WAITING IN BEAUFORT, A VISIT TO CHARLESTON

Wednesday November 19th

For all our friends shoveling out in Michigan and all points north rest assured we do have cold days here. In fact yesterday we took a open horse drawn carriage ride through Charleston then took a car ride through the light show on James island, windows open. It was 26 degrees.... no snow.

We are doing quite well. The reverse cycle air is heating our boat and we are comfortable, a world of difference from last year. Tom is staying busy going through his 'to do" list. The shower sump pump is working an we have a new macerator pump for the front bathroom. We are still waiting for our "new canvas project" to start... latest estimate is still the first of December. Meanwhile it is suppose to be back in the 70s by Thursday  

The Crew of Monarch arrived in Charleston and we spent the day with Diane, Grant and Dan. Even roasted marshmallows over a fire. 

I will report more as we move closer to leaving.

Laura and Tom

CHT

Live oak with moss 

this is the style of carriage we rode in. Our horse was a Percheron
named Facebook

I loved the wrought iron balconies on this house

this home was built in the 30's it was so clean

the gates on the churches and homes are works of art

from the light show

Morehead City and beyond

With a 32 hour weather window and an aversion to the ICW round Camp Lejune we dared the Atlantic. Weather was suppose to be SW winds 10 to 15 with 2' seas. I think it was like that for about 15 minutes. We could not sail unless tacking back and forth and with our weather window shrinking we just motored. The wind was straight out of the south, waves southwest - steadily increased to 3' 4'. We had a rolling, rocking, roll-splat, roll ride. We arrived at Wrightsville Beach after dark... bummer... The channel is marked but sandbars shift and are marked with can buoys. The wind switched from the NW we motored towards the beach and dropped anchor. The night we spent is now in my top 5 of miserable nights. With the sun we realized how close to the ROCK jetty and beach we dropped anchor.
We pulled up anchor and went in the channel, dropping anchor to reorganize, get coffee and breakfast, planning for the rest of the day. We were inside, I made some chicken soup to cook all day in our shuttle chef and Tom started us out with our goal being Myrtle beach. ALL WAS WELL.
I decided to make some Scones and was just putting in the second batch where I noticed smoke ... panic... I quickly turned off the oven, thinking I was the one setting fire to our boat. Smoke is pouring out from around the sink and stairs, I start yelling at Tom, engine way overheated..... We are adrift in 45' of water with a shredded fan belt.
Good news we have an extra and Tom changed it in record time, we also found that a bolt was the cause of the shredding, and a antifreeze water line had broken. It took about an hour and we both needed to chill,Tom wanted to get another Fan belt or two. We went to Southport and spent the day. Tom made additional checks and walk to town getting fan belts.
Leaving Southport we made Barefoot marina in North Myrtle Beach and COLD weather. We stayed the weekend. Today we was a cool sunny trip down the river, no drama. Two more days and we will be in Beaufort, SC.

Pancakes and sausage, rolling in the Atlantic

latest completed Knitting project 

Dinner at the Brick Oven in North Myrtle Beach

Dinner in North Myrtle Beach

Fireworks in Barefoot Landing

Could not believe the fender on this tug

Warship going into Morehead City 

sunrise on the Atlantic

Aircraft carrier off Camp Lejune 

This is just silly, had to be higher than anyone else
'Top of the world ma"

Buzzards sunning themselves , had to be over 25 with more
arriving