On To North Carolina

Friday, 26 April – Johns Island to Georgetown, SC – 70 mi.

Cloudy, 62 degrees, strong tidal currant up river. Didn’t take long to get to Charleston Harbor, guarded by Fort Sumter at the entrance.

Then, tucked in a corner is a narrow channel where the ICW goes north. In fact, most of the ICW here is a series of narrow channels connecting inlets that go out to the ocean.  The Georgetown marinas are on a small loop of the Sampit River, near the confluence of the Pee Dee and Waccamaw Rivers that flow into Winyah Bay then out to the Atlantic. Georgetown is South Carolina’s third oldest city (founded in 1729). In 1840, this area produced half of the rice consumed in the US, and Georgetown was the hub of carrying plantation produce to market. We docked at the Harborwalk Marina, since it was closest to the restaurants in old town. We biked around a bit.
We met a talking parrot – a white parrot in a cage on the sidewalk that not only repeated whatever we said, but laughed everytime we did.
We enjoyed dinner at the River Room, recommended by our harbormaster.


Saturday, 27 April – Georgetown to Myrtle Beach, SC – 49 mi.

Cloudy, calm, 62 degrees. This stretch of the ICW has several narrow sections. They are quite nice, though, with lots of trees, unlike the barren stretches through Georgia. We were surprised to see a tugboat pushing a huge barge up the channel. He had to have some forward-looking sonar to tell him where the ditch was, in order to navigate the barge up the winding river.

We encountered two sailboats, anchored and waiting for the tide to drop a foot, so that they could pass under a fixed 64 foot bridge.
There was a festival at the Socastee swing bridge, just celebrating its existence – people will party for any reason (God bless them).

We followed a boat called After 4 into the Barefoot Landings Marina, tying up to the floating dock just behind it. Turns out that After 4 has nothing to do with happy hour. Bob and Pam Haigh bought the boat after they raised four children.  And when we went up to the flybridge for a glass of wine, we found we were docked right next to a restaurant. We met Dan and Cindy having wine and
cheese at eye level not 10 ft away.  Our friends Hans and Audrey Polzer have a place in Myrtle Beach, so we texted them to say we were here, thinking of them while they were out of town. But it turns out they were in town at the golf course. They suggested
meeting for dinner at Greg Norman’s Australian Grille. Do you believe we were docked at that very restaurant! It was truly a pleasure to see them – unexpected pleasure – and our conversation was so involved, we forgot to take their picture. Nice end to a nice day.

Sunday, 28 April – Myrtle Beach to Wrightsville Beach, North Carolina – 70 mi.

Cloudy, 62 degrees. We pulled off the dock early, figuring we would get to Southport and Bald Head Island in time to ride our bikes and

explore the island and lighthouse. After 4 pulled out just ahead of us,
and we went through the first of several swing bridges together.
 Soon we were on the Little River. Couldn’t resist playing the Little River Band album on the stereo.  The river was a busy thoroughfare, with recreational boaters, fishing trawlers, gambling cruise ships, and tugs pushing barges.  An updated weather forecast predicted heavy

rains tomorrow. Not wanting to pilot the boat in such conditions, we realized we would lose a day to weather. To keep on our schedule to
make the AGLCA rendezvous, we decided to leapfrog over Bald Head Island (yes, we missed the lighthouse) and forge ahead to Wrightsville Beach, following our new-found friends on After 4.  That took us up the Cape Fear River, a major port entrance with huge tankers, then up a narrow channel to Myrtle Grove Sound, eventually to Wrightsville. We docked at the Seapath Yacht Club and watched the sunset over wine and cheese with Bob and Pam.

Monday, 29 April – Seapath Yacht Club, Wrightsville Beach, North Carolina

It rained all morning. We slept in. Bloody Marys, leisurely breakfast, nice hot showers. Then it stopped raining.  We met a family from

Vancouver who were sailing to Ireland by way of Bermuda and the Azores. And we thought we were on an adventure… Anticipating rain off and on all day, we did some chores. I blew up the fenders, since they were a little low on air. I superglued a dowel rod that came loose from a shelf (you know, big stuff). Charli did some laundry (the washer and dryer were in the ladies room).  The marina has a courtesy car available, so we borrowed it to run some errands – I got a haircut, Charli got a pedicure, and we went to the Harris Teeter for groceries (kind of a cross between a Publix and a Whole Foods). I said groceries, but I meant water, beer, wine, cheese, pistachios, and bread – the important stuff for happy hour which was approaching quickly. And we enjoyed the fruits of our labor.