Proof of the Canadian weather-control
experiments. Frost on our fenders in Beaufort.

As many of you will recall, two years ago I published a blog entry about the imminent Canadian invasion of the Bahamas. There were -- and continue to be -- a disproportionate number of sailboats, in particular, along the ICW on their way to the Bahamas. You probably don't realize how indebted to me the intelligence community really is. While I may not have prevented the invasion, my reporting appears to have delayed it (why else would they not have invaded yet?)

There has been, however, a major development. You may or may not know that during the Cold War both the United States and the Soviet Union researched the possibility of weather-control as a strategic weapon. Neither side, of course, was able to make any real progress. But it appears that the Canadians might kept working and might -- just might -- have figured out how to control the weather. Everyone believes there have just been a couple of cold snaps here in the south. But once in a while one of the meteorologists (probably Canadian) slips and reports on a "Canadian Low" sweeping across the US (and presumably, though they are far less clear about this, the Bahamas). Why would the Canadians have done this? They have unleashed cold weather on me, your intrepid intelligence analyst, in the hope of making me stay inside and not seeing all the preparations those "polite" Canadians are making.

The Canadians with their parkas and mukluks haven't scared me. I have actually worn long pants on occasion just to be able to continue reporting. And, God forgive me, I have worn socks with my sandals. I know, I know, this is an unforgiveable fashion faux pas, but I will do it to keep those far-northerners on the edge. This is quite literally (are you ready for it ... ready) a Cold War that I am fighting. Weather  -- and Canadians -- notwithstanding, we have had a pretty good time meandering south. In this entry we talk about our journey through southern South Carolina: Myrtle Beach, SC, Cha'l'ston, SC and Beaufort. Don't worry. (There is code buried deeply within that only intelligence analysts will understand.)

Myrtle Beach, NC

Until recently, you could dock at the long (1000’) pier in Myrtle Beach for free! It was free because it was assumed that you would spend your time shopping at the retail establishments right next door and eating at one of several restaurants at the mall. Guess what … we would have done exactly that!!! In fact, we had heard that the area was kind of a shopping Mecca and that there were outlet stores galore. The advertising calls it, “a factory outlet mall with over 100 brand name outlets.” Now I am no shopper, but there were some things I really wanted, like a pair of warm gloves. Ann just likes shopping – and she wanted some sheets. Well the dock is no longer free, they now charge $1.50 per foot – not that much, but certainly not free. Every time we cruised past Ann would sigh wistfully the shopping opportunities she was missing.

Since nothing is too good for my wife, this year we stopped at Myrtle Beach, made sure we had money to spend, and went ashore. I gotta tell you that the folks who called this a shopping “Mecca” have been cruising too long. Although it was organized sort of like an outlet mall, the goods they sold, for the most part, were more akin to those you would find on the boardwalk at Virginia Beach and Atlantic City than an outlet mall. There were T-shirts, sweat shirts, shot glasses, superhero dolls, ‘gator jerky, ice cream, baseball caps, key chains, coffee mugs – I think you get the picture. Moreover, there were very, very few “brand named” outlets. The “outlets” were world renowned chains like (I kid you not):

·         “Bombay Bomba”
·         “Bargain Beachwear”
·         “Broadway at the Beach”
·         “The Character Store”
·         “Surf and Sand Beach Shop”
·         “Tiki Jim’s”
·         “Mole Hole”
·         “Just Horse’n Around”
·         And that old favorite, right next to Macy's at your local mall -- “Alligator’s Adventure Outpost!”

(Ok. There were a few legitimate brand name stores like Van Heusen, Sunglass Hut, etc. But there were certainly NOT “over a hundred” of them … maybe ten?)

Old Folks at Home (first verse with a couple of mods)

Stephen Foster, 1851

Way down upon the Swanee River,
Far, far away,
There's where my heart is turning ever,
There's where the old folks stay.
All up and down the whole creation
Sadly I roam,
Still longing for the old plantation,
And for the old folks at home.

Chorus
All the world am sad and dreary,
Everywhere I roam;
Oh, brothers, how my heart grows weary,
Far from the old folks at home!

After the disappointment of Myrtle Beach, however, came one of my favorite parts of the ICW – the meandering rivers of South Carolina – the Swanee (the subject of the song) the Great Pee Dee and the Waccamaw, among others.  They are difficult to describe in that they truly meander sometimes forming an almost complete loop, by flowing back on themselves. In other instances a river will flow north, then east, then south, making an almost perfect horseshoe. All of these magnificent streams have dozens of oxbows making perfect little anchorages with small islands in the middle. “S” shapes are the order of the day and straight line courses never seen. All the while these rivers are connected with one another as they join together then flow apart. The banks are almost as surprising as they are covered with cypress trees that seem to grow straight out of the river.  AND the rivers are deep. Not ten or twenty feet deep, but sometimes they are 50 feet or more – as are the smaller tributaries that flow into them. Anyway, as you can tell, I kind of like this part of South Carolina.

