June 3-8 2014, Myrtle Beach to Wrightsville Beach

June 3, 2014

Tied up at Myrtle beach Yacht Club

We staggered out of bed late this morning and hung around the boat for awhile and then called a cab for a ride to the Food Lion about 2 miles away.  The  cab brought us back to the yacht club and we stowed everything and then went to the pool.  We were the only ones there.  I think it may be partially because the "O" club, the yacht clubs bar/restaurant was closed.

Yacht club pool all to ourselves

We decided not to cook on board and instead went to the highly touted Clarks restaurant next door.  It was actually pretty good.  Pricey but good.  We took a stroll along the Harbor Walk, a walkway that circles the harbor before heading back to the boat. 

June 4, 2014

Called the Southport Marina and reserved a slip for this Friday.  Hopefully the weather, which is supposed to be bad Thursday afternoon/night, will moderate enough so we can leave here and make Southport North Carolina before 5.  It’s only a 37 mile journey but at 7 miles per hour it takes a while..

Segment of Harbor Walk

I worked on a number of alternative routes the rest of the morning so we’ll have them in case we can go out to the ocean.  They’ll be handy in the fall when we comeback down this way again.  Mary slept all day because she wasn't feeling well.  I went for a nice long walk around the whole complex.  The walkway, which is a nice idea is pretty rugged with splintered boards and some leaning rails.  The whole Harbor is surrounded by Condos and at the entrance is Lightkeepers Marina with its distinctive lighthouse marking the entrance into the Harbor.

Since Mary was napping and I didn't have anything easy to cook, I went up to the Yacht Club Restaurant  for a bowel of chili and a drink.  Nice view of the harbor from up there at sunset.  And so ends another feverishly exciting day in Myrtle Beach!

June 5, 2014

Mary was still sick so I did some computer work.  Did a blog update and Google barfed on me so I lost those 3 hours of work.  Oh well.  In the afternoon I called the taxi guy again for a trip to the ever present Walmart for some last minute grocery stuff.  The taxi ride was $26 round trip.  I spent $23 at Walmart.  Walmart here was only 2 miles away which is walk-able and easily bike-able.  The trouble is the roads.  They are rural highways for the most part and have nothing resembling a bicycle lane or even a wide shoulder to walk along.  A few locals I talked with even told me its not a wise idea to try and get there on foot.  

With the approaching thunderstorms, I zipped up all the windows and pumped our holding tank using the dockside pump out facility.  This is one nice service of the marina, having  a pump out fitting spaced around all the docks.  We’re still carrying over 200 gallons of water but I changed out the water maker filters in anticipation of making water soon.  And loaded up all the new routes to the PC we use as a navigation computer.

The storms hit around 5:30 dumping buckets of rain with lightening thunder and winds.  But it only lasted about an hour and then the skies began to clear and the humidity dropped (thankfully) as did the temps.  We decided to eat at the yacht club restaurant.  It was my second time and it was still pretty good and about half the cost of Clarks where we ate the other night.

We’re ready to leave tomorrow morning, around 9 or ten depending on the weather.  Or, if its really nasty out we can always stay another night too.  We’ll see.

June 6, 2014

We were underway at 9:40.  but I almost caught the piling with the port side of the boat when after I had backed off the dock.  Guess I didn't back off far enough. Whew!  

It was at low tide and just beginning rise so we were able to ride the current up to and a little beyond little river before we had to fight it most of the way.  It was only a 36 mile journey and noting of particular interest except for more clusters of these 3 story home with 1000 foot piers and speed boats with three high horsepower outboards.  But this time we were in North Carolina and not Florida.

As we approached the inlet it go a little busy with boats coming and going.  Seems there are a number of tour boats that use Little River as their base.  Even gambling boats!

The rain, which made it's appearance yesterday seemed to be determined for a return so we kept everything buttoned up until it started to sprinkle.   But by then we were about a mile and half from the marina so I floored it, basically pushing the throttles up to about 2200 rpm for the 10 minutes it took to get to the marina entrance.  This got the oil temps up and euphemistically blew the crud out of the engines.  I wont mention how much fuel we went through doing that though.    

