Today Vic and I finally got to set sail together. Steve dropped us off at the boat at 8:30AM. We had a couple of loads of clean clothes, plus Vic's suitcase to get loaded and then we cast off from alongside the docks at the Bridge Tender Marina. It was just past low tide, so I was feeling rather comfortable about the the fixed bridges that I would encounter over the next 4 hours.
Unfortunately, about 10 miles south, at MM "293.5", Carolina Inlet, we ran aground right in the middle of the channel. We hit hard and the boat lurched forward to a hard stop. There was a commercial fisherman on the west bank of the ICW yelling at me. When I finally had my wits to listen, he was saying that the channel had shoaled across and I needed to go out of the channel to the east to work around...but first I would have to turn the boat around and head north for a couple hunderd yards before I could get back across the channel. This turned out to be quite a task, as I mushed my way through the bottom and got stuck twice more. I was about ready to call the Boat US Towboat when I managed to use my bow thrusters to slide sideways and finally get back up to the north a bit and take another shot. We bounced a few times, but finally got past the inlet and back into 12' of water. This all took about 20 minutes.
We were on our way once again. Shortly thereafter, the ICW cuts across to the Cape Fear RIver via Snow's Cut. We managed this transition with no problems, picked up the BIG River, and headed south.
Current was running south and we were making almost 9 knots (anything over about 8.3 knots is a gift). While motoring south, The Southport Ferry crossed our path. It is a long way back up to Wilmington and across the river, so this ferry was rather active (we saw two of them leaving the Southport terminal).
We headed down as far as Southport, just before entering the Atlantic when we made a turn to starboard to pick up the ICW channel. Onward to Myrtle Beach!
There are some beautiful homes along the Waterway along this route. Seems as if they just got nicer as we got closer to the South Carolina line and Myrtle.
There are several ocean inlets that cut across the ICW. Shoaling is a problem at most of these. We were a bit more wary after our experience at Carolina inlet. We watched local traffic a bit more carefully at Lockwoods Folly Inlet, and Shollote River inlet, and managed to avoid running aground. We were also helped by the rising tide. Along this section of the ICW, high tide was around 4PM today. This likely kept us out of big trouble at the inlets, but as we progressed farther to the south, it made each bridge a bit more difficult.
As Twice Blessed crossed under 4 bridges, each was a bit closer to catastrophe. The last bridge at MM "333" was showing 66 feet on the boards, but we hit the VHF antenna about 1 foot down on the whip. Since we had the antenna measured at 66'0", I am becoming more and more circumspect about the accuracy of the level indicating boards on the bridges. Tomorrow I am planning to depart before low tide and let the large tide swing on this part of our journey (>5 feet), give us some cushion on the fixed bridges to come.
Birds are everywhere along the Waterway, especially cormorants and pelicans. There is always one more "bird picture" to suck me in. Here is the one for today!
The last bridge of the day was the only pontoon bridge that we will encounter in our journey southward. The Sunset Bridge won't be in service much longer asa fixed bridge is under construction just to its south. We waited about 15 minutes for this one to open around 3PM. There was a commercial "shrimper" to the south, and 2 power plus 2 sailboats to the north. Here are a few shots that Vic caught as I motored through.
About this time, the rain finally caught up with us. It was just cold and dreary and we were ready to find some place to anchor or tie up for the evening. While we were feeling sorry for ourselves as we hunkered down in the drizzle, we passed these two guys at a golf course...not sure if this is commitment or stupidity!
And for those thinking that they are having a bad day, this scene puts it all in perspective!
We ended up at Lightkeeper's Marina in a very nice manmade harbor at MM 346. We were tied up at the slip around 4PM. There are actually 3 marinas in this basin. We are about 5 miles north of Myrtle Beach in the little community of "Little River". Lightkeeper's charged us $1.25/foot to tie up, not a bad price, but an anchorage would have been preferred. There were several restaurants around the basin, but two of them were closed on a Monday evening. We ended up at the local Holiday Inn for a light dinner and then headed back to the boat in the rain.
Vic has crashed and I am shortly going to do the same. We will start this once again tomorrow. I doubt that we will make Charleston, SC, but we should get within 20 miles. Let's hope that the rain slides out and the sunshine takes hold!
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