Category: South Carolina

Charleston

by  on  in Destinations, South Carolina, Sunny days • 0 Comments

We’re way behind on blogging (obviously), but it’s been an interesting month or two.  As of writing this, the boat is sitting in the Erie Canal due to lock closures: https://wwwapps.canals.ny.gov/news/notices/ntm.aspx?id=567 and we jetted to Cleveland then South Carolina.  Caitie’s sister is visiting for the July 1st/4th week, and the girls are running off to Charleston this morning for a quick getaway.

 

Ahhh Charleston – the unfortunate location for a very recent/disappointing/heart-wrenching shooting event, is still one of our favourite cities.  Since the girls are going, I figured the least I could do was post the photos from our LAST Charleston visit…wayyyyy back in May.

 

Checking out the parks in North Charleston

Checking out the parks in North Charleston

FountainSelfie

FountainSelfie

ESpanish Moss

ESpanish Moss

Park Cafe for happy hour # 1

Park Cafe for happy hour # 1

#smorgasboard

#smorgasboard

LEONS Oysters AKA Happy hour 2

LEONS Oysters AKA Happy hour 2

Tuesday night jazz @ the Black Sheep in Mt. Pleasant

Tuesday night jazz @ the Black Sheep in Mt. Pleasant

I'm sure this is some sort of historical building. Caitie looks cute.

I’m sure this is some sort of historical building. Caitie looks cute.

Day 2 Happy hour part 1

Day 2 Happy hour part 1

Happy hour asian style

Happy hour asian style

Budweisers are CHEEP

Budweisers are CHEEP

$2 bucks a pop!

$2 bucks a pop!

Folly beach pier

Folly beach pier

OK, I'm definitely going surfing tomorrow

OK, I’m definitely going surfing tomorrow

Merry Xmas! It’s almost 2015…

by  on  in Boat Projects, Boat Work, Florida, ICW, South Carolina • 0 Comments

Soooooooo….We stashed the boat at Titusville Municipal Marina (Florida), and went back to South Carolina for Christmas.  It was a quick jaunt back, and honestly we didn’t really shoot any photos while we were there.  Oh well.  We were too focused on kickin’ it old school with my brother and cousins Annie and Mickey…Been way too long…

On our last day, we decided to make a sign representing all the places that people had traveled from/called home.  It was fun!  Everyone took their own creative liberties.  Here’s to adding more signs to the list in the future 😉

Xmas SIgn

Now we’re back on the boat and tackling projects (12v fans, solar panels, toilet seat hinges, mast boots, jerrican holders, etc. etc.).  We’re slowly checking them off the list.

p.s. I received a GoPro for Christmas (thanks Grandpa!), and this is the first video/test.  Caitie says I need to up the “wow factor”.  I suppose that’s reasonable feedback.

What we’re thankful for

by  on  in Deep thoughts, Destinations, OpTrop, South Carolina, Sunny days • 0 Comments

Thanksgiving…what is there to say that hasn’t been said?  It’s a time to celebrate the awesomeness of family while devouring endless food and beverages, throwing around the ol’ pigskin, and making regular runs to Wal-Mart for festive tablecloths.  Ahhhhh…

This time ’round it’s especially nice to come to the lake house in South Carolina.  After being on the water for two months (just the two of us), it’s nice to spend some time on dry land, spending time with family (and getting some time to just CHILL)!

Always a welcome sight

Always a welcome sight!

 

What’s the first thing we* do?  Go out for a sail.  WTF, right?

*”we” actually just refers to Mark and Walter*

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The Hunter 28 responds well to a light breeze and had us ripping around the lake for the afternoon.  When we got back, for the first time ever, we docked completely under sail!  It was fun, but the look on our faces says a lot :)

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Good QT with pops :)

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The actual Thanksgiving day/meal was awesome as well, though most meals are awesome when you start with an afternoon Bloody Mary bar hehe….

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All in all, Thanksgiving was a major success.  We still have a day or two to hang out, but I don’t think we ever wanna leave!  We need to remember the beaches in our (hopefully not-so-distant) future.

THANKSGIVING SUCCESS!!!

THANKSGIVING SUCCESS!!!

SHRIMP N GRITS

by  on  in Destinations, Rainy Days, Sitting at anchor, South Carolina • 0 Comments

WE MADE IT TO CHARLESTON!

After waiting out one day of torrential rain in an anchorage near the Isle of Palms, we decided to brave the fog and head into town (also, our meal morale was plummeting quickly with our empty pantry).  We headed out around 7am and were unsure if we would be able to make it through the lift bridges, potentially busy harbor and shallow areas* with such low visibility, but luckily for us it cleared just enough to help us through.

*we waited for the full 6ft high tide to transit this stretch of the ICW, and still only had a few feet of water under the keel at spots.  We’re getting so used to this shallow water business that a 12 foot depth is now considered “big water” for us.

We didn’t get any shots of the Charleston Harbor, but it looked something like this:

(ok not quite that bad, but definitely not much better)

After a challenging high-current docking (Mark is killin’ it lately with the tricky docking scenarios), we celebrated finally making it to CHARLESTON – culinary capitol of the south, and our temporary boat home for the American Thanksgiving week.  We borrowed our beautiful marina’s courtesy car and checked out the downtown strip on King St (which we LOVED), complete with a proper Southern meal of Chicken Biscuit, Ribs, Collared Greens, Hush Puppies, and other fried delicious things.

Blurry/happy photo.

And it was WARM!  Since I knew it was going to rain, I wore my foulie jacket, which led to many stares, since everyone else was dressed like a casual fall day in the South.  Which means a light layer over your tshirt?!  Let’s hope this may be the end of the Arctic Explorer phase of our blog photos…

Now we’re excited to spend some time with Mark’s family in South Carolina, eat lots of Thanksgiving food, use modern plumbing exclusively, and catch up on all of the internet (and friends/fam) we’ve been missing lately.

PS the following two pics are not from Charleston at all, but we had to get at least one dolphin shot in, and I had been pretty crabby lately due to the weather, so it felt appropriate.

H.O.V.A.

 

So CLOSE to Charleston, we can almost taste it.

by  on  in ICW, Rainy Days, Sitting at anchor, South Carolina • 0 Comments

We are within striking distance of Charleston!  (oh yeah, PS we made it to South Carolina two days ago).  The weather is shite, and so we spent today sitting on the hook as it poured and poured rain all day.  We made a conscious effort not to get too waterlogged at the expense of our sanity – honestly we really wanted to make it to Charleston today, but it just wasn’t in the cards.

Seriously, more rain??

Seriously, more rain??

We used the weather as an excuse to try to get our “non-functioning” natural gas oven working.  Through a stroke of genius (and a pair of vice-grips), Mark managed to get the pilot light on, and started the oven after less than 10 minutes of battle – why didn’t we try this two weeks ago?!?!

We whipped together some cornbread muffins in the afternoon.  It was the PERFECT excuse to use the jalapeno/tabasco/habanero peppers we picked from the planters at Masonboro Yacht club a few days prior (thanks David and Kevin!).

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If the weather forecast pans out, CHARLESTON, we’ll see YOU tomorrow.