Too excited to sleep. Beat the 6 am wakeup call by 20 minutes. Of course we made a pit stop on the way to Georgetown’s Hazzard’s Marina. Had to stop at Pawleys Island Bakery for 2 freshly made donuts, a Taylor ham and egg sandwich and two large coffees to go. The doopers knew something was afoot and were exceptionally needy. Well, doesn’t that just rip you in half! Our destination is Sanford, Florida. Should take about 8 to 10 days and 9 more ports and they haven’t heard the engines start up yet so we had to leave them behind until we are settled in Sanford. So there they were at the door drooping sad eyes and ears. Thank God for jenny and Paul, our wonderful pet sitters! They live at the house and will offer them tender love and care until we come back to get the car and the doopers! Next stop Charleston’s Ashley marina! Midway dolphin watch! Three so far. Thought they would be further south by now. We are probably off Mccellenville. Ut! Two more! Almost impossible to get a picture but I keep trying. The sun is shining but a tad nippy out. Had to put on my wobbie socks! There are lots of sail boats with plenty of time on their hands. I don’t realize how fast we are going until I try to get a picture of the wild life we see. I center the shot and all the pelicans are on the left side of the frame! We are cruising at an average of 7.2 knots so it is easy to spot wildlife and enjoy the scenery. So nice to take time and smell the coffee… Captain bill is amazing. I, however, am important in that I provide excellent ballast as I lay like lettuce. Oh yeah…I also provide relief to the captain from time to time when the chart plotter take us straightaway in deep water with wide channels to keep me from going aground. Just hope he doesn’t dally. I’m not happy when he leaves the cockpit! If another vessel happens by it makes me nervous. I must say the ICW is a friendly place of no stresses…thank you captain…thank you, sir for the slow pass…May I, Yes sir, Have a good trip…starboard if you please…so pleasant. Makes you want to pay it forward.

12/1

What a wonderful rendezvous with good friends from Charleston, Joyce and Walter! Never at a loss for words when the four of us are together. Plenty of hardy laughter thrown in along the way. After a glass of merlot, off we went to Hyman’s Restaurant where we stuffed ourselves with an unlimited supply of fresh snow crab legs! WOW! The BEST we have had in a long time! Moist, meaty…yummmmm. Never disappointed at Hymans and never leave with a doggie bag…over eat because it is so good. Of course the heat didn’t work in the master cabin and it was quite chilly at first but we had a small and safe ceramic heater on hand to take over. Good thing because it was 36 degrees outside…are we sure we are in Charleston? Our down comforter and that heater were perfect. No roughing it for Captain Bill and his first mate. Waters were calm as could be…slept like rocks! I miss my doopers…Sam and Molly. At each turn I look to ascertain the difficulty factor each marina would bring like getting them on and off the boat. Right now they get to go out whenever they want .We just open the back door and let them go…nice feature, a fenced in yard. PS…on a stupid, “I can’t believe we did that” note, we were wobbling and perching ourselves on the PVC stairway that conveyed with the boat for two solid weeks; swearing every time and worrying over how much it would take to replace them with a good solid set…Finally one day, as we were starring at them we realized…DUH…dummies…They were upside down!!!! Quite embarrassing but it was funny enough to fess up. HA…good to laugh at ourselves…

December 2

Up at 6:30 am to leave by 7. I’m remembering the lines and fenders routine now and getting back into the 1st mate groove. We were bow to bow at the dock with a mega yacht so with winds and tides fighting us…getting under way is a skill I do not yet have…Especially when not in shape…do I risk climbing around the davits above the dive platform in the back to climb the stairs into the aft deck? Or do I do a gargantuan leap up the side gangway without the stairs…cheating with one foot in the vent on the side. I better start getting into better shape if I am to be the laughing stock of the marina if I fall into the drink. This mishap could cost me much more than my pride…it could easily cost me my life so I better be careful! Heading for the Beaufort City dock…boy were we disappointed with the dock boys there. Quite helpful in docking but seriously attitudinal and unfriendly. We will look for a different marina in that area from now on…didn’t make it into town. Too tired… I made stew and we retired to watch, “The Queen”

12/3

Harbourtown Marina at Hiltonhead was our next stop…This shorter leg of our excursion was welcome in deed…got in by 2:30 and had a chance to browse the shops and eat a good dinner out. What a great reception from the staff and the dock man. Friendly, courteous and even a bottle of wine!!! Thanks so much for making us feel welcome. Excellent shower facilities and laundry… A conert in the park? Cute, cute, cute…children so young, most instruments were larger than they were…very cute… Wasn’t crazy about our meal at the Crazy Crab. Salmon was a bit overly seared and the bottom was burnt. Had to cut away a lot of it. Captain Bill’s salmon is sooo much better…oh well. Woke up crying and didn’t understand why I was getting so many headaches. Then it hit me…This was the day my Dad fell and broke his hip. He was dead ten days later last year…Then my Mom died six months to the day the following June…Thought I’d gotten over that…Once I figured out what was going on, the crying and headaches stopped and with a big ol hug from Captain Bill…I’m back and enjoying the cockpit again with beautiful scenic views all around.

12/4/11

Sudbury marina in Georgia…what a great find. What an adventure! Superior restaurant, superior service! What a nice bunch of folks. Watched the Georgia LSU game…not so good for Georgia…sorry. Upon leaving Sudbury Marina we were blessed by a spectacular sunrise! Topped it off with awesome views…ahhhhh Sudbury, we shall return! Sorry about the brief power outage…funny thing. The last time we were thru this area we stayed at the only other marina in the area, the Half Moon and we had a power outage there too…something that happens a lot??? Just eerie that it would happen again years later. Good thing was we had finished dinner and were ready to settle in when it happened…so we went to bed. So here we are up before dawn and ready to go…happy to get the sun rise in.