Todd got up early Saturday morning, October 4th, to meet his new friend Joe for the local bass fishing tournament. However, unbeknownst to Joe they had canceled the tournament so he and Todd spent the morning fishing just for the fun of it. They returned about 1:30 and the Captain was ready for a nap! But first we walked to Berni's for a late lunch and sampled the bacon and Gouda spinach cakes, which were very good, and then returned to the boat for Todd's nap.
Joe poses with two the three fish he caught. Unfortunately, the Captain came home empty-handed.
"Life's2Short" at the public dock in Conway.
Saturday evening we went to Copper's again and had a few drinks before returning to the boat to finish our lunch leftovers from Berni's. Sunday afternoon we went for a walk to explore more of the town and ended up walking 17 blocks to the local IGA before returning to the boat. Along the way, we saw many of the town's oldest residents - massive live oaks draped with Spanish moss, the largest of which has a circumference of over 21 feet!
Todd got up early again Monday morning and walked across the bridge to get some photos of the river and "Life's2Short" from a distance. We left the dock about 10:00 a.m. and arrived at our anchorage in Thoroughfare Creek four hours later. Along the way we passed Tim & Sue aboard "HuckleBerry" and did a mid-river book exchange! They were headed to Conway to spend about a week so we told them to be sure and try the spinach cakes at Berni's.
Shortly after we dropped anchor in Thoroughfare Creek, a small pleasure boat pulled up to the sand bank. The man was totally naked and the woman was topless! They didn't seem at all concerned that we were there and proceeded to set up chairs on the beach where they enjoyed communing with Mother Nature for several hours. The Captain couldn't put down the binoculars long enough to pick up the camera, so no naked photos - sorry!
We had planned to go to John's house for dinner Monday evening but the dinghy motor didn't want to start. John stopped by with some ether and Todd was able to get it started but it always died within seconds. John picked us up at noon on Tuesday and towed the dinghy to his house. We still didn't have any luck getting it to run and decided it was probably a bad fuel pump. So we just kicked back on John's front porch and enjoyed the scenery.
John with his lap dog Hap.
John prepared his "Sandy Island Special" late that afternoon, which was most excellent, and towed the dinghy back to "Life's2Short." He then took us on a tour of some of the smaller creeks branching off from Thoroughfare before returning us to "Life's2Short" about dark. We had a great time and very much appreciated John's hospitality!
We left Thoroughfare Creek Wednesday morning and made it to the Boat Shed Marina ($1.40 per foot, per night) in Georgetown a couple of hours later. Georgetown is a quaint little town with several historic homes and a nicely developed harborwalk. We stopped in at Buzz's Roost for a drink where we met a sailboater named Bill. Todd started talking about how wonderful the Exumas were and got Bill all psyched about going! Bill even got out his laptop and pulled up our blog to check out our photos and read about some of our experiences.
Georgetown is the home of many local shrimpers.
A view of Georgetown's harborwalk.
On the way back to the boat we stopped at the local seafood market to buy some fresh shrimp and crab meat. A little later we walked back in to town for dinner at the Goat Island Grill, one of half a dozen or so restaurants along Front Street. Todd ordered the shrimp and grits (his new favorite dish!) and I had the lobster ravioli. Both were quite good!
We took off before 8:00 a.m. on Thursday to take advantage of the falling tide and travelled nearly 50 miles to Whiteside Creek. We had good current almost the entire way and were anchored by 1:30 that afternoon. It was a cloudy day with some showers, but all-in-all, a good day to travel. It was a breezy afternoon and there were thunderstorm warnings and watches in the area, but most of it stayed to our north and west. We did get some fairly heavy rain between 4:00 and 6:00 p.m. but, thankfully, no storms. After the rain ended the sun tried to peek out and Todd took some beautiful early evening photos.
We arrived at the Charleston Maritime Center before noon on Friday and about 2:30 the rain moved in again. By 4:00 p.m. it was just drizzling, so we ventured out and spent a few hours walking around town in intermittent rain, stopping in at LaHacienda and the Noisy Oyster for drinks, before wandering in to the Mad River Bar & Grille where we grabbed a bite to eat and watched the Phillies beat the Dodgers with Joe, a Phillies fan from Philadelphia who was in town on business.
Saturday started out gloomy and stayed that way with rain off and on throughout the day. I did a couple of loads of laundry at the Maritime Center (one washer, one dryer - no cost) while the Captain changed the oil in the generator. Then we made a trip to Harris Teeter to restock a few items before walking back in to town about 6:30 for dinner.
Afternoon traffic in Charleston harbor.
Tractor tugs turn the container ships around so they can head out to sea.
Our dinner destination was Hyman's Seafood restaurant located at 215 Meeting Street. Hyman's was voted the #1 seafood restaurant in the southeast nine years in a row by a Southern Living magazine survey so we figured we needed to check it out. We had planned to go there a few weeks ago when we were here but always found a reason not to. In the backs of our minds, we were both thinking it was just too touristy and couldn't possibly be as good as it was touted to be, so even though we had finally decided to go, we were lukewarm about it.
Well, we discovered that the hype is warranted! The Captain had some magnificent oysters on-the-half-shell as an appetizer and then ordered the sauteed mussels, scampi style, for dinner. I had a fried combination of flounder, scallops and shrimp and it was all most excellent. Todd loved their hush puppies and said they were almost like eating dessert! And for those who typically do not order their food fried, you should make an exception at Hyman's. The breading was light and tasty, complementing the seafood rather than overpowering it, and everything was cooked perfectly.
A short while after we were seated, we were approached by a very nice gentleman named Rusty who turned out to be Hyman's good will ambassador and public relations representative. Rusty basically works the crowd, meeting and greeting the customers and making sure they are happy with their meals. We had a very nice chat with Rusty and even had our picture taken with him (using his camera), but Rusty hasn't e-mailed it to us yet so we'll have to include it as part of our next blog update. As for Hyman's, having been there we are now compelled to agree that: "Going to Charleston and not eating at Hyman's is like going to Paris and not seeing the Eiffel Tower." If you're ever in Charleston, put it on you list of things to do and tell Rusty we said hello!
Today is Sunday, October 12th, and the weather is not improving. It is still very windy and gloomy with rain in the area. And naturally, the wind is out of the northeast so the boat is see-sawing in the rough water. With both the current and the wind pushing us against the dock, we will have to wait until early this afternoon when the tide changes to pull off. Hopefully the tidal current will overpower the wind!
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