Days 18 & 19 - Thursday & Friday, 6 & 7 December

If you go to the Dataw Island Marina web page at http://www.datawmarina.com/, here's what you'll read: Dataw Island Marina is one of the finest marinas located on the ICW. The well-designed and well-maintained facilities are a pleasant and quiet destination for the demanding yachtsman. The marina has state-of-the-art concrete floating docks, constructed with concrete pilings and includes a wave attenuator dock surrounding the basin. Amenities include an on-site waterfront restaurant and bar, modern air-conditioned showers and laundry, cable TV, courtesy bikes, 24-hour security, and competent and accommodating staff. This is a first-class facility where you will be treated royally. The marina is strategically located 50 miles south of Charleston, SC, 14 miles from Beaufort, SC, and 35 miles from Hilton Head Island. This is an accurate description of the Marina and we are pleased to be keeping our boat here. The staff is friendly, courteous and professional and the facilities are first rate.

On Thursday, we got a bit more serious about getting work done...starting about the crack of mid-morning...after all, Joe and Frank need their coffee to get them motivated. We also slept almost an hour longer than we have for the past two weeks. During the day, we met some more of our neighbors and walked around the docks to look at the interesting assortment of sail and power boats that live here. We intended to do more work than what we did, but we preferred to spend some time socializing and getting familiar with the neighborhood. We also had two weeks of laundry to catch up on, so after lunch, Frank generously lent us one of his cars and we went "downtown" to a laundromat. For the next three hours, we did three triple loads and two single loads of laundry...at least that's what the sign on the washing machines said. By the time we finished it was late afternoon and the only thing to do was to return to the boat for some more socializing. Frank and Joe spent a lot of time on important things like catching up on events of the past several years. We were doing so well at it that we talked right through dinner until Joe pulled out some snacks from the refrigerator while we kept talking. When we realized it was almost 1:00 AM, it was time to turn in and not much planned work got done...but no worries, mate...we're retired and that's grand!

Friday morning brought a pleasant surprise. While enjoying his morning coffee, Joe received a call from Woody Sherrod who was about five miles away and heading our way looking for a good, affordable marina for overnight. Woody's wife Annie was with him, having come back on board Marisol at Wilmington. About an hour later Marisol was tied up to the face dock for the night with the help of the welcoming committee of Frank, Sarah, Joe and the same helpful marina crew that assisted us when we arrived. Cruising is a bit like Forrest Gump's proverbial box of chocalates...you never know what's going to happen next!

As it turned out Woody and Frank are also friends, so we had a reunion and swapped some more lies and tall tales of boating and times past for most of the rest of the day. But we had places to go and people to meet, so in the afternoon, Woody and Angie went grocery shopping and made the obligatory stop at West Marine for some needed boat things while Frank and Joe went to Savannah to pick up a rental car from Hertz. Another boat had come into the marina with a delivery skipper from Deltaville, VA who was also heading for the airport to pick up a rental car to return to Deltaville. Keith hooked up with Frank and Joe and to drive to the airport. One of the amazing things about life on the water is that cruisers always come together to help each other out whenever needed. It really is a small world and good turns are always returned. For cruisers...just as for those who have been in Scouting as a youngster or an adult...it's a natural response.