The Adventure Continues

 Sunday night we could see a McDonalds from our anchorage.  We had been craving it since we got to Kure Beach so we hoped in our dinghy and ordered 5 burgers and ten chicken nuggets!  Our dinghy is pretty easy to deploy and use now that we have the dinghy davits and the engine is mounted.  So much nicer than lifting it on and off the deck.

Sunday night I also fixed our engine problems.  Here you can see the leak at our stuffing box.  It was pretty steady, now it only drips slightly which is normal.  I was also able to replace one of the four driveshaft bolts as ofcourse the other three I got at a different hardware store were the wrong size.

We awoke Monday and it was pouring raining.  We still felt like we could use some more rest so we layed in bed all day.  One day of no work, errands, or tasks.  Just relaxing!

Tuesday we were up bright and early and continued on our journey.  We made it to South Carolina!  We anchored in New River just pass the state border.  So close that when we dinghy up the river to Calabash, we were back in North Carolina.  Here are some pics along the way. As you can see Christine discovered the black and white setting. 

Coming down the Cape Fear River we really got moving.  The current was in our favor and we broke all speed records.  We normally cruise between 6 and 8 mph, here you can see we were in the tens!

After we anchored we decided to explore the near by town of Calabash.  It was basically and mall of seafood restaurants, most were closed.  We did find a fast food type seafood joint called the Seafood Shack and got a styrofoam cup full of shrimp for $5 as a shrimp cocktail. Yum

On the dinghy ride back it was dark and we saw the lights of a huge boat coming our way down the ICW.  We a little frightened that it was gonna turn down our anchorage and take us out so we hit full throttle to get back to the boat.  Our boats anchor light was on and we carry and bright stern light on the dinghy as well but we still wanted to get home fast.   Luckily it kept going down the ICW and away from us.  In the morning we saw it parked, it was a casino boat!

It rained again Wednesday morning so we slept in a little before starting the day. The day warmed up and we were finally feeling like we were down south.  We both took off our winter coats with a huge smile!

Wednesday we made it to Georgetown, SC.  There is a near by papermill that was workin hard.

Georgetown by moonlight

We went into town to again find most shops closed.  We decided to take advantage of the dollar beer night at Buzzs Roost.  It was the first cold beer we had in 2011 and justifiably priced!  We played a bar game they had on the tvs that was pretty fun.  It was a live trivia game and we had game pad and played against other bar patrons here and at other bars. We guessed a lot but ended up getting the high score for the month of January, I just missed getting a pic of our name as the top score on the bar tv.

The rest of the town had a lot of signs about how it was built in the 1700s.

Thursday was really boring.  We went through mostly man made canals that were 9 feet deep with 50 feet on each side of us.  It was sunny so we hung some clothes out to dry.  And we made some french fries. Exciting!

The tide is so low that it doesn’t even reach the piers.

We anchored just out side of Charleston in a little creek before the Ben Sawyer bridge.  While in the cockpit at night I heard and sorta saw an aligator!  It made snarling sneeze noise and I could see its mass and then it went under water.  Almost like a whale would do.  It was about 20 feet on the side of our boat! It did it again even longer the second time but I couldn’t see it well.  I quickly grabbed the cats that were hanging off the side looking at the water and locked them inside and grabbed the spot light.  I waited for the gator to return but it never did.  It was a lil creepy.

It was between our boat and the bushes.

We are at Mile Marker 461 out of 1090.  Including the Chesapeake Bay we are about half way there!