North of Charleston

Isle of Palms beach

Our next stop after Charleston was Isle of Palms.  It is a tourist town that seems to make its living off of renting beach houses to out-of-towners.  It seemed like 3 out of every 4 businesses on the island was a rental agency.

We stopped there because of the close proximity of the marina to the beach.  We weren't disappointed.  They have a beautiful beach which was not too crowded while we were there.

Busy boat ramp!

We like the marina as well.  It was full of activity.  I think everyone in the state of South Carolina that had a boat on a trailer brought it there to launch!  The two days we spent there, there was a constant stream of boats being launched or recovered from sunrise to sunset!  Most of the time there were multiple boats being launched at the same time!  And we had a front row seat to watch all the action.

Morgan Creek Grill

To add to the activity, we were also docked right next to a very popular restaurant, the Morgan Creek Grill.  We ate lunch there one day.  The food is good and you have a great view of the ICW so you can eat while you watch all the yachts going by.

They also provided live music both nights we were there, so we got free entertainment without leaving our boat!

Guess his anchor didn't hold either!

Our next night after Isle of Palms was supposed to be at anchor.  We chose a creek right off the ICW near a beached shrimp boat.  However, after about 5 failed attempts to get the anchor to hold, we gave up and went into McClellanville to tie up for the night.

Shrimp boat fleet

We arrived on a Sunday, one day after their Shrimp Festival.  All of the shrimp boats were still dressed up for the occasion, and it was quite a sight to see!

By this time, Marie was exhausted as she is our anchor winch and has to manually pull in the anchor and chain after each attempt.

Fine Dining!

So I decided that I would treat her to dinner, especially since it was Mother's Day.  We had heard much about the only restaurant in town, and so we rode our bikes the mile or so to get to it, only to find it closed for Mother's Day.  So we rode our bikes a couple of more miles out to Highway 17 where we were told there was another restaurant.  But it also was closed!  So finally we found a Subway Restaurant inside a BP Gas station.  But that had no where to sit to eat.  Not even a bar to stand at and eat!  So we took our sandwiches and sat on the curb in the parking lot and ate with ants crawling all around (and on) us!  Happy Mother's Day Marie!

Who is watching who?

One big surprise I got was when I was walking down the dock back to the boat.  Suddenly a dolphin surface right next to me.  At first I was startled, but I noticed he wasn't swimming away.  He was just watching me!  I knelt down and talked to him and he just stayed there!  He was so close I could have touched him!  I realized I was missing a moment and reached into my pocket for my cell phone and took several pictures of him.  Finally he swam away.  It was really cool to be that close to a dolphin in the wild, and by his choice!

Relaxing on the beach

After McClellanville, we were going to anchor one night and then keep heading for the North Carolina border.

Marie went looking on Active Captain for a good anchorage and found one a little further than I had planned to go, but she thought it would be worth the time.  She was right!

We anchored off a sand dune on Thoroughfare Creek.  It was a great beach in a nature preserve.  If you climb to the top of the sand dune, the other side slopes down to a real pretty lagoon!  So you have beach and swimming on both sides!

Do I need to say anything?

We got to try out the outboard motor repair we had done in Beaufort and explored the creek and lagoon.  We made several trips over to the beach and walked some of the trails.

It was so nice, that we decided to stay two nights.  We were rewarded with a beautiful sunset on our second night!

We could have stayed here a week, but we did have a loose schedule so we reluctantly moved on.

No swimming here!

As we headed north once again, we saw our first alligator!  He was swimming across the ICW directly in front of us.  Although the picture makes it look further, he was so close I had to stop the boat to keep from hitting him!  He had to be about 8 feet long!  We would see plenty more before the day was done, but he was by far the biggest.

Waccamaw River

The lowland marshes soon gave way to lush forests which came right down to the water's edge.  I have to say that the Waccamaw River is the prettiest section of the ICW that I have traveled so far!  Aside from the beautiful vegetation, there was also plenty of wildlife to watch.  Osprey were abundant, as were the turtles and alligators competing for space to sun on fallen logs.  Birds could be heard singing from somewhere in the forest and large fish could be seen swimming just beneath the surface!

Four!

We had plenty of time to enjoy the sights because the current was against us almost the whole day.  The faster the current flows in the opposite direction in which we are travelling, the slower we go.  On this day, we were doing just over 5 knots, which is slow!

We had planned to go all the way to the North Carolina border on this day, but we were going so slow that we decided to give up on making it to the border, so Marie got on Active Captain and went looking for a place to stay.

