S/V Good Morning Vietnam: South Carolina and changing our plans

It's me (Susan) again.

Thought I'd explain why we're are switching gears. We had planned on spending the summer leisurely cruising up the ICW along the east coast. We thought we'd be at anchor sometimes and at cute little marinas sometimes. We hoped to explore little towns and ride our bikes. We knew it would be mostly motoring and precious little sailing, but what we didn't know was how nerve wracking it would be. It's shallow. It's narrow. The tides are incredible. The current can be overwhelming. The channel is not always marked. There are places with incredible boat traffic. There are places with so much junk at the bottom you're likely to foul your anchor and have to have a diver retrieve it or lose it entirely. There is also some beautiful scenery and it can be quiet and peaceful. But you must always be 100% on duty when at the wheel. This contributed to our decision to put the boat in dry storage ("on the hard" for you salty souls) and get a truck and travel trailer. As Sharon Gober put it so succinctly. "Know what a 30 foot tide does to a motor home? Nothing!" We're just as excited about the next adventure as we are about the one we're in today.

After much research we found a place (read cheap) in Deltaville, Va who will haul Good Morning Vietnam out, pressure wash the bottom, block her and store her on land for as long as we want (and pay for, of course). What could possibly go wrong? Having never done it before I'm sure we have a lot to learn.

So our immediate plan is to get up there. We anchored in Winyah Bay (near Georgetown, SC) Friday night after a 10 hour trip from Charleston and did a 14 hour trip to Cape Fear on Saturday. There is a cold front approaching so we wanted to be in a marina, which we are now. We're in Southport, NC at least for a few days until the weather passes through. Then onward and upward again toward the Chesapeake. We know we're missing some cool stuff along the way but hope to catch some of it next fall on our way back south.

Plan is now to travel trailer this summer and boat back to the Bahamas for the winter. Man we sound like the jet set. Too bad we don't have the budget to do it right.

We spent a few days in Charleston and enjoyed it immensely. We were able to meet up and have dinner with some of my close friends, David and Becky Baird. They had some other friends who had just gotten in to our marina as well so we met Steve and Ruthie on Water Lily. What a beautiful city. It ranks right up there on our list of favorite cities visited. It may have even been at the top, until we stopped in Southport, NC. But more on that later. Below are pictures from Charleston.

Home along the Battery

Rumor has it that homes were taxed based on street frontage. Many of the historic homes in Charleston are like this. The house is narrow and very deep. The door on the street puts you on the street level porch, not inside the home.