"Don't Look Back"

“Don’t Look Back” Charleston South Carolina to St. Marys Georgia It’s just the two of us on Tessa again. It’s funny how much we enjoy each other’s company and cherish “alone time” yet tend to surround ourselves with friends and family at every opportunity. I know Mom is relieved when we have others on board during this journey. She can’t bear to think of us out here all alone! Each time we talk, she asks me “So, how are you…really?” as though she suspects I’m holding out on her and there’s some bad news to come. So, here’s how we are…really! It didn’t take long for us to realize how much work this is! I’m absolutely not complaining, just amazed at how little time there is to really relax. The boat shows aside, it’s been a lot of work , physically and emotionally. Even tied up to a nice safe dock still requires you to be on your toes. Breath a sigh of relief, assess Tessa’s condition, check the weather, then begin planning for the next day. Thankfully, I have the worlds coolest, calmest, and most collected Captain who navigates expertly and takes excellent care of Tessa and I. Try to imagine how much of an affect weather has on you when you literally live outside. The unseasonably cold weather really takes a toll on us, especially by the end of a long day in the elements. Which motivates us to plan yet another long day. Surely the further south we get, the warmer it will be, right? It hasn’t happened yet, but we keep hoping! The only time we are really warm is in bed. Which isn’t such a bad thing! We snuggle into our berth, wrap our arms around each other, and life is good. Our life together has always been good. We didn’t leave home because we had a dull or unhappy life. We were just ready to grab the brass ring and experience cruising. Because of how good life was at home, there’s lots to miss. I miss seeing Bob Wolford patrolling CRC with that spring in his step. I miss seeing “AT D LAKE” and knowing fun was in store with Brad and Chris. I miss catching up with Bob and Mary Jane each weekend. I miss harassing and being harassed by Bryan Diveto . I miss our younger friends Jaclyn and Lenny, and our oldest dearest friend Ken Turvey. I miss karaoke with the Wernings. And I can hardly bear to think about other people having fun with OUR Nick and Lynne James without us! And I miss the comfort of knowing in three hours I could be sitting at the kitchen table with Mom and Cindy and Alivia. But all in all, are we loving this? Absolutely! It’s just that being gone would have been a whole lot easier if we hadn’t left so much behind. Now on with the story………… Way back on the Alligator River when Jim was with us, we heard a woman from the boat “Don’t Look Back” advise on the radio that they were towing another boat. After listening to her communications during the day, and hearing so many other boats hailing them, I decided I wanted to party with those people! They were by far the most popular boat on Channel 16, and for some reason, she just sounded like someone I would want to know. Fast forward three weeks to City Marina in Charleston. We decided to walk the MegaDock before we departed to ogle the Mega Boats. Gary, look! There’s “Don’t Look Back”! We were disappointed that they weren’t on board, and turned back toward our slip. Darn, I really wanted to meet them. A couple walked towards us carrying provisions. I asked “You wouldn’t by chance be “Don’t Look Back” would you?” They replied with a curious “Yes” as in, who are these complete strangers approaching us on the dock?? While their ice cream began to melt, we quickly told them the story of my need to party with the popular people, which they thought was quite funny. We exchanged names and boat names and agreed to look for each other down the road, where surely our paths would cross again. Little did we know……. In Georgetown and Charleston, Gary, Chas and James had worked on the Mizzen Mast furler but were unsuccessful in repairing it. My assignment was to find a boat yard that could help. The guy I hooked up with in Thunderbolt asked for a model number, so Gary went topside to locate it on the furler secured to the deck. He came down below and cried MAKE ME A DRINK. I knew something was very wrong. He stated “The furler is GONE!” We silently stared at each other in disbelief. How could it be gone? He tried to put the pieces back together. The guys worked on it at the dock in Charleston, so the most likely explanation would be that it rolled off the deck while we were driving the kids back to Myrtle Beach. We just didn’t notice it missing for the past three days. Worst case scenario was that it rolled overboard while we were underway. Gary got on line and contacted the manufacturer, referred to a guy in England, only to be told that model was discontinued. However, there’s a place in Holland that could manufacture one. Wh….wh….whaaaaaaaat?? OK, take a deep breath, calm down, and think! I saw a diver at the docks at Charleston. We call a diver, ask him to search for it at the slip we were in. Then how do we get it here if he finds it? We have to backtrack three days on the ICW. Noooooooo! There’s got to be another way. How about UPS? Won’t work, the furler is 30 feet long. We’ll rent a car. Won’t