April 5, 2013 Day 329

Barefoot Marina
North Myrtle Beach, SC
Total miles to date: 5472.3

We spent much of the morning working and re-working our calendar, planning stops on the way home.  We think we finally have it now and are on track to arrive in Yorktown on April 20.  In doing this we have decided to stay here at Barefoot another day, and will now leave on Sunday. 

We were happy to see more Loopers today – we visited with Rick and Betsy (Rick & Roll), and Barbara and David, (Memory Maker II) on Rick and Margie’s boat, Journey, this afternoon.  Then new Loopers, Mike and Veronica on Pazza Bella arrived and we met them briefly. 

Joyce was able to get a hair appointment late this afternoon and is now happy! 

We drove to Sunset Beach to see Bill and Diane Locke and had a relaxing evening in their beautiful home on the golf course.  Diane prepared a fabulous dinner and we thoroughly enjoyed the meal and our visit with them.

They were so kind to let us keep their car another day, so we can run errands tomorrow. 

 

April 4, 2013 Day 328

Barefoot Marina
North Myrtle Beach, SC
Total miles to date: 5472.3

We were happy to be docked today as we were pelted by a steady rain and wind all day.  Bill spent much of the day plotting our course for our trip back to Virginia. 

We did have a bright spot in our day! Bill and Diane Locke joined us on the boat for wine this afternoon. We had a good visit sharing our travel experiences and catching up on family news.  They took us to Martini’s for a wonderful dinner.  They were also so thoughtful to bring us a car to use tomorrow to run errands.

We will drive up to Bill and Diane’s home in Sunset Beach for dinner tomorrow and continue our visit with them!

Bill and Diane Locke

April 3, 2013 Day 327

Barefoot Marina
North Myrtle Beach, SC
Total miles to date: 5472.3

From Dr. Seuss’ “Yertle the Turtle”

“And the turtles of course…all the turtles are free as turtles and maybe all creatures should be.”

We had a very long but interesting day that took us from Georgetown to North Myrtle Beach.  We traveled against the current most of the way and that increased our travel time. 

Kayakers!

The Waccamaw River provided a nice change of pace.  It was very scenic, with cypress trees growing along the water’s edge. This was so different from the marshland we have seen for a while!  We also passed a group of kayakers out braving the cool weather.

We even noticed a change in wildlife!  We saw so many osprey guarding their nests today on the channel markers.  We also saw ducks!  And, we saw lots of turtles! 

Love the turtles lined up on this tree limb!

The cypress trees were beautiful and plentiful!

We stopped at Osprey Marina for fuel along the way. Their prices are far below any others we have found and we needed almost 300 gallons.

Passing the 10th green on the Greg Norman course at Barefoot-
not a green you want to miss - or you are in the ICW!

As we got closer to Myrtle Beach, the scenery changed again with large homes, condos, and golf courses dominating the shoreline.  We arrived at Barefoot Marina (formerly known as Barefoot Resort and Yacht Club) at 4:30.  How wonderful to find Rick and Margi here on their boat, Journey! We met them last May at the spring rendezvous and are so happy they are going to start the loop next month!  We visited briefly with them on their boat.  Then we dragged ourselves to the nearest restaurant for a quick dinner. 

Typical Myrtle Beach houses on the water

We talked to Bill’s 2^nd cousin, Bill and and his wife Diane and made plans to see them tomorrow. They live in nearby Sunset Beach, NC and we are happy we can see them again!

We planned to stay here for three days. Rain is forecast for tomorrow and Friday and we do not want to move.  (Local shopping is okay!)

 

 

April 2, 2013 Day 326

Hazzard Marine
Georgetown, SC
Total miles to date: 5421.4

Our 64 mile trip required an early start, so we departed at 7:30. Randy from Barefoot’n was so kind to come over and help us cast off our lines.  We left the Charleston harbor and entered the ICW.  We soon passed Isle of Palms, an upscale waterside community almost totally wiped out by Hurricane Hugo in 1989 and completely rebuilt. 

It was windy today and the autopilot did not want to hold the course to our satisfaction. Most of the waterway was very narrow so we spent much of the day driving manually and took turns at the helm. We saw many dolphins today and they never cease to entertain us.

Typical home on the ICW today

Oops!

With seven miles left, we entered the wide Winyah Bay and headed toward Georgetown. We chose Hazzard Marine because this was the home port of Carried Away for six years, so it was only fitting to come back here for the night.  We were tired after our long day so we had dinner on board.

Entering Hazzard Marine

Sunset over Georgetown

We will leave early again tomorrow for another long travel day.  We will stop for fuel first at Osprey (best fuel prices there!) and then continue on to Barefoot Landing in North Myrtle Beach where will stay at least two days.

