Nov 19 - Back on the Waterway

November 16-19th
Just a quick update -- we're back on the ICW! We had to take a 12 day break while we opened up our Sarasota home and got some business done. We found a great place to tie up the boat -- Osprey Marina near Myrtle Beach, SC. We highly recommend this protected and inexpensive marina if you need to leave your boat for a while on the ICW.


On Friday November 16th we drove a rental car from Sarasota back to Myrtle Beach, SC and arrived at our boat about 9pm with fresh food and clean clothes. As we started down the ICW we saw this sign on someone's lawn-- almost half way!

One of our biggest surprises as we saw the USA at 10 mph was the plethora of waterfront real estate in North and South Carolina. We were amazed by the number of newly built -- and often empty and for sale -- homes along the waterway like these ones. We actually began to worry more about the news of the mortgage crisis and housing bust of 2007!

We were delighted to be welcomed to the warmer southern waters with many dolphin sightings-- they often swam in front of the boat and sometimes they swam along with us for quite a way.




When the dolphins weren't making waves the water was so calm that the sky was perfectly reflected in the water-- what a picture!


What a difference from the bouncy water in Long Island Sound and the Chesapeake. For the last few days the

waterway has been flat calm and winding through flat salt marshes.

We've anchored out for a couple of nights but stayed in Georgetown, SC on Saturday night to celebrate our wedding anniversary-- what a lovely town! The main street was one of the nicest we have seen-- a long street of distinctive shops and restaurants bordered by the harbor and lovely historical homes on canopy streets. Our marina was right downtown and while I was washing off the salt from the boat Marianne walked downtown and discovered the Goat Island Grille on Front Street --- a perfect spot for a romantic dinner since we began our cruise from our own Goat Island in Newport!

Tonight we crossed the state line into Georgia and dropped anchor in the Herb River-- getting closer to Florida!