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Here's Ka'imi at Thunderbolt Marine in Savannah, GA with a fresh coat of bottom paint ready to be splashed! The picture on the right is right after we were launched, notice all the Mega Yachts in the back. While we
were in Hawaii we had some work done on Ka'imi, specifically we had the cutlass bearing replaced, new engine mounts, engined aligned, new raw water pump and the stuffing box repacked. We had the stuffing box repaired and re-stuffed at Tiger Point Marina in Florida in June 2007 - but they failed to do it correctly and the paraffin melted out leaving the stuffing material burnt and stuck. The good news is we contacted Tiger Point and let them know what happened. They sent us a check for the cost of having it repacked at Thunderbolt. We were very excited to see a business stand by their work, we would recommend you give them a visit if you need work done in the Fernandina Beach, FL area.
So here we are smiling and happy to be back on the water in our own boat exploring the world, meeting new people and trying to stay out of trouble. We're fine as long as we stay on the boat, just kidding. We left Thunderbolt Marina June 6, 2008 at 8:45 AM heading out to sea via the Wilmington River. It was a beautiful day with winds 10-12 knots coming out of the southeast and we were coasting along at 7 knots. It felt good to be home! It was very eerie sailing along the Georgia and South Carolina coasts because we were 45 nautical miles off the coast with a depth of only 86 feet and wrecks and obstacles everywhere! We decided to enter the Intercoastal Waterway (ICW) at Winyah Inlet in South Carolina the
next day about 2:00 PM. We wanted to take a few days to enjoy our travels before we settled into a marina. We set anchor about a
mile into the inlet for a nights rest. The next day we traveled past
Georgetown, SC a very historical city with a paper mill that smelled awful!!! The rest of the days travels took us past tree lined shores with lots of streams and rivers forking off, strangely some of the streams had gates on them. This stretch of the ICW is the Waccamaw River which our guide book says is one of the prettiest sections and we agree. There were very few houses in this area but the ones that are there are big and beautiful. Some were old and some were brand new and we saw signs of future developments
along the way, so it probable won't be so nice in a few years. The Waccamaw River was the site of many plantations before the Civil War. Unfortunately only a few still exist. These plantations were first dependent on the cultivation of indigo, but later they grew rice. Also along this portion of the River we saw advertisements for marinas and restaurants nailed up to a tree. Some of the houses had their very own docks with there very own yachts!
Our favorite anchorage in the ICW was just off the Waccamaw River on Bull Creek. Bull Creek is one of the largest auxiliary streams on the river, but it was very peaceful most of the time. During the day people would come by in their speedboats carrying skiers, wake boarders or tube riders. Small fishing boats also favored the creek. We found that alligators were abundant in this creek and we could not figure out why people were in the water.......we stayed in the boat. Kim had seen all the people in the water skiing, wake boarding and tubing and had vowed to jump in the water the next day for a dip.
However, we woke up early that morning as the morning dew and fog were lifting we saw several alligators cruising back and forth. Needless to say the swim ladder never came out. Kim will swim with sharks, but not alligators :)....The
shoreline of this creek is entirely undeveloped with huge cypress trees along the edges. There were several anchorages along the creek and the protection was excellent. At night the shoreline would come alive with the sounds of frogs, birds and who knows what else, along with millions of fire flies or lightning bugs to create a magical mood.
When the tides flow in and out of the rivers and creeks in these parts, lots of things flow in an out along with it. Now if we were in Scotland we might think these pictures were of the Nessie monster...all we need is a little fog or mist.....what do you think?
Now this picture to the left is very hard to see bu if you click on it to make it bigger you can see an alligator in the river. That is one of the alligators we saw in the morning. We enjoyed this anchorage so much that we stayed a couple days. Every morning we saw the alligators and everyday we stayed on the boat. Actually, we did get to the shore with our dinghy. There was one beach that we could land on and we found tree swings that you could swing into the water with at high tide....I don't know, but everything we ever heard says that alligators will eat you? Are we wrong?
After we left Bull Creek it was a straight shot to the Myrtle Beach
Yacht Club where we settled in. We really liked the marina it had a swimming pool, a workout room and 3 miles of walkable docks. We were here about a week and found out about a County tax that taxes your boat like property after being their for 60 days. The tax was 4% of the value of your boat. That was way to expensive for us so we asked around and found ourselves a new marina. The unfortunate thing is that we would have to backtrack south to get there and we had already rented a car to get our car from Georgia. Oh well, here we go again....next destination Bohicket Marina on Johns Island, South Carolina, 25 miles from Charleston, SC. We are traveling again!
We are still loving life and living well on the water. Our next update takes us back down the ICW. Hope everyone is well.
Cheers Kim and Mike on Ka'imi
barbeque the night before for his friends, which I haven't seen for awhile, unfortunately we didn't get any pictures of them. There 
Click here to check out Kristopher's visit to Venezuela
