May 7 - 15 Unexpected Benefits

Scene from Charleston, SC, historic district with settlement around 1680



Typical scene from a tranquil anchorage, this one in SC, with shellfish warning



After our overnight sail from Charleston SC to Southport NC (see sign overhead)


May 7 We made a return visit to Beaufort, SC, today, a quick one as we were allowed an hour at the dock after refueling. It was enough time to walk around, get some fresh bagels for tomorrow’s breakfast and a few items at a kitchen store we had visited last time. We also got a paper, as we still feel out-of-touch with the news since returning from the Bahamas.

The remainder of the week was spent motoring on the ICW in great weather, making our way to Charleston. We met up with former Cohasset residents Julie and Bob Motley there. They live in that area now and have a restaurant right in Charleston, near the marina we stayed in, Charleston Maritime Center. They gave us a short tour of nearby James Is. and Johns Is., we ate at a seafood restaurant and caught up on their news and ours. Another treat in Charleston was getting to bike ride through the historic district streets on Sunday morning, Mother’s Day, before the tourists were up and about.

May 11 After a 22 hour motor-sail from Charleston through rain and close-by thunderstorms that lasted for hours, we arrived in Southport, NC at 8:30 a.m. We cut off several days of the ICW and we escaped the hot weather of South Carolina. Southport is a great place, with a close downtown, interesting historic plaques all around, and a funky mostly-outdoor restaurant called the Provisions Company that has great seafood (Southport also has several other good places to eat). We pigged out there; you never know when you’ll get a good meal again! We watched another thunderstorm approach and bring lots of rain, but the thunder and lightening went another way.

May 13 We had a very bad start to this day. We were anchored in a creek near Topsail Beach, NC, and we had bow and stern anchors out. We had done this to avoid being blown into the shallow edge of the creek, even though it meant that we had the wind pushing us sideways all night. We really had a quiet night, with very little wind, but in the morning the wind doubled in intensity and we still had to get up two anchors and avoid the sides of the creek. It resulted in a fire drill that threatened to go on and on. We’d get up one anchor and then not quite the other before we are aground and had to put out the anchors again and winch ourselves with the anchor lines to get back into deeper water. Then repeat. Eventually some combination of winching and anchoring worked and we got out of there.

This was followed, thankfully, with an uneventful trip to a very wide, deep anchorage that is part of the Marine Corps base at Camp Lejeune for that night. We have, by the way, seen lots of great wildlife on this stretch, including lots of nesting osprey, dolphins playfully jumping clear out of the water, egrets, and other stately wading birds.

May 15 We have a free dock in Oriental, NC, for the day and night, complements of the town. Our plans from here are to cover the rest of the state in the next week and pass into Virginia over the Dismal Swamp part of the ICW.

So upon reflection, which seems to happen when writing the blog, I am seeing a pattern of surprise benefits from this trip, bubbling to the surface. Ken and I are definitely learning to work as a team, even with rocky patches now and again (see May 13 and read between the lines). We have had wonderful health since leaving Massachusetts, staying outside most of every day and eating very little processed food. We are entertained by the simple things, and haven’t missed the TV shows we used to watch or constant updates on the stock market. We are meeting wonderful, lively people who we hope to continue to see, maybe getting them to visit us back in Massachusetts. We are learning about the stars, the birds, and the fish that inhabit this part of the world. And my favorite, the times we travel with our feet or bicycle wheels, off the boat and getting exercise or supplies for dinner. There are a lot of people who don’t have cars and who we now traveling among when we hit the streets. We smile and nod and consider it interesting being car-less for eight months.

In Charleston we decided to walk the margins of a soccer field and connecting streets to get a substantial load of groceries back to our boat. Oh yeah, we were pushing a shopping cart…..…and passing motorists looked and you could tell by their expressions that they wondered if we were homeless and had our possessions in the cart, or if we had stolen it. (We did return it!) This was Ken’s idea and he wasn’t the least reluctant about it.

Enjoy the warming weather wherever you are!