SOUTH CAROLINA ~~ FINALLY!!!

Thursday, May 3rd

Another day closer to our destination....today was very trying by the hype and scary publishings regarding the "ROCKPILE" section of the ICW.....we read all kinds of "horror" stories about the exposed rocks.....well, we did hit it at low tide, but this proved to be fine....since we could see the exposed rocks on each side of the channel.....we had plenty of water, at least 8-12 feet even at this extreme low tide.....Jan was great and is mastering the navigation and helmsmanship.....meeting lots of nice folks, most "snow-birds" in their used trawlers, used sailboats and used motor yachts on their way home.....  

A Portion of the "Rockpile" at Low Tide!

We indulged ourselves at happy hour  (oysters on the half-shell/hush puppies and complimentary smoked mahi dip) at Barefoot Landing Marina, in North Myrtle Beach SC.....

fair winds 

ed n jan

SOUTHPORT, NC - DOCKED BEHIND TRIBUTE ~~

Tuesday, May 1st


Left Bridge Tender Marina, Wrightsville Beach, NC at 10:30 a.m. - we wanted to wait for the tides to fill in - we arrived in Southport, NC at 2 p.m.


Today was a pretty easy trip down the ICW.  We entered Snow's Cut where the water was pretty deep and this took us into the mighty Cape Fear River - it was over 40' deep - but was a little lumpy, as to be expected because of the open fetch to the Atlantic Ocean.


We had radioed ahead and made contact with the Dockmaster, Bill, at South Harbour Village Marina in Southport, NC - North Carolina's NEWEST state of the art marina facility.  We were greeted with southern hospitality -  The Dockmaster, Bill, lives on a trawler at the marina and we noted the hailing port said "Walled Lake, MI" - as it turns out, he and Jan had a commonality - both being from Michigan.  He recommended the Dead End Saloon mussels at the marina - so it didn't take much after a quick shower for us to head to the Dead End Saloon.  They were yummy and the beer was cold and the Chardonnay delightful!


As we arrived at the marina, Ed immediately noticed the beautiful sailboat docked in front of us.  He admired the seaworthiness of this sailboat.  As we walked on the dock - he noticed the name "Tribute" and said it sounded very familiar -Turns out he knows the owners of this 58' Farr sailboat.   They were liveaboards and sailed "Tribute" from San Francisco through the Panama Canal, cruised Central America where they did a lot of diving, and

WRIGHTSVILLE BEACH

Monday. April 30th - 

As we enjoyed our morning coffee and english muffins on the flybridge ~ charting our course for the next few days ~ we decided to stay one more day at Wrightsville Beach because we enjoyed the boating environment so much.  What a difference a weekday makes as far as weekend boating traffic goes ~ looks like everyone has gone back to work! 

Today turned out to be a very lazy day - we think we both needed some downtime - doing domestic boat projects, laundry, making beds, etc etc.  After deciding to stay here another day, we said to ourselves "Selves, let's rent a car and see what Wrightsville Beach is all about" ~~ Seems to be a nice vacation spot - or even a permanent residence.  There were miles of nice clean beaches -

SWANSBORO, NC

Sunday Evening, April 29, 2012


Well ~~ we are still trying to figure out this "blog" thing and we find the Post we made last night "just" posted tonight - grrrr!


We departed at 7 a.m. from "Casper's" ~ well-run family marina in Swansboro, NC .  After the weatherman promising a sunny day ~ and our loss of time on two bridge openings, we finally arrived at Bridge Tender Marina in Wrightsville Beach area - North Carolina ~ when the sun finally appeared!!   We treated ourselves to drinks and an early dinner around 3:30 p.m. at a great little cafe at the marina - We enjoyed flounder, shrimp, lemon-pepper curly fries and more and the prices were very reasonable!  We were unexpectedly treated to 3+ hours of exceptional music from a live band at the restaurant across the waterway as we relaxed with drinks on the foredeck!   It was great! 


Today, we encountered several new experiences ~ from passing a huge barge (150 feet long) with Jan at the helm and getting into 4 feet of water (Well inside the channel) - we just gently bumped the bottom (thankfully it was just mud) ~ and then waiting a half-hour or more for bridge openings - AND it being Sunday, ALL the small watercraft were everywhere - this was definitely a challenging day!

MOREHEAD YACHT BASIN & ORIENTAL

Saturday Evening (April 28, 2012)  at Mile Marker 230 ~~ on ICW (Intracoastal Waterway) headed South ~~ 

Spent last night in Morehead Yacht Basin in Morehead City, NC.  Unfortunately, our crew (Joy and Walt) had to leave us to head back to their sailboat ~ a 44' Lagoon Catamaran (S/V Joy of Tahoe).  Their CAT is located near Annapolis, MD.  They are preparing it for a Caribbean adventure in the Fall.

Morehead Yacht Basin was easy access off the ICW ~ away from big ships and very little current.  They had excellent staff to assist us and once tied up - you could get fuel, pump out and all amenities readily available on the pier.  I did feel the pump out was pricey at $12 - but a big plus was the fact that they had a courtesy van available for transients for $10 for 2 hours to go into Beaufort or Morehead Waterfront or just shopping for supplies.

Before Morehead, we were in Oriental, NC for two nights - and oh so much to blog about ~ but, since we have a long day ahead of us tomorrow ~ this exciting adventure will have to wait for our next blog - Hope you are looking forward to reading about that exciting little Village - where the Trawler next to us was a seagoing Scallop Trawler - the amazing Little Deborah.