SV-Baila: South Carolina

Charleston, SC

11/11/16

Brad

One thing we've learned about the Southeast US Coast is that there is a whole lot of current. Like a 'move your boat sideways' kind of current. My family might say I'm most fun and relaxed when we make our way along a marina fairway (the narrow passageway between groups of docked boats usually much more expensive than ours) to a slip or fuel dock amidst one of these currents. Imagine parking your car at Trader Joe's. Now imagine that the only spot is between a Ferrari and a Porche (it's Trader Joe's). Complicating this is ice on the pavement combined with a strong unseen force pushing you towards the Ferrari. You have to steer more towards the Porche while taking care not to hit it. This is what it's like (without the cars, ice, and mysterious force). To counter this current you must point the bow into the current but off it enough to maintain forward motion. And along we go, our boat at a forty-five degree angle proceeding diagonally down the fairway. You might say, "hey moron- why you don't just go at slack current when all you have to deal with is the wind?" My answer: "Huh. Yeah, that's a good idea." Anyway, we're getting used to it but it can be pretty tricky.

The trip from Wrightsville Beach was breathtaking. Deciding to stay "inside" (ICW and not Atlantic) we enjoyed the winding Waccamaw River as it took us meandering past submerged cyprus forests and tidal marshes. We anchored in Bull Creek and were amazed to find thirty feet depths in such a small body of water. We were eyes-peeled for alligators as we "hunted" along the shoreline in our dinghy, to no avail. But the bald eagles and osprey provided ample entertainment as Lynn made her now-famous black bean soup. A national wildlife refuge, it was barren and devoid of obvious human presence. Except of course for that group of local teenagers in several john boats that rolled in around dusk to shoot guns on the beach. It felt like a marinized version of Deliverance.

And by the way there are no Trader Joe's here. It's all about Piggly-Wiggly's and Harris Teeter.

Also, "here" is Charleston, SC. It's awesome. What a neat place- so much history. And currents. But first there was Bald Head Island. And here is Lynn to write about that. After all, she was the driving force behind us going there.

Lynn

Brad consults weather apps and social media navigation aids like Active Captain, while I read the Atlantic ICW Waterway Guide and Skipper Bob's Anchorages and Marinas to help determine where we stop for a night or a few days. When I read about the "pristine beauty" of Bald Head Island - a side trip just 2 miles off the ICW - I was lobbying hard to go there. We loved the beaches and dunes of Cape Lookout and Bald Head promised that plus maritime forests, a turtle conservatory and a quaint town. Without any space in the harbor to anchor, we tied up at the marina and promptly rented bicycles to explore the island. We cycled through the maritime forest of oak, pine and palm trees, stopping to check out the post office (so cute!), lighthouse (closed for climbing), the turtle conservatory (closed, but unlocked) and Frying Pan Shoals beach (wide and empty). Our exercise-induced euphoria made everything seem all the more perfect. Anna would like us to retire here so she can come to visit us frequently. Izzy was enamored by the use of golf carts instead of regular vehicles. Avery was psyched to be back on an "attached bike" like the one we left behind in Swarthmore. And Brad has started asking me where we are going next.

Avery

We went to a plantation today and we made candles. Also I made a friend named Molly. She's my age and I taught her how to rainbow loom. I had a playdate on our boat and we also got to play at the fountain that one day. We played "protector leaves" and "bouncy ball" there. Oh and the fountain was a wishing-well fountain.

Izzy :)

Sorry for all the random stuff you are about to read!

Hey guys! We are in Charleston now! It's rainy, windy, and cold! What a beautiful day! The marina that we are docked at is really cool. I like being at marina's better than at anchor because you can just hop off the boat and find the marina store, pools, bathrooms and the laundry rooms where there are little libraries and people leave books that they don't want anymore. We just showered and mom cut my hair. The bathrooms are really nice. They remind me of home because the shower tiles are white and the doors are glass, like my parents bathroom. We did laundry and met a couple who were dying their hair there! On the first day that we were here Avery and I went up to the store and got free popsicles! Thats why we like it here. I'm kidding! Kind of! We went to plantations for 2 days. Anna says I cant write about that because she is writing about that. This morning we went outside and saw dolphins . They were beautiful! I LOVE DOLPHINS! Avery is having a sneezing fit and Anna is doing school now.

Anna

Before I start I would first like to apologize for the massive amount of pictures my Dad uploaded.

Today we went to a rice plantation and yesterday, a cotton plantation. Both plantations were very large, but comparing the two would be like comparing an elephant to a horse. The McLeod (pronounced Mic Loud) Plantation's main crop was Sea Island Cotton. It can grow up to eight feet tall, a big difference compared to the three-ish feet of regular cotton. This plantation was not as wealthy as the Middleton Place Plantation, so on the drive to the front of the house (changed to the back of the house around 1920) slave quarters lined the road. This was a way of showing off wealth: the more slave quarters you had, the more wealthy you seemed. Back then, having slave quarters at all was a big deal. The Middleton Place Plantation is HUGE! With gardens lining the main entrance, it was so well known how incredibly wealthy the Middleton family was that they did not need to show off their slave quarters to visitors and guests like other plantation owners.

