More Observations Along the Way

As I write this addition to the blog, we are anchored in the Bull River, about 15 miles north of Beaufort, SC. Lots has happened since the last blog up at an anchorage called Mile Hammock Bay in Camp Lejeune. We've spent a night in Wrightsville Beach where we enjoyed a meal at one of our favorite Mexican restaurants. We also spent a night at Carolina Beach State Park where we managed to acquire more of those long pine needles that work so well in Sandra's Baskets. The next day we crossed over the state boarder into South Carolina. We passed by Myrtle Beach, but we couldn't really see any of it from the ICW. On another day we traveled down a river through a cypress swamp. It would have been beautiful with lots of fall colors if it wasn't for the cold rain.

At a marina in Charleston. While you can't see our boat, our yellow dinghy shows up well.

From there we spent the next two days traveling to Charleston where we spent a day enjoying the sights. Our day there included a carriage ride to learn about some of the history of Charleston. It was a fascinating tour of this beautiful city.

On a neighbor's boat - not even a pirate!

Tomorrow we'll drop the anchor by one of the prettiest towns along our route and enjoy a lunch with Janelle and Bob Proctor. Janelle was a teacher at Hampton Roads Academy during my time there. We've visited with them in the past during our travels to Beaufort.

While I'll usually avoid any political commentary on this blog, I must comment about those who are now likely to pay a bit more in taxes. The homes we've seen in North and South Carolina along the ICW are quite impressive. I know I've commented on these signs of conspicuous consumption before, but the recent political advertisements have made me think again about that group who might add to the tax revenue a bit. Unlike the impressive ones, we saw a house for sale with the price advertised of $550,000 for a nice ranch with a dock. In other areas away from the water, this home would probably sell for a quarter of that price. Based on that advertised price, most of the homes we noticed would likely cost at least four times that price and go up from there. The word that most often comes to mind is mansion. And there are so many of them. It just boggles my mind that so many people can afford such accommodations. What makes matters more difficult to grasp is that many of these appear to be second homes.

OK. I'm done with that.

One might think that our 7 mph speed would allow us to travel between 50 and 60 miles each day as we head south even though the sun drops down below the horizon pretty early now. Of course this is a good starting point, but there are issues that influence each day's travel. For instance, one day we dropped the anchor at about 1 PM. This was because we would be traveling through some shallow areas beyond this point but wanted to avoid them at low tide when we might run aground. There were no good anchorages within reach to get us past that stretch on this day, so we decided to wait till the next day so we could get through the whole stretch and then to a good place to anchor for the night. Today, we had to deal with tidal and river currents that really impacted our progress. At one point we were bucking tidal current that was in the 4-5 mph range. Since we normally travel at 7 mph, this stretch cut our progress by more than half. On the other hand, there were times today when we were doing close to 10 mph. These stretches helped to make up for the times when we were bucking the strong current.  Each day we must look at such influences and determine how far we should plan to travel.  In a way, it's like driving someplace knowing that you are likely to hit an area of construction and other busy highways during rush hour.

Life on the water can be challenging.

Over the next several days as we travel through the remainder of South Carolina and all of the Georgia coast, tidal current and shallow stretches will be at the forefront of our planning. Of course there will be compensating factors. We continue to see more and more dolphins along the route. Today we were lucky enough to pass close by a navigational aid with a bald eagle sitting on it checking us out. The scenery is ever changing and at times spectacular. And of course we'll be traveling slow enough to get a good look at most everything we pass. Till the next entry, Carpe Diem!

Captain Bob