I was talking with my family last night on Skype and of course my dad chastised me for not having a new blog up. I don’t know where the time has gone. I can’t believe May is already half over!
It feels like only yesterday we were in South Carolina…
We spent about a day and a half motoring through the cypress swamps of South Carolina. It’s very pretty with tree lined narrow and meandering rivers. We bypassed Georgetown and stopped a few miles past north to Thoroughfare creek. It was a busy Sunday afternoon with many boaters enjoying the warm and sunny weather. We anchored across from a sand dune that the locals used as their ‘beach’ and had a relaxing evening. A thunderstorm came through the area, clearing out all the other boats, leaving just us and the sounds of nature.
The next day we decided to treat ourselves to a night in a marina. We returned to Osprey Marina because it is friendly, clean and peaceful, not to mention in our price range. On arrival a couple friendly turtles looking for treats greeted us. Apparently they really like dog food, a cruiser told us. We took advantage of the free fresh water and we first bathed the boat and cleaned the dinghy; she sparkled when we were done. Then we bathed ourselves and took advantage of the Internet to look up our next destination: Myrtle Beach.
We had bypassed Myrtle Beach on the way down, but wanted to take a day or two to check it out on the way up. The Barefoot Landing is along the waterway and is full of shops and places of entertainment, and the beach is also close by. There are two places to stop. One is on the east side, steps away from the Landing, the other is on the west side, and about a 15 minute walk across the waterway. Everyone mixes up the two as one is called Barefoot Landing, and the other is called Barefoot Landing Marina. After checking a few cruising websites, we decided to stay at the marina because it was cheaper and had showers, laundry, and a pool. So when we called to say we wanted a slip, of course we got the wrong place though Sal definitely said “Marina” and had to apologize to the guy waiting to receive us and then pull around to the other side of the channel. I think they should just rename the two places to alleviate some of the confusion, but anyways. We were going to go for a run across the bridge to check out the Landing and see the beach. We had our running stuff on, but a dark cloud approaching convinced us to perhaps wait until it passed before heading out. We were sitting in the cockpit reading, when I heard a sound, like when a rock is thrown on a roof. I asked Sal if he heard that, now who would be throwing rocks? I looked around, when I saw a splash in the water. It was hailing! We ran below for cover. The hail was somewhere between the size of a golf ball and a tennis ball! Then the thunder and rain came. Boy, were we glad we didn’t go out. We didn’t get a chance to go check out the Landing as it rained for the evening, so we decided to stay another day to check it out.
Wednesday was another dreary day, but no rain. We walked across the bridge and looked around. There were so many shops and stores and restaurants. We were thoroughly entertained. We walked over to the beach and couldn’t believe that people were swimming. It was fairly cool out and not sunny at all. We opted for the marina pool and hot tub. We then return to the Landing for Happy Hour.
Time to get back on the road. On Thursday we crossed over into North Carolina on another cool and dreary day. We were passed by two very legit looking pirate ships. Luckily no pirates, but the crewmembers did shout across that they liked our boat. The next day we were chased by a menacing thunderstorm, luckily it was heading SE while we were heading NE. We had a long day battling currents, a common story for us during the past few days. We anchored in Wrightsville Beach. On the way down it was quite cool here and not much activity on the beach, but today it was a little livelier with surfers, students and people vacationing. We walked around after dinner and Sal bought me an Italian ice, which was supposed to be cheesecake flavoured, but I have a sneaking suspicion that it was actually coconut – it was delicious either way.
Saturday was another long day as the current was against us ALL day! We were passed by at least 15 other sailboats. I kept thinking that we couldn’t be going this slow, and maybe we were dragging something…but no, we were going that slow. In the afternoon we raised the main sail as the wind had picked up to help give us a boost in speed, it helped but we were still about 2 hours later to arrive in the anchorage than predicted. We met a single hander along the way in a small 26 foot boat, and were invited over for ‘cocktail hour’. After we were anchored we went over for a chat and invited him back to our boat for dinner. It was our first dinner guests (other than my parents). It was a great night and we shared stories and some laughs. Sunday we sailed! After we passed through some narrow areas, we entered a large straight sound with very little current, with a good 15 knot wind off our beam, we raised a reefed mainsail and ½ furled jib and cut the motor. It felt good and we had a great time.
Today we got to sail again for a little while into Beaufort. We stopped for an hour or so to go ashore. We bought a cheap lunch, picked up a few items, then continued on our way. We are heading to Oriental, NC, where we will probably spend tomorrow, as we have a few boat things to pick up there.
Less than 200 miles to go until the Chesapeake Bay.
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