South Carolina cotton fields.
There are still acres upon acres.

After Georgetown, however, all that changes. We go from the magnificent meandering rivers of the low country of South Carolina to the shoaling creeks and canals north of Charleston. This time through we only saw one grounded sailboat and only touched the bottom once ourselves, but this stretch of the ICW is terrible. We work to avoid the worst of it by timing our departure to take advantage of high tide. But it is difficult because the stretch is so long. In our case, because current s can be very strong in Charleston Harbor, we wanted to get to our marina at slack tide (roughly low or high tide). Since the time between a low tide and high tide in this neck of the woods is roughly six hours – about the amount of time it takes us to traverse the distance – that meant we were going to see low tide somewhere.

Charleston

We did not, however, go aground, and we successfully arrived in Cha’l’ston (aka Charleston) at slack tide. This year we decided to stay at the Charleston Maritime Center. The bad thing about this marina is that it is very rolly. Whenever a big ship goes by (often) or something else happened, every boat in the marina rolled a little a lot. The good thing about the marina is that it was within walking distance of downtown and all the eating and shopping opportunities that Charleston represents.

Anyway, then we arrived in at the marina on 5 November and two days later our friends, Dave and Joan Wolf, arrived to take advantage of the long Veterans Day Holiday. We had all been to Charleston before so we tried to visit some out of the way places and do some out of the way things. We had already been to Fort Sumter so this time we visited Fort Moultrie.

Fort Moultrie is a series of citadels on Sullivan's Island, South Carolina, built to protect the city of Charleston. The first fort was instrumental in one of the first Colonial victories over the British. On June 28, 1776 Admiral Sir Peter Parker (yes, Spiderman fans, that was really his name) attacked the still unnamed and only partially built fort with nine British warships. The fort had been constructed primarily of palmetto logs, which did not crack under bombardment but rather absorbed the shot; cannonballs reportedly even bounced off the walls of the structure. William Moultrie, commander of the 2nd South Carolina Regiment, and his four hundred men fought a day-long battle that ended with the heavily damaged British ships being driven from the area. This victory galvanized the Patriots' cause for independence. inspired the flag and nickname of South Carolina, "The Palmetto State". It is named for the commander in the Battle of Sullivan's Island, General William Moultrie.


A top-down view of Fort Moultrie

It was Fort Moultrie’s defenders who manned parts of Fort Sumter during the bombardment that began the Civil War and Confederate artillerists who manned Fort Sumter during its subsequent bombardment by Union forces. After the War the fort was part of the United States’ Coastal Defenses. Indeed, during WWII it provided a headquarters for the management of all shipping coming into and exiting Charleston Harbor.

Today, the fort is managed by the National Park Service as a National Monument. It is unique in that it celebrates the fort as a mainstay of the nation’s coastal defenses from 1776 through 1947.There are exhibits of each of the major periods of Fort Moultrie’s life, including the command and control bunker that was used during WWII. All in all, a very interesting site.

We also went shopping – several different places. First, of course, we had to go to the downtown mall that has a Fresh Produce Store. No, for those of you of the male persuasion, Fresh Produce is not something you eat, it is a line of clothing. Apparently the women on our boat are produced-deprived, and in all of Virginia, Maryland and DC they have no Fresh Produce stores as we had to go to one in downtown Charleston. We also went shopping at the City Market. If you haven’t been there, it is s trip. You should go. But if you really want a treat, go to the Farmer’s Market at Marion Square.  It is held every Saturday and has all sorts of cool stuff.

We also ate well. We went to a small Italian restaurant downtown called Bocci’s. We had been there before with our friends Andy and Sharon aboard Finally Fun and of course we had to go to a restaurant in a chain called Bubba Gump’s.  You see, Bubba Gump’s gives away a glass if you have one of their special drinks and Ann likes the glasses. (I wouldn’t say it if it weren’t true) so obviously we had to go to Bubba’s. )

We did some other things, too. We visited some antique stores, primarily for Dave and Joan. We visited the Boone Hall Plantation and, of course, we used  Dave and Joan’s car to go to Harris Teeter’s (a very good grocery store) to re-provision. We also had some electrical work done and got the battery for our generator replaced.

