Myrtle Beach to Carolina Beach State Park

We pulled away from the dock at 7:10 this morning (4-26-17) and slid under the swing bridge just north of Barefoot Marina with our destination of Carolina Beach State Park being about 50 miles away. About a mile further up was the beginning of the infamous “Rock Pile” we heard so much about at the rendezvous. When creating the ICW years ago they ran into about a three mile stretch of solid granite which was very difficult to cut through. The channel is deep enough but only about 80 feet wide, the shear edges are shallow and can be seen at low tide, they are just waiting for you to drift out of the channel. Stay in the deep water and you're fine but drift onto the ledge and you can cause severe damage to your boat. We don't have an autopilot and Overtime's steering tends to do it's own thing when you're not paying attention; I paid close attention through the Rock Pile this morning and we came through without a scratch.
We were in a narrow waterway for the next several hours with three inlets along the way. An “inlet” is a path to the ocean for those who wish to go, it is also a path for the tides to ebb in and out of the waterway. This ebbing causes currents which can either speed you up or slow you down, today we hit 11 mph, our previous record was 10 mph. However, we would slow to 5 or 6 mph on the flip side of each inlet.
Our narrow waterway eventually emptied into Cape Fear River at which point we would turn left and head upstream. We approached the river on an outgoing tide and were at top speed when I saw a very well defined demarcation of the rivers flow to the ocean and the waterways end. Crossing that line took an effort to guide Overtime upstream rather than downstream and our speed went from 11 mph to just 2.8 mph; we also went from smooth water to two-foot rollers with a lot of chop on top. We inched along for the next half hour until the river widened and we slowly climbed up to 5 mph but each time the river narrowed we'd slow down a bit. We had ferries to dodge and go-fast boats overtaking us much closer than we liked. We were happy to finally reach the marina at the entrance to Snows Cut about an hour later than we had originally planned.
All of which made for an interesting day and high pucker-factor passage.

The Domestic Water Leak

As I've described in a previous post our water pressure comes from a pump, when water is released from the system via a faucet or a leak the pressure drops and the pump kicks on, when the pressure in the system is built up sufficiently it will kick off. I've known we have a leak for a long time because the pump kicks on momentarily from time to time plus we slowly accumulate water in the bilge. I've looked high and low for the source with no luck until last evening. With the pump short cycling much more often lately and the bilge pump kicking on twice, I pulled the hatches and made the discovery; the cold water inlet to the hot water tank was leaking pretty bad. Okay, the hard part is over (finding the problem) now all I need to do is tighten that sucker and all will be right with the world, another problem solved, I'll feel like a macho man and my wife will be proud of me, right? Wrong, it started leaking a lot worse, damn! So what did I do? I turned off the pump, watched something on television then went to bed. Next morning I had to get this thing fixed, Kim didn't like turning the pump on then off again each time she needed water. Right after my coffee and breakfast I pulled the hatch and removed the cold water inlet line to reveal a plastic nipple protruding from the tank, I was surprised that only a little water ran out. I thought the nipple might be damaged but hoped that it wasn't, so I wrapped Teflon tape around the threads and screwed the water line back on; it leaked just the same. At the time I didn't realize how the nipple was affixed to the tank so I had this vision in my head of how it looked on the inside of the tank and a plan to resolve the problem. I won't go into my vision because, as it turns out, my vision was based entirely on alternative facts (a fashionable term these days). As Kim and I were getting ready to ride bikes to a hardware store one of our new friends, Rod, and his wife were returning to their boat. They recently completed the Great Loop and now live on their beautiful boat here at the marina in the Myrtle Beach area. I asked Rod to take a look at the fitting and I ran my vision and solution by him. Turns out he started off in life as a plumber then moved into plumbing-fittings sales then into management then into company ownership. I could not believe my luck, I could not have found a more qualified person to help. Plus he and his wife are two of the nicest people we've ever met, they loaned us their car yesterday. Anyway, after listening to my vision of the issue and my solution to the problem Rod knew I was no plumber and not much of a handyman, but he never let on. He was amazed someone had installed a plastic nipple and said Teflon tape doesn't work well on plastic, so we applied some pipe dope, hooked her back up and it still leaked; apparently, the plastic nipple was cracked. Now here's where the expertise of my new best friend comes into play, he knew that the nipple simply unscrewed from the tank, something I didn't realize. He also had a wrench to remove the nipple, none of mine fit. In addition, he had a stainless steel “hex long nipple” that he gave me and would not accept payment, just a request that I help the next guy. So, we applied some pipe dope, hooked everything together and after snugging it good and tight we resolved a problem that I could have messed around with for two or three days.

