10/01/2010, Charleston
Fast and French
No Cathy and I have not taken up hooking. After a lengthy walk around the battery and playing tourist, we ended at the city market, after exploring half of it we walked back to Broad St. for lunch at Fast & French. A restaurant Al and I frequented during our last stay in Charleston. It really has a French / European flair and is very reasonably priced. I am sporting my new hat found at the market. After lunch we returned to the market to finish looking around. We walked home along Wentworth St. to Knit where I scored a new book called "think out side the sox", some funky self patterning yarn. Number 2 dpns, and a counter. I skinnied out for 85 bucks. So I continue to stimulate the economy. The three boats enjoyed supper at Poogans Porch, and then had a fabulous dessert buffet back aboard Nina.
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09/29/2010, City Dock
Arrived in Charleston
We Pulled into City Marina in Charleston at 11:53 making good time from McLellanville. We made it and got settled just before the rain started heavily again. Tomorrow is looking overcast and sun on Friday. So Friday I hope to get Cathy down town to see the Market area and do a buggy ride, I'd like her to see Rainbow Row and hope to walk the battery and see the gorgeous homes. We plan to dine at 2 of our favourite Charleston restaurants before she flies home on Saturday afternoon. While we were waiting our turn to dock we hovered around and who did we spy sitting rather proudly at Anchor in the Ashley River but RUTH. It was neat to see her there moored amongst other vessels. Her colour has faded slightly but she still looks sleek. I will try to get Al to post our Picasa photos from our trip since leaving DCM. It's been an uneventful ride; so much nicer than our engine troubled journey last year on RUTH. I've been trying to make sure Cathy gets a good fill of southern FRESH shrimp. Last night's supper even had a feed of fresh sea scallops, very sweet and about the size of a 2 year olds fist. The posted photo is of Prim and Nina with the Arthur Ravenel Bridge in the background.
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09/28/2010, Leyland Marina
We waited out this rain and predicted thunderstorms in Georgetown, & left this morning for Mclenanville. The rain stoped in time for dinner time so we walked the waterfront to Portofina's a fabulous Italian restaurant here in Georgetown. I took the opportunity to make fresh bread and a key lime pie to share after dinner with our boating buddies. I have been experimenting with artisan bread making on a boat and it's easy. Check out this book Artisan Bread in five minutes a Day, Jeff Hertzberg ad Zoe Francois.
Al is chasing down new found leaks. Groan. I hope the homemade bread and pie will ease his pain.
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Calm Seas, Vicky
Your bread looks great, and the pie look yummy! I will have to try and find that book.
Jen you do wonderful on writing your blog. If any of the rest of us had to use one hand only, we would never write. Look at all the amazing things you do you put the rest of us to shame.
love Nancy
09/28/2010, Harborwalk Marina
Sunday's trip into Georgetown had us in torrential rain. But we arrived without trouble and settled into Harborwalk Marina, right down town. It is new and clean. We met up with our friends Bill & Karen and they drove us up to Pawley's Island to Quiggly's for Happy Hour. We had $2 pints from their microbrewery. I enjoyed their new blend Oktoberfest, dark and a bitter edge, just my taste. Then we each ordered a ½ price appetizer, shared it all and called that supper, which was more than ample. It consisted of a platter of Nachos, Tavern fries, (aka a heart attack waiting to happen, fries smothered in great artery clogging delights), fried green tomatoes garnished with spicy "fresh" shrimp, and hot wings. Yes all very healthy, but half of us had it covered by our Lipitor and Ramapril, so life is good.
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09/26/2010, Harborwalk Marina
To our faithful blog readers. I confess I am a bad blogger. I am trying to commit to being a better blogger. As a blog reader I know I enjoy the blogs that are updated frequently, it gives the reader a better sense of living vicariously. On reflection I concluded the reason I don't post regularly is because typing one handed is onerous and trying to type two handed is even slower going.
So I have cursory written over the past few days and as we travel at this moment down the start of the Waccama (prettiest part of the ICW) I am "slowly" typing up this post, bare with me and we'll post this tonight or when wifi permits. Fellow Canadians travelling on a PDQ write a fabulous blog, check it out at Zero to Cruising. For the knitters out there ( Barb from Nelleke, if you are reading this, you would enjoy this blogger) check out yarnharlot.ca. She is the most entertaining blog I read. I aspire to her. Another fun blog is K-doodles@blogspot. This is my fibres artistic daughter who posts randomly but a worthwhile read. Ok, I'm digressing.
