Progress

We left Bull Creek at 8:45 on Tuesday.  We should have left at dawn!  We had to stop and get fuel at Osprey Marina (which is where we sat out hurricane Irene 2 years ago) in south Myrtle Beach.  That took forty-five minutes.  Then the trip through Myrtle Beach!!  It took over 4 hours for us to get to north Myrtle Beach, talk about spread out.  We saw mansions, small older houses (not many) and life from the 'backside', not impressive. 

We ended up staying in a marina in Little River because we just couldn't make it to our destination which was Southport N.C.  I am always trying to save $$ by not staying at a marina but sometimes it is the prudent way to go.  If Gary had had his way, we would have stayed in Osprey Monday, and been to Southport by Tuesday night.  So my payback was having to get up at 5:30 Wednesday morning to hoof it to Southport from Little River which took four hours!!  The reason for all of this was getting through the Cape Fear River before the tide went out.  We have been fighting the tide most of the trip which pulls our speed from 8+ to 7 MPH.  Makes a big difference in time and fuel.

The beautiful Waccamaw River in S.C.  

Gary and Bob fueling up at Osprey

Along the ICW Myrtle Beach

Older Places like these in Little River are few and far between, most are being replaced by......

A favorite way to spend vacation $$$ in Myrtle Beach, rent a jet ski, and speed up and down the narrow waterway.  Watching them you must remember that you too were once young and crazy instead of old and cautious!

Myrtle Beach from the 'backdoor'







Now THIS is camping!!!!!

Her shrimping days are definitely over.



Sunrise on the waterway Little River, S.C.

Wednesday we pulled into Wrightsville Beach at 2:30.  It has been dubbed "where the wealthy go for the weekend" and believe me looking at the 'beach shacks' here, that is an understatement.  We had thought the anchorage was too small for us but after friends telling us that wasn't the case we thought we'd try it.  It was plenty big enough, but very busy with small boats piloted by, I'll be politically correct here, "younger adults" who only know one speed, WIDE OPEN. So we headed for shore to check it out.  Nice beach, wall to wall houses and lots of rentals.

Just a little "getaway"

Hauled anchor and got to the bridge about a quarter to eight.  They only open on the hour between 7 and 7 due to the heavy traffic.  It is a very congested bridge with a narrow channel with a strong current and sport fish boats tied up everywhere.  We were one of two boats waiting to go through and just as we got there a barge decided to move and tie up to the bridge for some work, making the narrow passage even narrower.  We were both like, "seriously??"  they couldn't have waited for 15 minutes for the boat traffic to be through?

We passed "RA" after leaving Wrightsville Beach at about 9 am.  It is an electric boat powered by solar.  Note the solar panels on the side (both sides) above the cabin and on the front deck.  At 6:00 after we had been in Mile Hammock Bay since 1:15 it glided on by.  So it was about 5 hours behind us and we were travelling at 7 miles per hour.  They go really slow!  This morning they were anchored off the channel, I guess they must travel from sun up to sun down via solar power.  COOL

The bridge opened on time and we made it through with no problems and continued our journey to  Mile Hammock Bay at Camp LeJeune where we were treated (??) to eleven hours of helicopters doing touch down maneuvers. At one point during the night I thought they were trying to land on our solar panels!   This small basin used to host amphibian maneuvers but after last night I think they've turned it into a helo tactical strip. The positive side is they are obviously training on getting our troops out of harms way very quickly and practice makes perfect.

We left at daybreak this morning, headed for Cape Lookout on the Outer Banks.  It is supposed to be a great weekend with very low winds so we are taking our chance now to go outside to the banks.

Early morning start picture taken by my not so I-Phone  :-) 

That's all the good news,  the bad news is......I broke my camera yesterday. I know, that is not an option....but alas, I dropped it and it didn't like it. That was an "oh, #&%*, can't believe I did that moment!!  SOOOOO....it may be a while before I have more pictures to entertain you with.  I don't think there is anywhere to get a camera before Norfolk and I am very ticked off at myself because now I won't be able to take pictures at Cape Lookout.  Couldn't have happened at a worse time!

  

  

Well, on this stop I Fell in LOVE!!!!   

  If I was 20 years younger I would have found my new home. Georgetown is the third oldest city in South Carolina with over 200 homes built from the early 1700's to the early 1900's.  It is an historic jewel with a lively waterfront, a lot of great restaurants and shopping.  Some would say a tourist trap, but the city is so lovely that it over rides even the obtrusive steel mill at the end of the harbor and one of the country's largest paper plants in the distance.  Georgetown was  the wealthiest city in the U.S. in the mid 1700's due to its many rice plantations the homes from that century are still standing and occupied today.  Like Charleston, there is a strict policy for updating homes and it shows.  It is a beautiful city, well worth the stop.

