Visit to Pennsylvania

While we have had the boat in Wrightsville Beach, I left Keith to do some boat projects while I hit the road to see family in Pennsylvania.  I had not been there since November, so it was very nice to get to visit with them.  My nieces and nephew love the park nearby, and we spent several hours there on Memorial Day.  Let a kid stir in a creek (pronounced "crik" up home) and you can entertain them for hours.

My nephew collecting fresh water clams in the stream

Middle niece Alison

Youngest niece Emily taking a break from treasure hunting in the stream

I also helped my mom put in some flowers for the summer to spruce up her place.  The back of the car looked like Club Med after our trip to the green house.  There are additional flowers you can't see behind the front seats.

Everything is in bloom in Lancaster, PA and the birds are active.  These were two Gold Finch at my sister's bird feeder.

This mallard duck was chilling at the park

My brother-in-law and nephew have been working on an old motorcycle that we had on the farm when I was a kid.  They thought it would be a good Covid-19 project to see if they could clean it up and get it running.  The cycle was purchased from my sister's, mother-in-law's father back in 1972.  This was 4 years before my sister was born.  Now they have it running again and my nephew is having a blast riding it.

The old dirt bike

My nephew riding it around the back yard after getting it running

It was a great visit.  I was very lucky to be able to see family.  With this pandemic many people have not had that opportunity.  The time went fast and before I knew it, it was time to head back to Wrightsville Beach for the final push to Ocracoke.

The next post will be from our beloved Ocracoke.  We finally have all our boat projects and maintenance behind us and we can't wait to get there and start our summer!

Running the Ditch from St. Augustine, FL to Wrightsville Beach, NC

So we were finally able to leave St. Augustine, FL and begin heading north.  We left Friday morning, May 15th.

I did not get the chance to post this picture before, so I thought I would in my final St. Augustine post.  It is pretty cool to see.  These were some of the salt water cat fish that congregated at the docks at the municipal marina in St Augustine where we stayed.

Just a few cat fish

Passing through the Bridge of Lions Friday morning May 15th heading out of St. Augustine

St. Augustine Inlet Lighthouse

Although there was quite a bit of wind, our trip Friday to our first stop along the Intracoastal Waterway (ICW) was uneventful.  Here are some of the sites.

This Ibis could not decide if it wanted to be white or pink

We got stuck for a few minutes at this railroad bridge while a train passed

We arrived into the Fernandina Beach area around 2 PM and anchored up a small creek just across from downtown Fernandina Beach.

This cruise ship was docked at Fernandina Beach.  Like many others, it does not appear to be going anywhere in the near future.

It was a quiet night at anchor Friday into Saturday.  We left around 7:30 AM continuing north.  

Passing Cumberland Island, GA and the Cumberland Island Light

As we approached the St. Simon's area of Georgia, we were able to see the Golden Ray.  This is a  cargo ship that capsized in the St. Simon's Sound back in September 2019.  The 656 foot long ship was leaving the nearby Port of Brunswhich, GA heading out to sea for Baltimore with 4,200 new cars on board when she went onto her side.  It is believed that she did not have her balast tanks properly full and balanced.  Now a marine salvage company is working to remove both the ship itself as well as the vehicles it was carrying.  This is no small job.  An environmental barrier was built around the ship to help keep oil and gas from leaking into the surrounding water.  The salvage company is taking the ship apart and removing pieces via barge.  Quite the operation.

Car Carrier on its side in the St. Simon's Sound

From this view you can see that the propellers and back end of the ship have been removed

By about 5:30 PM we had arrived at our anchorage for Saturday.  This was a creek in Sapelo Sound, GA.  We had been to this anchorage before and really enjoyed it.  It is good holding and quiet alongside a small island with trees which helps block the wind.  We had not been to this anchorage in warmer months and although we had no other boats; we did have a lot of company.

Green Flies: these guys were everywhere.  We had to keep the boat closed and run the generator for air-conditioning.

