We left you in Myrtle Beach, SC on our last post.  We anchored out the first night – beautiful and calm for the most part, but the tides and currents can be wild!  We pulled into Charleston to a marina for a couple of days,  and the current was fierce! After we got tied up, we went over to the USS Yorktown for a tour.  the Yorktown was instrumental in the battle of Midway during WWII as an aircraft carrier.  The Japanese Navy Sunk it after it sank a number of Japanese ships, but it was rebuilt and floated again.  The submarine at the museum looked like it was moored at our Marina….it was in really bad shape, so after we got on it, we decided not to go in it!

 Yorktown On bottom

 

David and I toured Charleston on a horse drawn carriage and walked about 5 miles around the city…really charming. Beautiful homes, lots of history and great restaurants! And, of course the history of the civil war – first shot at Ft Sumpter – which is that little mound in the harbor with the flag.  I thought it would be bigger!  Only one person was killed – and it was an accident as he went to save the flag.

Later we met up with our friends, Carol and Bob for drinks, dinner at a great place, Cru Cafe, and then more drinks!   we left the the next day to continue on down to Beaufort SC where we were going to stay for a couple of days and then leave the boat while we went home for Thanksgiving. 

While in Beaufort, SC we toured the Sea Islands, including St Helena.  The Sea Islands tell a story of cultures from freed slaves, Africa, Creole, and indigenous Carolinians and Georgians.  It is a beautiful and haunting area.  We toured Penn Center on St Helena which was one of the first Black schools to educate freed slaves.  The town of Mitchelville was the first freed slave town….in 1820.

 

Beaufort is a really charming town – lots of great restaurantz and shops and home to the largest Marine Corp Bases.  We did a walking tour of Beaufort and took in the majestic homes and the lovely gardens.

 

 

This bllue building above is the “fillin station” next to our marina.  The marina is a wonderful place!  There are 125 reviews of this marina and almost all of them are 5 stars – and the ones that are not are because they started charging for the washer and dryer or the currents to get into the marina are strong.  People started to stay at this marina one night and have stayed 7 Months!  The people are amazing and it really is a family environment and friendly!  We came in on a Friday and when we called in, the dockmaster said, “Good, you’ll be here for steak night at the fillin station.”  I’ll sign you up.  So, we went to Steak night – this bar only opens on Wed, Thurs and Friday.  Wed is a $4 hamburger, hot dog, potato salad and drink.  Thurs – 2 pork chop dinner for $7 and Friday it is a pound of steak, baked potato and corn for $10.  An old Marine Corp retiree cooks the food on a grill out the back – have to tell you, it was a great steak – tender, cooked perfectly and the comaradie of our gang was really fun!  And, the drinks were cheap too.

Speaking of cool, cheap places…..

David had found this…how do I describe it…hummm local color seafood/cheap docking place. the write-up in active captain was mixed…some saying it was a broken down dock with no help to tie up, etc…and others that said stop here for sure! great people, great shrimp, but it is a working shrimp and oyster dock, not a marina. so, we were there at around quitting time, so we tied up ourselves (I am getting a lot better at lassoing pillings and tying lines to cleats, etc), I went in with our $25 to stay the night and, bought 2 lbs of the biggest, sweetest shrimp for $9 a lb. Not exactly some of the stories in the write up…they had the shrimp thrown in for free! but, we did meet a couple of local characters and had a good night’s sleep and some great shrimp.

We had some raucous weather while in Beaufort, so our only choice to drive  into Savannah was a very sunny, but very cold (high 20’s, low 30’s with a lot of wind) day.  So, we opted for the hop on hop off trolley and toured one of the most beautiful cities in the US.  St John’s the Baptist church is stunning – and the restaurant selections is  almost overwhelming.  There are 56 squares…I think the first ones inn the historic district were developed by Oglethorpe  the first governor.

The South Carolina school of Art and Design is big in Savannah and they have renovated a ton of buildings – this one is a restaurant that is run by the students that is a former pharmacy.  They have kept the drawers with “ointments” heart, etc…very cool city, but we needed more time!  We walked most of it after the trolley, and David took a picture of me sneaking into the cupcake store!

