Happy New Year to all....

Hello all, and a happy New Year to all of us. I have had no access to the internet for the past several days - and won't for another couple of days. 
I'm just outside of Charleston, hanging out with a good friend from the Dominican Republic, who sailed up here on his boat. Tomorrow, I'm heading out of here, destination Brunswick GA, where I'm scheduled to give a talk at a local marina. Following that, it's off to the Toronto Boat Show, where again I'll be speaking, on the ICW and my new seminar, Paws Aboard - I guess I'd better get busy and write it!
All is well, temps are in the 70s today, so I'm planning on spending the afternoon suntanning on the bow of Gypsy Wind, contemplating 2011 and planning on an even greater 2012.
Happy New Year to all!
 

You'll All Love This Story...

The Best Day Of Fishing Ever! I've heard of salmon jumping into boats, but never anything quite like this... Tom Satre told the Sitka Gazette that he was out with a charter group on his 62-foot fishing vessel when four juvenile black-tailed deer swam directly toward his boat. 
"Once the deer reached the boat, the four began to circle the boat, looking directly at us. We could tell right away that the young bucks were distressed. I opened up my back gate and we helped the typically skittish and absolutely wild animals onto the boat. In all my years fishing, I've never seen anything quite like it! 
 Once onboard, they collapsed with exhaustion, shivering." "This is a picture I took of the rescued bucks on the back of my boat, the Alaska Quest. We headed for Taku Harbour . 
 Once we reached the dock, the first buck that we had been pulled from the water hopped onto the dock, looked back as if to say 'thank you' and disappeared into the forest. After a bit of prodding and assistance, two more followed, but the smallest deer needed a little more help. This is me carrying the little guy. My daughter, Anna, and son, Tim, helped the last buck to its feet. We didn't know how long they had been in the icy waters or if there had been others who did not survive. My daughter later told me that the experience was something that she would never forget, and I suspect the deer felt the same way as well!"

Merry Christmas everyone...

Hi all - Christmas Eve found me a few miles short of Charleston SC - decided to stop and enjoy the sunset with a glass of wine, rather than rush on and have to anchor in the dark in Charleston Harbour.
Yesterday was sunny and quite mild. Today, Christmas, started out that way, but ended with a blustery, rainy front coming through about sunset. That's now gone, the wind has died down and it's quite mild - probably in the upper 40s and not a snowflake in sight. Life is good!™
I'm going to spend a day or two here - it's a nice place, and I've got some grocery shopping and other stuff to do. Also, a good cruising friend of mine is apparently here in town, Jeff Southworthy, and I'd like to catch up with him since it's been three or four years since we crossed tacks. Now that was an adventure, let me tell you...hanging with Jeff can be, ahem, interesting. Since the statute of limitations isn't quite past yet, I'll have to let you wonder just what trouble Jeff got me into (honest Mom, it was Jeff's fault!).
I hope everyone has had a great Christmas, with lots of love, fun, family and great presents!!! My own best present has been knowing that I have all of you as my friends - now, a final glass of wine and I'm off to the v-berth for a winter's night sleep.

Barefoot.....

...that would be as in Landing - Barefoot Landing, where I'm docked at the moment, in the middle of Myrtle Beach's Grand Strand. This is, to my mind, the least enjoyable part of the entire ICW - golf courses either side, or tacky looking waterfront houses built for tourists - only a few really nice looking places, pretty much in the $5 - $10 million range. The only good thing about this section is that it leads to the Waccamaw River, which is just gorgeous. Forest and marsh to both sides, and deep, clear water.
I was thinking about pelicans today - lots of them about, but it's a tough life being a pelican. When a pelican wants to eat, it flys up about ten, maybe fifteen feet, until it sees a fish. It then folds its wings and slams down on that fish facefirst. If it gets it, it lifts its head, gulps a few times and swallows it whole. If it misses, it puts its beak down and looks as if nothing happened, trying not to look ashamed of missing that fish!
Imagine you are a pelican. You're hungry - so you slam your face down into a plate and then look at the ceiling and gulp down whatever you were able to grab. Not so bad for veggies or meat, but can you imagine how messy mashed potatoes would be? Yuck! And spaghetti - lift your head and have strands of spaghetti falling all around your cheeks. Messy that. 
Now, next time you're at dinner with a group, imagine they're all pelicans, and they're all slamming their faces down into their plates to eat. And if that doesn't leave you laughing and gasping for breath at the image - much less what it'll do to you at that dinner table....

Apres OOOOPS!

Well, by the time the tide rose enough to float Gypsy Wind, it was too late to head out - and the weather had gotten nasty - rain and strong winds from the south (warm though, about 70). So, here I am still in Southport.
That's ok, it's a nice place. Spent the afternoon working on a few boat projects, so the day wasn't wasted.
I received an invitation to speak at Morningstar Marina in St. Simon's Sound from James, one of the group following this blog. So if you're in the area on January 7, come on out and have a listen. I'll do my best to be entertaining!
Tomorrow, I'll head off again, may even spring for dockage at Barefoot Landing so as to cover a bit more distance and shorten the next day's trip to Georgetown, which generally makes for a long, long day. I typically come into Georgetown at this time of year in the dark - and while I'm ok with that, it's never as easy as when you can see what's in front of you.
By the way - love to see more comments here - sailing plans, Christmas plans, whatever - liven the joint up a bit! Tell me what's going on in your life.

Ooooops!

As you can see, we have a problem this morning. The tide is lower than usual, the bottom at the dock rises up sharply, and the bow of the boat is aground. (The stern is in deeper water). That photo was taken at dead low tide about an hour ago, and it'll be a couple of more hours before I go anyplace today.
On the bright side, I'll go through Lockwood's Folly and Shallote's Inlet (two notoriously shallow inlets) on a rising tide. Sometimes you just have to find the silver lining....oh, yes, it's 70° out at the moment. I presume that grinding sound is from the teeth of my friends further north?

Aduana and I are sitting at a local coffee shop here in Southport, just waiting for the tide to rise and we'll be on our way again.
Why is Lockwood's Folly called that? Many years ago, a Mr. Lockwood built a boat, but discovered when he tried to sail out, that his boat was too big to traverse the inlet. Thus, Lockwood's Folly.