First Oyster Roast of the Season 10 '14

OMG!  Finally!  Oysters are back in Season. 

 We've waited almost 6 months for this meal. Soooooo Good.

House painting 10'14

 The HOA has been having the exteriors of all of the units refurbished this summer.

They finally got around to working on ours this week.  What a messy business.

  First we had to move all the potted flowers on the porches further out into the yard and  so the painters could power wash all the wall surfaces.

Rather than carry the potted  herbs from the upstairs deck  into the yard (and expose them to ground dwelling insects) , I moved them  into our bedroom.  The master bedroom suite now looks like a jungle. It's very dry in the house so I put a plastic sheet over them to help retain more moisture in the air around them. I've been giving them minimal amounts of  water.Fortunately the weather has been sunny and mild so getting enough light without overheating  has not been a problem.  Hopefully the painters will finish out unit soon, so I can put the herbs back outside where they belong..

Georgetown Wooden Boat Show Activities 10 '14

Of course there is more to do at  Georgetown's Wooden Boat Show than just  checking out the boat displays.   Like all street fairs it had is share of  street performers

A Pirate encampment  greeted visitors at the entrance to the festival.

A talking miniature tug boat intrigued passing  children.

art and crafts, and food and music.

But the action didn't stop there.  All sorts of  maritime activities took place over the course of the weekend: including  a wooden boat building competition, a children’s model boat building, and rowing  rowing races. 

What is the Wooden Boat Challenge?

It’s a boat building competition with teams of two battling each other and the clock to build a 12 foot rowing skiff – the CAROLINA BATEAU – within a four hour time limit. The teams are judged on building speed, workmanship, and rowing speed when they test their completed bateaux for seaworthiness in a rowing relay on the Sampit River. At the end of the day cash prizes are awarded to first, second and third place winners.

The Challenge begins at noon with the command “Gentlemen Start Your Skill Saws” which sets off a din of circular saws and swirling sawdust as the teams commence to build their bateaux fast and build them right. Quality counts for 1/3 of the points, speed of building for 1/3, and team rowing ablity for the final 1/3.

Each team receives a set of plans for the CAROLINA BATEAU when they pay their $100 entry fee and are encouraged to practice-build a boat before the Challenge. On the big day they are issued the same building materials. They provide their own tools, sawhorses, work tables, hull molds and home-made oars. Each team builds within a 12 x 15 foot space beneath a huge tent with hundreds of spectators cheering them on. Some teams finish, amazingly, in just two plus hours. It was amazing to watch a boat  cut and fitted from start to finish in such a short amount of time.

But perhaps the best part was actually watching the builders then have relay races in  their newly built boats on the Sampit River.  Talk about having confidence in your product.

The Children’s  Model Boat Building 

 Adults weren't the only ones who could get into the action. Children could build and embellish a wooden boat model and then test sail it in a pond on Front Street. Two model kits were available at $15 each: a paddleboat and a sailboat. The kits are made and assembled by Wooden Boat Show volunteers and proceeds from sales benefited the SC Maritime Museum.

The New Charleston Mosquito Fleet gave both adults and children a chance to practice their rowing skills.  

The rows began at noon and continued until 4pm from the floating docks at Francis Marion Park. Each row took about 45 minutes. The New Charleston Mosquito Fleet was founded in 1995 in Charleston SC to get inner city middle school children involved in boatbuilding and boating. The mentors built two Joe Dobler designed pilot gigs with the kids, and they row early mornings three days a week.  The original Mosquito Fleet were the mid 19th century Gullah fishermen of the South Carolina  and Georgia Lowcountry, who rowed out upwind in the morning in small wooden boats and sailed back downwind in the evening; they arrived home at twilight along with swarms of Lowcountry mosquitoes and sold their catch in local markets.

Georgetown's 25th Annual Wooden Boat Show Displays 10"14

Bruce and I went to Georgetown's  25th Annual Wooden Boat show today.   It is a huge two day affair that completely takes over the town's streets and Sampit River waterfront. 

and Sampit River waterfront. 

