It’s raining cats and dogs…..and frogs here in Carolina Beach.
The next morning as we prepare to cast off our mooring we find a little,
bright green tree frog on deck.
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| Pretty cute, but dangerous??? |
How it
got there one can only imagine. But,
since it looks amazingly similar to the poisonous tree frogs on display at the
North Carolina Aquarium, we decide it needs to go for a swim. Now frog-less, we
head down the ICW, overnighting at North Myrtle Beach and the Waccamaw River,
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| Moss draped live oaks, cypress, and remnant rice fields edge the Waccamaw River |
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| And a bald eagle soars overhead |
and
continuing on to Georgetown, South Carolina where they are holding their annual
Wooden Boat Show. It is the second largest wooden boat show on the East Coast,
and we are impressed with what is on display.
The craftsmanship in some of the recently constructed boats is
extraordinary.
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| Hard to imagine this beaut out on the water, but the owner actually does use it. |
Out on the docks we are delighted to find Gabriel, a fifty year
old wooden sloop we encountered last winter in the Bahamas. And, we are happy to announce, Gabriel won
the awards for Best of Show and Best of Class – our friends may be getting swelled
heads from the notoriety!
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| Gabriel - winner of "Best of Show" |
From Georgetown, it is a long
day’s sail on the ocean to Charleston
Harbor. We arrive at our
anchorage just off the City Marina’s Megadock and immediately begin to gawk at
the vessels tied up there. There’s a replica of Atlantic built in
2010. The original Atlantic was constructed
around 1905 and she held the trans-Atlantic crossing record until well into the
1990’s. She is at the dock for some polishing and varnish work – work we would
not enjoy as there is much varnished teak on deck including all wooden blocks
in the rigging and wooden booms and gaffs.
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| Almost 200 feet of speed and classic beauty |
Right down the dock is the 332 foot motor yacht Attasea, owned by a self-made billionaire. Several days later a
helicopter lands on one of its two helicopter pads.
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| Attasea - note the helicopter on aft deck - there is room for another on the foredeck |
We do feel pretty small
here on Exuberant, but that doesn’t detract from all the fun one can have in Charleston. We take daily
bike rides through the historic neighborhoods.
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| Cobbled streets take you past homes over 200 years old |
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| Hidden gardens become visible through an arch in the bricks walls |
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| A stately home along the Battery |
Charleston
is unique as the pre-civil war buildings have been preserved, and people
actually live in the central downtown area. One day we take the National Park
Service boat out to Fort
Sumter for a tour. The
Fort was heavily damaged during the Civil War but there has been enough
restoration to preserve its basic structure and buildings’ foundations.
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| Rows of cannons keep watch over the harbor entrance |
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| The view from Fort Sumter back towards Charleston |
Several days later we cross the harbor on a
water taxi and take a long bike ride out to Sullivan’s Island and another
historic fort, Fort
Moultrie. Forts Sumter and Moultrie, along with some
smaller batteries, guarded Charleston
Harbor from attack from the
sea. Moultrie’s origins date back to the
Revolutionary War, and it was in service through World War II. Structures and
foundations illustrate its role through almost 200 years of potential invasion
of the homeland.
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| Interior grounds of Fort Moutrie |
After touring the Fort, we need some sustenance so we stop at
Poe’s Tavern in the resort village of Sullivan’s Island
for an alfresco lunch. Poe may not have
slept there, but he was stationed at the Fort for over a year. We bicycle back
to the taxi pickup and admire the aircraft carrier, destroyer, and submarine
docked nearby at Patriot’s Point while awaiting our ride back to the central
city.
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| Aircraft carrier Yorktown with our cross harbor water taxi dwarfed in the foreground |
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| The knife edge bow of the destroyer, again dwarfed by the aircraft carrier |
Between times we enjoy meals out and happy hours with many friends who
have also found themselves in Charleston.
Leaving this wonderful city is difficult, but we have a
weather window to go out into the Atlantic and make our way to the St. Mary’s
River which forms the boarder between Georgia
and Florida. Twenty six uneventful hours later, we drop
anchor off of Cumberland Island, Georgia, spitting distance from Florida.
