Myrtle Beach to Hilton Head

Ship’s Log, October 31, 2009

10/22, Thursday – It’s dark at 7am. We set the alarm for just before sunrise and as it came up we pulled out (along with all of the sail boats) and headed into the cut to the Cape Fear River. The cut looked just like that – slashed right out of the hill side. Good name for the Cape Fear River. Immediately on the right going downstream is the largest military munitions holding area in the US. For as safe as I felt in Norfolk, I couldn’t wait to get out of this area. Then it was back into the Ditch. We decided to call a break after a number of days on the hook and pulled in to the Myrtle Beach Yacht Club just over the South Carolina line.

10/23, Friday – slept in and then gathered forces for the day. We took advantage of the rental car on premise. It turned out to be a terrible clunker, but it did work. We located all the necessary retail establishments required (Home Depot, Wal-Mart, Food Lion and package store) and headed out with our list. After shopping next on the agenda was the driving range and then we played 9 holes at the adjacent club – Little River Eastport. What a hoot – it was a perfect day, warm with a light breeze and $22 per person with a cart. I had played terribly at the driving range but did work out some kinks and played pretty decently on the course. Since it was 5:30 when we finished we decided to go in search of dinner. Following out noses, we headed back down to the river. There were three local fish houses vying for our patronage and in between was a casino boat preparing to load and take folks out over the 3 mile limit – or maybe they can gamble in SC. The menu was a bit scary, heavy on fried, but we landed on sharing a plate of grilled shrimp and the local white fish called Trigger Fish. The plate came with hush puppies, French fries and deep fried corn on the cob. The corn was unfortunately very good.

10/24, Saturday – Today would be a combination of more retail (Bed, Bath and Beyond, and Dick’s and then a tour of Myrtle Beach starting with Myrtle Beach State Park. It was great that they could carve off a big chunk – it was several miles long, keeping it from the high rises that dominate the landscape in this area. They also have a huge fish pier very well set up with cutting and cleaning tables, signs with size limits and running water – probably salt. From there we took the local route about 10 miles worth, back north to the marina. One could easily get great deals at this time of year at the resorts. The prices were unbelievable and there were
lots of vacancies.

10/25, Sunday - We got off the dock at 8:30 or so to a nice day now passing behind all the retail that we had seen from the road. All the bridges were high enough to get under except one - the only remaining pontoon bridge on the ICW. We couldn’t make the hourly passing at noon and were preparing to wait it out. A new bridge is being built to replace it and a construction barge from the other side needed to come through. The
bridge tender was not going to let him though – no-sir-ee. About 10 minutes later there was an announcement on the radio saying that the bridge would be opening and the rest of us would also be allowed to pass. Someone made a phone call! After lunch we entered the Wacamaw River. Folks had told us that this was the most beautiful section and indeed it was. It was also suggested that we make a small side trip through Prince Creek. It was gorgeous with the trees showing some color, the Spanish moss, lots of turtles and…. a blue alligator? We continued back in the Wacamaw and turned into Thoroughfare Creek to anchor up for the evening. Nice quiet place. We put a trip line out as advised. It seems more trouble than it is worth but I guess if you snag it would be better than diving.
10/26, Monday - For once I slept and the anchor line kept Mark up. He usually sleeps through anything. As always the trip line was annoying to pull up but at least it was not tangled under the boat. We passed another trawler later in the day that had theirs tangled on their stabilizer. We headed out in mist and light rain but flew down the rest of the river at 9.5 knots (@10.8mph). Great, as we planned a 70 mile day. It remained drizzly and gray all day. Depressing. We anchored at Big Marsh Island. It was right by a non navigable inlet and was really quite exposed. Probably would have been lovely had it been nice out but it wierded me out a bit.

10/27, Tuesday – Still dreary and we had gotten the anchor in a bit tight to the “island” so hit bottom getting it up. Fortunately the tide was rising. Charleston was next but was very unappealing in the fog and rain so we went on through the Elliot Cut to the St. John’s Yacht Harbor Marine where we fueled and decided to call it a day. Mark made his list, called a cab and headed to West Marine to get a new antennae for our VHF. We have been having problems with it. Hey – nothing has been broken for weeks. I did a big boat clean, laundry and shower in their extremely nice facility, though the marina itself was not as scenic. Mark came up with some coaxial cable and was able to hook us up to the marina cable. We spent the rest of the evening channel surfing and watching the …..tornado warnings for our area! The dismal weather had turned into quite the storm system. Fortunately we were able to tell from the radar that the storm had passed us and we went to bed.

10/28, Wednesday – Mark woke up when the skies opened up and got the hatches closed. I had my earplugs in thinking we were past the weather and hoping that a cell would not fire up and hadn’t heard a thing. We got off the dock at @ 8:30, no small challenge in a river. The air did smell nice – summer air. In putting away the lines I realized that somehow during the night a fender went missing. The bad weather from the night before had me feeling off and I napped a bit. The ride was otherwise lovely. The next stop was to be the Beaufort Intown Marina so we would have easy access to shore. Also hearing that being on the outside of the docks was not good we requested an inside space. Once tied up we installed the new antennae which entailed pulling the boat halfway apart to run the new cable. After that we headed ashore for dinner.

10/29, Thursday – Gorgeous summer day. We got the courtesy car for an hour and drove a loop that took us through Lady’s Island, Port Royal and back to back to Beaufort by way of the grocery and West M. to pick up a fender to replace the one that disappeared. It is much lovelier here in Beaufort than we have seen. After dropping the car we ran into friends we had met earlier. They were coming up the dock and we quickly decided that a reciprocal beverage on our boat and dinner would be in order. They were headed out and we also were going to do the walk about checking out the town starting with the waterfront which was amazingly beautiful. They did a wonderful job with it. Also amazing were the antebellum homes. Many went back to Civil War era and were quite just stunning. For me the most amazing were the huge Water Oaks with all the Spanish moss. I smelled some Gardenia along the way but could not find the actual plants. After our walk we had some boat work to do then our boat friends came over. It was Halloween so on our way to dinner we caught the end of the town celebration with all the local area merchants doing trick or treat with the kids. Unfortunately the down side of being in the town marina in the evening was that there was a restaurant nearby that had a loud band that played until 11 or so both nights that we were there. It wreaked havoc with my sleep and attitude.

10/30, Friday – Departure was a bit of a challenge. This river thing is for the birds and the inside dock position went against us. Current and tide against us – Mark misjudged and we ended up sideways. Fortunately all the other boats had departed and we only did damage to a concrete pillar (can hardly see the nick on our fortunately massive rub-rail) and our egos. Also the day was overcast and rather yucky. We only had a short ride to Hilton Head, and not having slept well, I took a quick nap. That helped but after we got tied up at Palmetto Marine, Mark worked out a car rental and dealt with that and I went back to sleep for several hours. That helped a lot.

10/31, Saturday – Dawned…foggy! The fog left the sky and my brain by mid morning and we headed out to get an overview of the infamous Hilton Head and to find a golf course – there are only 20 or 30 here. Some time at the range to warm up and then we had a grand time playing…terribly. We each got some good shots in and just had fun. The whole southern thing with the Spanish Oaks, palm trees, ponds and warm air was just spectacular and of course Mr. Alligator was sitting behind one island on the outskirts of the 9th hole! We had picked up some groceries and decided to cook on the boat for dinner. Some more exploring is on the agenda for tomorrow and then we tackle the area of the ICW that has not been dredged for years.


And we get another hour of sleep tonight!