So Much Time...so many thoughts...

There is nothing like time on your hands to help you really think about the reality of things. That life is as fluid as the water we cruise, (good, huh?)
We are realizing that if we keep cruising the way we are, up and down the eastern seaboard, we will be busily moving the boat 4-6 months out of every year. We are finding the business of moving to be somewhat boring. The destinations are great, but to be in a hurry to beat autumn/keep up with spring to be too much for one twelve month time period. We have also resigned ourselves to the fact that we are just not up for long distance passages.
So we are looking to lessen the area we cruise. And came up with England! Since our boat is already listed for sale in several places (you all knew that, did you?), we thought why not go ahead and really try to sell her, buy another boat in England and cruise the canals for a while. If that goes well, France too. If Chelonidae does not sell, we simply carry on here and try to see what have missed here, maybe do the Great Circle, via some of the Great Lakes to Chicago then through the Mighty Mississip'.
The moment this idea occred to us was when Jim said, *Whew!* this job would be a lot quicker and easier if we had an RV! And damn it, it would be! You see places differenlty by water, and it's not always easy in North America...people are really fussy about cruisers landing thier dingies on public beaches. Municiple Park staff tell you to get lost. Hmmph! Can be tricky to be constantly beating the tides and currents. Since Britain is on our must-see list, we think that this would be a good time to embark on the proceedings.
So...Boat For Sale! Good, sea-going, wooden hulled Hillyard, Perkins 4-108 deisel, "Lady Driven". Hull rebuilt in 2004. Interior rebuilt for live aboard couple. Sails and gear included. Galley features Force-10 range and cabin heater. Asking $25,998 Cdn. Reply to jameslambton@hotmail.com

Don't think I'm not weepy-eyed at this, she's a good old girl and wants only to keep her owners safe and dry. And floating.

Charleston

Blue Jays, Red Cardinals and Mourning Doves. Iced tea, iced epresso and iced vodka-slushies. 2 year olds, 20 year olds and 200 year olds saying a polite hello together. Live oaks draped with Spanish moss, gorgeous mansions draped with cast-iron marvels and gays draped with the most styish, tasteful clothing you could peel off a paint pallette. I have never seen such diversity in a town! There are all segments of society here, all ages in great numbers and every architectural idea ever produced. Except maybe the sky-scraper!

In order to see some of the really big shacks here, google Tourism Charleston and feast your eyes...I coudn't do them justice! These shots are of the scenes that appealed to me, but also that appeared through the cloudy skies, I had a hard time getting any decent light. So you have an interior shot of the Post Office, two courtyards and one colassal, round brick church. Amazing!

The house pictured at the very top details what most older homes here have: a piazza leading off the length of each story. From the very wealthy mansion owners to the less opulent homes of the middle class, families and their "staff" would sleep more comfortably outdoors in the mean Charleston heat.

But never mind, we had a great time in this perpetual garden. This rose is really a red and white rose. The Amaryllises are really amaryllises, and some other spring bloom that I didn't get the name of. Comment if you can help out!

Ahh, The Pink Ladies of Charleston!

I never did find out why this was such a popular shade of house-paint. Perhaps the pigment was indigenous to the area. But I'm sure it dates back to the Loyalist days, when Lowcountry families were moving to the Bahamas to escape Confederacy, 'cuz many Bahamians have also chosen this rather pretty shade. These are only a few of the Pink Mansions and houses.

Beaufort, SC

Still writing from Charleston, but writing about what we saw in Beaufort, SC.

First of all, there are two Beaufort's, one in North Carolina, one in South Carolina.

Southern hospitality is still alive and well here, we have met such sweet people it's wonder that political scene here is so...so...ucky! Why are the sweet people not running for office?

We met a volunteer in a museum who told us that The South is just starting to get over the whole Revolution and Civil War, just starting to heal. The lifestyle difference between North and South is very apparent. It is so relaxed here, even the young folks look you in the eye and give you a "Good Mornin'".

The run into the area was a long, flat one, just like Florida and Georgia, a few taller trees that looked like they might be hills, but weren't. We must pay attention to the tides in order to get optimum cruising speed, which is fairly straight forward. If we get it wrong, it feels like we're going through sponge! You can feel the reversing tide shove you back in some places. We've crossed all the inlets now, and were just starting to fell competant at this whole ICW thing, when we got fogged-in in the middle of crosing Port Royal Sound, a huge inlet with big scary ships and stuff. Our chart plotter got us in OK, but we kept pace with another boat ahead for radar-advantage. Fog! we are still hitting winter weather! And the cold fronts keep coming! It was 10F in the cabin yesterday morning!

