Day 104 - It's Hard (and Long) to get there from Here

The day started early with a breakfast of lox and bagels on board.  The fuel dock opened at 8:30 am and we were anxious to fill up and be on our way to North Myrtle Beach.  At 8:40 am we headed over and another boater grabbed our lines as no one had shown up to pump fuel yet.   When we were still waiting at 9:00 am, Captain Randy got on the phone and we were soon tied up at Hazzard Marine for fuel.  Harborwalk is a nice little marina, but who wants to wait around for someone to show up to pump fuel?  The fuel dock attendant at Hazzard was very nice; in fact the Low Country is full of very beautiful people, inside and out.

One thing about this part of the trip is that you can’t always get to where you are going very easily or quickly.  We like to run on the ocean because there is plenty of depth and we can go as fast as we like.  However, many of the ports are located inland, off the ICW or arterial rivers and travel is slow due in part to boats that travel slow and in part because there are so many small boats and no wake zones.  In addition, there may be bridges you have to call and have lifted or opened.  There are only so many inlets off the ocean and even fewer that are safe for a boat that draws 4’2” feet like ours does.  We had our choice of  staying on the ICW for the next 45 miles or travelling on the Atlantic Ocean to Little River Inlet, which is about 10 miles north of our destination.  Captain Randy chose the Little River Inlet as it appeared to be the less hazardous and meant less time on the ICW.  But it did mean we had to backtrack on Winyah Bay to the ocean and then overshoot our goal by over 10 miles and then backtrack again on the ICW.

We were able to travel at our normal cruising speed as we left Georgetown and headed across Winyah Bay.  It was warm and partly cloudy but clearing up fast.  What a difference on the ocean today.  Wave height was 1 foot or less and there was no whitewater.  Once we were on the ocean, we decided to run the curve of the shore instead of running straight across the ocean to Little River Inlet.  Headed north along the shore line, we first passed North Island and Fraiserville.  In this area there were clusters of homes along the low sand dunes.  There were lots of people enjoying the beach in front of mid-rise hotels and condos at Magnolia Beach.  Murrell’s Inlet was just past Magnolia Beach, then Garden City before we got to Myrtle Beach.  This area is very built-up with the high-rise buildings we saw in Florida.  We saw several parasails and a large Ferris wheel on shore.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We entered the Little River Inlet at 12:38 pm, dodging all the small boat traffic moving in and out.  On either side of the opening, boats were anchored on sandy beaches and people were swimming and walking on shore.  The river was full of pleasure and fishing boats and again I was reminded of Florida;  we had not seen this much boat traffic since we left there.  Little River is also part of the ICW and we met some larger boats that were cruising the waterway.  Typical of the low country, the shores were marshy, with small creeks and canals branching off.   Much of the shoreline has been built up with impressive homes and condominium developments, as in Florida.  It was very scenic, however it was also very slow……We had 10 miles+ to crawl down this river to Barefoot Landing Marina in North Myrtle Beach.  It was almost 3:00 pm when I threw our lines to the dock master. 

 

 

Barefoot Landing Marina is part of a resort/shopping/restaurant/entertainment complex in North Myrtle Beach.  There are several "lakes" on the property that are filled with fish and turtles.  You can buy food that is meant for the turtles, but we saw much of the food consumed by huge bass instead.  The Captain and I explored the shops for a while, then we went to the Flying Fish Market for $5 appetizers and happy hour pricing on drinks.  Captain Randy ordered a rum runner in a fishbowl, although I have to say it was not nearly as big as the fishbowl drinks we saw in Key West (thank goodness)!  I was able to get some Carolina Gold rice in one of the shops.  It is produced in the Georgetown area but I was not able to get it there because everything was closed.  Can't wait to try it. 

Back on the boat, I watched the boat and wave runner traffic go by on the river and the harbor walkers along the marina.  It doesn’t get much better than this!  The American Star was docked here – this is the same boat we were docked behind in Savannah.  The Star is a large cruise boat that runs down the southeast coast.  Later we walked up to Barefoot Landing for ice cream at the Creamery.