Down to Dixie

It's been so long I had too check what my last "riveting" news was.

So... out of Oriental and the 4 hour trip down Adams Creek to Beaufort (pronounced Bofut in North Carolina ) where one of our singer/guitarist mates, Jeb,  from Eleuthera is the dock master at the city marina in the summer months, that's him in the middle, and we had a couple of free days dockside to hang out and jam with some of his buddies round town. Just right while waiting for the perfect weather that was forecast to head south. As you know ,I'm not one to whinge...even though my (ex) friend Big John had the hide to call me a curmudgeon recently...where was I? Right...we jumped out for a perfect 10 to 15 NE down to Wrightsville Beach which arrived for the last half hour after a pleasant MOTOR on a lovely sunny and windless day. A couple of relaxing days there while a wet and windy cold front passed through and we  jumped out ,yet again, to catch the westerly that was going to clock round to NW by the afternoon and blow us down to Florida.....even though there were largish swells coming from Hurricane Gonzalo about 200 or so miles East.

There he is.

Well we got over the Frying Pan Shoals and the wind stayed west so we thought we'd head straight for Charleston as we were pointing sort of at the Bahamas and the chop was getting annoying. By nightfall it was the same so I/we said *&#! this we'll overnight to Winyah Bay and get inside and stay there. So after bashing into it all  night we arrived on a cold but sunny morning ,committed to the comfort of the ICW. Charleston the next morning. Lovely old town.

Lots of elegant old homes, thanks to the sweat of slaves of course, and great art galleries and

Graveyards

And Pirates firing their (weenie ) cannons at anyone game to walk across the park.

Another bouncy night at anchor as the Canadians through down another cold front at us.

Nothing personal I'm sure.

Some of our goodest friends are Canadian.

A calm and sunny chug down the ICW and anchored in a piece of river that looked like we were in the middle of a huge lake. We checked the chart later and found out it was called Moonlight Bay..

As we were showering in the cockpit a bunch of dolphins came swimming round the boat......perverts. They kept hanging around so I got the ol' penny whistle out and gave 'em a bit of a hornpipe.

and four of them definitely popped their heads up for a look.......honest.

Next morning ....down to Beaufort South Carolina (pronounced Bewfort ) where we had lunch with our old mates from Oriental Joe and Cherie.

Shame the waitress told Joe he had to pay the bill if she took a photo of us!

They took a photo of the graceful  Jabiru coming through the bridge when we arrived.

Still haven't figured why vertical photos come out on their side.

Have a lie down for a moment.

Anyway y'all know when you're in the south when Halloween's coming up.

And Beaufort is a nice ol' southern town too. Old plantation owners houses Spanish moss dripping from the ol' Oak trees.... but it's on  to Savannah Georgia ,where we'd never had time to stop before. We stayed at a marina past the Savannah River and caught the local bus the 10 miles or so to old downtown area. Once again ,a beautiful old city full of antebellum houses built around a whole lot of squares. They only got to be surviving buildings because Jackson (I think )decided to present the town to Pres. Lincoln as a present after he routed the rebels.

We toured the town (because of limited time ) like genuine old pensioners......on the tourist trolley. Unlike most of our fellow passengers though we were so enthralled we......forgot to get the camera out. Never mind. If you want a look I'm sure there's plenty of sites to Google

There was the Peanut shop with a line of ol' gals stuffing their faces with the samples!

And the Pohlice station with the yellow cab rear end.

Cab sir? Ha....gotcha.

Anyway,the weather was still glorious and St Augustine ,Florida was only an overnight sail away,so we cancelled our commitment to the inside and popped out for an easy cruise and we are in this fascinating place. The oldest continuously occupied European settlement in North America .Lots of old buildings going way back but not as far back when Ponce de Leone found the place back in 1513ish. Chris Columbus ,of course , only found the Caribbean islands and thought he was off India  Ponce found the mainland or at least Florida. He was quite exited about finding the Fountain of Youth which we sampled of course.

Didn't work.

 Maybe it was Amerigo Vespucci that found the rest. This is all from memory of course . I don't have access to my notes at present. All the same , St Augustine is an amazing town with a very interesting history from "Indians " to Spanish to French to English and back to Spanish then to the United States and so on . there's even pirates still around........on genuine 17th century segue's














. Anyway Howard and Barbara drove up from Daytona for a visit and we caught an imitation Aussie Didgeridooing with a genuine pirate dawg.

Speaking of pirates ( there's a lot round here ) we witnessed a small pirate boat attacking a large one just off our mooring. There was a lot of cannon fire and then a lot of yelling.....then a boarding and by this time we had the binoculars out and witnessed a flogging  .......and .....evrythang.

 

                       Gondola ! What Gondola ? They don't have Gondolas in St. Augustine.
Just happened to be strolling around and there was a couple of 'ol mates of ours ,Jim and Bentley off Salty Paws , doing their Sea Shanty thing outside the Starving Artist gallery and restaurant.
                                             What could I do but whip out me whistle.

 Bill (Raynor) in Hale Kai caught up and a couple of days later Bill and Gail drove up from St Petersburg and then it was time to get going south. That just happened to be the coldest day on record for this time of year and we wore 3 layers of everything and 2 pairs of gloves as we battled through 25 to 35 knots of cold front. We'd been wearing T's and shorts the day before. I can feel the sympathy through the ether........ Well we made it to Daytona beach and pulled up for a couple of days visiting with Howard and Barbara ,but that's going to have to be next time cos I'm running out of time ......and patience.....and I've got to sort photos out so ................