Here in N. FL, the early evening light has that sorta Fall look to it.
You hear far off chain saws and smell woodsmoke (I dont know who would
be burining anything in this heat). After the somnolence of the Summer
heat, FAll gets me wanting to go sailing. Unfortunately, the heat has
stayed past its welcome this year. Still, I get that itching to be
sailing away at this time of year. Maybe we will get that first front
moving through in a couple weeks.

Here in SFL, we are still in the "let's not stray more that a day's run
from hurricane shelter" feeling!!!



wrote:
Here in N. FL, the early evening light has that sorta Fall look to it.
You hear far off chain saws and smell woodsmoke (I dont know who would
be burining anything in this heat). After the somnolence of the Summer
heat, FAll gets me wanting to go sailing. Unfortunately, the heat has
stayed past its welcome this year. Still, I get that itching to be
sailing away at this time of year. Maybe we will get that first front
moving through in a couple weeks.

wrote:
Here in N. FL, the early evening light has that sorta Fall look to it.
You hear far off chain saws and smell woodsmoke (I dont know who would
be burining anything in this heat). After the somnolence of the Summer
heat, FAll gets me wanting to go sailing. Unfortunately, the heat has
stayed past its welcome this year. Still, I get that itching to be
sailing away at this time of year. Maybe we will get that first front
moving through in a couple weeks.

Lucky you...we're counting our season off day by day.
Next weekend (Thanksgiving Holiday) is usually the last hurrah, although
some late season lake sailing might still be in the works.
Or..for that matter the gung ho sailing crowd might still get in some
sal****er boating if the weather holds out. November is usually cool &
damp here.

Ed wrote in
:


Here in SFL, we are still in the "let's not stray more that a day's run
from hurricane shelter" feeling!!!



Y'all boys just sail up 80W to Charleston. Plenty of places to park at
city marina until the Yankees headed S take 'em all. 83F in Charleston
this afternoon. It's 76 at 10PM on a beautiful night.

Get outa that overrun, overloaded ditch! Plenty of rivers and islands with
NO FLORIDA CONDOS to spoil it, still. Lay back. Take the dink ovah ta
Shem Creek for some SC shrimp 'n a mint julep! Laze 'round on Chaostun
Hahbah followin' the jib. Plenty ah room fer everyone.... I only saw
about 8 boats on the Ashley River here across from Hysteric Magnolia
Gardens all day! (http://www.magnoliaplantation.com/) us right across the
rivah from heah!

Fine time to raft up in a secluded creek with friends....(c; One of 'em
outa have a good anchor, though....Isn't that what friends with trawlers
are for??

--
Larry

I did visit Charleston briefly once (by land unfortunately) and liked
your coastline. Your coast is sorta like the FL. Big Bend Gulf coast,
salt marshes everywhere but you have deep water too. I gotta get up
thataways. Maybe after I manage to go south around FL and thence to
the Bahamas I'll do it.

wrote in
oups.com:

I did visit Charleston briefly once (by land unfortunately) and liked
your coastline. Your coast is sorta like the FL. Big Bend Gulf coast,
salt marshes everywhere but you have deep water too. I gotta get up
thataways. Maybe after I manage to go south around FL and thence to
the Bahamas I'll do it.



There's 3200 miles of navigable waterways (not including the ocean) within
50 miles of my keyboard....

Some Canadian friends came in a 32' sloop and I asked them if they'd like
to go up into the lake, through our free lock. There are no obstructions
so the mast doesn't have to come down. They said it was one of the most
pleasant trips they'd ever taken. We motored up the Cooper River which
becomes the Tailrace Canal to the old 1930's power plant at the dam. The
lock has a floating dock inside to tie up to. The lockmaster was quite
pleased to lock up something he rarely sees, the Canadian Maple Leaf.
Mostly hoard of small boats from the river go through the lock. The lift
is about 78'. From a 16' jetboat, the long lower doors look enormous
coming down as it drains. All that's required is the name of your boat and
where it's from for their log. Santee-Cooper, our state-owned electric
utility, owns it all. The lower end of the lake and the central channel
are fine for a 32' sailboat. Sailing on the lake was great fun. We
anchored off a small, uninhabited island for the night and dingy'd ashore
for a campfire. The trip back to salt water the next day included a
docking at The Dock, a great seafood restaurant built over the Tailrace
Canal in Moncks Corner just below the lock in a no-wake zone. The Cooper
River is now marked for a few years to keep boaters from becoming lost in
the old rice paddies of the old rice plantations. Mepkin Abbey, a
sprawling lawn down to the waters edge of the channel run by monks who also
have a huge egg operation called "The Egg and I" to support it, is a
wonderful place along the way. As if I had planned it, a huge bald eagle
swooped down out of the trees, caught lunch swimming on the surface, and as
we motored by her perch was feeding her young the noon meal. Every power
line pole anywhere near the River has a HUGE Osprey nest with chicks all
summer....so many the power companies have to erect "decoy nesting poles"
to keep the birds off the high voltage in many places where they've given
up trying to run them off. There's a big nest at the first bridge you come
to turning South out of Charleston Harbor into Wappoo Cut down the ICW,
that's been very successful at chick raising...in spite of a thousand boats
a day buzzing by.

Well, when you get crowded, come see us. We don't bite, often.

--
Larry

over here in england the season is ending , and the marina is filling with
boats that will wait untill spring for there owners to return
still its been a good summer all things taken into account. even though we
did not get much rain, british waterways managed to keep the canals open and
the price of desiel seems to have slowed its relentless rise
regards
rod
nb lady louise jane

Temperature down to only 91 today so Fall is nearly here. I agree with
a previous poster that I am not ready to venture too far from home till
I see the Gulf Water temps drop to the low 80s for fear of having my
boat in a poorly protected place during a hurricane. For those people
up north who think that sailing through the winter sounds good, there
is a price to pay; here in NW FL it is simply too hot and humid with NO
wind in summer except in thunderstorms (every day) when the wind goes
from 0-45 kts in a few minutes with blinding rain and intense lightning
and then back to no wind and even higher humidity. What this means is
that effectively we cannot sail from about June 15 to Sept 30. I have
to hope my diesel didnt grow algae over the summer and that the fouling
of the bottom isnt too bad.