Days 18-23 - Wrapping Up Our Shake Down Cruise

Current Position: 33° 55' 18" N  78° 3' 40" W

So happy to be back to Southport and all our new friends.  Feels so welcoming.  Due to the marina being dredged, we are tied up to the "Transient Dock".  This is the dock for traveling boaters and the one we will be staying at frequently when in a marina (we will anchor out most of the time).  It is subject to more wind and wakes from passing boats, but is closer to the laundry and restrooms.  Talking about wind....we arrived just prior to the thunderstorm of all thunderstorms!  When it began, I sat outside on the bow trying to catch a thunderbolt on camera, as there was no rain to begin with.  The lightening was too far away so I finally gave up and came inside.  Two minutes later the skies opened up and the rain came down in sheets!  We couldn't even see anything out the windows.  The wind kept us pinned against the dock and made our fenders (bumpers) squeak all night.  Thank goodness the thunder and lightening did not continue the next day.  The wind, on the other hand, was fierce for 2 days - up to 40mph.  It was on the cool side - around 65 - but sunny.  

We rented a car for the weekend - Enterprise has a nice weekend deal for $30 as long as you don't travel farther than 300 miles.  We got our grocery shopping done on Friday, sightseeing and boat errands on Saturday, and church and visiting on Sunday, squeezing in as much visiting time with our new friends as possible.

We learned first hand how helpful "Harbor Hosts" are.  AGLCA (America's Great Loop Cruisers Association) has volunteer "Harbor Hosts" at many cities around the Great Loop as well as other cities where people would like to learn about The Great Loop.  Southport has 3 Harbor Hosts.  We did not realize how to find them until we met with the director of the Association in Charleston.  She put us in touch with the 3 in Southport.  Patsy met us within an hour of our docking and offered us transportation shopping or what ever we needed.  Robert and Kay came over on Friday and gave us much information on the marinas, anchorages, and waterways around us, then invited us to come to their home on Sunday for more information.  They introduced us to a wonderful set of books about the waterways and even gave us a spare copy!  We toured their boat and received more information to help us on our wonderful adventure.  We will definitely check in with the Harbor Hosts in future cities.

Reminiscing about our 2 1/2 weeks going south, we decided it was a success.  Ups and downs but we learned a great deal about our boat and ourselves.  We are much more comfortable at anchor now as well as taking the dinghy out for a spin.  Bob is getting more proficient in docking skills and I on the lines.  We are looking forward to more adventures as we go north!

Here are some pictures from our week in Southport:

 We went to the Azalea Festival in Wilmington.  The Azalea's were mostly done but the street fair was fun.  New and different foods:

 Ribbon Fries or Butterfly fries are homemade potato chips!

 Bob and I shared one of these for lunch - quite delicious!

 A lovely southern belle

 Loved this restaurant with private balconies

 Ron Thomas - check out this re-purposed building.  

 The few Azaleas that we found

My biggest blunder?  Missing - pictures of our friends!!!  Please take some and send to us!!!

Day 17 - Back to Civilization

Current Position: 33° 52' 20" N 78° 34' 10" W

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

Days 15 & 16 - Farewell Salt marshes

As we say farewell to the salt marshes, we enter the gorgeous areas of cypress swamps.

I have been under the weather for awhile so have stayed below while Bob gets to see the beautiful scenery and bald eagles that land in their nest right in front of him!  We are following the Waccamaw River UPSTREAM so our speed is drastically reduced giving us more time to enjoy the scenery.

Since we are retracing our route going south a little over a week ago, we are seeing some familiar sights.  Remember the fire?  It is still smoking and between the smoke and the morning mist it was perfect picture taking time!  Sorry for so many pictures but I had trouble choosing my favorites.

 I think this is my favorite.

We anchored as far inland as we could, knowing a severe thunderstorm was bearing down on us.  The anchorage was beautiful and we were all by ourselves until dusk when a catamaran pulled in.  Plenty of room for both of us :)  The storm hit right after our neighbors pulled in - I bet they were grateful to get anchored in time!  Long flashes of lightening lit up the boat.  Luckily nothing hit too close but it was a nervous 45 minutes before the worst of it passed.  The thunder slowly tapered off and the soft rain lulled us to sleep.  It was a quiet night after the storm and a beautiful, peaceful morning.

Blessings on your day!

Anchored in Bull Creek near Bucksport, SC

Day 15 - The Ocean!

Current Position: 32° 53' 22" N 79° 39' 26" W

A beautifully smooth travel day.    When we went south a week ago (Day 6), crossing the river by Charleston was VERY rough and Captain Bob was so grateful to be out of that melee. Today was sooooo different - very little wind and calm waters.  Charleston as a city is extremely low profile, both in sea level and building heights. The city is only 20 ft above sea level at its highest point and there are only a handful of buildings taller than a few stories.

We saw several fun and interesting boats in the harbor.

 A Huge sailing ship

 A Coast Guard Cutter that LOOKS like it's carrying a Coast Guard speed boat.  Bob says it's not.

Some kind of gigantic barge.  Not sure what it was carrying.

Being a Saturday and beautiful weather to boot, there were more boats out than we have seen on our trip so far.  Mostly speedy little fishing boats, but a few jet skis thrown in for good measure.

 These little guys can really kick up a wake.

                                     

This was the most interesting fishing set up.  He was poling the boat like in Venice, while his kids fished.

All the boats at the state park.

The water was extra pretty in the sunlight and the birds were having fun.

 Fun water patterns

 The laughing gulls followed in our wake most of the morning

More birds on the day marker

And finally we made it to the ocean.  We anchored the boat in a river near the inlet and took the dinghy to the shore.  We walked the beach and found our first conch shells.  They are all over!  There were palm trees turned to drift wood, horseshoe crab shells, and jelly fish all over the place.  

 Conch shells

 Palm Tree

 Unusual shore line

Horseshoe crab

The highlight of the day other than the ocean was that I finally caught several dolphins on film!

Anchored in Price River