Sunset

American Oyster Catchers

We have been hanging around in small creeks the last few days, watching birds and dolphins fish.  In order to find a good spot, you have to pick your way in and watch the depth sounder.  The tides in South Carolina are five feet.  So - you need to make sure you have enough water under you no matter where the tide is.  Yesterday, we poked our way into Inlet Creek, just north of the Ben Sawyer bridge that goes from Charleston to Sullivan's Island.  We went slowly and had no less than 11 feet under us until we were about half way in.  Then, it quickly dropped to less than 5.  We turned around and dropped the hook mid-way from the entrance and where it dropped.  We had come in at high tide.  When we looked up creek at dinnertime, all we saw was marsh grass - guess it was good we turned around and came back a bit before dropping the hook.  We watched American Oyster Catchers fish in the mud for whatever they found that was yummy to them.

High Tide

Low Tide

It has been a run of gorgeous, sunny and warm days, but today it has turned cooler.  Thought you might like to see how lovely our home is.  Here is a photo of the "living room" which doubles as a "dining room" when we fold the table down - but mostly we dine in the cockpit as long as the weather allows.  

This morning we watched a dolphin fishing just near the boat.  We tried to capture the way he/she was thrashing about - really wild.  Breakfast must have been yummy and plentiful!  

The wildlife and the sights you see from a boat make this experience so unique.  Things you would never see if you weren't floating by, just make it a joy.  Yesterday, we only did a few miles from one creek to the next, but passed by Isle of Palms along the way.  This is a developed island with a marina, golf and beaches.  

Today, we are off to Charleston to a marina where we can plug in and enjoy heat, as the low temps are to be in the 40's for the next few days.  Plus, Charleston is a great place to hang out for a few days!  

Another sunny day!  And another!  But this one took awhile to get here.  It is easy to see now why they call this the Low Country.  Marsh grass as far as the eye can see.  Little creeks that wind their way to the ocean, or back on themselves and into another river or creek.  Very shallow water and lots of herons and egrets.  And - we see dolphins every day - a few always fishing in our anchorage, or along the route.  It is so cool!

We took off from Georgetown yesterday at noon and motored through narrow canals most of the way to Five Fathoms Creek.  We found a lovely spot just off the canal and dropped the hook at 4pm.  One of our shortest days so far.  We have decided to take our sweet time getting wherever it is we are going.  As we sat and enjoyed the afternoon and our evening meal, there was a parade of shrimp boats on their way in from the ocean.  Had to be at least eight boats before the night was over.  The last one after dark, all lit up and shining a spotlight on us to see what we were.  Check out this photo of one of the boats as it came into view above the marsh grass.  Any wonder how they come up with alien ideas?

This morning when we awakened at 4am (not because we were going anywhere - that just seems to be the deal these days) you could hear the dripping from the rigging - not rain - dew!  Very heavy dew!  We poked our heads into the cockpit around 7:30 and saw we were quite literally fogged in.  This was the view until about 11:30am.

Once this lifted, we were on our way again and motored along the same kind of canals, with marsh grass and mud flats.  Tonight we are in Whiteside Creek, less than 10 miles from Charleston.  It is a beauty of a spot.

By the way - a few folks have complained about the aqua reverse type color.  Rather than re-design the entire blog, I changed it to white.  Please let me  know if this is better or if it is still too difficult to read.  Thanks!

Well - for those of you who follow us regularly, you are probably wondering what the heck.  We ended up at Bald Head Island until yesterday morning.  We both had a fair bit of work to catch up on and the place was so lovely, we just stayed.  Greg joked with the Dockmaster that we were just going to live there from now on.  But - travels called us, so off we went yesterday morning.

The day was spent between beaches and beautiful homes lining the waterway.  Sharon started taking pictures of all the huge houses and we commented that the building industry is definitely booming in South Carolina.  New house after new house, large house after large house - all along North Myrtle and Myrtle Beach areas.  Pretty amazing.

For my mom!

Then, we got to the Waccamaw River.  We knew it would be a pretty long day until we reached an appropriate anchorage.  Even though the waterway was lined with marinas, we didn't want to stay in a marina again right away.  So - it's 6:30, the sun has set, we creep into this very small creek and tried to set the anchor - not working!  So, we continued up the creek which connected back to another leg of the creek and what do we pass, but a sunken sailboat - all we could see was the rigging sticking out of the water and someone had hung a skeleton with a pirate's scarf around its head to the mast.  (uh - maybe this wasn't such a great idea?)  Not to be shaken, we kept going and once the river widened out, we dropped the hook again.  This time, Sharon backed down on it so hard, the stern of the boat actually lifted out of the water.  Greg said - I think we're good!  We were the only ones in the river, it was very dark once the daylight finally left the sky and we had one of the quietest nights so far.

Socaste Swing Bridge - the last bridge before we anchored

The little house the bridge tender works in

Water Hyacinth caught by the anchor chain

In the morning, we had floating vegetation attached to our anchor.  Water Hyacinth - apparently an invasive species that has really overtaken many lakes and creeks in the Carolinas.  We had to dodge floating clumps of it all the way down the river.  The river winds back and forth and is lined with some of the most beautiful scenery in this part of the world. Lots of cypress dripping with spanish moss.  Quite pretty!  Our day ended at a marina in Georgetown, South Carolina.  A lovely small waterside town, except when the wind blows the wrong way from the paper mill.....

We will be here at least a day or two - work again!  Greg hates the weather - sunshine, warm days, cool nights - terrible stuff!

So we are at Bald Head Island in North Carolina, just inside the Cape Fear inlet and are going to stay a THIRD day, because we love it so much!  What a great place.  A planned resort on an island that has no cars.  You can only get here by boat - personal watercraft, or the ferry that comes over from Southport many times a day.  A twenty minute ride for $11.50.

Dockage (with electricity) is cheaper than a mooring on Nantucket.  The island is about 3.5 miles long and OH the beaches!  A couple great restaurants, 18 holes of golf, a fabulous food market, some sweet shops and the turtle conservancy (a topic dear to Sharon's heart).

And You Thought MY Rosemary was Big!

Our previous stop was at Topsail Sound where we anchored in this wonderfully quiet spot where we could actually hear the surf on the other side of the houses.  Of course, we saw dolphins on our way out of the anchorage.

We don't have a lot of photos for that day because we had instrument problems and Sharon had to hand steer while Greg did the fix that took awhile, so it was hard to pick up a camera and shoot something.  Here are a couple though.

We also ran into friends from our old marina in Wickford, RI.  They just pulled in this afternoon and it was great to see them and hear about their travels.

More after we are done enjoying Bald Head Island.