The Beauty Of Boats

These shrimp boats look the same now as they did fifty years ago, and fifty years before that and...  Not much has changed but the engines. These wooden ships are still maintained and launched.  As a mere child, I remember coming here with my mother, to buy fresh shrimp, right off the boat as soon as it docked.  We had an old metal cooler. The shrimpers  would fill it a third of the way with ice then top that with shrimp then fill the cooler with more ice to protect our precious delectable cargo. 


A trip to Hunting Island, South Carolina  would not  be complete without eating  fresh shrimp. Once you've had shrimp fresh off the boat, you will wonder what they are selling you in the grocery stores. That fresh flavor is just a divine treat that makes your tongue and senses glad to be alive and savoring. 

The sea's bounty has been good to this shrimper. He has his boat shipshape, ready for action in the wee hours of the morning. I could step aboard and never look back. 


Have passport will travel...

I look at the boats and I hear the sea calling my name. Come aboard Miss Mermaid, come return to the sea, where you belong. 


The years I spent at sea messing about boats were some of the best years of my life. Well, all my years were the best, but I am oh so thankful, happy and ecstatic that I seized the opportunity at a time when my body willingly and painlessly cooperated with the physical demands of life afloat. 


I worked aboard sailing yachts, private boats, charter yachts, commercial fishing vessels, vintage tall ships, motor yachts and even one cruise ship. 


The South Carolina working sailors of lore are credited with designing the Pawleys Island Hammock, the best hammock design in the whole wide world. Everybody should at one point and time in their life have the opportunity to nap or sleep in one. Laying on one aboard a boat is a treat that can't be described but must be felt. 

Pray for more shrimp. 


This quaint chapel is proudly maintained in the low country of South Carolina, preserved from the past, in use for the present and hopeful for the future. The sign out front simply reads "Art Studio".   Perhaps the former parishioners have moved on to bigger temples. 


Originally built before  electric power lines marred the beauty, before encroaching road easements, sidewalks, extra lanes and a fire hydrant ate up her front lawn. The small wall seems to have been built as if to make a statement, that modern society isn't taking over one more inch. 

THE END