The architecture is what interests me the most, and these plantations have lots! The Middleton Place Plantation does not look like a regular plantation. There are no marble pillars in the front, no big windows overlooking the fields, and no back porches with cozy looking rocking chairs to oversee the slaves. At Middleton Place Plantation, the main house, which the Middleton family lived in November - April (it gets REALLY hot and buggy the rest of the year) is a Dutch design, and is a beautiful brick house lined with ivy on one side -it's really pretty! I will throw in a picture of both Plantation main houses, and be sure to google the Middleton Plantation butterfly ponds!

The Middleton Place Plantation (left) and the McLeod plantation (right)

Brad again

Also, in case you think that moving aboard a sailboat and pointing the bow south equates to the complete divorce from daily woes and worries amidst a tropical tapestry of margaritas, calamari and palm trees- nope. Here's today's reality: it's freezing, gray, windy and raining (though we can't complain.. this is in fact the first rain since the hurricane). Thoughts about provisioning, supplies and weather are omnipresent. A few days ago one of our pumps that handles the waste (that means poop) broke which I needed to fix by getting down and dirty. That was a positive feel-good family moment; at one point I just kept repeating "this is not good" (with several other spectacularly foul words) as I heaved up our mattress to access the leaking pump and ran past the girls carrying the pooped out poop-pump. What we're finding is that every day life and its challenges came along on the trip too. And this is what differentiates this from just a really long vacation (also the fact that I'm currently unemployed-- that kind of also means it's not a vacation). I guess we're just learning how to incorporate the daily 'stuff' into the greater awesomeness of where we are. Things that would be a nidus of stress at home just kind of arise and are dealt with so we can get back to what we're really here for. And that's a lesson I hope we incorporate into our future land based lives, even without the palm trees and dolphins. Ok that's it. My margarita and tapas are ready.

Good internet connection= Brad going nuts uploading pictures

(also, apparently the videos do not show up on iPhones.. seems to work ok on desktop)

Stopping off in Barefoot, NC. This was actually a fairly chilly day. We were the only ones swimming in the nicest pool we've ever seen. Some locals joked that only 'yanks' would consider that day warm enough to swim.

Lynn and Avery find a pool and a duscuzzi

This is on Bald Head Island, NC. Lynn is showing the girls how to film with her iPhone while riding a bike without a helmet. We are firmly grounded in teaching by example.

The beaches on Bald Head Island are pristine! We saw a loggerhead (sea turtle) nest which was pretty neat.

This is what happens when you don't have enough quarters for a second dry cycle in the marina laundry.

A nice open and calm anchorage with our friends in the background. It has been nice to have a buddy boat.

One morning Isabelle asked to make a video with Avery. Preoccupied making breakfast we just handed over the camera. I'm super-proud of their video showing what you SHOULD ABSOLUTELY NOT DO on a boat from a safety standpoint. I mean, I'm sure that's what they were going for here. (Yes, we talked about this with them and they've agreed to eliminate boat gymnastic floor routines this year).

A long line of slave cabins at McLeod Plantation outside of Charleston. These small units each housed up to thirteen people. It's mind boggling to see this stuff up close. I think it made a huge impression on the girls to hear that enslaved africans were put to work by age three.

We're seeing increasingly more hurricane damage. This guy had the cheapest shrimp yet.

Anchored off Georgetown, SC . Neat little town and we enjoyed touring the Rice Museum! It was interesting to learn about the massive rice industry that once thrived in this area. Along the surrounding waterways, centuries-old remnants of defunct irrigation systems are still visible!

School seems to be going better. Lots of challenges remain, however! Math and science are the easiest to "teach" where the more subjective subjects like language arts are more challenging for us to stay on top of.

Avery at a typical day in kindergarten.

There are porpoises all over these tidal marsh cuts. They are so neat to watch as they herd fish onto the mud banks and thrash about in the shallows collecting their catch. But, it's become such a distraction during school (the girls drop their books, run to the bow to watch for the next twenty minutes) that we have largely stopped telling them when we spot them. The other day Anna was doing math with a porpoise frolicking approximately 50 yards away. Kind of funny that porpoises have become our schoolyard distraction.

All Lynn's doing.

The girls had fun chasing this ghost crab around-- VERY fast critters!

The girls with their friend exploring the beach near our anchorage in SC.

A juvenile ghost crab. It proved to be a good ring for Anna.

Exploring the beach with some new friends

Here are some porpoises going up this tiny tidal creek where we were anchored. Izzy and I hopped in the dinghy and followed them in. We could see them up ahead but then became concerned they'd feel trapped, become the anti-Flipper and sink us. So, we let them be but it was amazing to see these large marine mammals swimming up tiny little cuts. That said, the depth was no less than twenty feet right up to the banks!

This is at Fort Sumter off on Charleston. Here the girls examine an actual rifled mortar shot by the Union forces at the defending Confederates.

The girls check out the beautiful front of McLeod Plantation

This is a very old bell up in a very old tree that was used to call slaves in from the fields. Crazy, huh?

"Angel Oak" located just south of Charleston. This tree is approximately four hundred years old! It felt like that massive tree in "Avatar." These "Live-Oaks" are all around here and line the old main drives of the plantations.

The Spanish Moss here is ubiquitous and gorgeous. Sorry to continue with the Avatar comparison but I'm certain that the little alien spirit things floating around the big tree in the movie were simply some future outer space subtype of Spanish Moss.