FRIDAY MAY 14TH

Our daughter, Krista, finishes school today.  Only a few weeks after she turned 5 years old I watched her climb on to the school bus with her older brother, John. Away she went. She has been a student ever since. So after 20 years of hard work and determination, today she finished her classes at William Mitchell College of Law. We are very proud of her to say the least!!!!

We started our day by biking in to Georgetown for breakfast at Thomas Café. Less than an hour later we were peddling back to the boat with tummies full of grits and biscuits. And we were off to Osprey Marina. Located a few miles south of Myrtle Beach. 

The scenery has changed again. No longer salt marsh, but back to cypress swamp. Osprey everywhere we look. We travelled the Waccama River. It looks very much like the St. Johns River. Looking at the cypress swamps makes us understand what a monumental task it must have been to clear those areas out and build a dirt dike around them to create rice paddies. 

The water of late is much different from Savannah. It is dark brown in color and the tide is only around 2 ½ feet. We are a distance from any outlets to the ocean, which probably affects the tides and the salinity of the water. When we have been bombing around in the dinghy, Ross will dip his fingers in the water and taste it. (blue job!!) He says it is only a slight bit salty. We no longer hear krill under the boat but see many more turtles. We saw this snake in the water near our boat at the marina. From what I could figure out on the Internet, it is not a cottonmouth. I think it is a non-venomous snake called a Banded Watersnake. It was busy fishing when I took the photo. Poisonous or no, I left it to its fishing. 

We stopped for the night at Osprey Marina. It is somewhere around 10 miles south of Myrtle Beach and out in the middle of nowhere. Good depth coming in and extremely helpful staff. It had one of the cleanest laundries and showers I believe we have encountered so far on the trip. They gave us a welcome bag full of stuff, including a brick of cheese, crackers, mints, Honey Buns rolls, an emergency whistle, floating key ring, can koozie and the usual assorted flyers. 

Ross cleaned some of the boat fenders off today. They were grossly grungy along the bottoms because someone (and she will remain nameless) had them adjusted too low and they sat in the water for three weeks while we went home. They look great now after he scrubbed them with Softscrub!

One of the flyers in our welcome bag was for an Italian restaurant called Scatori’s. They offered complimentary transportation. Works for us! Had a wonderful meal there. Started off with an order of calamari with remoulade sauce. Very tasty. We came home with enough leftovers from dinner for another meal. 

THURSDAY MAY 13TH

A day to explore Georgetown. Georgetown was settled sometime around 1729, although the Spanish first visited the area in 1526.

The marina had these minnows for sale in an old claw footed bathtub.

First stop, The Kudzu Bakery. Besides being a bakery it also had many gourmet food items ranging from wines, marinades, jellies and chutneys, even frog legs.
















I’ve been willing to try many local foods on this trip, but these kinda made my stomach do a flip flop. Maybe it had something to do with dissecting that frog way back in biology class!

We did purchase some bakery treats though. Ross picked out a cinnamon roll and so did I till I spotted the gingerbread muffin with lemon filling. We keep blaming the dryers in the marinas for shrinking our clothes. Ha!

Indigo was Georgtown's primary crop back in the 1700’s. It is a plant, which was made in to blue dye and sold to England for Navy uniforms. You could get 2 crops a season from a plant so it was a profitable crop to grow. The Winyah Indigo Society formed and its membership dues made them able to construct this building. It held a library and was the first free public school. That was back in 1757. Life was good for the Indigo growers until after the revolutionary war. They lost their primary client…the British Navy!

We stopped at the Rice Museum located in what had started as the Rice Exchange and then became the town hall with the jail located downstairs. 

Rice took over as the staple crop. There is much fresh water from streams and rivers that flow in to the low county. The tides that occur cause the freshwater to back up and flood in certain areas. The Dutch had the knowledge of building a dike around a field and using a trunk gate to allow the water level in the diked area to be raised and lowered. All this took an incredible amount of labor. And so began slavery. It was not the growing of cotton that started slavery, but rice. 

The Africans had the knowledge of growing rice and were also somewhat more resistant to malaria. So the slaves were forced to first clear out cypress swamps and build earthen dikes around the area. The labor required to complete this task has been compared to the building of pyramids. 

After the Civil War the rice market collapsed being there was no longer the workers to produce this labor-intensive product. 