The 25th Anniversary show featured one of the nation’s best wooden boat exhibits There were  more than 130 classic wooden boats displayed on land and water.

Smaller Boats  on display on Front Street between Orange and Queen Streets included: 

 Row and  Classic Row,  

Canoe and Classic Canoe, 

Kayak and  Classic Kayak,  Surf/Paddle and  Classic Surf/Paddle and

 Sail boats.   

Floating dinghy docks projecting into the Sampit River were used  to allow people to closely  inspect the craftsmanship on larger vessels  with drafts up to seven feet.

Of course there is more than just beautiful workmanship  to be seen.   Some of the boats on display were quite fanciful

...My personal favorite was this  lovely Chinese Junk .

 Larger vessles  filled the  Sampit River

Is it any wonder that this event is considered one of the nation’s best wooden boat exhibits?   

Buck Hall Camping 10 '14

We've been having some beautiful weather, so Bruce and I decided to pack up the Kat in the RV and head south to Buck Hall Recreation Area for a three day camping getaway.

The Buck Hall  campground is bounded on the west by the Francis Marion National Forest

 and on the east by the Inter-coastal Waterway and the  Cape Romaine National Wildlife Preserve

It's a small campground.  There are only 14 campsites total, and five of those are reserved  for tent camping .

Every campsite has a view of   the Intercoastal Waterway and the Bulls Bay Marsh 

 It is one of the cleanest  campgrounds we have ever stayed in .  With its large expanses of mowed lawns and park benches it felt more like a city park.

Bruce and I spent a lot of time watching boats of every size and shape go by on the Intercoastal

and taking photos.  

Carolina homes on the Intercoastal

Everywhere we looked there was something beautiful and interesting.

 To the North of the campground there were mansions  and to the South  a local fishing dock

.

To the east was the vast open expanse of Bulls Bay and the Atlantic Ocean beyond.

There was one other feature that made it Buck Hall different from any other campground we have ever stayed in; it was geared toward fishermen.  CC was the only woman (other than the Camp Hostess) in the campground.  Every campsite was occupied by two or three men who had brought two or more trucks and one or two  fishing boats.

It was one of the quietest campgrounds we have ever stayed in.  I don't think anyone there stayed up past 9 pm.  Just before dawn all the guys would haul their boats down to the boat launch and queue up to get in the water.

Once afloat, they would circle about, waiting for their buddies to launch, then head off in groups of three or four boats to their favorite spots on the bay.  After an hour or so, the campground would be empty

 and Bruce and I would have the place to ourselves for the remainder of the day.

It was really peaceful, and we're sure to go back.

Blood Moon

Bruce and I got up at 4:15 am this morning to watch a lunar eclipse. 

This was the second full eclipse of the year.

We missed seeing the first due to a dense cloud cover blocking the sky.

This morning the sky was clear. We were treated to a spectacular "Blood Moon" when the eclipsed moon turned a deep blood red as it began reflecting the rising sun.

Can you spot the blood moon in the center of this photo?

We were able to see all but the last few seconds of the eclipse when the  Blood Moon slipped behind the roof tops and trees.

Campbell Clan Cousins 10 '14

CC's and her Cousins Dolores Campbell Olsen and Janet Campbell Klick  strolled through  Brookgreen Gardens this afternoon, while Bruce and our cousin in law Richard Olsen played a round of golf on Willbrook Plantation.

Brookgreen's Fall Festival 10 "14

Bruce and I went to Brookgreen Garden's Fall Festival this afternoon.

Attending this annual event has become a tradition with us.

I don't think we have attended  the festival every year since we moved to South Carolina.

I love seeing all the different scarecrows that people make.

Watching the little kids  make them is especially fun.  

 They take it so seriously and often give their scarecrow names.

But of course there is more to the festival than building  scarecrows.

... like hay rides and pumpkin painting,

and listening to bluegrass bands.

I loved the Fall floral display, which Bruce quick decided would make a nice photo backdrop.