Before our self induced Turkey coma.

Thanksgiving at Port Royal Landing
Marina 2008. Our Chefs are
Bill and Cheryl and Roger and Lisa.
Turkeys were provided by PRLM
and boaters brought side dishes.

The guys stayed up all night smoking

the birds so they would be ready for us

at 1pm. The weather was absolutely wonderful.

We had a great day and enjoyed the 68 degree

breeze and sunny views of birds, boats and water.

Halloween at Port Royal Landing Marina 2008

Halloween on the boaters deck at Port Royal Landing Marina. We took the easy route. I wore my foxhunting clothes and Barry his graduation regalia. Hey.....my boots slid on like buttah! Gene, Michele and Alex looked great!

Random shots

LtoR, our friend Vic giving us an escort out of the sound, Haig Light House, and a turtle I spied on a golf course water hazard.

Gator Hazord

When you play golf here.....think twice about retrieving your golf ball out of the water.

Where's The Mouse

Hamish knows there is a mouse somewhere! We were enjoying the rain and storms a few weeks ago.

Trees Here are.....Old

The trees in Beaufort are just amazing. Old and gnarled. Most have Spanish Moss lavished all over them. This one is on Paris Island near the golf course.

Lights

Even simple lights, in this case just the fuel sign and dock lights reflected in the water are beautiful. Im not sure a photo does them justice, but here they are.

Some Pictures I have taken in the past few months

Beth Catchin' A Whopper

Ever After with the mainsail up

Our friends took this picture of us on our way to Shelter Cove in Hilton Head. They passed us before we were able to get the jib up as well but here we are finally sailing somewhere!

Our trip to Shelter Cove, Hilton Head

We just got back from a great weekend sailaway to Disney's Shelter Cove in Hilton Head or near it.
We sailed with several other boats from our marina and met up at the marina there. We had a great time playing Pirate Put Put miniature golf and had two REALLY outstanding dinners.
the weather was beautiful, the boat handled nicely and the dogs did well. I think Hamish loved it and Phoenix thought it was just ok. They wore their life vests and stayed up in the cockpit with us most of the time. Hamish loved looking out at all the birds and porpoise. Tomorrow I should have lots more pictures to post including one Michele and Gene took of our boat from their boat.
Barry is making ham sandwiches so Im gonna go for now. One thing about traveling on your own boat which is our full time home......Barry does not have to pull over in order for me to pee. I just go below to the head! Very cool. Plus I didnt have to worry about what to pack. Everything I have is with me below!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Casey's Birthday in Tulsa

Casey turned 30 August 10th and Emily had a great surprise party for him. He was surprised and so was I because Lindsay showed up from Charlotte and surprised me too!!! it was great. We had a lovely time. I got to see my buds Kathy and Paula from The Greater Tulsa Semi-Gourmet Serious Fun Dinner Club....

Dolphin encounter of the first kind

Last night on my way up to the boaters deck for game night, a dolphin was in the shallows feeding.
He was right under the bridge lazily going back and forth feeding on the millions of bait fish there.

Im used to seeing them here and there sometimes daily but this was at least a 15 or 20 minute encounter. Also he was so close and it was shallow so I could see his whole body. He swam in surprisingly shallow water and on his side. At one point his tail was sticking up in the air flopping back and forth. No I did not have my camera or cell to ask Barry to grab it when he came up a few minutes behind me. Im going to be there at the same time this evening and see what I can see.
It was amazing and I would love to share it with you.

The Plan in Spring

This picture has nothing to do with sailing but is such a kick ass picture of my friend Sue McDaniels and her pony Pocket Rocket competing and probably winning at a carriage event a few years ago. You are seeing double. Its a perfect reflection and her son Mark took this picture. He is a brilliant photog. It ended up on the cover of a prestigious Carriage magazine Driving Digest this month. For more really nice pics go to http://www.hoofclix.com/

Now for our sailing plan.
We have been at Port Royal Landing Marina living full time since May 1st. Mostly detoxing and learning a slower way of life. Our plan now is to begin slowing cruising up the ICW mostly but popping out into the ocean when we need to and visit places all summer on our way up. We are looking at charts and info books in the evenings planning where we want to live on the hook and what marinas we want to visit. I have never been up the NE part of the US and am so looking forward to it. Our boat draws 5'9" so there are places we cant go but we can anchor out and dingy where we want to go. At this point we are going to take the dogs but they are soon going to have to learn to pee and poop on the potty rug we have for them up on the forward deck. It goes overboard for a rinse after they use it....but both are so house trained its not going to be easy.

