Thursday, October 17, Day 100

We woke to a HEAVY dew and were able to see a few dolphins, but only were able to get photos of their fin out of the water. We waited until 847am to raise the anchor to try to have the negative tidal current less than starting early and having it for a longer time. Being as far south as we are in the salt marshes, the no-see-ums are out. Phil can ignore them, but they bother me a lot. The wind blowing seem to help a lot and they’re not bad enough to require me to wear my bug jacket. Waiting to leave until later gave us a positive current up to 7.8kts GPS that lasted about an hour before the current went from 4.1 kts to 6.5kts until we approached Rick and Carol Butler’s dock taking 2 attempts to raft off SV PattyD owned by Matt and Pat due to a 1kt following current. We were given a warm welcome by Rick and Carol, SSCA cruising Station Hosts, it being since April 2011 on our way back home since we last saw them.

After we were settled, the crew on both boats went up to the house they call Green Tree for cocktails.

We enjoyed catching up on what’s new with everyone and then got ready to go to an authentic Japanese restaurant reminiscent of the food the Butlers ate when he was stationed in Japan while serving in the Navy.

I tried the shrimp noodles and Phil had the scallop dinner both which were very good.
At this type of restaurant, the food is cooked by the owner/chef. He was kind enough to show us his fancy hand work with the salt and pepper shakers as he was cooking.. After dinner we went home to relax down below.

Friday, October 18, Day 101

The long-awaited day that my parents were able to meet up with us arrived! Mid morning we met them at the end of the Butler’s driveway so they didn’t have a difficult time finding us. As the Butlers suggested, we went to Hunting Island State Park well worth the drive south on Rt 21. It’s interesting how much water is in the Low Country area of South Carolina. 3/4 of Beaufort County is water. We went to the Nature Center to watch a movie of the history of the area and look at the exhibits.

Duckweed is an important source of nutrients for the animals in this area. An alligator and her young live in this pond by the nature center but wasn’t seen by any of us.

One of the activities we did as kids was go on hikes in the wood when camping, so it was good to take a walk down the Lagoon Trail to see one of the last natural maritime forests in this area.

Unfortunately, the mosquitoes were out so we had to turn around about halfway down the path. On the way back we saw teenage boys across the lagoon wading in the mud with buckets catching who knows what having a good time.

By this time it was past lunch time so we had sandwiches at a restaurant just outside the park and then returned for Phil and I to climb the lighthouse. It costs $2 each but was an easy climb being able to read information about the lighthouse and the keepers on each of the landings then view the land and ocean at the top.

On our way back home, we stopped at Gay’s Fish Market and picked up mahimahi and shrimp for supper. As it had been a long day after a long drive to get here from Raleigh, NC, Mom and Dad decided to call it a day after we played cards. We went grocery shopping on the way home and Dad came out to the boat to help us out.

I gave Mom a shawl that I had finished knitting on this trip for her.

We are going to stay another day here waiting for mail we hope to arrive today.

Saturday, October 19, Day 102

Shortly after 9am, we cast off from SV PattyD so they could leave starting their journey to the Georgia Islands. Then we tied up to the dock again. They have a Farmers Market in Port Royal on Saturday and Rick and Carol wanted to walk across the Port Royal Bridge, so we set off in the truck dropping them off just before the bridge. We enjoyed the Farmers market getting fresh made kettle corn, some vegetables for the shrimp Primavera, hard but sweet pears and plums and clams. There were moms with young children and couples of every age. It seems very popular with grass-fed beef, chicken available, much fresh vegetables and baked products and good prepared food to eat for lunch.

After we came back home, I used 210 Plus and then 210 polish on our vinyl windows for the dodger. It made a HUGE difference in being able to see out more clearly. I’ll have to keep up with this.

Rick and Carol with Monty made the Explorer Charts we use when traveling in the Bahamas and he kindly offered to give us tips about being in the Ragged Island or Jimentos in the Bahamas so I got out my notebook and our charts and took in all his information. Thank you Rick!! Now we’ll know the good places to go and safe ones for any mild fronts.

We had supper of Shrimp Primavera over linguine. Of course it made a lot so we’ll have that for another supper or two.

I knitted in the evening listening to audiobook from the library “Astronaut Wives” a true story about the wives of the early US Astronauts. We had a long day so went to bed early at 930pm.

Oh! Late in the day most of our mail arrived, but not my box so we’ll be moving on tomorrow morning 5nm to Beaufort to meet up with Judy and Stephen on SV Bentana to buddy boat for a while. We both need to hang around until Nov 1 though their insurance says they have to be north of Jacksonville, FL not Savannah, GA like us.