Lily, A Dog's Life Aboard Moondance: Seeking Sun & Catching up with Friends in South Carolina

We woke up around 7. Dad told us we were waiting for the tides to come up so we were leaving later. There is a very shallow, narrow part of the ICW that we have to pass through called Hell’s Gate. The Kilkenny Marina ramp that mom and I had to use was almost straight up and down since we are at low tide. The sun was lighting everything so beautifully that mom took me for a long walk ,so she could photograph this area. We were just stunned by the rustic, beauty of the place even though it’s obvious that it’s not affluent… It wasn’t so bad getting up the ramp, but getting down was precarious…I was glad to have four paws and claws…I did much better than mom!

Mom made us a scrambled egg breakfast using left over scalloped potatoes, sautéed onions, tomatoes and chicken. Delicious and very filling!!!

M & D are still trying to figure out the different boat systems…It seems they might have completely drained the one water tank? …Even though we were connected to shore water? They will have to figure out what they are doing wrong? I’m actually OK with it since mom was mumbling about giving me a bath today. As long as I have water to drink, I’m just fine!

Mom keeps blowing one of the electric circuits when she uses our little coffee pot and skillet together…She claims she’s getting out Mainship's circuitry chart to figure it out… Yeah, right!

As mom was tiding up lines and cleaning off the morning dew after we set off, she found a stow away…about a one inch crab. He/she is kind of cute!

A big Sikorsky helicopter from probably Camp Le Jeune Marine base flew overhead…He is a big one!!!

We have four boats in a single file going through Hell’s Gate about 10:30… The shallowest draft is going through first, with us second followed by the deepest trawler and sailboat…We are all going super slow… Which makes it a bit warmer but they have our fans going and I’ve planted myself in front of one of them! Thankfully, we were at middle tide by that time so we were all just fine...

Just miles of water, marshes and lowlands as far as we can see…just an occasional house in the distance.

As we get closer to Savannah, we see more forests of trees and more Mc Mansions again…Particularly around Thunderbolt, GA…where there is Thunderbolt Marina that builds large yachts as we saw. WOW!!!

We had another trawler has followed all day and we have been chatting with with him off and on all day…They are returning to Myrtle Beach…so hopefully we will see them again.

Since we got a late start we will be later getting in today…