Oct 18th and 19th a flotilla of other boaters from our marina are going to Shelter Cover (Hilton Head)for an overnight. We will anchor out, some of us at the dock some on the hook and play and go to dinner and explore. its going to be our shake out cruise since its been over a year since we sailed Ever After on her way from Port Canaveral Fl. to her new home here.

If anyone wants to join in for a few days, meet us somewhere on the NE coast for a leg of our journey and lend a hand onboard...........speak up!

Casey and Bruce

My son Casey sent this picture of himself and one of his precious dogs Bruce. Poor Bruce
got fixed this week---poor wee little guy.

Life is good

Shrimp boats at 11th St Dock

Sami and Andrea with the dolphin center.

Sami in her Pirate Princess hat

The dolphins are in the background/center. They were all around us...babies and mommas.

Lindsay and Andrea come for a visit. The Beaner Has Landed

Lindsay and her friend and her adorable friend Andrea came for a visit over Labor Day. We had a great time and went on a great day trip on a friends boat. We had a beautiful day and saw lots of dolphins. The girls got to drive the boat. We loved having them and they were great boat guests. We played Balderdash one night and laughed so hard stuff came out of my nose!
Andrea is of Latin decent and when she called us from the airport she said "The Beaner Has Landed"

Friends

Alex and Elizabeth giggle and make us all happy! How much fun is this?

Alex is one half of the winning team

Boaters fun day

The marina had a fun day for boat owners. We had blind dingy races, boat building, boccie ball and later that evening frogmore stew. If you dont know what a blind dingy race is check out the picture. Basically the person rowing is blindfolded and the other team member has to tell the rower
where to head.....not so easy especially if the oars on the dingy are stuck. Barry and I of course got the dingy with the sticky oars and began going nowhere fast. I was laughing so hard I could barely breath. we didnt make it across the fairway! Here are some of the other teams

Great 4th of July.
After a GREAT pot luck BBQ with about 75 other boaters at our marina, the cities of Port Royal, Hilton Head,Bluffton as well as Paris Island all had fire works last night and we got to see them from the forward deck of a friends boat out in the Beaufort River very close to Paris Island. There were hundreds of other boats (some full of drunken idiots) watching and hooping and hollering. Just when one batch would get done another would start so it was really a treat. Seeing the reflection of the fireworks in the water was so amazing.
I have to say it was a bit scary as well because when its over, all those boats head for home and its not like there are lanes with yellow lines for them to stay in. At one point early in the dark evening, a boat came flying past us in the dark NO lights at all. None. Highly likely they got the DNR blue light special and hopefully a huge fine.

Boats were everywhere and I was glad we were in a rather large one tho that does make for a bigger target does it not? I was reminded of the movie Jaws when everyone was out chumming the waters in all size boats trying to catch the shark that ate........anyway, we had a great time with great company. We got to share the wonder of fireworks with an 8 year old....our little friend Elizabeth or as I have named her Princess Giggle Freckle. Anna (her mom) and I got to gossip a while in the beautiful cabin of their 42ft Regal cabin cruiser,till it got dark.

Our captain (her dad) did a great job of getting us back safely and we got back to our boat, walked the dogs and collapsed after a full day.

This afternoon we are going to Savannah to tool around and mix with the unwashed masses and ride the trolley. Then tonight another BBQ on a smaller scale.

Hope everyone had a great weekend like we did.

Routine

I would like to say we have gotten into a routine, but besides sleeping till 8:30 most mornings and drinking coffee its a pretty mixed bag. Im having a hard time not buying way too much at the grocery store and Im watching way too much Food Network----hummmm wonder if there is a correlation? Lindsay is finally in Charlotte and hopefully in a new studio apartment soon.
She will be taking Gypsy with her and we will miss her very much. I will not miss the extra animal hair or her litter box tho we found some absolutely great litter that eliminates (pardon the pun) all cat odor and is just a great product. Plus Im always scared she will get off of the boat somehow and fall in. These waters are usually moving pretty fast and we are a 4-5 minute walk to the shore, so-----------
We pretty much did chores and fixed stuff and relaxed today. Well I mostly bought groceries and then put them away most of the afternoon! Im still rearranging and even have an inventory of what we have and where it is! An actual excel spread sheet! Geeeeeesh.

Happy Birthday Lindsay!

I love you!

Ever After Days

http://www.flmnh.ufl.edu/fish/gallery/thumb.asp

The bonnet, or shovelhead, shark is a small, harmless hammerhead found in the W Atlantic from Brazil to Massachusetts. It reaches a length of 5 ft (150 cm) and its lateral lobes are much shorter than in other species, giving the head a rounded appearance.

