Month: May 2018

Cozily berthed at the Charleston City Marina’s Megadock, we are in major relaxation mode. Little on the schedule and lots of time to mosey about. Some window shopping (Cliff’s favorite!), some real shopping (I needed a rain jacket with a hood!) and some grocery shopping.

We were back on board in time for the Cubs game….but our Apple TV failed us. We ended up listening to a radio broadcast, but we could have gone to Mac’s Place — a Chicago-themed bar that shows all of the Cubs games (and the Blackhawks, and the White Sox and the Bears and the Bulls). Cliff and I caught a couple of innings there two years ago when the Cubs were on the path to the World Series.

Charleston does Memorial Day very well.  We attended the Charleston Men’s Chorus concert at St. Philip’s Church and the focus was on honoring those that gave their lives in the service of our country. It was not, as speakers at the event noted, a”happy” occasion. It was one of respect — and glorious music.

 

This year’s keynote speaker was a retired Marine colonel, who, unfortunately, paled compared to the Army nurse we heard two years ago. Nonetheless, he was heartfelt and imposing with a chest full of campaign ribbons, a Silver Star and two Purple Hearts. He wasn’t a very good speaker, but he was sincere and had at least one funny line about politics….. “we have a two party system and one of them is useless and the other scary.” I leave it to you to figure out which one is which.

One of the highlights of the concert each year is a medley of songs representing each branch of the service. As the music soars, they ask for veterans (and current service members) to stand as their branch song is played. When we attended two years ago, Cliff remarked that it was the first time since he came back from Vietnam that he was honored for his service. Too long. He stood again this year as the Army’s “go rolling along” tune was sung with gusto.

We also attended a choral concert of renaissance music by the Atlanta Schola Cantorem, a small group with terrific voices. The soparanos have incredibly high notes to hit for most of the performance as they provide the contrast for the descant dominated music. Somber, mostly, and appropriate for the day.

The concert was held at a church we’d been to last year for an organ concert. One of the things I noticed then (and did not get a picture of) was the needlepoint kneeling benches. They are all different and the individuals who made them sign their names or initials along with the date. The ones in our pew ranged from 1988 to 2016. A beautiful, individual touch I think. And in a world where churches are often male dominated, these pieces of needlepoint seemed to give women a very visible voice.

Late lunch at a dive! The Craftsman….zillions of beers, a VERY abbreviated wine list and odd appetizers. Pickles! Deconstructed loaded potatoes (i.e., potato slices with sour cream, bacon, green onion and loads of hot sauce).

Nice to be safely docked and ready to start on our Spoleto performance and eating marathon. That’s what you do this time of year in Charleston. We definitely “earned” our dinner on Saturday after taking in the Garden Walk, a tour of private gardens in Charleston’s central district. These places are amazing….but they didn’t allow any photos.  We did take some pictures of houses and gardens along the way without any photo prohibitions which will give you an idea of what these places are like.

 

We’ve been to Charleston many times, but never get tired of roaming it’s intricate streets. The hands (and eyes!) of landscape designers are apparent in everything from the window boxes to the carefully trimmed boxwood hedges. And dominating all of this planned horticulture are ancient live oaks filled with epiphytes, magnolias with yellowing, near spent blooms and smooth barked crepe myrtles with their multi-colored trunks.

 

Dinner Saturday night at Rappahonnick Oyster Bar. Brunch Sunday at 39 Rue de Jean. Both terrific.

 

We’ve got scads of tickets for performances coming up. Today, we took in a free choral concert which was wonderful. Cliff started rating each of the songs and eventually got to A++. Yes, it really was that good. We are looking forward to the rest of the music we will hear during our stay.

 

A funny note…..the mega-yacht across from us lowered two kayaks and their paddles today. The kayaks and the tips of the paddles were carefully wrapped. By the time everything got un-wrapped, it started to rain. Not a great kayaking day. The only thing I could figure is that the guests aboard are looking for something to do besides keeping the owners’ four dogs company.

The yacht is registered out of the Marshall Islands (Micronesia) as are several others in the harbor. Apparently, Marshall Islands does a bang up job of helping people avoid taxes!

XXOO

There is something quite spectacular about suddenly spying the church towers of Charleston from the water. “We’re here!!”  Can hardly wait to start walking around that great city.

 

And there’s something amazing (humbling?? That’s definitely the wrong word — how about gob-smacked??) about seeing the luxury yachts lining the mega-dock. Because it’s Spoleto, the dock is completely full. Little ol’ Dot Calm is shoehorned between several of them…..and right across from a 100 foot beauty (Stellar!) where the help has just placed a gorgeous flower arrangement on their aft deck table. And Cliff informs me that one of the crew has just placed twelve rolled towels into a steamer on the aft deck.  Looks like it will be a wonderful dinner. Lobster maybe?  There is a bar on their aft deck as well.  Of course. I am glad we are not grilling tonight….but it might be kind of fun to bring out the hot dogs “and all the fixin’s.”  Maybe we’ll turn on the arch lights anyway!

