Today was a good day, but a long one as well. We did not get underway until 8:30 this morning. There were at least 10 fixed bridges ahead of us today, including one almost as soon as we got underway. We also dealt with several swing bridges. I wanted us to get underway before the local low tide so that most of the bridges would have a bit of extra clearance. We did well, only scraping the very last bridge just before the merge of the Waccamaw River and the Great Pee Dee River (who ever came up with that name?)..Our starting point was MM "346". We finally shut it down this evening around 6:15PM at MM "430"..a good 84 miles today.
So here are some of our bridge adventures...
Note that there is a swing bridge in the background (now why would they need two bridges this close together?).
Note the sailboat in front of us here. This is the "Southerly" from Maine. This fellow was sailing south single handed..not sure where he was ending his journey, but we have crossed paths the last few days.
This bridge was just south of Myrtle Beach...and this next pic is what it looks like up close and personal.
The little "V" with the arrow is the windex. The circular antenna is a broadcast TV antenna which actually sits below the top of the mast height of 63' 6". The VHF marine radio whip antenna is about to be 4" below the steel beam of this bridge. The top of the windex is 64' 7". The top of the VHF whip is 66' 0".
And here is one more swing bridge. These things are amazing!
And finally, this is a bascule bridge. The reason for two bridges here is that the bascule bridge is a train bridge. It is normally open.
Right at Myrtle Beach, there is a section of the ICW known as the "Rock Pile". Here is why.
These photos were taken at low tide. Normally, they are 2-3 feet below water, drifting toward the side of the fairly narrow channel can ruin your day! The rock pile continued about 15 miles before opening up into the Waccama River.
This is an interesting photo..so what is it??
Here is a hint..we were cruising past North Myrtle Beach Airport. For those of us who are pilots, we know this as a VOR Beacon. It transmits a signal that is encoded and can tell the pilot what direction he is from this beacon.
As we were motoring along, this just caught our attention... (you can click on this image to blow it up to full size).
New York - 657, Miami - 720. FWIW, we have at least 200 miles to go past Miami.
During the day we traversed some remote geography, including a long stretch of the Waccamaw River, the Esterville Minim Creek Canal, and portions of the North and South Santee Rivers. There were many miles of marsh and uninhabited (a least by humans) real estate.
In fact, in the last two hours of our trip today, this is the only sign of civilization that we saw until we arrived in the tiny fishing village of McCellanville, SC.
This is a two car ferry..and the only sign of a road that we saw for more than 20 miles.
Lastly, there were many bird pictures that we took today..but this one made the blog...
All in all not a bad day..only scraped one bridge, covered more than 80 miles, temperatures were in the 80s (I see that the lows are in the 30s tonight in York, PA)...no rain, and no wrong turns.
It is 11PM and planning is done for tomorrow. Vic has crashed and I am close behind...Now all we need to day is to keep the rain at bay on Wednesday!
Comments