We called the Southport marina on the VHF and were assigned a slip, C16.  To get in there I had to turn to port off the ICW and then make a hard, 90 degree turn to port to get to the correct side of the front face dock.  Then make an immediate hard 90 degree turn to starboard to get in the proper fareway and the abruptly make a hard turn to port to actually enter the fareway.  It all ended with a hard turn to starboard into the slip all the while trying to adjust to the current which was weak but still pushing the boat around. 

All tucked in at Southport Marina

We got tied up, and then after an hour or so, headed up to the marina office complex to hear Hank give a presentation (to just us) on weather and navigation on the ICW. 

Really well done and informative!  He does this every evening for anyone who shows up.   Tonight it was just us.   His weather link is great!

The rather convoluted path to the slip

Typical side street

I took a late night walk around City of Southport and its very well kept and historic.  Many old homes with placards indicating the original builder and year of construction.  Most of the ones I saw were from the mid-late 1800’s.  And all these homes were in perfect shape.  Landscaped to perfection and seemingly freshly painted. 

Downtown looking towards the river

More typical homes

June 7, 2014

Today we are trying to decide how we continue north.  Seems the ocean is rather calm now so we are thinking we’ll just run up the ICW to Wrightsville Beach and anchor there Sunday night.  Then, if the weather forecast looks good we’ll head out to sea at sunup for the Beaufort inlet and an anchorage behind Shackleford Banks.  The only issue is the live-fire zone that runs out about 5 miles off shore and continues for ten miles up the coast.  We would save 10 miles if we could run along the coast but that’s possible only if the marines aren't shooting real ammo out there.  We’ll see how it goes.

Right outside the marina the quaintness begins

Meanwhile Mary is feeling better and took to washing the boat.  I tinkered with the A/C for the aft cabin and fabricated a replacement air filter, then laid out 10 alternative routes for us to study.  We are trying to run down Pamlico Sound and linger near the barrier islands before heading in to Albemarle Sound and Elizabeth City where we’ll enter the Dismal Swamp Canal.

Decisions, decisions.  But at least they have several ice cream stories here to choose from and tonight we’ll go out to eat thus saving my dwindling supply of club soda for rum drinks at anchor in the next few days.

Downtown river front as a freighter passes up the river

We went to eat at a place called, Fishy Fishy Cafe.  Ok food, nothing special.  Then went to bed early.

The Marina Tiki Bar

June 8, 2014

We left the marina around 11:15 so we could gain some push from the tides up the Cape Fear River.  And we did, since we were only turning 1130 rpm and doing almost 8mph. 

Swan Cut and weekend recreaters 

 A short segment of the ICW here is Swan Cut which can be a bit of an issue with 3 shallow areas.  It was low tide so we just went slow and threaded our way throw there with no problems.  This stretch of North Carolina is rather more interesting along the ICW than either Georgia or South Carolina.  I cant articulate a reason though.  Mary says the same thing.

Our anchorage neighbors

We made the turn into Shinn Creek towards Wrightsville Beach and the Masonboro Inlet  and started looking for a place to anchor.  From our vantage point, the city anchorage looked packed so we chose this alternative anchorage right in the Banks Channel which runs along the barrier island and is adjacent to the Masonboro Inlet.  We had about 8 feet of water near some sand islands right off the main channel.  Lots of wakes but as the sun goes down so does the frequency of wakes. And to add to the clamor a number of barges, tugs and dredges have taken up residence about 1/4 mile away.  Thankfully they weren't working a night shift!

The normal city anchorage in the background

The ocean looked bouncy, but the forecast is for 2 foot swells which are fine.  It looked more rough than that but in any event we’re leaving here around 9pm and heading for Beaufort overnight.  For me anyway, it’s a far better alternative than the ICW which winds through North Carolina.  There are a couple of swing bridges which have to open for us but they open at prescribed times.  If you miss one you idle near the bridge for an hour.  And of course there are a number of shallow spots to maneuver around.  And there aren't many places to anchor along the route.  The sea state over the next 3-5 days calls for 2-3 foot swells so tonight looks like a good window to hit the ocean.

We'll see what tomorrow brings.