Cruising along at 17+ knots, flat calm seas, cooler offshore temperatures . . .
Wait a minute, I've been here before.
Like all day yesterday heading into Southport - only this time it's headed for Charleston.
The only difference between yesterday and today (other than the destination) is that the seas are even flatter, and the distance is even longer.
Just made the (very) easy run out of Southport, turned South (almost West) picked a waypoint in the channel to Charleston Harbor, and the GPS read 107 miles. Straight shot.
Now, we have entered the Twilight Zone, where you have set the course, and the auto pilot, and now fight the mind numbing task of watching the seas and the hours roll by.
In this moment (hours) of reflection, I think back to Southport.
A very quaint place, and picturesque place, with a very accessible harbor from both the ICW and ocean.
(Note: having technical difficulty uploading pictures right now - so the video portion of our presentation may lag behind a day or so)
But Southport has received recent notoriety, due to a film having been shot there: Safe Haven.
Starring Julianne Hough (uber Cutie), and Josh Duhamel (Yeah, I'd date him too). Very good flick.
It gets a Cap't JimBob (4) Star-fish rating.
Oh, back to watching the seas roll by, I check my watch, 37 minutes have passed.
I do some quick math and figure out that we still have some 6 hours to go.
Man, it's gonna be a looong day . . .
I keep looking for fish - anything.
I see occasional evidence of bait breaking the surface, and pass them by - telling them that today is their lucky day, 'cause I got to get somewhere.
Otherwise, I would be chasing them harder than Paris Hilton chasing a bad boy rock star.
Another 20 minutes have flown by . . .
And so it goes.
Deja vu for a total of 7.5 hours - 128 miles. (2nd longest stretch after 138 on Day one to Block Island).
But, we finally reach Ashley Marina in Charleston harbor, and we can't believe that we are actually here.
We meet up with our friend Dave Friedman, who tried for 5 years to find us the right house in Charleston. In truth, he found many perfect houses for us - that we couldn't pull the trigger on for a variety of reasons.
The good news is that we spent so much time together that we really became friends.
The bad news is that we never wound up buying a house from him, about which we feel eternally guilty.
But, friends forgive - and so we are thrilled to see one another and have a few cocktails with him aboard Hot Water in Charleston.
None of us can actually believe that this is real, because we have talked about this for years.
And for years, Dave and I have been planning something, and made a pledge that when, if, and as, we ever made it into Charleston, that he would take me fishing on his boat.
So, what does one do, when you have spent the last 10 days straight traveling over 1,000 nautical miles on a boat?
Why, you go fishing.
As we say in the program,: "Hi, my name is Jimbo - and I fish."
So, Spence is thrilled to have her day to walk around the Holy City, and check out all the decorating shops, art galleries, restaurants, etc . . . (I call the credit card company and put them on notice)
And, believe it or not, I am psyched about going fishing tomorrow, 'cause I love to fish.
Either way, tomorrow will be a departure from what the past 10 days have presented, and that is exciting enough for both of us.
Can't wait till tomorrow . . .
* Note: a special shout out to Taylor our ghost writer, who did a superb job of updating the blog when we couldn't. Very well done, and very witty Taylor. Your Mom and I laughed really hard when we read it. We laughed even harder, when we unanimously agreed that you are henceforth stricken from the will. Don't believe me. Call my lawyers Dewey, Fleecem, and Howe. (knuck, knuck, knuck)
No comments:
Post a Comment