Sunny South Carolina!

I shouldn't say this but it was almost worth sitting through a hurricane to have this glorious weather.  One day after another of blue skies, mild breeze and cooler nights.  We have been cruising along doing 30-40 mile days and enjoying quiet anchorages.

                                                                                                                               

This was our quiet night at Bird Island which is on the very south side of North Carolina.

 Along the way, we have passed through areas that had the double whammy of hurricane force winds followed by horrific river flooding as the waters poured down from inland Carolina.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 On 10/27, we chose to get an earlier start to the day knowing we would pass through some shallow areas that we need extra water to pass so we had to time our day by the high tide.  We entered an area badly flooded and followed the No Wake zone for 10 miles of slow gliding so as not to push more water into people's yards.  We could see the water had risen several feet into the first level of the homes positioned lower toward the water, leaving them with stinky river water and mud to clean up.

I empathized with the owners of many of these homes, remembering our own cleaning out process after the Nashville 2010 flood.  We covered a bit under 40 miles in 6 hours because of the flood and also shallow areas that require slow going.  We stopped at a new anchorage for us, Cow House Creek.  Just the name deserved a look into the creek!  But we also chose it because it is right across from the country club where my niece was married 2 years ago.  We decided it would be fun to walk the grounds but of course it was all fenced off so we had to be happy with neighborhood walking in the afternoon and next morning.

This ship appears to be permanently on anchor just at the entrance to our creek anchorage.  Al liked the fact that is has a black, daytime anchorage ball which is rare to see.  We have one and get all kinds of questions as to what it is used for.  Guess that means it is not an effective communication tool to inform other boaters that we are on anchor.                                                                                                                                                                           

                                                             

Right up in that sunny grassy spot is where Becky and Jackson were married and now they are expecting my first grand niece!  Yeah! 

Look at the glassy water in Cow House Creek; it couldn't be more lovely!

On we went, stopping in Minim Creek to enjoy another quiet night.  It was chilly so we went inside early.

And just popped our heads out to see the sunset and snap a photo only to be attacked by tiny gnats! 

And look at what the boat looked like in the morning! This shot is looking down from the flybridge to the mid-deck behind the dingy at a pile of dead and half dead gnats.

And this gives you an idea of what every surface looked like on the boat!  We are still finding a few here and there despite thorough cleaning.

And as always, we can find those anchorages with a nearby beach to walk and explore.  This is Bull Island on Saturday 10/29.   

We were here last May in Price Creek which is an inlet between Bull and Capers Islands.  Capers Island is the location of the "Bone Yard" which I blogged about already.  This time we just walked on Bull both in the afternoon at low tide and again on Sunday morning at high tide.  The beach on Bull goes on forever and has only a handful of visitors this time of year.

This is looking out at the inlet to the Atlantic.

This is looking out across our anchorage creek lined with marsh grass that looked like a prairie field. 

Leaving here was hard; I could live on our boat in this spot for a long time!  But we did leave and cruised 14 more miles to a marina in Mount Pleasant which is across the river from Charleston.  Time to stop for 2 nights, do laundry and hit up Publix to restock! Oh and clean the decks again to wash off more dead bugs! Hope you all had a Happy Halloween!