This boat, or maybe I should say its remains, was also on display. It is the Browns Ferry vessel. Built in the 1700’s and sank in the 1730’s. It is thought it was set on fire by flaming arrows, as there are burn marks on areas of the remaining hull. It was discovered and raised in 1976. It is the oldest known colonial built boat discovered in the United States. The ribs of the boat are made from the curved branches of Live Oak trees.

This small boat is a replica of what it had originally looked like.

There were many artifacts found near the ferry. I thought the most interesting one was this Davis Quadrant. It can be used to navigate with. Despite being submerged for 200 years, you can still see the calibration marks on it. It worked something like this, I think. You held it out vertically toward the horizon with the sun at your back. The sun shines through a slit and you read the calibration. A pretty smart person figured this gizmo out. It’s the only Davis Quadrant ever found on a ship in the United States and was generally used for ocean travel. So it’s thought that maybe this ferry ventured down to Charleston on occasion. 

Miss Ruby was a local black schoolteacher. And nobody gave this lady any lip. Also in the museum is her infamous red paddle. It was her main form of discipline. She said the embarrassment and fear of the paddle was worse than the hurt.

She expected her students to always say please and thank you and yes ma’am and no ma’am. Bad words by students produced “the bottle”. This was Ruby’s special mix of Listerine, peroxide and water. Really foul words were met with her recipe of horseradish powder and Tabasco. Ah, the good ol’ days!!!

The museum had numerous ledger books that we could browse through. Here is a page from 1884 and the purchases made to the account. The handwriting is beautiful and would have been done with a quill pen.

Replicas of Christopher Columbus’ sailing ships, the Nina and Pinta, were tied up by the boardwalk in town. We passed them as we took a ride in our dinghy. They are only about 50 feet long. I don’t think I’d care to cross the ocean with no idea of where I was going. Maybe over the edge of the world. You can tell by the photo that there wasn’t much freeboard. We could see along the hull how a space was left at deck level so waves that would wash over could just drain out along the sides. 

WEDNESDAY MAY 12TH

We left Charleston as the sun was rising. We had a ways to go today and wanted to get an early start.

We passed Fort Sumter as we crossed the mouth of Charleston Harbor. Fort Sumter was built by the United States Army. It was fired upon by Confederate artillery in August of 1861 and The War between the States was on. 

It was warm today but there was a slight breeze. Problem was we were going with it, making it dead calm for us. Which made us easy prey for the huge, biting flies that plagued us all day. They were like gigantic horse flies, and they were indestructible. We tried any number of bug sprays we had on board. Each one only seemed to make us tastier. We finally had to break down and slather Deet on ourselves. It worked, but we felt poisoned.

I realize how ecologically important the salt marsh is but it was a long, boring ride on our way to Georgetown. The monotony of the day interrupted by Roscoe every so often when he went on a rampage with the flyswatter. At this point we had about 60 seconds to remove the carnage before those buggers revived and continued harassing us. Only too late we discovered that we left the cabin doors open while we traveled. The inside of our boat now looked like a scene from the Amityville Horror.

Ross did spot a couple of gators cruising in the water. We also started to see Bald Eagles again. 

Navigating gets a little confusing at times. Here is an example of a red marker that is a green marker for us. Notice it has a yellow square on it. Since we are traveling the ICW the square makes it a green reference for us. If you were coming in from the sea, it would mean a red for you. It just depends. Are you confused? I know I am.

Stopped for the next couple of nights at The Boat Shed. Plan to check out Georgetown tomorrow. Ross grilled lamb chops for dinner. Couscous and fresh greenbeans. Delicious!!

TUESDAY MAY 11TH

We left Beaufort early in the morning and traveled to Charleston. The sea gulls loved us. We must have been churning up something behind us that they liked because they followed us most of the day. 

We arrived at the Charleston Maritime Center for the night. Great location but very exposed to wakes and waves. We rolled next to the dock all night. 

We walked into through the historic district marveling at the beauty of the city. Our destination was a place called Poogan’s Porch for dinner.

Our walk took us past beautiful historic homes with such charm and personality I couldn’t stop taking pictures. You can see on this house there are black metal circles on the outside of the walls. Theses are earthquake bolts. They pass through the masonry walls of buildings and can be tightened to pull the walls together for stability as needed. Back in 1886 there was a massive earthquake here. It is thought to have ranged between 6.6 and 7.3 on the Richter scale. The damage and deaths was high. 