Will tell you about charming, beautiful, stately Charleston tomorrow (I could get used to staying-at-a-Marina-thing)

St. Augustine, Florida

I am writing this in a marina (!!!) in Charleston, SC. Haven't seen even half of Charleston, so I will write about it tomorrow, after our horse-drawn carriage tour. So although it is backtracking, but I must tell you about St. Augustine, a pretty little town.

You see some spanish influence here and there in the U.S., but St. Augustine has kept it real. The spanish had a life here, they grew crops, defended their territory, spun their yarns, baked their bread, raised more little Spaniards. The held this place for good while until they had to cede it the British, just before the Revolution, ten, of course, it became part of The Union. The boast of St. Augustine is that it is the oldest, continuously occupied city in America. The first photo is of Fort Matanzas. Incidentally, the new photo on the header is taken just off Fort Matanzas, you can almost get an idea of the expansive view the Spanish soldiers had. We got closed in by a weird rain sqall before I could take some better pix, oh well. The building material is called Coquina, cut out of sedimented shell and sand stone, its properties include being cannon-ball proof! The enemy called off the only attack ever launched here because they could see the balls going in, but couldn't see any damage baing done. Cool stuff!

A man called Flagler decided, in about 1920, to make a resort town out of St. Augustine. All the edifice pictures are of his hotels, except the church. He kept the Spanish theme, which you just don't see that often. Contrary to America's desire to keep up appearances of total victory, Flagler, in his way, said, Yes. This is indeed our heritage, and we should be proud of it!

If you ever come here, you will find tourist traps, but also the authentic feel of the times.

The lighthouse is truly amazing! The original house produced light with a huge fire at the top of a tower. This house was built around 1890, using brick, cast iron and wood. It's not often we get to tour these beauties all the way to the top, most are regulated the Coast Guard (I think) and will not permit the public to climb the stairs. This one was saved from demolition by a local group, and in order to do so, they had to agree to keep it open for public tours. The resulting facility and grounds are quite nice. The pictures include the staircase, shot from the bottom, and the beautiful Class 4 Fresnel lens, a real work of art. The light itself went from kerosine to electric bulb in 1930, click on the photo of the lens above for a great (if I do say so!) sight of the bulb. Some of the excerpts from the Lightkeeper's Log include storms, hurricanes, a vandal shooting and breaking part of the lens (bastards!) and an earthquake that had the poor man thinking he was going to die! He must have thought, "Geez! Is this how I am thanked for lugging kerosine by bucket up all these stairs for all these years?"And of course the view from the top made the 217 steps worth the effort! The stairs, being cast-iron, are the see-through kind and give the climber a sense of vertigo. Then you had to step out onto the observation walk-way, which was maybe 5 feet wide and surrounded by a waist-high bar. I found it easier to walk around the deck at the Empire State Building! The beauty of the craftsmanship was lovely to see!

Georgia

Between the no-see-'ems, thunderstorms and chilly breezes, we did manage to see some sights in Georgia. We managed to get here just as another late-season cold front passed through. The above shots were taken in the town of St. Mary's, the second oldest settlement on the seaboard. We didn't see as much spanish influence here as we did in St. Augustine, Florida, only what remains of the old Georgian style architechture. The story of this town is the same as what we have been finding all over North America: the pretty, charming, old part of the town is accessable by water, but not the amenities like grocery shopping, propane, hardware etc. A few towns will have some amenities somewhere within a mile or two walk, the rest have theirs stashed away on highways in box store compounds, where you take your life in your hands just by being a pedestrian. So I have learned that when groceries are available to really stock up! So we buy things by the case: beer (duh!), wine (save 10% on top of sale price!), canned goods (save 7%) and produce. Unopened cheese lasts for two weeks! So we are ready for just about anything! Like being socked in due to weather. It decided to blow an extra 10 knots today, so rather than getting our toupees blown off, we threw the anchor down outside of Jeckyll Island and called it an early day. I just made a fresh batch of salsa, so we,re tucking into our daily appetizer a bit early. It's too windy to row ashore, so we'll camp out for the evening. Thank the Marina downriver for the unsecured wi-fi! Hopefully in the morning, we'll tour Jeckyll, summerhome spot for Vanderbuilts, Carnagies and other hot-shot richies! And another pretty, charming town. Maybe we'll find a fishmonger to sell us some shrimpies for lunch, then it's off to motor to the end of the next run. Run, run run!