My latest technological catastrophe is a broken charging cord for my laptop and a worn out battery on my laptop!  Guess what I am asking for for Christmas!  I am now using g my late brother's tablet.  This is great only we haven't worked out how to get my pictures included.

I am going to continue with the present time without pictures.  When I get set up with my laptop again I will add photos plus go back and fill in where I left off!

Our travels have gotten us now to Cocoa, FL.  I have a cousin with his wife down here.  We contacted him and they picked us up at a marina.  We spent 2 nights with them and their 7 dogs.  We enjoyed a delightful and delicious Thanksgiving with them!  It was great seeing them as it has been too many years since we have been together!  I absolutely had a fun time playing with all their dogs!  It was difficult remembering all their names!  One of their dogs was the mom of 4 of them and then they had 2 others.  My cousins are true animal lovers!

Tomorrow we are headed out and motoring about 50 miles to an Anchorage.

It will take us about 5 days to get to Fort Lauderdale where we will leave the boat at a marina and fly home.  It will be so good to see everyone again!  It was hard today knowing it was Sarah's birthday and I wasn't there to celebrate with her!  It was good to at least talk to her on the phone!

Hope everyone had a nice Thanksgiving!

Thoroughfare Creek off the Wacamaw River, SC

This was Ed's big adventure.....

We anchored in this lovely creek, but the tide and the wind were doing strange things and our anchor wasn't setting well.  The boat kept going around in circles and zigzagging around.  The line ended up getting tied up around the propeller.  Well, the only way to get it unraveled was to dive in and get it unwound by hand.  So, here is the Captain doing his thing!

Ed was not  happy at all with how the boat anchored.  Too much tide and wind fighting each other.

Gong over the edge.  Looking a bit skeptical.

First foot in - Eee...very cold!

Holding onto a rope to keep close to the boat - down he goes.  Notice the scowl on his face.  It was icy cold!

A cup of hot tea all ready for him.

I needed that!

It was not a fun job but a very successful one!

Leaving Myrtle, going through the Rock Pile onto Wacamaw River and anchoring in Thoroughfare Creek

 I am changing the way I've been blogging for a while.  I am so far behind in sharing our travels due to slow internet or just plain sleepiness!  Being on the water at night makes me so tired especially after a busy day (believe it or not, motoring all day can be tiring!)  So, until I am all caught up, I am going to tell my story just through the photos.  I'll call this part of my blob, Joan's photo blog!

This is the bridge that caused the traffic jam as were sightseeing in Myrtle Beach.

Beautiful area with some cool reflections - just outside Myrtle Beach

This photo and the next 2 photos are called the Rock Pile in the ICW.  We had to motor right down the middle of the Ditch due to all the rocks that aren't just what you see - there are rocks under the water and away from the edge of the land.

After the Rock Pile we eventually went into the Wacamaw River.  This is another of my absolute favorite areas!  It would around in almost a zig zag pattern.  Here are signs of Fall along the way:

The water made some amazing patterns:

         





   Reflections were breathtaking!

Coyote

Some of the wildlife of this area.


:

  Vultures

There were a lot of these Cypress Trees by the edge of the canal.  Notice the roots at the bottom.  Very different kind of trees.  Many of them were not doing well.







Come sail with us down this beautiful river!

Stay tuned for Ed's adventure in Thoroughfare Creek...............

pictures of some of my activities

A small, child's sewing machine that really works!

Sewing curtains. 

When anchored or at a marina one of my activities is making my curtains for the boat as was pictured earlier.  Here is my set up.  I loved being outside!  I was only able to get the second one done as this was also the time Ed had to go swimming to get the anchor lift e untangled from the prop.  We have to be very flexible on a boat, you never know what's going to happen next! 

Myrtle Beach, SC

 We were meeting one of Ed's internet friends for the first time in Myrtle Beach.  We docked at the Marina that was right next to his.  The Marina was huge!  It had 3 separate Marinas in one large area. 





Palmetto Trees were everywhere.  I especially loved the bark on them. 

This was a restaurant at the marina.  We were going to have a Saturday brunch there but they no longer had one, so Dick took us to a different place, called the House of Blues.

This is the unique place Dick took us - The House of Blues.  Every Sunday morning they had a fabulous buffet brunch and live gospel music.  

This is Dick just outside the House of Blues

The Buffet Room

Each tile in the ceiling had a famous blues singer portrayed.

Every serving dish had what it was written on a CD.

Dick took us for a tour around the Myrtle Beach area.  So much like Ocean City.  It's bigger and has the Palmetto Trees all around.

 This swan was preening itself on the edge of the pond.  We stopped the car right next to it and it never budged!  Very use to people!











There was a long line of cars waiting for the swing bridge to get in position for cars.  Every time a sail boat went by, the bridge operator would open the bridge on demand.  This is something that happened often!   We would be going under this bridge when we left.

I loved this photo of the ICW because of the different perspective of what we had been seeing all along!