Myrtle Beach to Beaufort, South Carolina

Before I start my blog I would like to say a big thank-you to everyone who offered sympathy, condolences or sent cards on the deaths of our fathers just before Christmas. To lose one parent was terrible but both was overwhelming and has taken its toll on both of us. We are on the mend but have these two beloved parents in our thoughts everyday.
I would also like to say a big thank-you to my dear neighbors, Doris and Michele for watching over the house for us, watering my plants and collecting the mail. You are the best neighbors anyone could wish for. I would also like to thank my dearest friend, Linda for taking care of Molly for me. We do not now have to worry about her falling overboard and that is a great worry off my mind.
OK, so on with the blog. We are now in Beaufort, South Carolina after leaving the boat for 6 weeks at Myrtle Beach whilst we went home to Pasadena, California and England. The boat started without a problem and off we went. After a beautiful day motoring we moored at a marina in Georgetown, South Carolina. The evening was warm and bright so we decided to take a look at this historic old town. There were several old buildings dating back to the early 1800s one of which was the court house. The court house was built in 1823-24 by Robert Mills, the same man who designed the Washington Monument in Washington, DC.

 There were several streets with lovely old homes on them. What was surprising was the deciduous magnolia and daffodils were in bloom on the 2nd of February. In Maryland, these would not be flowering until April.

 Whilst on our walk we passed a mural painted on the side of the wall. It was of a row of shops and very well done as you can see by the photo.

I thought the next photo was interesting with the sunlight shining through the fountain's droplets of water.

The next day was lovely. the temperature was in the 70s and very little wind making for a great day
on the water. We passed four piers that had gulls on them. There must have been a 1,000 gulls on them.

 Later, I got really excited. I spotted something in the water I had not seen before. Out of the cabin I ran with my camera and waited until we got closer to the bird, dolphin, alligator or whatever and lo and behold it was a stupid crab trap. Anyway, I took its photo just because it made me laugh at myself for getting excited over nothing.

Last night we anchored in a creek off the main intracoastal waterway. We edged our way in slowly keeping an eye on the depth finder and anchored in 10 feet of water. The next morning the tide and wind had blown us closer to the bank. No problem we thought. The problem was the engines would not start so we had to clear the space above the engines for Gary to do some electrical work to get the engines turning over. Lucky for us, whatever Gary did worked as the engines turned over and started, thank goodness. Had they not started we would have to have called a company called Boat US for a jump start or even worse a tow. We were miles from anywhere so it would have taken them quite a while to get to us.
Today was sunny but very cold. It was in the 40s outside and 50s inside. Our generator still is not working so last night we snuggled under a blanket, bedspread and fleece sheets to keep warm. We were quite warm and slept fine. When we finally got going we passed a sand bar close to where we entered the creek last night. It we had hit that we would have been stuck for quite a while.

We passed a tug today with lots of birds following it. It must have been churning up the water and fish for the birds to catch.

Well, I think this is enough for one day or should I say night.