Christmas Aboard

Christmas Day found us docked in lovely Georgetown, South Carolina. Our miniature Christmas tree was adorned with sand dollars and miniature crab buoys and topped with a starfish. We somehow scraped together enough presents given the limited shopping opportunities to surprise Amelia.

Georgetown is a pretty southern town, with a mix of antebellum mansions and shotgun houses, as well as a couple of pre-revolutionary war homes. It is interesting to experience the contrasts inherent in a historic port – shrimp boats docked next to restaurants, boutiques and a downtown harborside boardwalk with a view of the steel mill a few blocks away. The harbor, too, is home to contrasts with an assortment of liveaboard boats that range from traditional craft to funky home-made. We arrived after a couple of days in Myrtle Beach, where we checked into a marina at a fancy resort so that we could have fun poolside and celebrate Carole’s birthday.

The trip from Myrtle Beach to Georgetown down the ICW was beautiful. This stretch has a reputation of being the most scenic on the waterway, with overhanging live oaks and Spanish moss. It is also very isolated – we went for hours without seeing a single person, car or home, and did not see any other boats at all during our daylong journey. We’ve heard reports of heavy snow in Boston, so it is nice to be experiencing warmer holiday temperatures as we prepare to continue our journey south.

As we celebrate Christmas, we are thankful for our family and friends. Best wishes to all for a wonderful holiday and peace in the New Year.