Nov 7, Saturday. Again today it was sunny with temps starting at 50 and hitting 60 at one point. We still are wearing winter clothing behind the helm during the 50's however. There were white herons, ducks of all kinds, unknown sea birds galore, and the dolphins playing their games around our boat. The homes and landscapes with green grass, flowering bushes and waterfront piers were beautiful along the ICW. We watched a sailboat that was on hard, REAL HARD, tried to be towed by TowBoatUS with no success. We have no idea how the boat could have gotten into the shoal so far. We had five bridges today, two that opened on the hour. We missed that hour opening on both by five or ten minutes. That really slowed us up today. After running out of daylight, we anchored in Snow's Cut, just across from Orton Point, south of Carolina Beach Inlet, NC. It crosses Cape Fear. There is a bridge in Charlestown that we are trying to get to before they close for construction for a week on November 11th. A big paddleboat all lite up just passed us playing music. It looks like it might be a casino cruiser. People along the ICW do a lot of fishing, with boats or without. This would be a great place to be a child with shallow water vessels. There are so many marshes, inlets and places to explore, and the wildlife is fantastic.
Nov 8, Sunday. Just a beautiful day in North Carolina. We are just a few miles away from Little River, South Carolina anchored in a little cove off the ICW. Our journey today along the ICW was just a fraction of a mile away from the Atlantic - at times the two joined. The homes were back to back on the ICW and Atlantic. The area is really beautiful. We managed to make the one bridge at opening time today. It was a pontoon bridge at Sunset Beach, the last one remaining on the Atlantic. Zero clearance. I guess there is local interest in preserving it. They decorate it at Christmas time. However, a new high level bridge is under construction. Lots of activity on the ICW today, fishing and pleasure power boats, jetskis, and kids playing on the beaches. We travel with familiar boats, all of us heading to a warmer climat. Tomorrow we must get another early start and get some miles in again in an effort to get to the Charleston bridge before the 11th.
Nov 9, Monday. Left the anchorage at 6:30 am proceeding back into ICW. The current caught us, drifted us sideways onto a sidebar, grounded again. We spent 20 minutes kegging off and went on our way toward Georgetown. However, around noon we discovered the alternator was not functioning. We called Hague Marina, the oldest marina on the ICW (and it looked it) and they had a mechanic available to look at our problem. The marina was located in back of an island with a narrow channel entrance. Well guess what, we got hung up on shallow water again. However, this time we were lucky enough to back out. It was like chocolate pudding down there. Long story short, the mechanic turned out to be very efficient, found a broken wire immediately. He also traced our problem with the running lights that had recently developed. It was a corroded socket in our deck light (the one mounted halfway up the mast). So he cut the power to the deck light so at least we have running lights now. The marina was awful! No anything except water. They did tell us that construction on the Charleston bridge is being delayed to the end of November. We gave the boat a bath and then ourselves to at least get our money's worth charged by the marina. Spent the night.
Nov 10, Tuesday. There is a tropical depression looming in our neck of the woods. However, we had to escape the dreadful Hague Marina. So we took our chances and headed out of the marina as soon as we hoped we had enough water to get down that narrow channel heading back in to the ICW. WE MADE IT! We were lucky enough to get to Georgetown, SC, anchor the boat, get some walking and shopping time in, get diesel fuel and get back on the boat before the rains came. Now we expect to be here tomorrow as heavy rain is predicted.
Nov 11, Wednesday. Yes, heavy rains it is. So we sit and try to be patient. Bill did maintenance on the diesel. I cleaned the boat and oiled the interior wood. We have pumped out the dinghy once but the rain is coming down hard and it is filling up again. We decided we didn't like our anchorage. The holding wasn't that good. So we hauled anchor and moved to a different spot here in the harbor. The prediction is for rain tomorrow too, especially in the morning. Good book time.

Nov. 12, Thursday. We are having a wonderful lunch at the Goat Island Grill here in Georgetown. Yes, still here, anchored, waiting out the persistent storm. We are told we are on the back side of Ida, but it is still very windy and cold. We will probably move into a marina here tomorrow to do the usual shopping, laundry, showers, water, etc. This is a pretty good place to be stuck though. It is a very pretty town with lots of shops and good restaurants. Our love tol everyone. Wish us better weather on Saturday. We would like to get to Charleston SC by Monday.