Sunday arrival in Brunswick

Somehow the toothache didn't keep me awake too much, but it came back with a vengeance during the day. However I must be a lucky boy as when Vince explained my plight to the lady dishing out the diesel she said, 'you're in luck that's the dentist surgery right there' 50 yards away was the local dentist surgery , I will be waiting on his steps first thing Monday morning.

Saturday

Our last day before arriving in Brunswick and I woke up with a raging toothache, pain killers and alcohol have kept at bay. Hopefully I will get some sleep tonight and I can sort something out in Brunswick we when arrive.

An exciting day.

Morning passed by uneventfully , we are once again into isolated country, marshlands, tall reads and few signs of life apart from the occasional boat. Water had very shallow water through one short cut between two rivers. The cut is called hells gate, when the depth got to 2.8 feet I reversed out pronto. We should be aground when it says 3.8 ish, however with a very muddy bottom it's difficult to say what constitutes aground. Next try wasn't much different but we gently pushed through on idle and thankfully we made it. Alongside us was a mud bank, in the middle was a little powerboat firmly ground , in the back was a young girl with a large bright red umbrellas acting as a sunshade , in the front was who I assumed was Dad, probably explaining how it was normal to go aground and wait for the next tide. 

 Big bright orange butterflies were everywhere , here is a photo.

With there wings open they are much more colourful, I'm thinking they could be monach butterflies on there way to Mexico , can't check right now as have no internet.

  

I noticed  that we had a bit of steam coming through with exhaust. Are we getting hot? The engine note had also changed, things didn't sound right.  A quick check on temperate revealed we were definitely over heating and no cooling water was being shot out the back . Quickly dropped anchor and cut engine. A quick bit of investigation revealed that the water strainer was not blocked but no water was getting through the sea cock. A bent coat hanger came to the rescue and this popped out.

A couple of reeds were jamed in the sea cock blocking it.  We set off again to our anchorage but it was obvious the situation had not been completely resolved, once safely anchored  we cleaned every thing again, blew out all the pipe work and even replaced the water pump impeller . This time the engine sounded good. A sweet note.

Beaufort to Savanah

After much deliberation we decide to do this legion in the sea. Opportunities to do this don't offer themselves as much as you might think. There are lots of inlets from the sea to ICW but not that many that can take a sailboat with 5 foot draft . Motor boats zoom in and out but we can't.

 Not a great deal of wind but my god it's good to be out in the sea , what sweet relief. Dolphins everywhere and big orange turtles too. I am certain I saw a spout of water than in my opinion could have only come from a whale. 

 Back inland up the Savanha river and the knotty problem of which marina to chose comes up, indecsion abounds but finally we find ourselves , more through luck than judgement, at the municipal dock. An exerlent place as it is right in the centre of town and cost us nothing. Officially we should have gone and found a nearby car park attendant to give our money too. Well we arrived late and did a runner in the morning, helped ourselves to some of the electric power overnight, I told Vince not to as it would be dishonest!

 Savanah is a fine town, built its fortune on exporting cotten all over the world, the center is attractive with beautifully squares , the water front gentrified docklands.

Dolphins and the River Ouse

It's difficult trace our journey with a yellow line through a yellow land but maybe you can get an idea of the country side we travel through. Upstream then through a small cut to another river system and down stream, then up a different river. Most of the countryside today was pretty remote. A frequent site were dolphins, with the motor on, as it was all day, they tended to keep their  distance but they were there all day.

One of the cuts went by the name of the Ashepoo Coosaw cutoff and it reminded me vividly of Norfolk , it could have easily been The Ouse on its way from the Wash to Kings Lynn, or maybe the north Norfolk Coast near Brancaster.  It was very shallow and it took quite a while to pick our way through the muddy water , at one point the depth registered 3.3 feet which meant the keel was well in the mud, but thank goodness it was quite easy to push through it.

  Now in Beaufort, and worth a visit.

North Myrtle Beach - 10/10 - 346 miles
The weather forecast still said 15-20 knots but it would decrease so we finally left Swan Point and headed South. Still gray clouds everywhere. We looked like we were sailing in the UK. Here's Phil, I looked worse with my old foul weather gear and a wooly hat.

Oops the flag's missing.

We pulled into the the Myrtle Beach Yacht Club and Marina at around 5:30pm in part because we would have had to wait on the opening of another bridge. The marina staff was really helpful. I normally resist upsell but he was good so we included electricity at the berth and a rental car for an hour ($9). It was coming up to 6 pm when the office would close and I asked about what if I don't get back in an hour and he said "I won't be here so I won't know when, just put the keys through the door". We then asked about visiting Myrtle Beach. Well I felt I couldn't go past such a famous resort without taking a look. Turns out despite the name of the marina we were in North Myrtle Beach and it was 22 miles to Myrtle Beach. So we drove there and walked along the boardwalk before the sun set (the beach faces East so sunsets aren't a factor).We talked about vacation when we were kids back in the Age of Steam. No kidding, for me vacations were either a day trip on a Bank Holiday to Weston Super Mare or a week long vacation to Weymouth. We traveled by steam train, not dissimilar to Hogwarts Express without the wizarding. It had compartments, and windows that you opened by pulling on a leather strap with half a dozen holes in it, you set the height of the window by which hole went over the pin. When you got the window open you waited for a curve in the track so that you could see the engine pulling the train. It always ended with some soot getting in your eye, which of course your mother had warned you about.
We returned the car after an hour (cough, cough) and were so hungry we ate on the boat. We thought that would be fastest.

Arachnid Surprise (Phil tells me I have put subjects to all my posts)

Parts of my life are just needlessly silly, here's one. OK, maybe I obsess over recycling.
I take the garbage up to dump it but being a conscientious citizen (wet liberal, pick your designation) I first extract the plastic and the bottles and put them in the recycling bins. Then I dump the bag with the rest into the big skip. Now the fact that the skip was green, had the traditional recycle symbol and had a strange long thin slot should have made me think, and it did. The only problem was that the thought occurs about a split second after I'd released the bag into the skip. This is not uncommon with me and I presume that it happens to everyone but I could be wrong. Anyway, I feel guilty and decide to open the side panel to see I can retrieve the bag. It doesn't budge. At this point I could have given up with a reasonably clear conscience, but I don't. I move to the rear to try to shift that. There's a spider's web covering it, and I think "sorry little spider but I have to open this". It also doesn't budge. I give the first panel one more try and then see the "little spider".  OMG. So I went back to the boat and got a tape measure because frankly you're not going to believe me are you? I put the measure carefully up against the web. It turns out I don't have to be careful,as big ass spiders like this stand there ground, presumably saying things like "You wanna piece of me? Bring it on". OK, I tried, guilt expunged, garbage goes to the cardboard recycling.

Spider below and remember the tape is in front. It's actually bigger than the tape measure says.
This ain't Itsy Bitsy.