Many of the Mom & Pop businesses along the ICW

 towns of North Carolina have gone out of business.

Sad to see. 

A diver checking the pilings of the bottom

of a 65 foot bridge

A sunken boat at a recent "gone out of business"

shop.  Now, unfortunately, the states do not pull

boats from the waters like they use to due to budget

restraints.  If they are not a hazard to navigation then

they may sit for a long time.

Today, was full of 1 to 2 million dollar homes in

North Carolina along the ICW.  Looks a bit like

OC, but all these homes are megabucks.

The chartplotter has said we are now in

South Carolina.  We are now starting to see

palm trees.  We're getting closer to warmth!

Cormorants didn't get the oil gene like ducks.

They don't float on the water as well as other waterfowl.

So they raise their wings to dry until the next time

it's time to find a snack underwater.

Our anchorage for the night inside the South Carolina

border.  We dropped the hook earlier than we wanted but

there are no other places to drop the hook for 30 miles

anywhere south of here.

 

Here's the aerial shot.  Coming from the north from

the North Carolina border, we made a quick turn

to starboard and dropped the hook in 8 feet of

calm water.

The sun and a sun dog

Just a dog

Our buddies at our anchorage - all headed south

Every day is a gift

Thank God for another day !!!

 

Well, the day started out as a big piece of crap (better than working, taking out the trash,

doing your taxes, or going to the dentist), blowing 20 knots, raining, cold, cold, cold,

but we rounded the corner south of Wilmington, NC and just the perfect day appeared.

Really, out of nowhere.  The clouds parted.  The temperature rose.  The waters calmed.

 

It was a perfect, safe, deep water day (however, no dolphins)  :0(

We had planned our anchorage and reached it in record time due to the

tides.  We generally travel at 7 knots (1 knot - 1.15 mph) so it's really funny when

2/10th's of a knot seems to make a difference.  But, when the tide is running with

you at 3 or 4 knots, we kind of jump with glee.  So we reached our anchorage at 1430 hours

and subsequently napped.  Then happy hour with a  mavhhhlous sunset.  It then got dark.

And then the most wonderful panoply of sounds came from the woods.

A pack of coyotes yelped and howled not too far away. 

It was a beautiful ending to a beautiful day.