 

Eggplant casserole (it is a LOT better than it sounds) awaits.  And the reason is….that I thought the refrigerator had died and was trying to do a bit of triage on all the food aboard. The eggplant would thaw first….. Happily, it was just a switch that had been turned the wrong way, so we are back in business refrigerator-wise.

One of the things I forgot to mention in yesterday’s post is that when you arrive in Beaufort you are in the land of Marines. Paris Island is right there. And I was reminded about the Marines today when two fighter jets zoomed overhead seemingly from a marsh-based airport.  Semper Fi, ya’ll. See I’m really getting into this southern thing.

 

Shrimp and grits. Pimiento cheese. Crawfish. Etouffe. Okra. Let’s hear it for low-country cuisine.

We’ll be here for the next two weeks….posts may not be daily. BUT, I will let you know how the food is:-)

 

And probably less fly bitten. When I finally got my hands on a 9 volt battery, Cliff noticed that the back of the fly-electrocuting racket said it needed two AA batteries. We only have about three dozen of those aboard. Sigh.

 

But the troubles of yesterday are quickly forgotten when you wake up to warm sun, intense blue skies with wisps of friendly white clouds, ancient looking trees and a chorus of birdsong. A beautiful day.

 

We are at Thunderbolt Marine, a top of the line outfit from what we’ve seen and from the incredible yachts that are here for various services. The fact that they have a concierge on staff pretty well says it. AND, they hand out boxes of Krispy Kreme donuts in the morning along with freshly brewed coffee (a moment of silence for our dearly departed Keurig).

 

We borrowed the courtesy car to do a “little” provisioning. Got those 9 volt batteries, a new kitchen carpet and a bicycle pump so we can use our nifty bicycles.  We upgraded our Keurig operation from a single-cup model to a deluxe one that was on sale for less than the single-cup version. You just had to get over the rather weird cranberry/cherry coke color scheme.

We’d originally planned to go to the Savannah Art Museum today, but our spot on the Wilmington River is so lovely and the day so lazy that we decided to be home bodies and fit in a few domestic chores between naps and taking it easy.

 

During our provisioning run, I struck up a conversation with a local and mentioned our relief at being in a marina with NO GREEN FLIES. She quickly turned me on to what she claims is what “everyone” in Georgia uses….a fly ribbon. I bought a box, of course. Fly haters….I’ll keep you posted!

Tomorrow we are off to Beaufort, SC….that’s “Bu-fort” not “Bow-fort.” The latter is in NC. This is a town we know a little bit about since we bought Ready or Knot there and had several stays aboard before having her shipped to Chicago. One of our great memories is the weekend Cleo & Jim joined us — it rained constantly except for a 2 hour break while Cliff and Jim had coffee in the cockpit and watched dolphins swim by. A nice look back.

P.S. Our dinner at 700 Drayton was slightly underwhelming. A by-the-glass wine that had been open too long, a medium steak bordering on well, a waitress a little too over the top — you get the idea At any rate, we heard that they will be undertaking a “complete renovation” and we hope it entails more than the decor.

My kingdom for a 9 volt battery  (not 16 — it was the flies that caused the error — seemed like 16 volts would have served them right)! My bug zapper started weakly stunning flies rather than jolting them into oblivion just as we were facing an unimaginable onslaught of green flies. They stayed with us overnight in New Tea Kettle Creek, and I am pretty sure they invited lots of friends. The horde that greeted us in the morning even put a damper on the choir of birdsongs emanating from the marsh.

Nothing to do but grin and keep your mouth shut.

And as if a plague of flies wasn’t enough, our port engine alarm started screaming minutes after the anchor was lifted. Such a terrible sound in such a beautiful, secluded area. Several of our friends have heard this “water in the fuel tune” (I’m looking at you Gary & Carolyn), and Cliff has usually been able to quickly drain off the water and get us on our way. There have been exceptions (hello Anita & Matt!) but the distance back to shore in those cases has been short. Today was an entirely different matter.

The alarm screaming continued even after the port engine was shut off and we resigned ourselves to a long drive with a shrill accompaniement, We are ingenious, of course, (please refer back to an earlier post about stopping the new bell from clanging.) We tried cotton in our ears. We put our headsets on over the cotton. To no avail. The shriek was insistent. As were the flies. Isn’t cruising fun?!

At one point, Cliff decided to go ahead and use the port engine because he was no longer getting an alarm message on the engine controller (sorry Alan….couldn’t think if what it was really called). The engine started up, the shrieking continued….and then an alarm message notified Cliff that there was water in the fuel.

All of this happened after several attempts to drain the water from the fuel filters. It didn’t work. BUT, when I pressed the red button to turn the port engine off and quickly turned the key to the “off” position….hooray, no shrieking. This occurred about two hours into our 6 hour trip. But I’ll gladly take it.

The journey itself was very windy (I’m describing navigation here, not weather) (and Jim Comerford gave me a better word — meandering. Perfect!) (then Cliff came up with “serpentine” – extra perfect) and we had to keep a close look out for the temporary marks that have dotted our ICW path. Not so many here, but still a complicated navigation. It didn’t, however, keep my mind off the flies:-)

 

As thick as they were, they seemed to dissipate when storm clouds threatened. Yea storms!

