Where in the world is Good Karma? An update through Thanksgiving

We last talked to you at Morehead City 11/7 through 11/9 where visited my sister Martha and got held up for 3 days due to heavy winds and rain.  

Sorry it has been so long. During the last few weeks we traveled from Morehead City NC to south of Myrtle Beach SC where we left the boat at Osprey Marina for 2 weeks to return to Ohio.

Here is where we have been so far:

Wednesday November 11: We left Morehead City for a long day, anchoring at Topsail NC. It was beautiful weather. Actually the weather has been amazing until just recently. We’ve been in shorts and t-shirts most of the time until we got to southern GA. Now we are back in long sleeves and layers.

The water looks like a river, not very wide with long spaces without any houses then lots of houses crowded together. The tides here are about 4 feet or so. Low tide leaves marks on the rip rap that lines many parts of the river. We pass through inlets to the Atlantic where the barrier islands are very close to the ocean. This is the sandy part that looks like a great beach stop with white sand beaches and large homes along the water. Of course there is the odd dead boat along the side. I love those pictures.

Normally these anchorages are crowded, at least that is what Active Captain says. The notes will say “there is plenty of room for 8 or 10 boats” but we are almost always the only boat at any of these anchorages. Most of the snow birds are already in Florida. Sometimes we won’t see another boat (other than fishing boats – water bugs we call them) for an entire day! We get really excited when we see another boat, even another sailboat!

Calabash Creek SC

Thursday Nov 12: Anchored at Calabash Creek SC. This was a beautiful anchorage that we shared with about 5 other sail boats. We passed quite a few sailboats in this part of the journey. The weather was warm although the sailboaters always look like they are bundled up for the Arctic. Now sure why. Probably don't have any wind protection like we do. So they go slower than we do and they are cold. Sounds perfect. 

Waccamaw River - part of the ICW

High tide on the river

Now that we are in SC we are seeing the golf courses around Myrtle Beach. Kermit pointed out quite a few that he played at including the golf course with the cable cars to take golfers between the two sides of the golf course. That was pretty cool.

In the wooded parts without sea walls you can see the impact of high tide with the water going up the lawn. This is not a flood. This happens twice a day every  day.

Friday Nov 13: We stopped at Osprey Marina just south of Myrtle Beach to get fuel. They have the best prices within miles. We paid $2 per gallon for a little less than 200 gallons of diesel. We don't anticipate filling up again until we arrive at Ft. Pierce. BTW when we returned 2 weeks later the fuel price was down to $1.94. I guess we should have waited! But we are not complaining about fuel prices this time. BTW  this was the first fuel we took on since Virginia Beach.

Osprey is a very pretty marina on fresh water off the Waccamaw River. Hard to believe about the fresh water but it is true. We tasted the water and sure enough it was fresh. Must be fed by a spring.

Our goal had been to drive another 40 miles that day to get to Charleston by Sunday to leave the boat and travel back to Ohio. While talking with the friendly dockhand Richard about our plans, he made us an offer we couldn’t refuse. The first 4 nights at $1 per foot and the rest of the month at $.25 per foot per day (about $12 per day). That is an unbelievable deal!! So we took it.

The marina is very quiet. Regularly, almost hourly, a boat would pass us going in to fuel up and leave 30 minutes later just as quietly as it came in. There are about 50 boats regularly moored in the marina plus the transients like us who stay for a while or a day. We seldom saw anyone else other than the boats arriving for fuel.

You access the marina by turning off the main river east down a wooded corridor. Only room for one boat at a time. We tied up along that corridor on an out-dock. Every sound echoed like it was broadcast over a loudspeaker system. We were careful not to argue on the dock!

We hung out for a few days, watched Ohio State beat someone, washed the boat and Kermit even waxed part of it! And we used up our provisions and packed up what we could for the trip home.

