Myrtle Beach, SC and Southport, NC

We left Thursday 4/26 with an early start as usual, along with Brown Eyed Girl. It was pretty windy but we had a nice trip without any problems.  It was nice because with the currents and tides we were given a little bit of a push and were going faster than our usual and not burning any more fuel.  Arrived in Georgetown at Harbor Walk Marina.  We were able to walk around town and were pleasantly surprised at what a nice town it was.  Unfortunately, we forgot to bring the camera.

Back at the marina we met up with another Looper boat by the name of The Zone, they were on their way to the spring rendezvous in Norfolk, Va.  It was nice to meet both Ross and Laura and we hope to meet up with them again along the way.

We left Friday morning and had a nice cruise along the Wacamaw river, again we forgot to take pictures. We must be getting a bit lazy, promise to do better.  We stopped in Myrtle Beach at Barefoot Marina Resort.  This is a marina that has three big condos along with one of the biggest pools we have ever seen.  The capacity was over 1,500 people.  You could really have one BIG pool party with all of your closest friends.  We enjoyed the pool and the hot tub.  Dinner was had at the one restaurant on site.  It was just ok but we got 50% off.  Ginny and Craig decided to rent a car on Saturday to better explore Myrtle Beach, and they offered to let us tag along. 

At our slip with Brown Eyed Girl.

One of the condo buildings.

So on Saturday we started off our exploration with what else but Wal Mart.  We stocked up and also bought a planter and planted  some rosemary, basal and chives.  It will be nice to have some fresh herbs.  We then headed for North Myrtle Beach, we had been told that they were having a SOS parade.  SOS stands for the Society of Shagers.  The dance the Shag was started in Myrtle Beach and this was one huge celebration with lots of fun sights.  All the parade participants were enjoying themselves.

One for certain little girls.

And one for certain little boys.

We also walked on the beach along with lots of other people, this was one of the busiest beaches we have seen.  

There were lots of these washed up on the beach which might explain why there were few people in the water.

When we returned to the harbor we had cocktails on the dock and meet another nice couple on the boat Irish Rover.  Jack used to work with Linda of Ericka Lyn a fellow Looper we have met along the way.  While we were sitting there a 25 or so foot sail boat with a lone sailor tried to come into the dock but he had a lot of difficulty, mainly because he had a short plastic dinghy on a very short line off of his stern and every time he would try and move his out board motor it would get entangled with the dinghy.  He ended up rapping his line around the propeller at one point but did eventually get it all going.  Sometimes it just makes you wonder.

Dinner was back on board tonight.  We will move on to Southport N.C. in the morning without Brown Eyed Girl since they will return the rental car Monday am.  We hope to meet up again in Southport on Monday.

Sunday we traveled form Myrtle Beach to Southport N.C. it was a 39 mile day and the weather was great.  We did go by the same small sailboat we had seen yesterday and he was now aground.  We tried to provide a wake that might push him off but that didn’t happen.  He had to wait until high tide and at that point float off.   We also had the longest no wake zone we have encountered so far, it went on for miles.  

After docking we walked to town, it was about 10-15 minutes and after sitting for the morning its good to get up and move.  We had a late lunch at a place named Fishy Fishy, food was good, service not so much.  While eating lunch we saw the sailboat that was aground go by.

Shrimp boat ready for action.

And one not so ready.

We have seen lots of dolphins on the Atlantic side but until today none played with us.

Not your typical Towboat US craft.

Mary's maiden name was Potter

River pilot's house built with gold earned running blockades during the CIvil War.

John wants to do a few things around the boat tomorrow and I am hoping to get my hair colored if I can find a shop that is open on Monday.  If not I guess I will be doing it from a box.

Update - the shop was open and Mary got her hair done.  First we rode the bikes to where else, Walmart and did some re-provisioning.  John was looking forward to doing the cooking tonight.  We did a bit more exploring on the bikes, Southport has a very nice visitors center with lots of history about the town.

A couple of more neat old houses.

Here are some shots from the boardwalk out in the salt marsh.

                               

Another sunset.

Tomorrow we are off to Surf City.  A bit of trivia who first recorded Surf City and why were they going there?  See our next blog for the answer.

Mary and John

Charleston, SC

Charleston, SC

We left Monday morning as planned and traveled 60 some miles to Charleston, it was a little bumpy along the way at times but nothing horrible.  Arrived at about 1:30 and they put our little Passport on the MEGA dock, we were by far the smallest boat on the dock.  Some of these mega yachts have bigger tenders than us.  Oh well, we all have one thing in common, our love for the water.  So we have something in common.  

Passport at the Mega dock Charleston SC

Our neighbor at the Mega dock

After giving our "yacht" a quick rinsing off we headed to town.  This marina has a shuttle that leaves every hour to certain spots in town.  We headed to the Visitors Center to see what options we had as far as exploring Charleston.  We then did our own walking exploration, covering the Old City Market area.  It reminded us of the market area in St. Louis called Sulard Market.  Different vendors along a common market place.  We then took the courtesy car back to the marina and had a quiet dinner on board.  It had turned cooler and the wind had picked up, so it was nice and cozy in our little cabin.

View of Old City Market

Views of Charleston

Tuesday we woke up to 45˚ long pants two days in a row.  We were out by 9:00 am for our tour of Charleston.  We had decided to do a 90 min. tour of the city that included a separate tour of one of the Charleston homes and then a boat trip to Fort Sumter.  We enjoyed each of them. 

Joseph Manigault House

Replica of H.L Hunley used in the Civil War

Garden at the Calhoun Mansion

One of the many iron gates seen through out Charleston

At Fort Sumter we had a National Park’s intern give a 15 min. talk about what had lead to the start of the Civil War and the impact it  had on our country.  I think this was the best part of the day, because she did such a good job in explaining this in such a way that by the end of the talk most of us were in tears it was so moving. We then took the bus back to the Visitors Center and walked, heading towards the Battery Park area.  We came across the Calhoun mansion along the way. We were able to take the last tour of the day.  It is the largest privately owned mansion in Charleston with an extensive collection of antiques.

Cannon ball imbedded in the brick

We then took the free city trolley and joined Ginny and Craig at Hominy Grill for some authentic low country cooking.  Christy and Eric had suggested this restaurant and it was some of the best shrimp and grits we have had so far.

Wednesday we were lazy and decided to stay put for another day. Mary gave John a much needed hair cut, cleaned more salt off the boat.  Took the courtesy shuttle to West Marine and Harris Tweeter which is one of the nicer grocery stores we have seen for a while.  We then took the shuttle to get the propane tanks refilled, unfortunately one of the new tanks has a bad valve and won’t accept propane.  It may be a bit of a challenge finding a place to have the tank repaired.  Luckily we have three aboard.

By staying here an extra day and due to a three day bridge closing just south of Norfolk means we will have to take our time getting to Norfolk.  Which may work in our favor as the winds have picked up this afternoon and leaving tomorrow might not happen.  If we stay in Norfolk the three days as planned we will only have four days to get to Washington DC.  This should not be a problem as we will be arriving two days before Christy and family arrive.  So we still have a couple of weather days if we need them.  We are very much looking forward to that visit!

All for now, love to everyone,

Mary & John