Charleston is known as The Holy City because of all the churches here. It was one of the few cities in the 13 original colonies that provided religious tolerance. As we walked along towards Poogen’s Porch we came upon three gorgeous churches. 

This one is St. Michael’s Episcopal and is the oldest church in Charleston and still active. It has survived numerous hurricanes, the earthquake and the Civil War. Despite the fighting, this church escaped unharmed! 

The French Huguenots were protestants who faced massive persecution in France because of their non-catholic beliefs. A group of them came to Charleston and built a church. Unfortunately their church has been damaged many times by hurricanes, the earthquake and the Civil War, but they have rebuilt it. 

St. Phillip’s Episcopal Church also has been damaged and repaired many times. Back in the late 1800’s a beacon was placed in it’s steeple to guide ships in the harbor.

We arrived at Poogan’s Porch for a wonderful meal. It was a pleasant evening so the windows were all open. This place is named after a dog named Poogan who wandered around the neighborhood begging and snoozing on folks’ porches. When this house was purchased and renovated, Poogan appointed himself guardian. He stayed on through the renovation and to greet guests as they came here. Poogan is buried just off of the porch.

The meal was fabulous. They brought us hot, tender, melt in your mouth biscuits fresh from the oven. Made me kinda wish the south had won the war if we could get biscuits like this back north.  

Walking back down the dock to the Oddysea we came across a Looper named “Tug”. He is doing the Loop in this 14 foot sailboat that he built himself!!!! Very nice, friendly guy. A history professor who had taken some time off to live one of his dreams. Here he is cooking his dinner over an alcohol stove. Someone had given him a couple of potatoes and 2 eggs. We brought him down some cheese to add to it and some strawberries and chocolates for dessert. He stopped at the boat after he had eaten for a visit and it was amazing to hear of his travels. 

MONDAY MAY 10TH

Our morning started with a carriage ride and a plethora of information from the driver about Beaufort. Pecos plodded along, powered we learned by his favorite treat, Sugar Pops cereal.

So here’s what we learned. Any house painted pink was a testament to the fact that you were wealthy. Reason being is pink paint wasn’t available here in the U.S.  It had to be ordered from Europe. Think I’d rather be poor and not have a pink house. 

On that same note, paint color on houses represented other things too. Note on this house the shutters and ceiling of the overhangs are painted black. Fact or fiction, I’m not sure, but according to our tour guide some sort of trauma related death happened in those house and it is believed to be haunted. Yikes!!  Good luck selling a house painted with the black trim. This house also has a double staircase. Also called “the open arms of the south”. Tradition has it that the women went up one side and the men on the other. This allowed the women to raise the huge skirts they wore and move up the stairs without any men seeing their ankles. If a man glimpsed their ankle it was expected that he should propose to her to save her now compromised reputation. Wow, have times ever changed!

These two houses are examples of “shotgun houses”. They are long and narrow with the front and rear doors aligned so the air can flow through the house for ventilation. But it was said you could fire a shotgun at one door and it would exit the other door, hence the name. 

This house was built in 1861 by Dr. Joseph Johnson. It is know as “The Castle”. He lived here for 3 months before being chased out by the Union Army who used it as a hospital. Most of the people in Beaufort left when the Union Army came in. It was know as “skedaddling”. Very few actually returned after the war to reclaim their homes. Dr. Johnson did, but had to pay over $2,000 in back taxes. The home remained in his family until 1981. This is one of the few homes in Beaufort said to be haunted. Supposedly by the ghost of a French dwarf named Gauche. Nope, I'm not making this up. When the explorer Jean Ribault came here he brought along Gauche. 

This house is knows as The Succession House. It is where the meetings were first held pertaining to South Carolina succeeding from the Union.  Which it did, being the first state to suceed. 

This house is knows as “The Party House”. At what point it became know as this, I have no idea. The guy who originally owned this house is my kind of dad! His name was Dr. John Archibald Johnson. He had 5 daughters and he didn’t like paying taxes any more than the rest of us. Property taxes at the time were based on the linear footage of the front of the house. The front of the house being where the entrance is. So he put it on the side of the house. 

