South Carolina - April 2006
We crossed into South Carolina and floated past the beautiful island of Hilton Head. These are some of the 'nice little places' on the water. Somewhere along here, we crossed Moon River - and Jeremy provided Janet with his own special rendition of this song. Soon to be available for global release, or not....
There are lots and lots of shrimp boats on the waters here (YUMM!!!) Unfortunately, it looks like this one cut a marker too close and ran aground and sank off of one of the waterway channels.
When going past one of the markers on the waterway, we spotted this cormorant drying it's wings. We're seeing lots and lots of cormorants and ospreys along the waterway.
Many of the markers and pilings along the way have osprey nests built on them, and many are occupied this time of year. We spotted this osprey and chick on a nest on some pilings. This picture was taken with max zoom - and the piling was by a bridge we were walking over heading into Beaufort.
Beaufort South Carolina (pronounced BEW-fort) - not to be confused with Beaufort North Carolina (pronounced BOW-fort) - is a lovely old southern town. We saw lots of beautiful old houses - with wide verandahs. Jeremy said he could definitely get used to sitting out on the verandah in the evening slowly rocking in a big wooden rocking chair and sipping on a mint julep. Don't know about you, but I'm having trouble seeing Jeremy as a 'fine old southern gentleman'. He did, however, provide me with a fine rendition of 'Moon River' as we crossed it coming into Beaufort. These were two of the houses we saw in Beaufort.
We turned down one street and spotted this tree. I guess the owner REALLY didn't want to cut it down or trim off the low branches. I suppose it's fair warning for RVs or folks with bikes on the tops of their cars.
The requisite town cannon - although it looks to me like it's set to take out the bridge!
To prove that I really am here with Jeremy on this trip - he took this picture of me in town next to a very interesting cow...
We slowly made our way up to Charleston, another lovely southern city. Charleston is the 'big city' on the coast of South Carolina. Having said that, there are no sky scrapers here - unless you could the many beautiful church steeples that are reaching high from everywhere in the city.
We saw many lovely old homes and gardens here - including those below. I think I'm falling in love with southern architecture. The lovely large homes with huge verandas that seem to go on forever.
We took a trip out to Fort Sumter - where the first shots of the civil war were fired. Shortly on the heels of the election of Abraham Lincoln as president of the United States, South Carolina seceded from the union on December 20, 1860. They were the first state to do so - followed by Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia and Louisiana six weeks later.
Once South Carolina declared their sovereignty from the US, they asked all federal troops to evacuate the state. At the time, the only federal fort garrisoned by more than a few men in South Carolina men Fort Moultrie - which was in the command of Major Anderson and had a company of 85 men. Major Anderson, taking his orders from the US government, decided to stay put. He moved his troops from Fort Moultrie to Fort Sumter - which he saw as a more defensible fort. He successfully retained the fort as a federal post until he was forced out by the South Carolina guard during the battle of Fort Sumter on April 12, 1861.
Below is a picture of the fort - the fort originally was much taller, but the top sections of the walls were destroyed during the war. The black battery building in the center of the fort was constructed in 1898 in preparation for the Spanish-American war.
The flags flying over Fort Sumter include the original flag of the Confederacy
The second flag of the Confederacy
The Union flag at the time of the start of the civil war
The Union flag at the end of the civil war - two new states Kansas and West Virginia joined the Union during the war.
And the South Carolina State flag - which was adopted in 1861 and continues to be the state flag today.
We took a ferry out to Fort Sumter - and passed the aircraft carrier USS Yorktown on the way. Unfortunately we didn't get a chance to go aboard during our visit to Charleston this time - the marina we were in was a bit too far for a walk out there - but we hope to next time we pass through this area. We need to go aboard and salute the dental chair of a certain Captain Ron Hillenbrand (Ret.) who once practiced there.
Charleston has a neat IMAX theatre and aquarium in the same area as the ferry over to Fort Sumter. We saw a really neat 3D movie about reefs and fish. 3D movies have come a LONG way since the red and green glasses - much more realistic - but I'm not too sure about the fashion statement these new glasses make... What do you think ??? Think they'll catch on???
