Fog

Can ypu see the 3 boats behind us?

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Happy bithday Gareth

And happy Thanksgiving to all. The fog rolled in last night so we will stay here until it lifts.
Last night we we woken up by some kind of vessel I have never seen before. It had lots of spotlights and ground its way along the edge of the shore while three men stood near the bow with long Tridents. Catfish or alligator? Maybe. They disappeared into the night.

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Pictures

Full moon

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When its good.

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Red bird creek

Passed Kathy's new bargain boat. Now literally up a creek. Absolutely still at mile 606.8. Rum and apple cider time.

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Birds at dawn

6:15 am. Woken by 16 zillion black. Birds. All those little dots all around and on our neither.

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Past Charleston SC

Now at. 32 37.135N. 080 23.755W
Cut and paste in Google. It has been a long day. Full moon low tide, current against us, bad and missing marks. One eye on the debth, one on the GPS chart, one on the route in real space and one on the chartpack chart. You do the math. 50 more miles done.

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Ancor circles

I hope you can see this. This a gps picture of the track of the boat last night on the anchor. The center of the circles is the anchor. Usually the whole night goesbby and all you see is the boat staying in one area like the upper right. Some movement but generally little. Here we see the boat going completely around the anchor. This is what happens when the current goes one way strongly while the wind goes the opposite way.

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Wacamah river, South Carolina

Now anchored in the lee of Butler Island. Winds gusting to 25...30.

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FineArtAmerica.com

Good Morning Friends and Interested Strangers,
We have been in the water for two weeks now and finally there is t-shirt weather.  The trip down from Norfolk VA has been cold and rainy and also terrific in that we have again met fun and fascinating people along the way.  (I hope to tell you about Capt. Kal and Brian one of these days.)  We've had many boat systems fixed and are still waiting to find an autohelm before I will go offshore.  Lew would risk it but I am far more reluctant.  This means we zig-zag through the marshes of Georgia again, to get to Fernandina FL.
 
We're on the dock at Barefoot Marina near Myrtle Beach SC, heading for Georgetown and hopefully a shrimp dinner tonight.  This morning it is 66 degrees in the galley - up to now it has been more like 52 every morning.  We finally took the arctic comforter off our bed last night.  So, as usual, this is not the dream vacation so many land lubbers insist on believing it is.

Just before we left home in October, I joined FineArtAmerica.com as Florence Bramley Hill, submitting five of my Bahamas paintings as prints for anyone interested.  I expect to add more images about every six months.  It is an exciting development, going public in such a high tech way. I haven't figured out how to include photos here, yet, but the works on FAA are some of the favorites from shows I've had in New Jersey.
 
There was an epiphany of sorts when I realized I have met a personal artistic aspiration that began on Bequia in 1978.  That's when I was inspired by the spirit in the work of Nora Birmingham.  The Bahamas works certainly marry my training and her love of life.  If you know of Nora's works, it would be fun to correspond!
 
So, in a few minutes we're off.  It is raining a little now but at least it isn't cold!
Cheers to all,
Florrie

Mile hammock bay

34 33.13N. 074 19.51W
GOOGLE EARTH. snug as a bug.

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Jonny on the spot

If you can read this.

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Florrie

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Day after my birthday

Woke up early because our neighbors started their generator at 7:15. Got up to find Florrie bundled up writing. As you can see, it is a little chilly this morning. I can see my breath in the cabin. I now understand what my father went thru stoking up the coal furnace on a winter day. Did I say it was cold this morning?

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Dismal swamp weather

Marine Weather by Bluefin

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Dismal swamp

ZWe left at 8 and just missed the 11 opening of the lock at north end of the dismal swamp...deep creek. Anchored and were the only boat going thru at 1:30. There are at least 15 boats ahead of us at the visitors center and it began to rain so we went to the dock at the lock. It looks like it may rain the rest of today and tomorrow so we may stay here for awhile. It gets to be like a log jam . Noone leaves Elizabeth City, so noone leaves the visitor's center so we stay here. But we are well protected from any weather and the lock master has invited us for coffee and danish at 8AM tomorrow along with the other 3 boats that are here. We will run the generator for awhile for the refridgerator so we can also turn on the heater and warm up the place before bed.

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End of day

We are at port comfort and anchored in the lee for the night. Thought you might want to see where we were this morning.

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Off the hard....please

We are still on the hard in Norfolk. Gotta love Cobbs's Marina in Little Creek. "Should" splash today but it is blowing so hard that we may not be able to get off the dock.
Had lots of stuff done: New escape hatch, drained and new fuel, filters, some fiberglass work done, put everything away. One bolt for the trampoline ($31.00, go figure) cleaned out the water tanks, new bottom paint, dinghy repaired (hopefully) new cutlass bearings, installed a line cutter for those crab pots, Florrie has been cleaning "like a Trojan" and getting all the supplies organized and lots of other details I can't remember right now. Gonna be an expensive bill.
With lots of luck we might be in the dismal swamp tomorrow or the next day...just in time for the rain that's acoming. It has gotten really cold here. This is not a problem while on the hard as we have electricity for the heater. However, once we leave we may stay bundled up for several days.
We still need to bleed the engines and get more fuel before we leave and (if it arrives today) install the new eye bolt for the trampoline. Other than that, we are set to be on our way. IF THE CREEK DON'T RISE.