Cathy & I flew back to Close Knit (CK) on Monday, Sept. 20. We have way TOO much fun. I suggested we enjoy a wine at the airport bar for our plane change. We missed overhead calls for us to board and when we got to our gate we were bussed (and mildly chastised) along with a few other stragglers to our plane. They were not impressed with our tardiness. The flight from Washington DC to Norfolk was super short. Al was there to greet us and we drove the 2 hours to Dowry Creek Marina (DCM). Cathy got the tour of DCM and she was impressed and could see why we chose to spend our summer there. We had her up early (butt crack of dawn) on Tuesday to say our goodbyes and bust DCM. The Neuse River gave us a Rock n' Roll experience to the tune of stuff flying out of the fridge, off counters, the safe went airborne in the aft cabin spewing carnage everywhere. It was like an internal hurricane, nothing was broken. Every trip and new boat has its learning curve so we already took the steps in securing the frig door. The safe gets moved to the bed each morning. We travelled to Adams Creek and anchored, made libations and I prepared a chicken and vegetable stir fry over rice and salad, t'was yummy. Cathy got to experience the serenity of an anchorage, an orange/pink sunset and the next morning dawned to a fine haze over calm water. We hoisted anchor for our second day on the water with a plan to catch up with our friends Pete and Pokey of m/v Prim. We had an uneventful day and met up with Prim at 1:15 at Caspers marina in Swansboro. Another trawler a 42 ft Grand Banks called Nina (Jim & Ginny) had hooked up with Prim. They are a nice couple from NY repositioning their life to Florida. Today was exciting for Cathy as she got to experience dolphin up close around CK, it was refreshing to see her excitement and a good reminder for us to not become so complacent to these sightings. Wednesday night I offered up supper on Prim since it is palatial compared to CK. I pulled together curried shrimp with rice, some veggies and Pete did biscuits and dessert. We busted Caspers at 7:35 on Thursday with a destination of Dockside in Wrightsville Beach, NC making a short day (28 miles) so we could ride the outgoing tide at Cape Fear. Cape Fear to St. James Plantation Marina (SJPM) was a non-event (good thing). St. James is a lovely gated community marina with spotless amenities. Cathy & I did laundry and enjoyed a beer on the bar deck while we waited for it. Ginny & Jim joined us. I invited Prim & Nina aboard CK for apps and home made pizza. Pete offered up his seldom used pizza stone since mine was really just a cracked floor tile from Lowes. Pizza and a tossed salad was shared with the ladies inside and the testosterone occupied the back deck. We made the small space work and it was a fun evening with the pizza being a hit, so much so that Pete insisted I keep his stone in the hope that pizza would be in his future. We left SJPM yesterday at 8:15 having a very long day to Osprey Marina MM 373, A lovely (highly recommended) spot with friendly clean amenities, arriving sometime after 5 pm and weary. Al was very antsy about our slip and getting fuelled up. The dock master Myles hollered to Al to not worry he'd walk him through squeaking in to get gas then moving to our slip. Al very hesitantly followed his instruction and we docked for fuel. A short back up maneuver indicated we favour starboard in reverse, after fuelling Myles boarded and instructed Al into our slip facing outwards for an easy morning exit. It is these kindnesses on the waterway that make your heart smile. Instead of bitching at us for our inexperience, Myles revelled in a "teachable moment" eager to share his expertise, and done with such graciousness. Al did a great job and I think it was a confidence booster for both of us.
We left Osprey at 9:15 this am heading to Georgetown. We may stay 2 nights since thunderstorms are predicted. This will give us a chance to hook up with our friends Bill and Karen s/v Island Moon. Tomorrow maybe lunch at Portofino's, wonderful Italian restaurant. And if the stars align for me Joyfilled Garden, the knit shop will be open for me to browse.
For the record (Snoodle time) I have been a participant on this trip doing longer stints at helming and even using the throttle (gas only) but I aspire to learning how to back up and even dock some day.
I think my sister is enjoying herself, she especially likes riding on the fly bridge. She's finding life on the water very soothing.
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Well it is good news on the Jennifer front, although she will still need to see a specialist, but that will not be for a while. She is returning to Close Knit next Monday & bringing her sister with her,who is going to come with us on the leg to Charleston SC. Prim is leaving Dowry Creek on Thursday as they have an appointment in Oriental with the Sat TV guy on friday, & then they are heading for Beaufort where they will wait for us. We will be leaving Tuesday for Oriental & then Wednesday to Beaufort to meet up with Prim & then head to Folly Beach/Charleston for a few days & then getting Cathy back on a plane for Kingston, before continuing to Florida. Since yesterdays call from Jennifer about her Sister coming I have been scrambling to get the garage (V Berth) cleaned out, ready for her visit & doing all the last minute things to get ready for our departure. The new galley reno is almost complete, all that is left to do is put on a cuboard door next to the freezer & build a sliding drawer next to the fridge, hopefully that will be done by the week end.
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