Pulling into Georgetown Harbor after a very heavy rainstorm

Sunset in the rain

The next day with a sunny beautiful harbor
and not your everyday 1st mate

taking "At Ease Captain" literally!

what part of relax don't you understand???
(I just had to try out my new metal polish...sweet stuff)

That's us in the distance Tie a Knot all tied up

great veggies at the Georgetown Farmers Market

part of the Georgetown Shrimp flotilla at dock

house from the early 1700's

Downtown Georgetown

Home in the historic district

The streets of the historic end of town are tree lined and meticulously maintained

Southern Beauty

 This plaque tells the story of the tree below. 

It is now almost 600 years old.  

This house was built in 1765.  The roof in the back is part of it.  
It was in "new" condition...lots of love for sure.

a poor boat in "not so new" condition

My current shell cache

Our anchorage for last night and tonight....about halfway from
Georgetown to South Myrtle Beach
and yes it's another 'Bull Creek'  a very popular waterway name in the south evidently, Bull creeks and rivers.

Our anchorage with one other boat.  All of the day boats left by 7:00 so a quiet night

Not so quiet today....makes us have to remind ourselves that we were young too and probably drove the Algonac adults wild with our water skiing.  This boat has been using us for a 'ski bouy' today with DAD at the helm....some never grow up!

A Zebra Swallowtail.  He was having trouble balancing because of the missing tail  so he didn't stop long enough for a good picture.

Our resident horsefly.  He's over an inch long and has been bothering me since yesterday.  I keep shooing him away because I just don't have the heart to swat him.  Gary says I'll be sorry when he bites me. 

Gary's always right.

Charleston and Beyond

Yesterday started out with more rain, so much in fact that we could barely see where we were going.  Never a good thing!  We touched bottom once, which means less than 4 feet of water under us, but made it through without grounding.

I think we're going to have to replace those curtains....unless we can get mother nature to quit with the rain!





They whizzed by just before the rain really started to come down and before we got to the shallow spot.  We expected to hear them calling Sea Tow, but nada.  Guess it was their
"Guardian Monkey".....  Don't we think the name should be Monkey Girl??  I shouldn't make fun though..."Bob" won't like it.  :-)

Not so lucky were quite a few boaters ahead of us, north of Charleston  at low tide in the skinny ICW canal that runs by Sullivan's and Isle of Palms Islands.  After the first grounding everyone was chattering to each other about depths and sitting and waiting for the tide to come in.  Low tide was at 11 and we went through that cut at 3pm.  It was still pretty shallow but not a problem.
I guess when your boat goes aground here at low tide you just sit and wait for the tide to rise and off you go....  Of course in a perfect world you wait until mid tide to go anywhere...that's why having a "schedule" doesn't work on a boat!!!


                                               Fort Sumter ...Charleston Harbor

One of the "Battery" beauties in Charleston..definitely a place to visit if you haven't.  

                                                 We'll stop again in the fall .

Anyhow.....we found a fabulous place to anchor last night.  Toomor Creek, which opens into the Atlantic.  There was very little boat traffic at 6pm and it was a calm quiet night with our own white noise surf in the background.  PERFECT.
This morning we decided to take the dink to the beach which was just a stones throw away.  The tide was going out again and since we were on the north end of Isle Of Palms where it is a bird refuge we had it to ourselves.
I collected Sand Dollars and a lot of little shells to (hopefully) add to my baskets.

North End Isle of Palms

This Horseshoe Crab was trying to bury itself in the sand until the tide came back in.  
                               He had about 7 hours to go...hope he made it.

            This one...not so lucky..it was going around in circles...you can see the tracks.

Today's stretch of the ICW  was a different story.  We spent most of the day in Marsh Fly Hell!!!  Gary is worn out from swatting them.  I mean REALLY...couldn't they go find a cow to bother or something!

Darn it!!   I wanted to capture the moment on this.  He was in a fly swatting frenzy and  he wasn't winning!!

So tonight we anchored out in the bay which again leads to the ocean.  It's a little bumpy right now, but the breeze is enough now that we are out of the marsh that we don't have to stay inside the boat to escape "THE FLY"!

Tomorrow is 2 nights in the marina at Georgetown to shop, launder and get ready for the next jaunt up the coast.  We're hoping to get to the outer banks this time but as always plans are weather dependent.

          Anchored here tonight...tomorrow up to Georgetown in the upper left corner.

     Promise not to be in your inbox for a couple of days   :-)