We have now arrived in South Carolina after spending two days in Wrightsville (yes, named after you know who) Beach waiting for the rain to stop. Bill was very anxious about wanting to leave but we met up with people from two boats who helped me persuade Bill that traveling 7 - 8 hours in pouring rain with a very good chance of thunderstorms was not our idea of fun. So instead we walked along a gorgeous, empty except for die hard surfers, beach, (during a break in the weather), ate dinner at a Margaritaville type restaurant where a 3 piece band played guitars and steel drums with selections straight out of Jimmy Buffet (not to be confused with Warren) to the 5 of us and about 8 other customers. However, this is the end of the season and Wrightsville Beach is packed during the summer. Bill even ventured out during a downpour to run errands and he found a store that sold "authentic New York bagels". In a pinch they did just fine.
Although we are traveling many hours a day the time goes by very quickly. Of course, we are still leaving as the sky just barely lightens but navigating and watching out for shoaling (that's when the sand fills in the channel resulting in shallow water), snags (anything that is floating where it shouldn't be causing problems like hitting barely noticeable tree trunks - ouch!), other boats as they pass us or we pass them and the scenery along the banks we hardly notice the time passing. The scenery along the banks was primarily trees, brush, and marshes with modest houses with waterfront property. A little note about the houses. Any house that has been built within the past 10 or so years has as the first floor stilts so there would be less damage to property when the hurricanes hit. The living quarters are in the floors above. I am including a few photos of some of the homes and the variety of architecture that we have seen. Especially now in South Carolina we were able to see the houses that were on the ocean as well as on the ICW and some of them were truly spectacular. I don't know whether they are only 'summer' homes or year round .
We are anchored in the Calabash River tonight, glorious sunset after so much grey for the last few days and our next major stop will be Charleston where I am trying to persuade Bill to stay a day to explore.
It was so pleasant to spend time with other voyagers, from Chattanooga of all places, and we are anchored here with them but our schedules are different and we hope to see them again somewhere on our trip south or when we get to the Bahamas. Bill actually met them in Annapolis while exploring a nearby creek and he stopped by their boat because it was the same style boat that Bill's father almost bought 30 some years ago. There are many routes to making connections with people and we are just beginning this part of the journey.