained!  (We don't have a wind gauge)  Big winds.  If you know that's coming you'd take your sails off or at least lash them.  I guess this guy didn't know...

Speaking of sails, we're still learning to fly ours effectively to keep Rosie from yawing while at anchor.

After 3 nights in Oriental we left for Beaufort where many of the big boats go outside for the rest of the trip.  Another great boater town but much more developed than when we were here 9 years ago.  Bigger boats, bigger buildings, bigger egos.  But the dock in the center of town is just as we left it.

Tomorrow we go to Swansboro where we'll ride out some bad weather on Friday.

Oh year, on the way down, riding an ebb tide at 8 knots, we tried to capture this very symbolic picture but we were going to fast.  It's a confederate flag on top of a Trump 2020 flag.  just perfect!

Snowing in Vermont?

New Jersey

We're not in Kansas any more.www.rosieontheloose.blogspot.com

Oriental

After the storm, the forecast was for 3 days of north winds and sun so we decided to book it down through the desolate swampland that is inside Cape Hatteras.  Just a few outposts.  We passed by Coinjock, a tiny marina on a channel so we could cross the Ablemarle with the wind and stopped at another little marina at the mouth of the Alligator River.  Next we booked it to Belhaven, a little town built around its waterfront and tied up at the town dock.  Here's a sailboat we found there.  I thought sailors were lovers, not fighters!

From Belhaven we came down to Oriental.  A town of 900 people that sees 2700 boats a year.  Very boater friendly.  There is a very large shrimp boat fleet.

But two marinas filled with luxury yachts.  Again we stayed at the town dock.  Where's Rosie?

Tomorrow we'll head to Beaufort, NC.  We get out of the swamp and just inside barrier islands.

I'm trying to get Google Maps embedded in this blog to give my grandchildred a geography lesson but can't figure it out yet.  Any advice?

Went to a great local restaurant last night with a crown of locals.  Fox News on the TV.  We don't talk politics with anyone!  Fried food and good beer.  Prices are so much lower down here.   

Everyone's healthy and happy.  Expect to be in Lake Worth, where we depart for the Bahamas, in mid-December.  If we continue to dawdle along like this it'll be 3 months down to Black Pt in the Exumas, month and a half around there and 3 months back.

Storm

Quick update on last night...
We were tied up to some old piers and decided to hang there for the weather.
Great decision!
Wind  picked up from the south late morning and stayed in the high teens all day, building into the
night.  By late afternoon boats coming down the waterway were scrambling for places to ride it out.
Wind started howling around 10:00 but we were secure so we slept.
At 1:00 am the VHF announces a tornado warning for our location until 1:30.
Now tornadoes don't happen in the hills but down here where everything's flat, well, sleep was over.
Never heard winds like we heard last night.  By 2:00 am it was over.
We read about the damages in Vermont.  One big-ass front to cover the whole east coat.
Now we've crossed the Abelmarle Sound and are at the head of the Alligator River with the wind behind us. 
Wow.