Beaufort, SC

We spent Saturday night on the hook at the South Edisto River. From there, it was on to Lady’s Island Marina in beautiful Beaufort, SC. (In case you didn’t know, the South Carolina “Beaufort” is pronounced “Byoufort” as in beautiful while the North Carolina “Beaufort” is pronounced “Bofort” as in bow and arrow. ) Our initial intention was only to spend a couple of days, but once again the cold weather pinned us in Beaufort for two extra days.

We didn’t mind, though. In the first place we had some extra time before we needed to be in Brunswick, GA and in the second place, Lady’s Island Marina has what are probably the friendliest folks we have met in a marina. When we arrived at the marina, there were three men ready to catch our lines: TJ, the official dock master; Steve, formerly of the Capital Yacht Club in DC (whose boat name we never got), and Steve, of Steve and Nancy (whose boat name we also never got). Anyway, in addition to those folks who were very friendly and a great deal of fun, we also met Captain Mark and Brenda Covington of the 46’ Jefferson, Sea Angel. We got a look at Sea Angel and it is a wonderful boat being very well cared for by Mark and Brenda.

In addition to eating, drinking and making merry with our new friends, we also borrowed TJ’s car to go to the grocery store, walked Ann’s bike to a near-by bicycle shop, ate out at a Mexican restaurant, and took a ride in and around Lady’s Island. In a weird coincidence, Joan Conover, a friend of ours from the Hampton, VA area (boat name: Growltiger – to understand, you have to read the poem, “Growltiger’s Last Stand” by T.S. Eliot) sent us a house listing from one of her friends. I had just ridden by that house the day before.

Ann also got to see her friend Elaine. Elaine and Ann had been friends for almost twenty years. They met in northern VA when they were both travel agents. Elaine later moved to Beaufort, SC to be nearer her mother. Sadly, two days after Ann saw her very sick friend Elaine passed away from cancer.  She will be remembered and missed. Every time we pass through Beaufort, we’ll say a prayer.

After Beaufort, it was on to Brunswick. But for that, you have to wait (with baited breath, I hope) until the next blog entry.

Ann’s Notes:  I must admit that the weather has been mostly on the chilly side. Normally that would be ok with me except when I am pulling up Big Bertha (our anchor) and my fingers are numb. Plus I need to hose the mud off of her before securing her to the bow sprit. The usual sailing gloves I use have open fingers with all the padding to protect the palm of the hand. Great gloves for the Bahamas…not so much in the cold, wind and rain. When we arrived in Beaufort we went to the hardware store and bought a pair of utility rubber gloves and they seem to help. Once I add a glove liner it will be perfect. I think by the time I get my perfect cold weather glove settled, we will be back in warm waters and the sailing glover will be in order.

The driveway at Boone Hall Plantation.
 Classic plantation view

Michael and I did have a wonderful visit with Dave and Joan. Having a car makes all the difference when exploring the area. The Boone Hall Plantation was very interesting. They have an avenue of 200 year old Live Oak trees that is just breath taking. They also had some slave quarters still standing, the slaves that lived in these quarters were the house slaves and had a much different life than the slaves that worked the cotton and rice fields. Nevertheless it was one of the best displays and commentary of slavery in the south. On the plantation during the winter months they had a large brick-making operation. Most of the bricks that made Fort Sumter came from Boone Hall. You can still see the hand prints in some of the bricks.

Our stay in Beaufort SC was bittersweet for me. I knew before hand that Elaine was very sick. Since she told me all the places the cancer had attacked I knew she did not have much time. However she wanted to fight it and made all the plans to do so. She just ran out of breath and time. I was blessed that her mom brought her to the marina so we could see each other. We sat in her car, as she could not walk far and be away from her oxygen supply. We shared pictures, laughed a lot and had a great conversation. Elaine was a wonderful spirit, a joy to be around. She just ran out of breath and time. I will miss her earthly presence but know she is watching over me always. I will stay in contact with her mom. She also is a friend.

Now for the much awaited Wild life count…

Wednesday 5 Nov 2014

·         5 Single Dolphins
·         1 Single very playful dolphin
·         1 Very Big Boy playing in our bow wake
·         3 Pods of 2 dolphins

Friday 14 Nov 2014
·         4 single dolphins
·         1 pod of 2 dolphins
·         1 single playing in our wake
·         1 pod of 2 very big boys playing in our wake

Saturday 15 Nov 2014

·         1 dolphin playing on the side of the boat
·         1 pod of 2 dolphins
·         1 single dolphin playing in our bow wake
·         1 pod of 3 dolphins

Monday 17 Nov 2014

·         2  Single dolphins playing in the marina fareway…checking out boats

Thursday 20 Nov 2014

·         2 Single dolphins
·         2 pods of 2 dolphins
·         2 very playful dolphins in our bow wake
·         And one very special Mom and her baby playing in the bow wake

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Traveling Soul…OUT