Charleston. Again

     We are back in Charleston again. Northbound. Last year we just stopped for one night but this year we have to stay for two and a half weeks. Carol has to go off to work.

     We are about two weeks ahead of the time we arrived last year but after the work stop we will be back on plan for a mid-May arrival to our home waters. Two weeks is a long time in the spring. The cruisers are mostly still well south of us and the warm weather is there, too. We've had some days since Fort Pierce that started off in the very low 50s. Yuck.

     From Ft. Pierce we had mostly good days, stopping at some off our usual places for overnight anchoring. Eau Gallie, New Smyrna, Saint Augustine and just over the border of our home waters (according to the insurance company), the St John's River. The last stop in Florida is where the weather took a turn for the worse. Very windy with thunder-storms for three days.

     We spent two nights in St. Auggie expecting to meet up with friends there but it all fell through. Still, we saw a re-enactment of the preparations for a battle between the Spanish (heros) and English (pirates) in the 1600s. BTW: the English won.

     From the St John's we had a very rough trip to a new stop, St. Mary's, Georgia. It's just over the Florida border and is a cute tourist town. It's mostly a base for the Cumberland Island National Park which is about seven miles away. Having our own boat we anchored off of the island and explored some of the park. Beautiful. We had some very up-close encounters with the wild horses we only saw from a distance last year when going by here. We latched onto a tour to learn about the history of the island and then did our own hiking. The beach is amazing.

     The other interesting things are once into Georgia we started getting the gnats we met last year (awful) and also started hearing the spring birds we used to hear when we were in Connecticut in the early spring (nice). Farther south we mostly see sea birds like pelicans, cranes, gulls, etc. Not much in the way of singing birds.

     We stopped at a couple of obscure anchorages in Georgia then in Thunderbolt (near Savannah) and Beaufort. From there a quick jaunt to Charleston.

     Other observations... we are seeing a lot more dolphin this year and when we were leaving Hilton Head I saw a pair of Bald Eagles. Carol couldn't be bothered to get up to look at them. We're getting too jaded. Okay, maybe the cat sleeping on her was a factor.