 

Oh! And our Keurig coffee maker died. Maybe that’s the worst thing of all!!

We cruised to Savannah on one engine and made pretty good time because the tides were with us. And a lovely mechanic came aboard and with a little fiddling assured us we were good to go on our way. Water in the secondary fuel filter. Aha! Required priming the engine….not what we were prepared to do even if we’d known that was the problem.

We did see a number of stunning homes as we neared Savannah. Mostly understated, but a few mega-haciendas, which I couldn’t bring myself to photograph.

 

Dinner at 700 Drayton tonight. A richly earned extravagance after a harrowing day on the water. I only hope I can stay awake!

P.S. I think there is dissertation material in comparing green and black flies having spent waaaaay too much time with both of them. They are very different. Except for their bites!!

When we cruised from Charleston to the Keys, a highlight was the night we spent “on the hook” at New Tea Kettle Creek. Had to do it again!

Alas, not quite as wonderful as our stop with Roger and Will in March, 2014.  If you are reading Roger & Will, thank your stars that you are not with us. The setting is just as beautiful and remote with thousands shades of green across the marshes. BUT, the green flies are alive and active, so we’ve hunkered down inside (which ain’t all bad). AND, amazingly, the ATT signal is strong (better than it was in Titusville). So we are set with music, TV and other entertainments (Psych! Oh yeah!).

 

 

We had a lovely steak dinner with salad and corn on the cob. Definitely up town.

 

Leaving Jekyll Island Marina was a bit of a trip. The Queen Mary (not quite…but a VERY big yacht) cruised in after we were docked and scooted right up to our bow. Cliff figured out how to “spring” out of the dock — very handy sailing knowledge even on a power boat. (You see, we haven’t gone completely to the dark side!)

 

Anchoring in New Tea Kettle Creek was the first “trial” of our new anchor and swivel. Worked like a champ! (Thank you Alan!)

Don’t worry about us out here all alone, I am sure some of the nearby natives will be glad to give us a helping hand:-) And Cliff locked the doors and turned on the deck alarm!

 

Tomorrow we head to Savannah for two days. We’ll spend one museum going and EATING.

 

Our morning briefing was a little more intense today — a very tricky bit of navigating was ahead of us. Especially confusing (for me) in that part of the route followed “Red Right Return” rule and then switched to the “leaving ICW” rules which put Green on the right and Red on the left. Tricksy. We used both electronic and paper charts and paid attention to the temporary day marks that have changed the routing in some sections. Mostly deep water, but some areas crossed into shallower channels.

We started with a slow, careful departure from Amelia Island at pretty much low tide and spotted a roseate spoonbill, a rarity for us.

 

We love Fernandina Beach (thus our two day stay here). Wonderful shops, great restaurants and previously, a terrific marina right at the foot of the Main Street. Hurricane Irma devastated the marina. They are still operating at about 20% strength. They’ve replaced a lot of the walkways, but most of their docks still don’t have electricity. We also noticed that a couple of favorite stores have closed, no doubt because of the lack of customers as Irma approached and the downturn in tourism immediately after. But there were a couple of new ones and the whole street looked very busy when we were there.

Fernandina Beach also has two paper mills as neighbors, one to the south and one to the north. We learned that these paper mills also make a very pure cellulose product, 40% of which is shipped to China. Hmmm.

 

Our friend Ron Greeley, who has cruised the ICW dozens and dozens of times, warned us about St. Andrew Sound before we made our first trip from Charleston to the Keys. He advised us to put off a crossing — or even sell your boat — before attempting to cross on a bad weather day. The shoaling in this area means you have to make a large loop which brings you incredibly close to the surf line. The charts are filled with “breaker area” notations across the whole mouth of the sound. So if there are high winds, you can find yourself in the surf. We had a bumpy but safe crossing — except for the two bottles of wine that got launched across the galley. One broke (white!) and the other just spilled (red!). I wanted a new kitchen carpet anyway.

In addition to seeing the roseate spoonbill this morning, we also saw wild horses on Cumberland Island wandering along the shore. And we were entertained by 5 or maybe 6 dolphin swimming alongside the boat. Alas, no photo as they dove under the boat by the time I’d grabbed the camera. Horses are much easier to shoot (the camera kind, not the gun kind), so I did get a picture of them though it is a very long distance shot and you will have to look very hard at the photo to see them.

 

Stayed at Amelia Island for two days. While cruising is certainly relaxing, there is a bit of work involved, so it was nice to have a day to basically do nothing. We borrowed the marina’s loaner car to do a little provisioning and then took Uber to Fernandina Beach’s historic district to shop and have dinner.

I laughed at one of the stores which had placed a TV and four chairs in a small area out front….labeled, “Husband Daycare.”

We are now in the land of big tide changes. I’d estimate 8 feet or so. We arrived at mid-tide and didn’t have any problems. But as the tide went down it sure made the channel leading out of Amelia Island look a little daunting.