Greenhead flies are violent eaters.  Females must have a blood meal to reproduce.  They are highly efficient at getting that blood meal.  They swoop in and using their large, scissor like mandibles (mouth parts) they plunge them into your skin then separate the skin edges breaking the capillaries in the wound.  Next they spit an anticoagulant into the wound, then insert a needle like mouth part to suck up the blood.  All this takes place in a split second as their goal is to get a blood meal before being smashed or swatted.  These mean spirited pests are large and not deterred by insecticides.  Even spray containing DEET was not effective.  Best means of protection from them..........go inside and close and lock the doors.

It was a beautiful anchorage despite the green flies

Shrimp Boat visible out over the sound from our anchorage.  He is positioned and ready to leave first thing in the morning to go shrimping.

Sunday morning we left our anchorage in Georgia and made our way past Savannah.  Here is a dredge we saw as we crossed the Savannah River.

We crossed into South Carolina once we came across the Savannah River.  Hilton Head, SC can be seen here with its red and white lighthouse at the marina.

Just north of Hilton Head is Paris Island.  Paris Island is best known for its Marine Corp Base where new recruits go through basic training.  This is a picture of part of the base visible from the water.

Our stop for the night was Beaufort, SC.  Below is a distance shot of the downtown marina and an Intracoastal cruise ship docked there.  We anchored just south of the marina for the night.

In spite of tropical storm Arthur just off the FL/GA coast, we had a mostly sunny day to travel.  There was a moderate amount of wind and we recorded winds up to 32 knots in some of the larger sounds as we traveled throughout the day on Sunday.  Overall we were protected and had a good cruise to Beaufort, SC.

Our anchorage Sunday evening in Beaufort,SC

Cool clouds and a distant shower over South Carolina

Monday morning was cloudy and gray as we left our anchorage in Beaufort, SC.  It did clear up later and was a sunny day by noon as we made our way toward Charleston, SC.

We left early out of Beaufort in order to get to certain places along the Intracoastal Waterway before low tide.  There are several spots that can get shallow enough that we might not be able to get through at low tide due to our draft.  There was one place in particular that is very shallow.  Keith found information from a reliable source to leave the marked channel and use a different route.  For those of you reading the blog that are boaters, you will appreciate this picture of our route verses the marked ICW channel.

Intracoastal off roading

Arrival at Charleston City Marina was around 2:00 PM Monday, May 18th.  We were on the mega docks and our neighbor sure was "mega".

The boat just off our stern on the other side of the dock

Tuesday we met up with Lacey and Davis Toney in the evening for dinner and to see their new home.  What fun and we can not wait to see them again in the fall as we head back south.  We are planning to spend a few weeks in Charleston in the fall.

Dinner spot with Lacey and Davis

Wednesday morning we were awakened when the power went out around 5:00 AM.  The boat behind us was pulling out and accidentally unplugged our power.  Since we were up, we decided to stay up and get an early start as soon as we could see well enough to pull off the dock.  So at 6:00 AM we were on our way.  The forecast was for stormy weather and the skies were a weird color as we left in the morning ("red in the morning sailors take warning").

Skies as we pulled out of Charleston

Shrimper in the Charleston Harbor getting ready for the day

A mega sail boat anchored in Charleston Harbor

The 88 mile trip from Charleston to our anchorage about 30 miles south of Myrtle Beach went well aside from a storm just before we got into the anchorage.  Keith does not mind thunderstorms like I do, so it was not a problem and it was passed by the time we were pulling into Bull Creek around 4:45 PM to anchor.

View looking out of Bull Creek to the ICW from our anchorage

View up Bull Creek from our anchorage

The wind finally shut off and the water was very calm up the creek

Gotta love the Spanish moss

Here are some fun Spanish moss "factoids".  It is not Spanish and it is not moss.  The plant is indigenous in south and central America, Mexico as well as the United States and Caribbean.  Spanish moss is actually a member of the pineapple family.  It was named by the French because the moss reminded them of Spanish conquistadors with their prominent beards.  They therefore referred to it as Spanish Beard; and eventually the name became Spanish moss.  In the early 1900's it was harvested commercially and used for the padding in car seats.  In 1939 over 10,000 tons of the moss were processed.  It is no longer used in this fashion today of course.  As it grows on the trees, the moss does not harm the tree.  It makes its own nutrients and provides a home for wildlife such as birds, insects, and reptiles.