fit in a car either. Wait a minute…..didn’t John and Bobby Jo from “Don’t Look Back” say they were staying in Charleston until Sunday? Maybe they could bring it south until we can hook up somewhere. Could this possibly work? They seemed like the nicest couple, but is this pushing the limits of a five minute friendship? We had to call the marina to get their phone number and nervously left them a voice message explaining the embarrassing situation we were in. They called back and without a moment’s hesitation agreed to help, as though lashing a 30 foot aluminum tube to the deck of their beautiful catamaran for people they just met was something they did on a regular basis. No big deal. Gary contacted the diver and described the exact location of where he thought it may have gone overboard. He agreed to dive the next day at low tide. Cross you fingers….. John and Bobby Jo went so far out of their way to help as to contact the diver themselves to explain our tentative delivery plan if he found the furler. They were there to watch him go below the surface! The next afternoon, I answer the phone to hear the diver exclaim excitedly “TELL GARY I FOUND IT! IT WAS EXACTLY WHERE HE SAID IT WOULD BE!” It was lodged in the bottom at a 45 degree angle, and almost poked him in the eye! Hooray!!!!!! Bobby Jo was as excited as the diver. She phoned to say all was well, the furler was secured to their deck, diver was paid, see ya in Vero Beach! Allison from Annapolis told us that cruising would restore our faith in humanity, and John & Bobby Jo take the prize in that regard. We have seen countless examples of this unexpected fellowship and camaraderie all the way down the east coast. Our travels have taken us over 1800 nautical miles, through ports and anchorages from Charleston, Beaufort, Port Royal Landing, Hilton Head, Savannah, Isle of Hope, St. Simons Island, Brunswick, Jekyll Island, and on to our Thanksgiving destination of St. Marys Georgia. We’ve had memorable, heartwarming experiences at just about every stop. There were the locals in Beaufort who cooked steaks for the cruisers at Port Royal Landing Marina while Gary brought down the house with “Chantilly Lace” during karaoke. There was the fogged in anchorage, with two other boats to follow the next morning along the ICW. Safety in numbers! There was the laundry fairy at Isle of Hope who took our full load out of the dryer and instead of a pile on the table, I came back to find neatly folded stacks. There was the peaceful, calm, still very cold anchorage where I attempted to cut Gary’s hair. I began to lose my patience listening to him say “Jaclyn doesn’t do it like that” and “Yeh, yeh, that’s how she does it” as I fumbled with my kitchen scissors. “Gary Milson, I am no Jaclyn Kromer, so just give it up and sit still.” There was the going-aground experience in the Ashepoo Coosaw Cutoff, right smack dab next to the dredging boat. Other boats called to see if we needed help. No thanks, we’ll just wait for some water (it was low tide), and by the way, don’t say our boat name over the VHF thank you very much. There was our good fortune of having Audra as our bartender in Hilton Head. We had such a nice time chatting with her and she offered to take us on an island tour the next day (when she got off of one of her three jobs). We went to The Big Bamboo for lunch and did some sightseeing, but the best part was hearing about the island from a local and getting to know Audra better. Thanks Audra, and don’t work too hard! Also in Hilton Head, we met David Collins and Mary Lynn Finn at the annual Oyster Festival. Here’s how an oyster festival works in South Carolina. You stand in line (where Gary met David) and buy a bucket of roasted oysters. Then you stand at an oyster table and start shukkin. The oyster table consists of wooden horses with a big sheet of plywood tabletop, a big hole cut in the center with a trash can underneath, into which you throw your shells as you shuck. David invited us to join their table, and we hit it off so well that they invited us to the bar they were headed to next. We took a rain check since we had a half hour dinghy ride back to our anchorage at Palmetto Bay, but made plans to see each other the next night. We invited them out to Tessa for a sunset cocktail, which turned into many glasses of wine and lots of lively conversation and laughs. If we had stayed over another night we could have made it to their dinner party, but we needed to keep heading south in hopes of finding warm weather. There was the very impressive couple we shared the courtesy car with at Isle of Hope Marina. We had been feeling very abused by the weather and running low on energy, only to be put in our place by these two cruisers. He is 84 and she is 78, and they have done the ICW trip 27 times. How inspiring! So many experiences, so many memories, and so many to look forward to. Mom, rest assured that we are fine. Better than fine! We are living the dream. There are ups and downs, but we focus on the ups and appreciate every precious moment together on this incredible journey. If any of our boating friends are wondering whether they should go cruising, our advise would be to do it! And like John and Bobby Jo, DON’T LOOK BACK!