St. James, Surf City & Swansboro, North Carolina

We left St. James Marina on Tuesday and headed for Surf City, USA! Actually that would be North Carolina.  The weather was partly cloudy, with temps in the mid 70's.  The following pictures are taken in and around Surf City.

On our travels to Swansboro, where we will spend 2 nights, we came across some interesting sites along the ICW. Here is a sample of some of the sites we enjoyed.

Swansboro is a very small town, with mostly older buildings.  We are staying Wed & Thurs, then heading to Beaufort, pronounced Bofert, for the weekend.

St. James, N.C.

This morning we awoke to rain, with the promise of more throughout the day, and the occasional thunderstorm.  Since there was no reason to get moving on the water, we had a very lazy morning, afternoon and evening.  It was a good day to curl up with a book, or watch TV.  During a lull in the raindrops, we did get out and take a walk. The forecast for tomorrow is more of the same, so we may be here another day.  The marina is pretty nice, they have an on site restaurant, a small grocery section in the marine store and plenty of people coming and going.  Not a bad place to be held up.

 Here are some of the dredging rigs that we saw as we walked along the river today.

Georgetown, Myrtle Beach and Little River, S.C.

After leaving Charleston we stopped  at Georgetown overnight, then an overnight stop at a marina in Myrtle beach.  Not close enough to go to the beach, but a very nice stop.  The next stop took us to Little River S.C.  where we caught up with Dan & Biddi  on "Biddi and the Beast".  We planned on staying only 2 days, until we found out that the 29th annual Blue Crab Festival was that weekend.

The festival was fun, there was great music, food and vendors, we did our share of eating and drinking.








Along the way we saw some interesting sites, a tram system that crossed  the river to get golfers across,  a boat that was stuck in the sand during low tide, and the water changing from root beer color to green again. 

We have learned allot about the tides, currents and the ever present wind. The tides in Georgia & South Carolina can be as much as 9 feet.  The wind can start out at 5 -10 knots, and just as we are ready to dock they kick up to 15 - 20 knots. One good thing about the wind is it keeps the bugs away. There are these little bugs the size of gnats, and when they bite, it feels like razor sharp teeth.  And the current can be quite confused, one minute running with us, and the next it changes. The boat has held up well, although I am sure she will be happy once she is on a salt free diet again.

We have had so much fun and adventure on this trip, along with meeting some of the greatest and kindest people.  The big question everyone asks is, what is your fovorite place.  There are so many favorites, I don't think we will ever be able to answer that.

Charleston S.C.

Charleston is one of our favorite cities. We were here for Mother's day, and went to this great brunch.  I spent the next 3 hours doing laundry, a necessary evil. 

On Saturday we took a horse and carriage ride, with a horse that has issues.  Marcus, the horse, has a problem with trucks and buses, he doesn't like them.  Matt, the tour guide/trainer, has trained Marcus to stare down the bus or truck.  If he encounters one of these he actually stares at it, turning his head until it is completely passed. The whole time taking direction from Matt telling him to "stare it down Marcus".  That is the only way Marcus would know in his head that the bus or truck wasn't going to attack him.  I have to say it was pretty funny to see this 1800 pound horse staring at the trucks and buses.  Matt told us during the training process, Marcus attacked a UPS truck, putting his hoof through the side of the truck.

The market place where people sell their goods

A wedding in progress

While we were in Charleston there were two major graduations taking place, The Citadel, and the College of Charleston.  Needless to say, it was a very busy place.

Our next stop will be Georgetown, about 64 miles North of Charleston, we will only stop for the night there.

Beaufort S.C.

Homes along the ICW

" Beautiful Beaufort by the Sea" is indeed a beautiful town.  Beaufort S.C is pronounced Bufort, not to be confused with Beaufort of N.C. pronounced Bofurt.  We  took another carriage ride, and learned allot about this historic town.  The streets are lined with grand oaks, historic homes, churches, and plenty of restaurants.  Beaufort has been featured in several movies,  Forrest Gump, The Great Santini, Prince of Tides, and The Big Chill.  We spent 2 days here to relax and see the town.

Hilton Head S.C.

On Sunday we left the Thunderbolt/Savannah area and headed about 26 miles north to Hilton Head Island. The island is sectioned into several residential "plantations" .  There is a color scheme for residential and business alike, this keeps the island from being over run with "resort flashiness".  Homes exteriors are done in muted earth tones to blend into nature, and nature it has.  Pines, oaks, and palms flourish here.

The marina was pretty nice, there was an in ground pool, and it was 80 something degrees with high humidity, so we spent most of the afternoon cooling off and relaxing.  The next day brought rain, we rented a car with another looper couple and drove around the island. This would be a great place to come back to.

This is the first "gator" we have seen on this trip, he was hanging out in the marina.

Look closely, there was a rainbow after the rain cleared out.

Thunderbolt and Savannah, GA

Thunderbolt, GA. is just outside of Savannah, and is where the marina is located that we stayed at.  We arrived on Wed afternoon and spent the rest of the day doing chores on the boat.  It is in constant need of cleaning, the salt water clings to all the surfaces outside, the rails look like someone took a salt shaker to them after a rain. Jim sure gets his exercise, wax on, wax off, you know the motion.

Some of our marina neighbors.  We are told by the dock master that they run between 30 to 80 million.  The yearly up keep is about 10% of their value.












Thursday we spent the day in Savannah, exploring the city and taking a horse drawn carriage tour.  Those are always fun and informative, the tour guides are young, cute and witty.  The architecture of these historic buildings is truly beautiful, again another great city rich in history.

This last picture is a building that was originally a horse stable that was turned into one of the first automobile showrooms by Henry Ford.  A story that has been told, is that Henry Ford used spanish moss for stuffing his automobile seats, because it was so plentiful. Well, spanish moss has a microscopic bug called "chiggers" and it will get under your skin and cause a rash and severe itching. To take care of the chiggers, you have to boil the moss, evidently that did not happen or some survived, because people were itching.  It was the first automobile recall.  The marketing after that was "Aren't ya itchin to buy a Ford".

Our nephew Frank and his girlfriend Olivia drove down from Macon, about 3 hours away.  We went back into Savannah and had a great time checking out the market and craft vendors along Riverfront Street. Thanks Frank and Olivia for making the trip down to Thunderbolt to see us.