Wednesday, 9/30/15
Wrightsville Beach, N.C. to N. Myrtle Beach, S.C.
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| It was a nice day to travel. Nice scenery, too. |
Joaquin is starting to become a menace in the Caribbean so we are hi-tailing it for cover at a marina in N. Myrtle Beach. It's 10 miles from the nearest ocean inlet and seems to be pretty protected. It is also where we plan to meet our good friends Mark & Barb Yoder who will be joining us for a week - we hope.
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There were lots of homes with private docks. Because of our
large wake, we had to slow down each time we passed some. |
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| A close-up of an Atlantic inlet fairly close to the intracoastal |
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| 2 trucks & a car were parked on a tiny spit of land at the inlet. |
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| A crane digging a new terminal in the big Cape Fear River |
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| A little pelican bowling? |
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| Oh well, they didn't want to play. |
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| The birds love the fishermen towing their nets |
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The ferry to the right had a number of vehicles on it. That
helps put the size of the big green machine in context. |
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It's reassuring to know we could find
our way if our charts fail us! |
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Lots of marinas along the intracoastal waterway means
lots of slowing down |
Pretty much all of the ocean inlets have shoaling problems where they connect to the intracoastal waterway. Some are worse than others and fortunately, all are pretty well documented so we know where to watch out - usually.
Generally the Coast Guard does a good job checking and moving markers to let us know where the deep water is.
About a mile from one of the problem inlets, a Coast Guard boat came roaring up behind us & waved as they passed.
As we approached the inlet, there was a very small fishing boat anchored in the middle of the channel and the coast guard had stopped to talk to them. We hoped they were asking him to move because there wasn't much space for us to get by. The Coast Guard went on over to a green buoy & immediately hailed us on the radio & asked us to stop, back up & move over.
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| Note the Coast Guard boat to the right |
There was quite a bit of shoaling where it shouldn't have been & they were moving the marker buoy to a better location. Had we continued on our course, we would likely have gone aground!!!
Boy, talk about perfect timing!
Thank you Lord!
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| The Coast Guard boat, now on the left had us pass the small boat with the standing fisherman between him & the shore, then curve around the parked white boat & swing wide to get way to the right of the green buoy in the foreground. They were moving buoys around due to severe shoaling. |
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| Wesley's pride seems a bit low right now |
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| A couple of beggars waiting on these guys to haul their nets in |
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| As the afternoon wore on, the clouds became more and more ominous |
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The "rockpile" section of the intracoastal was named for all
the submerged rocks just off the center on both sides of the canal. Great!!
They actually had signs warning of the consequences of straying too far! |
After leaving Wrightsville at 7:15, we arrived in Barefoot Marina in N. Myrtle Beach, S.C. at 3:15 AND we beat the rain. Woo hoo! 63.7 miles today.
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| Looking out the back of the boat at the marina |
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| The view from the front |
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| We had a beautiful view of the moon from the back of the boat |
With Hurricane Joaquin gaining strength, we have decided to remain at this marina. The floating docks are new and well constructed. The pilings are oversized and 15' tall so it would take a heck of a tidal surge to break them free.
We will likely be here until Monday morning, 10/05 when we plan to visit some fun places in South Carolina with Barb & Mark Yoder.
See you on the water!