The waxing was actually funny. After spending an entire day washing the boat and waxing a part of it, Good Karma looked beautiful. She really sparkled. Then Bubba in the houseboat in front of us decided today was the perfect day to pressure wash his beat up old boat. He hadn't done this in years, or so it appeared. To be efficient, he started on the inside. He took a pressure nozzle to the INTERIOR of his boat!! He blew 3 or 4 years’ worth of crap on our brand spanky clean and shiny Good Karma. It was crazy! Kermit was incensed.

Complicated logistics to make the return trip happen. We rented a car in Myrtle Beach, loaded up the kitty and his stuff and all of our stuff for 2 weeks including clothes and work stuff.

Drove to Virginia Beach, picked up the truck, dropped off the rental car then set out for Ohio. We decided to avoid DC and instead took what looks like a longer route but is actually prettier and shorter through US 64 to 77, coming into Ohio from West Virginia. We stayed overnight in Charlottesville – great pizza at Mystic Mushroom. Turns out everyone heard of this but us. It was AMAZING!!! Next morning Waffle House so we hit all the high spots on our good-eating list.

Jack joined us for the trip to Ohio. He slept on the floor on whoever's feet were in the passenger seat.

It was a busy trip during the 10 days in NEO. If we didn’t get to say hello it was because we were on a whirlwind. Katherine was busy every day with speaking engagements, workshops and client meetings. Kermit ran around with Paul Bates looking at boats, went to Sandusky doing power cord cover stuff, looked at Venetian and did some work on one of the rental properties with son Dan. He was a busy guy.

On the way to the hotel in Fairlawn Kermit pulled over because his muffler fell off. It happened right in front of a Chevy dealership so he got an estimate and a temporary fix. The next morning he took the truck to get a more permanent fix. When we got back to Myrtle Beach it fell out again requiring a stop at yet another Midas Muffler. Kermit’s list of activities never changes!

We celebrated an early Thanksgiving with the family on Sunday 11/22 at Kermit’s mom’s house. She is 89 and doesn’t get out much anymore. She resisted the idea but we over ruled her and had everyone come over – Kermit’s brothers John and Kevin and sister-in-law Judy and both son’s Bret with Julie and Dan with Julia. We had a great time. Probably the best meal we’ve enjoyed together in a long time.

Kermit and I prepared the turkey, dressing and gravy doing the brining and preparation in our little hotel room on a 2 burner stove. It was delicious! The family brought the side dishes giving them a chance to display excellent cooking skills.

We will miss Rob Ross's smiling face! RIP

We caught up with lots of friends while in Ohio. In particular one evening we went to Grafton for dinner with Tom and Diane Stieber and Char and Tom Houser. We shared a somber meal because that morning our dear friend Rob Ross passed away surrounded by friends and family. Tom and Char were honored to be there so they were still a little shaken up. We had a toast and a quiet moment to remember the happy times we shared with Rob and Janell.

We visited with John and Judy Ruegamer one night over to Poncho’s, our favorite Mexican plan. On Friday we visited with John and Judy Vellucci at Dan and Marilyn Lipka’s house. We had a great dinner and suffered with the Buckeyes in that heart breaking loss to Michigan State.

Through it all, Jack the cat got very comfortable at our hotel room. He staked out his territory and transitioned his routine to the hotel in a very surprising yet good way.

On Tuesday 11/24 after a morning workshop we loaded up the kitty and headed south. We stayed overnight in Virginia then on Wednesday we drove to Martha’s house in Greenville NC for Thanksgiving. This was another wonderful meal.

The side dishes (all vegetarian for Martha and her friend Liz) were so delicious that Katherine was the only one who even tasted the turkey breast. Especially notable was the butternut squash gratin and the mushroom artisanal pie. Dessert was the best apple / cranberry crumble I’ve ever had. Fortunately Martha insisted we take home the leftovers so we were eating that delicious meal for days later. The squash gratin made a wonderful squash apple carrot soup later in the week. 

Jack didn't care for the visit to Martha's house. He had to stay in the truck because he doesn't care for Dieter, Martha's dog. That made Jack a little crabby. Ok a lot crabby. More like his old self. 

On Friday Nov 27 we headed back to Myrtle Beach to the boat. It felt like ages. Such a great trip home but it was great to be back in our own little floating home.