June 3, 2023 Little River, SC and Richmond Hill, GA

June 3, 2023 Osprey Marina to Lightkeepers Marina - Little River, SC 27 miles

It has been quite an eventful 6-7 weeks since our last update. At that time, we had just settled in for an extended stay at Osprey Marina in Socastee, SC. Having completed our winter St. Johns River trip, we headed to the dirt home for the annual spring cleaning. Blowing leaves, picking up fallen limbs, taking them to the shoreline for a bonfire, pressure washing the siding, pressure washing the deck, etc, etc, etc... We had been seriously considering selling the house on Lake Hartwell for some time. It just seemed like the right time to do it now that we had it all cleaned up. So, the beginning of May we got a realtor involved and while she was getting everything together - contract, listing, pictures, etc. we headed off to my nephew's wedding. It was a much needed diversion and a great day and evening with family. Logan and Kelsey make a beautiful couple. That is the last of our nieces and nephews getting married. Another generation making that milestone move. Speaking of generations. We also got to welcome the newest member of our extended family with the birth of Eliza. Another grandniece. Great job Dan and Athene on a beautiful baby girl !!

Grandnephew Xavier welcomes little sister Eliza

Logan and Kelsey, Brother Pete and wife Rhonda and my mom

Visitors to the boat before we headed out of Osprey Marina.
Brother Bill, sister Sue and Bill's girlfriend Barbara in blue shirt

After the wedding we made it home, got the property listed and as the realtor foretold, we had multiple offers and a sold house in just 3 days. The buyers we selected had been looking for a vacation lake house for 1-1/2 years and were anxious to get the deal done and get moved in and start enjoying the season. Sounded just like our trials and tribulation in finding our boat.

Lake House all spiffed up and ready for sale

The quick sale meant a rather hectic time for us. We still wanted a dirt house - just something with less upkeep. We had our minds set on a townhouse with a garage and had previously narrowed our search area to the Richmond Hill area just outside of Savannah. A quick road trip to Savannah to meet with a realtor who showed us available rental and for sale properties. She found us a townhome with a 2 car garage in a gated condo development. It was vacant and for sale or lease. So, we signed a12 month lease to have someplace to move into quickly. Threw in a purchase option on it too. It truly is an ideal "lock it and leave it" situation for when we are cruising. The community fronts the Ogeechee River which runs down to the ICW and even has it's own dock.

The buyers of our house wanted a very quick settlement - just 2-1/2 weeks. We pushed it off until June 1 which was still too fast creating a complication. No moving company was able to get us out beforehand, so the buyers agreed to let us store all our "stuff" in the garage area until June 15 if needed. We started packing box after box and moving it into the garage. Martha finally was able to locate a company who could load us on June 2. In the meantime, everything inside the house plus everything from the storage unit got boxed and moved by us into the garage. Well, almost everything. We decided to leave some furniture for the new owners, several pickup loads of old "stuff" got taken to the dump, and multiple car loads of usable items made it to Goodwill and Habitat stores.

All our worldly possessions jammed into the garage

More complication arose with the boat down at Osprey Marina. We only had the slip rented through June 26 and they had another long term renter already lined up for the slip. We needed to get the boat moved out. Luckily, we were able to secure a slip at Lightkeepers Marina further north up the ICW in Little River for the month of June providing time to finish our relocation. But that required spending several days going to the boat, moving it and coming back home right when we were doing our final move out and cleaning. Just an unbelievably hectic time.

Waiting on the Socastee swing bridge

Sportfishing boat from NC. No surprise - he didn't slow down.

Coming through "The Rockpile". A narrow channel with shear solid rock edges.
We prefer coming through at low tide when you can see the ledges.

Waiting for the Little River swing bridge as Martha preps the lines and fenders

Good news in all this. We got the boat moved, we got everything moved out of the house into the garage, we got through closing, we got the moving truck loaded, we got everything moved into the new place. Even made an additional trip back to the lake house to pick up our last car. Still need to finish unpacking but in the end, it all seems to have worked out. Still hoping to get some cruising in later this year but probably just up to the Chesapeake and NC waterways again instead of our original plan to do the entire Erie Canal and finger lakes. Guess that will need to wait until next year. That's it for now. Will return to regular blogging updates once we hit the waterways again.