McClellanville to Myrtle Beach

Kim’s Korner:

We stopped at Leland Oil in McClellanville for the night. Since the town pretty much closes at 5:00, we rushed over to the seafood market and bought some shrimp to make shrimp boil for dinner. We removed the 33-year-old oven/stove from the boat when we bought it and chose not to replace it. We use the grill, microwave and toaster oven regularly. We bought an induction hot plate as well which we’ve only used a few times but so far has worked really well and I can use it on the aft deck so it doesn’t heat or stink up the cabin. I have only missed the oven/stove a few times and have used the space for storage which has worked for us. Sorry – I didn’t mean to get off on that.

After the fog lifted, we visited Georgetown which is a small, quaint town with good restaurants and gift shops. They have several small museums and we had just enough time to settle in and see one before it closed at 5:00. The best part of the day though was watching the pelicans dive for food. Ok so I’ve seen this all along but there were just so many today – maybe it was because we were in narrow channels which made it seem like there were more. I mean every time I looked, at least three would be smacking the water. I’ve noticed at the inlets, the areas which open to the Atlantic, I’ll see so many more birds as well as dolphins so I’m assuming the fish at these inlets must be more in number or much better in taste. :-)

I finally saw an alligator from OVERTIME – yay – long overdue! It was small but it was an alligator! We also saw bald eagles for the first time in quite a while. Also – lots of horseflies, deer flies and some little things that didn’t bite but were everywhere! Watch David in the video I took of him ;-)  I actually had only two “bugs” try to bite me the whole day so it wasn’t like we were being eaten alive but… they were everywhere! David was swatting at them left and right – he was quite amusing :-) I finally sent him down to the “closed up” cabin for lunch and to chill a bit.

Friday, we had the most beautiful scenery yet – maybe on the whole trip so far. The marshes gave way to swamps with cypress trees and it lined both sides of the ICW for maybe 30 miles on the Waccamaw River. The water was deep and we saw maybe three boats total – and those were small fishing boats. We saw numerous osprey nests with the parents in the nests so I’m assuming there were eggs. It was just a gorgeous day! The day ended with us at Barefoot Marina in Myrtle Beach – nothing quiet or peaceful here!

While in Myrtle Beach, we rode our bikes to the beach and again enjoyed riding them on the beach. We saw a lot of big jellyfish on the sand during low tide – not sure I’d want to be swimming in that water. Our neighbor boat just finished the loop several weeks ago and this is their home port. They are the nicest people ever and even offered us a car to use so we took them up on it and went to the Tanger Outlet Mall which is about 5 miles away – what can I say – I thoroughly enjoyed myself but was very careful about what I bought since we do have limited space. Today has been rainy which has been good – David did some work on the boat and I’ve been trying to plan future stops as well as catch up on our blog. Planning and blogging can be very time-consuming! And when there is no wifi… which of course there hasn’t been so we’ll upload my pictures later – ugh!
Leland Oil at McClellanville SC Pictures!
Harborwalk at Georgetown SC Pictures!
Myrtle Beach Pictures!

Charleston to McClellanville, SC

Kim’s Korner:
This was our second anchorage with our new Rocna anchor and so far, so good! We headed to St. John’s Yacht Harbour in Charleston which was only a few miles away so we arrived early. We got settled in and uber’d over to downtown Charleston Easter morning for a carriage ride tour. Our guide had been a teacher for 10 years and knew her history very well – she reminded us both of Tiffany. The city of Charleston doesn’t allow trolley tours – only carriage and walking tours. Evidently, we lucked out and Easter was a slow day for downtown Charleston tourism which totally worked for us! Afterward, we both had fish tacos at the Charleston Crab House for lunch and then walked around and visited the Old Exchange building and provost dungeon which was very interesting. It’s been interesting being able to visit St. Augustine, then Savannah, Beaufort and then Charleston as their history seems very intertwined – it’s really been interesting.
Monday, we had a wonderful visit with Beth and Jim. This was the first family we’ve seen since Christmas and it was really nice. And of course, we had to celebrate their 50th anniversary!
Today, we visited the Middleton Place which was beautiful! It has existed since 1741 and has lots of history. The grounds and gardens were just so peaceful and we spent almost six hours just taking in the beauty of it all. We saw an alligator on the lawn early in the morning and several of them swimming in the flooded rice field later in the day. We had a delicious meal at the restaurant and just thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.
Wednesday, we stayed at McClellanville, SC which is a small shrimping town which we took full advantage of at their local fish market. Today, we are heading to Georgetown, SC.

David's

   Middleton Place Pictures!

Kim's

   Stono River Pictures!

   Charleston Pictures!