The marina in Charleston was very nice - as were the marinas in Isle of Hope and Beaufort. They're a lot more expensive than the last time we were through - but, then again, we didn't have dock boys helping to dock the boat, and then attach electrical and cable TV. We had to scramble to even FIND our TV cable the first time. Believe it or not, we had it when we were living on Flying Cloud and had saved it all these years. Check out the boat umbilical cords below. Charleston only has 50 AMP outlets (we take 30) - so they offered us a splitter and we ran 2 30's plus the TV cable. Came in really handy when we powered up the AC and TV that night! Nothing like the last time we were through on Flying Cloud!
We left Charleston and headed north for Georgetown - a neat little town on the South Carolina coast about midway between Charleston and Myrtle Beach. The Georgetown harbor was a little crowded when we got there, but apparently gets MUCH worse a little later in the season.
We managed to make reservations at the only marina in town that has not yet replace their docks with nice new floating docks. This is a picture of Tardis at the dock in Georgetown.
The town has a great boardwalk with lots of neat shops, restaurants and ice cream parlors. We confess we've been sampling the wares, and while none come quite up to the level of Tuckers, some get close. Of course, we need to keep doing the taste tests.. (It's a tough job, etc. etc.)
We had lunch our first day in Georgetown at the Dogwood Cafe shown below on the boardwalk. They have GREAT stuffed mushrooms, bacon wrapped shrimp, and fried green tomatoes...
We were out wandering around town, and we spotted a couple of houses with trundling boards on their front porch. A trundling board is a long bench that is lower in the middle than at the ends - and the ends are set on rockers to that the board has a bit of spring to it. When a gentleman caller and his lady were out on the porch innocently sipping their mint juleps and sitting on opposite ends of the board, the lady would begin to gently bounce on the board until they slowly slid together to the center. It was a tradition, that if a girl reached her 18th birthday and was still unmarried without prospects, she would get a bar of wax for the board.
We visited the Georgetown Rice Museum and found this interesting old boat that was found in the marshes not far from here. They think it was built in the early 1700s and is one of the first ships built in the this part of the world. The model pictured on the right is what they think the boat looked like when it was built.
We were sitting on our boat when this cruise ship came into the Georgetown harbor and pulled up to a dock across from us. (That's the dingy davits on the back of our boat in the foreground of the first picture.) It's as close as it looks to the sailboats anchored out in the harbor. We were really glad we had elected to come into a dock and not be anchored out there when this bad boy came in. Of course the dock master was VERY happy. They pulled in and proceeded to 'fill er up'. Glad we don't have THAT fuel bill - or dock bill for that matter. That little boat next to them across from the fuel dock in the second picture is a Nordhavn 62.
We spotted this 'school bus' on the way from Georgetown up to Myrtle Beach.
There are LOTS of golf courses in this part of the world. We passed through a section of the waterway with a golf course on both sides. Turns out it is one course - with a connecting gondola to get you to the next hole.
We are passing under many interesting bridges on our trip. Many of the older bridges have been replaced with high fixed bridges with 65 foot clearance (the stated clearance for the Intra-coastal waterway) - but there are still several old swing bridges like the one shown below on the waterway. We are lucky with our little tug - we fit under most of these without having to have them opened. Not so when we were traveling on our sailboat.
We pulled into a dock at Barefoot Landing - which is a big mall on the waterway in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. When we came through here in 1992, the mall and dock was about three years old - and was out in the middle of nowhere. There were no amenities (no water or electric) - but then they didn't charge to stay here either. They recently replaced the dock and installed power and water - so now they do charge, however it is less than we have been paying at other marinas. They still don't have other marina facilities - such as showers or laundry - but we still like this as a great place to tie up along the waterway. We had a great lunch at the Crab House and had fun wandering around the shops in the mall.
Jeremy's up on top of our boat doing some maintenance on the chimney top. The weird looking thing in front of us with the funny green roof is a tour boat.
We saw lots if interesting critters at Barefoot Landing. They have several lakes on the property - stocked with lots of turtles like this little fellow shown below.
On the other side of the spectrum, there was an exhibit of big cats from a local wildcat rescue association. This cute guy was taking a nap when we went by. Here kitty, kitty... Not exactly what we were looking for as a boat kitty - perhaps something a little smaller...
Our last morning in South Carolina saw us going under this swing bridge at sunrise. This is the same bridge shown above opening to let the sailboats pass through.
Last updated April 27, 2006.