Luvane's Fish Camp

She found the perfect place in Bucksport Marina.  It is right on the ICW and was only 75 cents per foot to stay there!  In boat terms, that's almost free!  Speaking of free, there was no charge for the putt put golf so we played a few rounds, right on the dock!

They also had free courtesy rides so we had the driver (which was the owner's son, Jeffery) take us to his choice of restaurant.  He picked Luvane's Fish Camp and we were not disappointed.  As an added bonus, Jeffery joined us for dinner and entertained us with all the local gossip as well as enough jokes to headline in Vegas!

Swing Bridge

The next morning we continued on, heading for Barefoot Landing Marina in Myrtle Beach.

I had chosen Barefoot Landing Marina (not to be confused with Barefoot Marina which is on the opposite shore), because it was part of a huge outdoor shopping center.  I thought it might be fun to take a day and just walk the shops to see what they had to offer.

Skylift

From Bucksport to Myrtle Beach, the river gets pretty narrow with lots of expensive homes along the water.  It is a worthwhile trip just to look at the homes!

As you get closer to Myrtle Beach, the scenery gives way to buildings targeting the tourist industry, including a skylift that crosses over the ICW!

Some of the many shops at Barefoot Landing

When we arrived at Barefoot Landing Marina, I radioed for directions and the dockmaster told me to pull in behind a Nordic Tug that was docked there.  As I pulled in behind the tug, I saw the name.  It was Peter and Sue on Osprey, the couple we had met in Beaufort a week before!  We had been unable to meet up with them for dinner in Charleston, but here we were, docked right next to each other once again.  So of course, we all had dinner together that night!  We really enjoyed meeting up with them again and hope to run into them on the water in the future!

Nothing better than dinner with friends!

There was so much to see at Barefoot Landing, that we spent the whole day and only shopped in a small fraction of the stores!

To add to all the excitement, we arrived at the start of bike week so motorcycles were everywhere!

This was as far north as we were going to get on this trip.  And so now everything will be southbound towards Brunswick.

Osprey continues north

But first, I have to go back to work for awhile as my clients need my help.  As much as I would like to stay on vacation, I have responsibilities back home.

And so with sadness, we leave Elixir in Myrtle Beach for a month while I catch up at the office.  But then we will be back, with new adventures on the way south!

Charleston

Charleston City Marina

With our bimini top tied, taped, and clamped, we proceeded on to Charleston.  As we rounded the last curve and came in sight of Charleston, I was reminded of the big marinas of South Florida.  As far as the eye could see there were boats tied to docks or resting at anchor!  No wonder they call it the home of the Mega Dock!  If we did not have bikes, we probably would have never left our boat since it was a half hour walk just to get to land!

Beginning the long ride to the boat

The first thing I had to do after tying up, was work.  Several emergencies had arisen while we were underway that had to be taken care of today.  We ended up and had to ride our bikes over two miles away to get to a Fedex mail store.  By the time we got done with my emergencies, it was dinner time, so we grabbed a bite to eat and returned to the boat, exhausted.

King Street District

The next day, we went back into town, a little more refreshed.  This time as a tourist.  We rode our bikes to the King Street Shopping District and parked them.  Then we walked down one side of the street and up the other until we returned to our bikes.  All in all we spent several hours poking our heads in numerous shops to see what we could spend our money on.

Nice paint job!

We found a great little vegan cafe (we are not vegan but usually vegan restaurants serve the food we eat).  We had lunch there, including a chocolate mousse made from avacados! (you can't taste the avacado but it makes it creamy)  It is usually hard to find healthy deserts so this was a real treat!

One of the many public bike racks

We found it interesting that Charleston has the highest bike usage that we have seen, yet for the most part, it was not very bike friendly.  The sidewalks were broken from tree roots and the ramps going from the sidewalk to the street may as well have been curbs!  So we, like everyone else we saw, just rode in the street.  At times this was a little scary because the cars seemed to mostly ignore our existence!

Charleston sunset

We didn't have time to visit any of the museums, but we will be back on our return trip south and plan on taking some in at that time.

Charleston has so much to do that we are talking about making it a destination (rather than a pit stop) in the future!

Beaufort, SC

Beaufort City Marina

We pulled into Beaufort, SC on Friday night.  Beaufort was the furthest north we have ever taken the boat, although we had been in sight of Beaufort once when we attended an MTOA regional get-together at Port Royal Landing Marina.

This time we stayed at Lady's Island Marina, which is just past, but still in sight of the town of Beaufort.  We spent Friday night provisioning and getting the lay of the land.  There is a great hardware store, Grayco, within walking distance of the marina.

