Start time and hours 0740 3433.57
End time and hours 1550 3441.23
We left Carolina
Beach NC at what is to us early. We knew
that we had a longer run today of about 58 miles. We started out going down Snows Cut to the
Cape Fear River. We had some good
current going down the Cut but when we got into the Cape Fear River we were
fighting an incoming tide and cruising at about 4.5 to 5.5 knots. The winds and seas were calm though and the
ride down the river was pleasant if not slow.
We turned off the
Cape Fear River at Southport NC http://southportnc.org/ to continue on the ICW. We can’t visit everywhere on our trip south
but Southport looks like a nice stop on our way back up north. Once off the Cape Fear River we again picked
up a following current that pushed us southwest. Along this stretch of the ICW the tides and
currents are stronger. For a slow boat
like ours they tend to even out over the course of a day as everytime you pass
an inlet the current changes. At one
point we were hit 10 knots and about 400 yards later on the other side of the
inlet we were down to 4.5-5knots. The
currents also come from the side into the ICW from small rivers and creeks. We have to watch for these currents as they
can push our boat quickly out of the channel.
The rest of the
cruise down to North Myrtle Beach was comfortable and scenic. There are lots of marshes, forests, houses,
inlets, and creeks. Also, a wide variety
of birds all around the boat.
We had only had
one bridge opening today and that one opened on demand with almost no
waiting. We consult the WaterWay
cruising guide as one of our resources.
We believe that the purpose of the WaterWay guide is to scare the
bejuses out of ICW cruisers. The guide
is filled with wonderfully useful information but is also filled with lots of
dire warnings about shoaling, rocks, obstructions, and other nefarious nautical
affairs whose sole purpose is to ground or sink your boat. It is a wonder that anyone who reads the
WaterWay guide ever takes their boat out on the water. For-warned, we venture out almost daily and
at the conclusion of the day’s cruise we marvel on how easy it was.
We pulled into
the Barefoot Marina in North Myrtle Beach for two nights. We wanted to go to Umberto’s over at Barefoot
Landing. We had been there about
25+ years ago and they had the best
grilled Veal chop I have ever had. It is
still on the menu, I looked.
While at Barefoot
Marina http://www.myrtlebeachbarefootresort.com/# we met up with some cruising friends that we had met previously in
Belhaven NC, Mike and Tina aboard Cheroka.
They introduced us to some other cruisers and we had an impromptu
cocktail party before dinner. One of the
couples, Scott and Kitty Kuhner have circumnaviged the globe twice on two
different boats. They were very
interesting to listen to. Here are some links to their trips. http://www.pbase.com/akuhner/bebinka http://www.pbase.com/akuhner/greatescape http://www.pbase.com/akuhner/atlantic_circle
After the
gathering we retired to our boat for beef fajitas and a restful nights sleep.
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