Ok I could not get the pic to the right to rotate after I accidentally
uploaded it too fast......but you can tilt your head! Barry caught this guy a few minutes ago. He says its not "Oscar" but its certainly a good size bonnet shark---whatever that is. We went out in a friends boat this morning and between the three of us we
caught at least 25 baby sharks. Threw them all back unharmed.
We, um er uh that is to say Barry and Vic caught enough good size
Whiting to fry up enough for dinner. Its a good eating fish.

The Jaws-we are going to need a bigger moment

Ok so this does not include a shark, but maybe it does because for a year now, something (we have nik-named him Oscar)has been taking Barry's bait and snapping the line.

The first time it happened it took the line about 17 boat lengths with the drag making noises ya like to hear! Then snap and nothing. That same thing has happened another three or four times in a year.

Its probably a shark but we have not seen it so who knows? We do catch small shark about everytime we fish but this is
much bigger. Much bigger----and it happened to him again this afternoon-----this info is to set you up for this:

Anywho----------today Barry has been fishing just about all day. Off the dock now since we learned our lesson about fishing out of a rubber dingy.

I did some stuff around the boat, made a gourmet lunch (Im watching WAY too much The Food Network) and then went out the dock to sit with Barry and maybe fish. Its hot but a nice breeze. I no sooner sat down in my cute little dock chair when Barry just about jumps out of his chair! Now he does not scar easily nor react quickly or panic about much. Maybe nothing, but this startled him. I heard it but did not see it because the big pillars that the docks float up and down on was right in my way (see the pic of me and my friend fishing in a previous post).

A dolphin had surfaced literally 4 feet directly in front of him, blew out air fairly loudly, and Im pretty sure for a second or two, B thought it was a shark. I thought it was his reel making the noise because he had caught "Oscar" again. The dolphin swam straight ahead and we watched it chase a fish all the way out to the bridge support where it looked like it was going to smash into it. Then disappeared into the river. Hope he got his fish!

B just asked me for some ice for a pretty big fish he just caught. Whiting I think. They are pretty tasty actually. White a d tender. This one was at least a foot long so we should get a nice entree out of it. maybe it was the fish that the dolphin was chasing!!!!

The new dingy

the hook got the port side pointed back 'fender'

What is that sound??? sssssssssss

Yesterday morning we went fishing in our 11ft dingy. Its a top of the line inflatable. Hard bottom
new this year. After prepping for the trip with cold tea and crackers, bla bla bla,

The first 30 minutes we spent fishing off the point of the 'fort' where our friend and apt fisherman Vic told us we would have good luck. This is within eyesight of Paris Island, the Naval Hospital just under the new (relatively) bridge that goes to Lady's Island. Shrimp boats, sail boats, fishing boats, tugs and even a couple kyacking! The kyackers looked tired by the way. She looked pissed actually....annnnyyyway........

We saw a school of dolphins cavorting and feeding and I tried to get video with my cell phone but I have the WORST timing! Anyway, I got a strike and it was big. So big I started laughing uncontrollably with visions of dinner for 8 for a week---Vic had caught a record winning black drum last year at this VERY spot!!!!! I was ready to get the Fry Daddy out---------the rod tip was bent over almost touching the water and I was close to handing the damn thing to Barry, but at the last minute a huge skate (ray) surfaced.

DRATS! KRIKEY MATES! as Stever Irwin used to say-----Not a good thing to have to deal with out in the river in a dingy....anyway, as I was reeeeeeeeling this thing in laughing all the way like an idiot, and the damn ray went under the boat dragging the second hook into the side of the back panel of the dingy........then a sickening sssssssssss sound and I said 'what the hell is that?' but I knew. Barry cut the line with one hand and started the outboard with the other (fat lot of good I am!) and we headed back to the marina and our boat as fast as we could. The dingy's have compartments so if the worst happens the air only goes out in the punctured section. Just for spite we fished the rest of the day from our dock next to the boat and had a shrimp basket for dinner! Well at least I didn't have to drag the Fry Daddy out!

Today has been nice. Barry played golf at Paris Island and got a VIP tour from the Pres. of the chamber here (his boat is next to ours) and I drove an hour to Linens and Things and Marshall's. Some things never change!!!

ps..the picture is of the cool boat warming gift from my friends Nancy and Ruth Ann. The marina gardens are full of gardenias blooming right now.

Cats!

The camera loves this cat! We thought we lost her day before yesterday ----again, but she finds places on this boat we can not believe! She sleeps all day and walks on my face at night. We are going to miss her when Lindsay takes her to dry land.