We’ve been back in civilization for the last week – four nights in Charleston; we anchored one night – then on to Beaufort (the “Bewfort” one in South Carolina) for two nights.   Thoroughly spoiled by our friends who provided us with vehicles and local knowledge – we feel ready to set off again into the blue.

Charleston is the most amazing city (town?) – every corner you turn offers another vignette of beautiful buildings, cobbled streets, window boxes, churches – the colors and textures and history are overwhelming.   We walked and walked and walked, which was just as well because we ate and ate and ate!   There are hundreds of restaurants, cafes, and coffee bars, all tempting you in with wonderful fare.   The Charleston City Market is also a drawcard, with vendors offering everything from clothing to spices to leather goods – and lots of jewellery – great inspiration!

The brickwork all over town is wonderful – their historial society has done an amazing job

I have culled this selection of photographs, which speak for themselves, from literally hundreds that I took – it was so hard to choose!

I looked up – and down – and everything inspired me …

We finally met up with our friends Melanie and Gary Tisdale in Charleston – they have traveled from Youngstown NY and we left Annapolis a day before them.   They had been having dinghy engine trouble and Gary and Garth spent time trying to have it fixed – not possible – so had to buy a new one (ouch!).   Melanie and I explored and shopped Charleston together, such fun!  We had an excellent meal at this restaurant – I thought it was a clever name – 

They were moored at Charleston City Marina and we took the opportunity to re-visit Adix and a beautiful J-boat Huanan that was tied up there.  We chatted to the crew of Adix – they are headed off to St. Maarten.  Evidently the boat is up for sale – if they can find a buyer with $34 million!!!

The black mooring line seemed at least 3″ thick

Another beautiful sunset, a last breakfast with Ben on Tuesday morning, and we were on our way again.

We had a relaxing day travelling through South Carolina – cuts and rivers and always something to see.   We seem to have lucked out on the fauna front – caught this alligator sliding by, and always beautiful birds –

We think we remember this house from when we did this trip ten years ago – he fights a constant home-made battle to keep his bulkhead watertight – not sure that he is winning …. 

There were places of beauty and places of sadness along the way, and finally for me a shot of a dolphin!!   We joke that there is a network amongst the dolphins and they have communicated with each other than whenever that crazy lady appears with a camera they should DIVE.   But this time, I got one!

We anchored with the Tisdales in a peaceful creek; we had drinks on our boat and took photos of their boat in the sunset – Melanie obliged by taking a photo of our boat at sunrise the next morning.

They had arranged to meet up with mutual friends of ours, Wayne and Gretchen Bretsch, in Beaufort, and we were lucky enough to be able to share the wonderful hospitality that Wayne and Gretchen offered.   We were eaten alive by no-see-ums while having drinks on Wednesday night and were rescued when Simon, friend of Wayne who was down working on his boat, loaned us an oscillating fan for the cockpit.   We have all stocked up on extra bug spray after that and we bought our own fan for future attacks!   A nice walk around the town looking for a place to eat and then up until the wee hours watching the Chicago Cubs finally win the baseball World Series after 108 years!!!

We met Wayne and Gretchen for breakfast and they took us on a wonderful walking tour of historic Beaufort.   We are in Spanish Moss and Live Oak country – the magnificent trees stage the beautiful old houses perfectly.   Again – lots of pictures, and I’ll try not to share too many!

The Big Chill was filmed here (as was part of Forrest Gump) and this is the house and the field that featured.   We have to re-watch that movie!

Wayne and Gretchen live on Dataw Island and we spent the evening with them.   They took us on a golf-cart tour of the community, beautiful homes and water and golf course.   They had been badly hit by the hurricane and it was so sad to see the piles of debris accumulated along the roadside waiting to be removed.   Huge trees with 30″ circumstances, all reduced to logs in a pile.   This is now more than three weeks afterwards; the community is still digging out.   One of the photos shows concrete pilings that were just pushed over like matchsticks; a boat that had sunk was forlorn on the shore – no resurrection for her I don’t think.

Another wonderful meal – another wonderful sunset – and we are ready for the next leg.   Heading off today to Hilton Head to meet up with more friends.

My sister Bev commented that this all seems too good to be true – surely there must be something that isn’t perfect – humidity? mosquitos? stinky toilet? …. no stinky toilet so far (thank goodness!), but we’ve had our share of bugs and humidity.   We have been extremely lucky so far with weather and conditions – I guess our time will come.   But we’re not holding our breath!!