The Swing Bridge at Beaufort

On Sunday, we mostly rested since we assumed most of the shops in Beaufort would be closed.  Bright and early Monday morning, I was at Butler marine with my outboard which would not start when we tried it on the way to Beaufort.  They said no promises, but they would try to get to it.

We then set off to the town to see Beaufort for the first time.  Beaufort is a quaint little town on the water with lots of arts and crafts shops as well as tourist shops.  Restaurants are abundant and I'm told they are delicious, although for persons like Marie and myself who eat a whole food plant based diet, there was not much to choose from.

Sue with her two kids

After a full day visiting Beaufort, we returned to the marina just in time to receive a call from Butler Marine telling us they had repaired the outboard!  The news was great since we like to anchor out and without a dinghy, we are stuck on the boat.

When we returned to the boat, we discovered a Nordic Tug had pulled in behind us and a little while later we met the owners, Peter and Sue.  This was their fist cruise, having just purchased the boat in the Bahamas.  They are a really great couple and since we were leaving in the morning for Charleston, we agreed to try to meet up there for dinner when they arrived a little behind us.

The seagull is the little spec under the jet

The first day out on the way to Charleston was a beautiful day.  As we started out of the marina, military jets were doing touch and goes over our heads and made for a great, if not loud, show.  At one point, a seagull challenged us and one of the jets to a race, and we were quick to take up the challenge.  It didn't take long for the jet to win the race and yes, we came in last place.... to a seagull.  Life on a trawler!

Marie relaxing on the bow

After the air show, we had a long relaxing day on the water.  The seas were calm and skies were sunny.  The tide was against us most of the way so it was a slow 5 and half knots, but we enjoyed the sights.

One of the cuts

Along with the pretty marshes and beautiful homes, there were several cuts we had to go through that were narrow and shallow.  Luckily, we had planned our departure to gives us plenty of water as we went through the cuts.

Storm on the horizon

As the day neared the end, we found ourselves in one of those mathematical dilemmas that boaters sometimes face.  A huge storm began to chase us north.  Normally we would just anchor and hunker down before the rain could hit.  But in this case, we had one more cut to get through while we still had high water under us.  If we anchored short of the cut, we lose half the day the next day waiting for the water to come in.  But could we get to the anchorage on the other side of the cut before the storm got to us?  Calculations flew and decisions were made and we continued on.

The storm that hit us

We made it through the cut and found our anchorage none too soon.  Just as we dropped anchor, the rain began.  It came in waves and at first it was just a normal storm like many others we had been through.  But then around 10pm, the sky fell down.  The storm intensified and we were spun in circles on our anchor.  The wind was strong and sustained for about an hour.  The ballad of the SS Minnow came to my mind - "The tiny ship was tossed."  Water was leaking in everywhere possible and even came in places we didn't think was possible!  Suddenly, we heard a horrendous noise on the flybridge and Marie commented, "There went the bimini."  The banging above continued for what seemed like forever, but we did not dare venture out to see what the source of the noises were because the boat was pitching and rolling too severely to safely go outside.  Although the winds eventually died down to a normal windy, the rains continued well into the night and so we finally went to sleep in the early morning hours.

Whats left of the flybridge

In the morning, we went outside to survey the damage.  As Marie had predicted, our bimini top was destroyed.  It had ripped apart at almost every seam and zipper.  Some of the screwed in fasteners for the bows were ripped out of the wood and the screws were bent.  Two of the wire tie-downs were torn apart.  It is a total loss and will have to be replaced.

We straightened everything up the best we could and continued on to Charleston.  Another experience under our belt to give us another war story to tell at a future dinner or get-together.

2016 Spring Cruise

It seems like its been forever since Elixir was underway, so it was with great anticipation that we said goodbye to Brunswick Landing Marina at the end of April and set sail for South Carolina.

All of our trips to date had been south and so we decided to see what was to the north.  We debated about whether to travel long days and make it all the way to Virginia and back or to travel short days and just visit South Carolina.  The latter won out and so our plan is to enjoy what South Carolina had to offer, in a leisurely fashion.






Shortly after our departure, we rounded a bend and were surprised by a large cruise ship.  Its not every day you see a cruise ship on the ICW.  The American Star travels up and down the ICW giving its passengers a different kind of adventure from its ocean going sisters.

Our first few days were spent anchoring along the Georgia ICW enjoying the beautiful sunrises and sunsets that one sees when the only thing that separates you from the horizon is marsh land.
It is always so quiet and peaceful sitting at anchor surrounded only by marsh and water.  The only sound is the lapping of the water against the side of the boat broken by the occasional call of a nearby bird or splash of a fish as it falls back into the water.  You wonder what made it decide to leave the water in the first place, but not finding an immediate answer, you return to your day dreaming.