 

 

April 1, 2013 Day 325

Charleston Harbor Resort and Marina
Charleston, SC
Total miles to date: 5357.2

We had good intentions of getting work done today, but Bill was not feeling great, so he relaxed most of the day.  Joyce did get some files organized and did the laundry. 



Carnival Fantasy on her way out!

We watched the Carnival Fantasy cruise ship leave port across the river from us this afternoon headed for the Bahamas.  We are constantly watching other large ships leave here with their cargo.

Vicki, Randy and Heidi on Barefoot'n

We were happy to see another Looper boat, Barefoot’n, arrive this afternoon.  Randy and Vicki just started their loop in February from Florida and we were the first ones they have met.  We got together on their boat for docktails and had a very nice visit.  We hope to see them again as we head up the east coast.

We had a late dinner and relaxed for the evening. Tomorrow’s destination is Georgetown, SC.  We are taking Carried Away home for a day– this is where we bought her! 



 

March 31, 2013 Day 324

Charleston Harbor Resort and Marina
Charleston, SC
Total miles to date: 5357.2

Easter Sunday!  We woke to rain but it stopped by mid-morning which allowed us to walk to the Easter Sunday Brunch at the Charleston Harbor Resort next to the marina.  We had an extravagant meal complete with mahi mahi, cheese grits with shrimp, seafood frittata, eggs benedict, roast beef, salads, fruit, cheesecake, key lime pie, mimosas, and more!  Needless to say, we declared it to be our meal for the day!



We could see Carried Away from the top of the aircraft carrier

After brunch we walked back to change into comfortable clothes and shoes and set off again to tour the three ships at Patriots Point (also next to our marina).  We spent an interesting afternoon visiting the USS Clamagore, a submarine built at the end of WWII; the USS Laffey, a WWII Destroyer, and finally the USS Yorktown, a WWII aircraft carrier. The Yorktown was modified in the 1950’s with an angled deck for jets and converted to an antisubmarine carrier in the 1960’s.  In 1968 she recovered the Apollo 8 astronauts.  We climbed and descended more stairs than we could count on the three ships, many of them so steep we went down backwards.  We had never been on an aircraft carrier before and it is an amazing ship!  There are several WWII airplanes on its flight deck.

Torpedo room on the submarine

Standing on the flight deck of the USS Yorktown

No sunset picture tonight- just the storm clouds!

We came back to the boat exhausted but glad we took this self-guided tour (along with many other tourists out today).

The weather report for tomorrow has caused us to revise our plans and remain here one more day.  We have chores to do anyway so we will use this bad weather day to get those done.  We will head to Georgetown, SC on Tuesday.

March 30, 2013 Day 323

Charleston Harbor Resort and Marina
Charleston, SC
Total miles to date: 5357.2


We left our anchorage at 8:45 this morning under a partly cloudy sky and entered the Stono River which took us most of the way to Charleston. We only had 22 miles to travel today so we started seeing more homes lining the waterway with long docks extending out to the shore.  We entered Elliott Cut at 10:50 which is very narrow at the southern end and is lined with homes, with no room for docks. 

The Charleston Harbor

Passing by homes along the Battery

More lovely homes along the Battery (as we walked by them)

Another one!

We could see the Charleston Harbor come into view and of course the traffic picked up considerably!  We crossed the Ashley River, went past the famous Battery seawall, and entered the Cooper River.  There were many sailboats in a regatta that we detoured around. We also saw motor yachts, container ships and other large commercial vessels.

There are several marinas from which to choose, but we decided to stay at the Charleston Harbor Resort and Marina on the east side of the river. It is next to Patriot’s Point which is home to the aircraft carrier Yorktown, a submarine and a destroyer.  This marina provides free trolley service to the historic district and a water taxi is also available, so we didn’t mind being “across the river”.

We arrived around noon and after lunch took the trolley into the heart of Charleston. We spent quite a while walking through the market area. Although we admired the sweetgrass baskets being woven by local women, the price was not in the budget.

Sweetgrass baskets made by local women and sold in the market



Carriage rides are a popular way to see the historic city.
We have taken this ride on earlier visits to Charleston.

We walked down Bay Street to the Battery (where we passed by earlier in our boat).  The stately antebellum homes are beautiful. Since this is Easter weekend and spring break for many students, the sidewalks, restaurants, and shops were full of visitors. The weather was very pleasant – the sun came out and jackets were optional!  We walked back along the river with its parks and fountains and decided to take the water taxi back to our marina.

We had a fun day but were tired from all the activity. We ate dinner on the flybridge where we had a great view of many boaters still out on the river. We will continue our sightseeing tomorrow on this side of the river at Patriots Point.