What to do when your camera quits?

This is a major setback - I don't know whats happening but even with new batteries in the camera it refuses to take pictures because it says to change the batteries. Wayne has a camera but doesn't always take the pictures I'd take. So until this situation is resolved below is the last picture I took here in River Forest. Its the River Forest Manor or Club House, beautiful old house. You can just picture Red Butler standing in the doorway with Scarlet saying "Frankly my dear, I don't give a dam".

So for now this comentary will be in word only! Please excuse the spelling!

On Thursday the day we had no wifi we upped anchor at 7:30 and actually this is the next to last picture I took, it was a beautiful misty morning.

I'm thinking an Automatic Helm would be a good idea on Solent Breeze, these long easy days down straight canals are really relaxing with this option. But you can't relax altogether, people ahead warned of obstructions in the water by way of tree stumps and 30' logs and of course the ever present Crab Pots but most of the time the Auto Helm takes charge nicely.

At 1:30 pm I took my Hoody off - this is a good thing, the temperature is going up! About the same time we entered the Cypress Swamp down the Aligator River & Pungo River Canal the color of which is like black coffee. Its 18.5 nautical miles and will take us 2 hours and 50 minutes to travel. The scenery is pretty much as below most of the way.



Not a lot in  the way of wild life but I did see a Racoon up a tree and a Broad Winged Hawk flew over - I first spotted him atop a dead tree. The real excitment of the day however was when two military RIB's with machine guns mounted on front came wizzing by with a friendly wave. This shortly after a Coast Guard boat went the other way, one of a rare breed going north instead of south!

We anchored in Pungo River at 5:25pm, anybody know what a Pungo is?

This morning we rose to rain and visibility of about a mile maybe depending how hard the rain is falling. Winds of 22 knots didn't help either. We headed for the River Forest Marina which turned out to be not what we expected but hey if every plan you ever made worked out how boring would that be. Some of these marinas spend more money on Billboards than their facilities.

Sitting on rocks and posts here are Royal Terns, never seen them before. The marina is filling up, a sign of the bad weather I'm sure. I tried to take pictures but then you already know that story!

Tomorrow if we can we are heading to Oriental and a marina more to our liking and the ability to fix stuff! Nothing major but a little more water than we'd like. Chicken in White Wine and Cream sauce tonight - yum and yum again.