Belle Isle To Isle Of Palms Sc

A great day to be boating down here. We actually had a few of the enclosure panes opened up to let cool air in. For the most part the terrain was unprotected swamp like and flat. However there was quite a bit of interesting wildlife that included swarms of dove like birds roosting, a pair of nesting bald eagles, several varieties of herons and etc..

Since the water was calm on the outside we had few of the 'sporties' to deal with. All in all a very calm day on the water.

One thing we have learned about the folks down here in the Carolinas is that they will go to any length to ensure they have their own private dock. Some of the walkways out to the docks have to be an 1/8 mile long... A length of several hundred yards seems to be normal. I am willing to bet they have paid more for those than some of us have paid for our houses.

As well, there are example after example of extravagent houses that are partially finished along the ICW. These are all probaby examples of the buy out from the sub-prime debacle. It's sickening to see people start these and then get a government bail out..

Updated Southbound kmz file.

BarefootLanding To Belle Isle Gardens Sc.

The day's travel went smoothly. No issues, and in spite of cloudy skies we were comfortable. This was the first time we saw some real live spanish moss, and along with that, there was this sign where they clean fish.

That was a bit of a surprise since I did not expect they had those reptiles in this area. I guess we'll have to watch what we step on now.

Myrtle Beach from Southport

Ok! Another state crossed. We're in Sc. now and it feels good to knock off another state. The ride down was short today only 31 miles. It was a dreary rainy day but we stayed dry until it was time to fuel up and dock at the end of the trip.
Along the way we saw a flock of migrating swallows. I don't think I've ever seen this many birds flying together. It was a massive ball of life swirling away in confused flight that somehow managed to have direction. Very odd but it looked like they were having fun at it.
So here we are at the Coquina Yacht Club, and we decide to take a walk. We leave the compount and are walking through a parking lot when out of the blue a van pulls and honking the horn. It's Ed from F dock! LMAO. He recognized us while driving by.
We made arrangements and stopped by a bit later on, having a great evening catching up with some buddies from RYB. It's a small world.

PS When you look at some of the tracks using google earth or google maps, you may see some ragged course lines. If they are near a bridge, it's normal since we may have had to wait for the bridge to open. While waiting we drift around a bit. This last leg has a good example of that.
Yesterday we were all doing that at another bridge. There were about 10 of us and one of the motoryachts lost it. The captain decided to back up for reasons unknown to us and all of the boats behind us. There was no wind, everyone was calm and relaxed. I wound up having to scoot around him and hold the position he gave up. Believe me there were a few sail boats behind us that were getting paranoid. They don't have twins they can use to their maneuvering advantage.

Some People have too much money.....

Traveling down the ICW today we saw this. It put a capper on the day. Anyway we are down to Southport Nc., looking for Myrtle Beach tomorrow.

Fun with Tugs

Remember to contact a tug in tight channels. But temper the urge to contact the captain depending on the traffic and other conditions....

So here we are on Adam's Creek heading towards Beaufort NC (not SC sorry we don't go that fast ). We meander down at 8 knots and eventually we catch up with a pusher with a barge named Pamlico headed for Calico Creek. The channel is narrow and lined with houses and business so I'm in no hurry to pass and hang back a bit. Eventually it happens. Here comes a 43 Ocean followed by a large Hatt sporty. No doubt they were going to pass and the Ocean did that. He squeezed in behind the tug right in front of us. So he peeks on the stbd side of the tug, gives up and moves over to the port. He's hanging around right off the tugs transom trying to find the cajones to pass.

So I sensed the waffling and hailed the tug; "Pamlico south bound this is Freedom. We are second in line behind you has anyone arranged passage yet? ""NO!" And anyone could tell by the tone he was p1ssed about it because it was a narrow channel and he had all sorts of small craft zipping around. We were the least of his concerns given all the slow sailboats and center consoles."Ok Pamlico, it looks like it finally opens up here, do you mind if we pass?""Sure come on around on the stbd side"Ok at this point a$$hole without calling the tug is on the port side of the tug's stern and we open 'er up. It's good to open up a diesel once in a while since we were basically idling all day. So we hit 18 knots and blew by on the stbd.. Ocean who was well to port was looking at us like WTF? How does a boat like that plane out and blow by me??? We thanked the tug, and settled in ahead and waited for the sparks. Both sporties came by. The Ocean rocked our world because he was insulted. The hatt went by and slowed but still rocked our world. We laughed our arses off since neither had contacted the tug to arrange passage and wound up on the wrong side of the channel because he gave us the stbd side...

Down to Swansboro Nc. (Dudley's Marina

A little rough around the edges but the fuel is cheaper and the people here are great. The trip here was smooth, another great day of fantastic weather. Once we were close to Beaufort Nc. we started to see dolphins. Then we came around Beaufort inlet and continued on the icw. Many miles in we were still seeing dolphin pods. All the way to Bogue inlet.

Think about that...
Do you recall any stories about people chasing dolpins in NJ because they were lost?

I'm beginning to think that the folks in Jersey have their heads in a dark spot and that the dolphins were fine. We've been where those dolpin were and the ones down here were much further inland than those Jersey dolphin were.

Tomorrow looks like a long day. We're going to try for Southport.

Down to Oriental Nc.

Yesterday we left Dowry Creek having a reasonable night's sleep until 4:30 AM. It was a very cold night so we left the heat on. Around that time one of the CO detectors went off and well, that was that. I figured it was a one hit wonder and so did Deb so we got the other detector and moved it to the same location. That spot just happened to be about a foot from my head. We fell back asleep and withing 15 minutes they both started sounding.

It was at this point we found ourselves awake looking for who would have a gasoline powered generator running in the marina. I went outside and walked a bit of the dock but heard nothing. Perhaps somone had a coal stove going somewhere also. We never found out.

The frost on the fordeck was thick and in bear feet I went out there and retrieved all the lines and off we went around sunrise. After about a 1/2 hour of this I decided shoes and socks were a requirement.

The weather was spectacular being clear calm and warm thanks to the enclosure. The sun heats up the flybridge wonderfully. We sit up there in T shirts while all the sailboats and express cruisers we pass are in full fuzzy edged hood winter attire.

Down the Pungo to Pamlico river. Look east and all you see is water and it was all flat as a pancake. From here we went along Goose Creek and associated canals south to Bay River. This is where we met our friends in the photo.

Looking out east again is Pamlico Sound, and again the water was abolutely flat! This made the rest of the day along the Neuse River to Oriental pleasant.

Cell phone access is poor in this area, and all we have is wifi (go figure) but I cannot access the server to load the latest GPS data.