Jacksonville to South Carolina

Kim's Korner:

We crossed the Florida line into Georgia! It seems we have been in Florida for so long! Georgia brings the marshlands for us to appreciate – amazing and beautiful! And when the tide is out, the marsh speaks to us – it pops and crackles - I kid you not. What appears to be acres and acres of marshland are visible – so relaxing and I love seeing and hearing all the birds! I take pictures but the pictures do not do justice to the beauty which surrounds us. I’ve been told by many that it looks like boats are moving on grass and you will see them over and over again as they snake thru the ICW and that is exactly what we do see. I’ve heard that many do not enjoy this leg of the trip. I have thoroughly enjoyed this Georgia journey and would do it again in a heartbeat!
I need to back up a bit. I apologize for our blog being so late but we’ve been busy! We stayed at a beautiful marina, Ortega Landing, just outside Jacksonville, FL while bad storms and winds swept through. We had planned to do the St. John’s River by boat but since weather kept us in the marina, we did rent a car and drive to Palatka and Sanford, both towns on the St. John’s. The highlight was Blue Springs State Park where the water was crystal clear made possible by a spring that rose thru a crack you could see. Scuba divers are welcome as the crack leads to underground caves that can be explored. The swimmers we did see were quite cold when they emerged but were definitely enamored by what they had seen. During the colder months, manatees visit here by the hundreds but they had moved on as it had warmed quite a bit when we visited. We were able to see gar and sunfish quite clearly.
We made our way from Jacksonville to a mooring ball at Fernandina Beach on Amelia Island which totally has it going on! Restaurants, boutiques, and gift shops lined the streets and all were busy with tourists. We then crossed into Georgia to Brunswick. We were there on a Sunday and Brunswick downtown is absolutely dead on a Sunday! That place has so much potential and hopefully, one day, it will be a booming downtown on every day, Sunday included. Beautiful old schools, churches, homes and garden squares that the English colonists modeled after England. We did find a Thai restaurant which was open and enjoyed a delicious meal. We next anchored at Cane Patch Creek (31.817883,-81.133967) which was absolutely beautiful and well protected. The early morning brought calls and songs from birds I’ve never heard but would love to learn.
From there, we made our way to Isle of Hope Marina which is near Savannah and spent time seeing what we could. We took a tour in Savannah, ate at Mrs. Wilkes restaurant (which was amazing) and enjoyed walking the downtown area as well as the riverfront area. The most memorable place was the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist – when I entered, my breath was totally taken away – it was absolutely beautiful! The next day, we took our bikes to the Wormsloe Estate which was interesting. The most impressive part was the 1.6-mile driveway lined by 404 Live Oaks - of those, 396 had been planted several centuries ago – really nice!
Next was Beaufort, SC! We stayed at Port Royal Landing Marina which was very nice and we were able to ride our bikes from there into Beaufort. Beaufort has more beautiful antebellum homes and a really nice downtown area containing more great restaurants and boutiques as well as a very nice riverfront area and park. I’ll upload pictures from there when we get WiFi again.
Today, we are at an anchorage just 4 miles from St. John’s Yacht Harbor where we plan to stay the next three nights and see a smidgen of Charleston as well as visit my sister Beth and her husband Jim, whose 50th wedding anniversary is quickly approaching – congratulations Beth and Jim!
Whew – glad to get caught up! I hope everyone has a wonderful Easter!

David's

   Cane Patch Creek Pictures!

   Savannah Pictures!

Kim's

   Fernandina Pictures!

   Brunswick Pictures!

   Canes Patch Creek Pictures!

   Savannah Pictures!
   Beaufort Pictures!

Saint Augustine to Jacksonville

We untied from the municipal mooring ball at 6:50 am and headed over to the fuel dock for a pump-out and to pick up our bicycles (29.891660, -81.308437). Thirty minutes later and a quick check with our buddies on Le Marie Sofie and we were on our way north once again. The Bridge of Lions is located right next to the marina and it's 25-foot vertical clearance allowed for easy passage; we require 19 feet. About 10 minutes later we rounded a bend and made a left turn staying with the ICW rather than traversing the St. Augustine Inlet into the Atlantic Ocean. We had an incoming tide which was helpful while we were near the inlet but as we traveled through the Palm Valley area with its beautiful homes and numerous docks we started fighting it because influx was now coming from St Johns River. The Beach Blvd Bridge was challenging, this is a pinch point in the waterway causing rapids just under the bridge. As I approached I noticed a sailboat coming from the other direction and timing would have our meeting in the worst section of the torrent. Boats moving with the current have the right-of-way so I backed off the throttle and held my position as she shot the rapids sort-a-speak. I was concerned my 90 hp beast might not overcome the deluge, I was hoping the boats behind would leave room for me to abort, but I was pleasantly surprised, she powered through. We were heading to the Saint Johns River where we would leave the ICW by taking a left and going to Ortega Landing Marina (30.277696, -81.713406). We are hoping to travel upstream (South) for a few days and check out the wildlife, however, with 4 or 5 days of foul weather moving in we may stay hunkered down at our present location and forgo the tour.
Pictures!