Back to our travels... Bright and early (6:00 AM) Thursday May 21st we were pulling the anchor and heading out of Bull Creek, SC for our 99 mile final push north on the ICW to Wrightsville Beach, NC.  

Coming up to the Socastee Swing Bridge.  This bridge crosses the ICW connecting the county seat of Conway, SC to Myrtle Beach.  It was completed in 1936.

Passing through the Socastee Bridge

Oak Island Light House.  We are getting close now to Wrightsville Beach

Coming up the Cape Fear River we saw several tugs pushing barges

Some storms followed us for part of the day, but by 5 PM we were pulling in to our spot in Wrightsville Beach.  We have several things to take care of here.  I will also be getting off the boat and traveling to see family that I have not seen since last fall.  We are hoping to be back on the water in about 7-10 days and in Ocracoke by June 1st.

Shark Teeth Tutorial

I have been doing some research on the shark teeth we found while visiting NC.  Now I preface this by saying, I am by no means an expert on the subject.  This is just some information I thought some of you more academically minded readers might enjoy.

Sharks have been living on this earth for some 400 million years.  There are about 440 species of sharks alive today.   Sharks do not have bones, their bodies are supported by a cartilageous skeleton.  When a shark dies the cartilagenous skeleton dissolves but its teeth fall to the bottom of the ocean and are covered by sediment.  Over the course of thousands of years the tooth becomes fossilized and in the process takes on the color of the type of sediment that it is covered in.  Fossilized teeth are usually black, brown or tan to cream in color.  Rare colors such as red or blue can also be found.

A shark does not have to die to leave teeth behind.  Modern as well as prehistoric sharks continually shed their teeth throughout their lives.  At any given time a shark can have from 5 to 15 rows of teeth behind their front chompers.  As the front teeth are lost, the next one from the row behind assumes the duty of a frontal tooth.  A tooth is usually in service about a week but can be as short a time as 24 hours.  If you think about all the sharks that have lived over millions of years each shedding multiple teeth through their lives; that makes for a lot of teeth.

I have a book about fossil shark teeth and I have tried to figure out what some of the teeth Keith and I found might be.  It is very complicated as there are so many species of prehistoric sharks.  It also turns out, top jaw teeth can look different than bottom jaw teeth.  This just adds to the complexity.  At any rate, I think the larger serrated ones are likely Great White teeth.

Suspected  Extinct Great White Teeth

(Notice the fine serrations along the edges)

These are possibly Lemon Shark teeth

The largest teeth we found are a bit more of a conundrum.  

Our larger teeth (unidentified).  Suspected Mako Shark

They are large triangular teeth like a Great White, but have no serrations.  This type of tooth is characteristic of Mako Shark Teeth.  Fossil Mako shark teeth, however, are supposed to be rare on beaches in NC.  These teeth were not exactly found on a beach as they came from dirt along the coast, but out of a phosphate mine dig.  This certainly could produce fossils from extinct Makos.  Some scholars contend that Great Whites of today actually evolved from the extinct giant Makos. 

The tooth I would love to find someday is that of the Megalodon.  The Megalodon was the largest prehistoric shark and bigger than any modern shark by a lot.  It was the largest ocean predator in the history of the world.  It lived somewhere between 30 and 1.5 million years ago.  There are those scholars who believe the Great White is the descendent of the Megalodon shark.  A modern day Great White averages between 7 to 20 feet long.  The Megalodon was believed to be 60 feet long.  Megalodon teeth can be from 3.5 to 7 inches long.  Larger ones can be the size of a person's hand.  

Pictures from the Web of a really large Megalodon tooth

Of course it is rare to find an intact Megalodon tooth, but that won't stop me from continuing to look.  It was sure a treat to go fossil hunting during our recent vacation back to New Bern, NC.  Hopefully we can all do it again on another visit to the area.