 

The sunset is from our boat in Beaufort – Happy Thanksgiving to everyone – we will be back on the boat on Saturday and continue heading down – our friends are in Florida – enjoying the warmth and we are ready to do that too!

Kate & Dave

 

marine being dumped into the watoer with weapon, shoes!

 

Last time I updated everybody, we had just entered North Carolina and had visited Elizabeth City and Edenton. We left Edenton and headed up to Belhaven to see Lida and Roger, my friend Melissa’s parents. I had heard about Belhaven, Lida’s hometown for years and wanted to visit them and their lovely town. We docked up, shopped the town…got lots of goodies, had dinner with Lida and Roger, visited their beautifully restored home, had some homemade apple cake, met their son, Chip and took a picture as we left town the next day. Great visit

We needed to change our plans to go to Manteo and Ocradoke out on the barrier islands because their was an expected nor’easter for 2-3 days which would have been dangerous. So, we decided to go to the River Dunes Marina early. I had a coupon for a BOGO night and it came highly recommended. So, we left Belhaven and I recharted our course.

We stayed there 3 days and met some great people. I hitched a ride into Oriental with a group of them and we ran errands…the smallest Walmart you have ever seen…craft show, hardware store, seafood shack, west marine, and a sports bar…all in a couple of hours. David and I borrowed the van next morning and went in to oriental. And a couple of surrounding towns. Oriental is where we met Dog! And, saw a lot of the pretty shrimp boats.

From Oriental, we went over to Beaufort, NC. Another picturesque Watertown…with loads of history, great food, beautiful landscape

and sailing. The picture of the wild horses is directly opposite the downtown. We met up with a couple who were at River Dunes with us and docked next to each other….really nice and fun, even if they were trawler folks! We will see them again along the way. While in Beaufort, we visited the NC Maritime Museum….which has an exhibition of the “booty”recently brought up from Queen Anne’s Revenge….the mother ship of Blackbeard the pirate. Blackbeard was captured by the British in Beaufort and was decapitated and had his head hung from the bowsprit of the avenging officers ship.

The rest of the town had a lot of interesting shops, restaurants, but, we were more interested in the free drinks and music at our marinas bar.

The day we left Beaufort, was a long one. We had heard the day before that you needed to pass Camp LeJeune early, because they were doing maneuvers
And firing off ordinance and you would have to stop and wait a couple of hours.
Luckily they were not shooting anything off while we were sailing by, but they were still doing maneuvers. One of the pictures is when the soldiers were pushed off the inflatable craft into the water with their combat boots, weapons, full dress and then expected to lift themselves up out of the water back into the boat. We had our coats on watching them. There were planes that take off and land totally vertical, helicopters dragging payloads as they skirted around the areas, huge landing crafts like the d-day invasion, Coast Guard and Navy gunboats…an interesting array of military action. Then, we anchored in their staging area overnight and as it was the only anchoring area around watched as more sail boats, catamarans, and trawlers vied for enough room to feel comfortable for the night. There were a couple of boat squabbles, we just listened, but in the morning, everybody was fine.

After the military day on the ICW, we decided to make a long day and head down to Southport. I love Southport…it is another lovely, picturesque town And, it is 30 minutes from my condo on Ocean Isle beach…which meant a bed that doesn’t rock and a shower that has a lot of hot water and walking on the beach…incredible sunsets over the channel from the deck and, no else around. We took advantage, rented a car and ran all our errands,etc.

It was so cool going through the ICW around islands that I know from the beachside…a totally different and beautiful view. Lots more wildlife…we’ve seen so many different birds, had Dolphins beside the boat, fish jumping and of course those fishermen!

We are now in Myrtle Beach and David is meeting so many interesting boat people. He is so excited by the level of interest in the Bristol…people actually come over to the boat to see it, and of course other Bristol owners are very proud. He has promised to go over and see a guy’s Bristol tomorrow morning before we leave. I am going to walk with the resident Marina group at 6:30 if it isn’t too cold!

We are still having fun, meeting interesting and enjoying nature!

Katie & Dave

 

 

 

Captain Dave

 

 

Ocean Isle bEACH AT THE CONDO

Souhport

 

This is the beach outside my condo in Ocean Isle Beach, NC

Pelican

Marines in amphibious boats…

this blog is a hot mess…still trying to get it right!