I have lots of time as I move from place to place along our route. Because the ICW channel is frequently narrow and winding, and navigating along it always requires attention, I am more-or-less in the cockpit all the time - looking at the chartplotter, looking for marks, checking the depth, looking around at the slow-passing scenery. This leaves lots of time for thinking.

I do not think deep thoughts, and it's highly unlikely that I will have some great epiphany that will change my life. They are more observations than thoughts. Here are some:

Dolphins. I've mentioned the dolphins previously. What I haven't said is that they are everywhere and lots of them. They are out in deep water, they are in the smallest creeks. They come into marinas. They pretty much ignore the boats. While always cool to see them, there are times as I motor along, see a black shape 30 ft in front of Grace, and think 'Oh no - a rock! Turn the wheel'. Or 'Oh no - a log! Turn the wheel'. But then the dark shape disappears, and I realize 'Oh, it's a dolphin...'.

Birds - especially pelicans. I really wish I knew more about birds than the dozen or so I can roughly identify. You see a wide variety as you cruise the ICW - even though my friend Gene says most have migrated south. There are different color cormorants. There are many different 'tern-like/seagull-like' birds diving down for fish. There are trees along the way with flocks of white egrets in them. There are big birds, and little birds that dart above the water. But my favorite are the pelicans - which are common. They glide long distances about 1 1/2 feet above the water, looking like prehistoric pterodactyls.

The smell of the marshes. The Carolina and Georgia ICW is lined with marshes. Sometimes, as I motor along, I can smell the marshes.

The Magenta Line. This takes some explanation. The ICW route is marked on charts, and on my chartplotter as a thin magenta line - sometimes cruising the ICW is called 'following the magenta line'. This line is quite specific - with precise turns even when in the middle of large bays. Some cruisers follow the magenta almost slavishly - I'll see a boat 200 yards to my right as I navigate using the charts, marks and depths. Then I'll see the boat go out a distance, and in the middle of nowhere, make a turn. 'Oh - he's following the magenta line'. The rub is this line was laid out decades ago, and I don't think its placement is updated very often. Channels shift and shoal. Marshes expand and shrink. The result is the line is not very accurate, and even goes over marshes. I wonder why people follow this as slavishly as some do. Charts are not always accurate, and even marks may have moved - but they are still better to follow than this line.

Anyways - since my last blog post:

The rally boats spent two nights in Beaufort SC. Beaufort is a lovely town with large oak trees covered by spanish moss lining the streets. Some of the old houses are very impressive - I will have pictures in the blog Gallery when I can upload them. I used my morning there replacing the raw water pump on my engine (and had No Problems! A First!). The afternoon I had lunch and explored the town. That evening, several of us met at a bar/restaurant for dinner.

The next day we had a short run to the Windmill Harbor Marina on Hilton Head Island. This marina is entered through a lock where they raise the boat up to the level of the water in the marina. We spent three nights there (not sure why the itinerary had three nights here). But I was able to go to the beach one afternoon (didn't swim, which I will always regret), and the second day, a bunch of us got to take small 20 ft sailboats out and race against each other. A small boat is so much fun to sail!

Saturday, we left Windmill Harbor for what was planned as a 50 statute mile/43 nautical mile run to where we were going to anchor for the night. But... In one of my early blogs, I talked about Hells Gate in New York City. Well, there is a second Hells Gate on the ICW. This one is notable because it's less than a mile long, but poorly maintained, shoals constantly, and as a result is very shallow. We arrived at it at almost exactly low tide. I and Rick on Carly decided to try it, rather than wait for the tide to rise. Carly is a catamaran and draws on 3 1/2 feet. Grace draws a little less than 4 1/2 feet (all the other boats in our group draw more). So we felt our way in, with the shallow water alarm beeping constantly and the numbers getting lower and lower, ocassionally running into the mud and backing out. (I go veerrry sloowwly, and the mud is soft). Carly made it through, and I decided to sit where I ran into the mud and wait for the tide to come up. Eventually Wally Moran - the trip organizer, found a deeper channel, and I followed him. The rest of the rally boats were able to get through in the following half-hour. And so after a long day, we all got to Kilkenny Creek, where we were anchoring, after sunset. Fortunately, this was a very nice anchorage.

Today we progressed uneventfully to another nice anchorage on the Duplin River, where I am now. Tomorrow we head to Jekyll Island.