A smooth day. The middle of the morning we left the beauty of the Waccamaw River and entered the ICW bordered by home, after home, after home. We had hoped to tie up to a city dock in North Myrtle Beach and do some shopping and maybe see a movie, but the depth at the dock was too shallow so we continued on to the anchorage we stayed at 2+ weeks ago when we first left Southport. It's been fun seeing the progress on building projects along the way in just 2 weeks. Here is a bridge being built. How would you like to be one of the guys on top?
When you need to have a bridge opened, you must call the tower, as we discussed in an earlier post. So far, whenever we have called, they have been able to open immediately. Today, for the first time, she told us we needed to wait 10 min. We discussed whether to idle and wait or drop anchor. We opted to drop anchor - oops! As soon as the anchor was down the bridge called to say she was opening! I quickly pulled up the anchor only to find I also picked up a nest of several branches and rope as well! .
I got it up high enough to continue on but thought we'd have to wait until we stopped for the night to remove the mass. Luckily leaving it in the water while we were running floated everything off. A sailboat that we passed radioed us and asked if we knew we had a tree on our bow! We are so glad it remedied itself as we didn't really want to try dropping our secondary anchor without the windlass. Those babies are heavy! We need to figure out a way to rig the second anchor should we ever really need it.
The second swing bridge we went through today was another adventure. We followed a sailboat through the "Rock Pile". We went through at low tide so we could see all the rocks on the side. (so we don't hit them)
Another boat came up behind us and followed us through. You don't want to pass another boat for fear of hitting a "rock". After successfully navigating the "Rock Pile" the boat behind us passed us and then the sailboat leaving a large wake behind. We took it alright but the poor sailboat really rocked and rolled. Sure hope they had everything tied down inside. They sent a radio message to the boat "Thanks for the wake!" It is courteous to slow down before you pass someone. The fun part is there was another swing bridge ahead and the bridge operator made the first boat wait for the sailboat and us before she opened the bridge.
We made quite a procession going through. A fishing boat was waiting on the other side to cross through after us!
A fairly busy day, wouldn't you say? Now we are anchored for the evening and look forward to seeing all our friends in Southport tomorrow!
I'll leave you with some more fun pictures from today:
I just love interesting roots.
And trees in the river?
How about a golf course that carries you over the river in a gondola?
A pretty bridge
More pretty houses...
And of course the boats:
Lots of party boats today
And jet skis everywhere
Little speed boats mean wakes, wakes, and more wakes
This was a TowBoat towing a barge, another boat was pushing and a third boat was tied on for the ride! The people on the attached boat were enjoying their lunch.
And lastly - the interesting art work one sees in people's yards!
Anchored at Calabash Creek
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