Well, the guy needed every dollar he had. He put on many lavish parties and invited appropriate eligible bachelors. The lucky 5 daughters were the only women ever invited. (go Dad!)

There have been a number of movies filmed here. One was Forrest Gump. It is said that Tom Hanks seemed just a normal guy. Rode his bike around town, signed autographs and hung out at the coffee shops. On the opposite end of the movie star spectrum was when Barbara Striesand was in town filming Prince of Tides. She had the home she rented completely surrounded with a tarp screen so no one could see her. There is a Marine base in Beaufort and they train in F-18’s. Those are the same jets the Blue Angels fly. Anyway, Ms Striesand didn’t like them flying around while she was trying to film and somehow got a hold of the commanding officers private phone number. She called him and told him she wanted him to stop flying those jets around while she was filming. Being a southern gentleman he said  “yes ma’am”. Well she didn’t say anything about flying them at night! So at 2 a.m. there was a squadron of F-18’s that flew at 1000 feet over her rental house. If you’ve never experienced an F-18 flying that low the earth shakes and it feels like supersonic impending doom descending on you…..fast! (I know this from our Blue Angels experience) In the morning paper there was a public apology to the residents of Beaufort for the “inadvertent fly over” the previous night. Babs wasn’t happy and phoned the commanding officer. He politely explained to her “the noise you heard is the noise of freedom” and hung up on her. Don’t you just love it?

Ate lunch on the back patio of Luther's. 

Tipping Pecos with carrots I brought along. I’m thinking he was wishing it was Corn Pops instead of health food. 

SUNDAY MAY 9TH

HAPPY MOTHERS DAY

A clear, sunny morning. Ross returned the rental car and we were off for Beaufort, South Carolina. 

The water has become much more clear and the tidal currents have been running strong. We saw more dolphins today than I think we have total in the entire trip. They will often spot us and come over to us and race along up by the bow. We passed though one area that was filled with jellyfish. They looked like pink mushrooms floating under the surface.

Arrived at the Beaufort Downtown Marina. Got settled and decided to take a bike around to explore. 

Beaufort is a very scenic southern town established in 1711. It has one of the best natural harbors on the Atlantic coast. 

Our bike ride took us past the St. Helena’s Episcopal Church. We stopped and went in. It is a beautiful church founded in 1712 and built mostly with bricks that arrived in the U.S. as ballast in ships coming from England.  The brick wall that surrounds the cemetery and churchyard is also made of ballast bricks. The wall was used to keep wandering cattle out. 

During the Revolutionary War the British gutted the church and used it as a stables. The locals where horrified that the British would be so disrespectful of the Church of England. 

During the Civil War the church was once more gutted. The Union Army took 24 hours to take control of Beaufort, at which point it used St. Helena’s as a hospital to perform amputations. Since they didn’t have operating tables, they removed the tombstone/slabs on the crypts and laid them across pews for makeshift tables. After the war ended, the locals replaced the stones, but were not entirely certain which stone went where. I didn’t see any, but we were told that you can see slash marks on some of the stones from the amputation saws. With the total lack of sanitation and the insects, it’s amazing that anyone survived surgery. 

We don’t know which grave belong to the guy, but we read that there was doctor who was obsessed with worry about being buried alive. It did happen, especially during the yellow fever breakouts. He had a crypt built with a speaking tube so he could call out (if need be) and his friends agreed to place bread, water and an axe (so he could break his way out…..right) in the coffin with him.

We stopped downtown and purchased tickets to take a carriage ride in morning to learn more about the area.

I had phone calls from both John and Krista wishing me a happy Mothers Day. Ross and I both called our moms to wish them the same. It was a good Mothers Day, despite being away from home.

SATURDAY MAY 8TH

Up in the very wee hours of the morning to catch our flight back to Savannah. It was 33 degrees out as we drove up to the airport. We certainly don’t need it to freeze as crops are sprouting in the fields and most everything is up in my perennial gardens. 

Return flights went fine. We rented a car and headed to the boat. I don’t know if it was because we had spent several days here driving around and touring before we returned home but both of us felt like we had never been gone. 

Stopped at the Piggly Wiggly and stocked up on provisions.

The weather was a very hot 90 degrees with a dew point about the same. Not complaining…….just reporting!