Little River/Calabash to Southport, NC, Day 6

Summer Breeze slip at South Harbor Village Marina, Southport NC

Weighed anchor at 6:45 am from Calabash Creek to get through the shallows at Shallotte and 10 miles later, Lockwood Folly and all was good. 

We are still amazed at the homes along the ICW. Mostly big and beautiful and big boats! Todays northbound travel (traveling due East!) took us behind Sunset Beach, Ocean Isle, Holden Beach, Oak Island and into Southport at the mouth of the Cape Fear River. 

A shrimp dock close at Oak Island or maybe Holden Beach area, close to Southport.I've photographed this before while visiting here with the Tatums with plans to paint someday.
 We have a slip booked for the week at South Harbor Village Marina. We had hoped to get a face dock but they wanted to put us in a better slip for the week. We (gulp) said ok. This was the 2nd slip docking we have done, ever. The wind did pick up a bit and gave us a bit of challenge but Captain Bruce was at the helm and did a great job. Our dock hands were here and helped tremendously. We are impressed that we got her into this slip as it is our biggest nightmare.

It is supposed to storm Monday and Tuesday and we will rent a car for a quick roundtrip back to Charleston on Wed/Thur. We are just going to take it easy here, do some boat cleaning and maintenance and paint! I haven't painted all week. I should have time now. 

Bella is happy to see grass. Summer Breeze is in the background. See her? Next to a sailboat framed in the photograph by the foreground sailboat's mast and rolled up jib. 

Southport, NC is at the mouth of the Cape Fear River. 

MM: 311 

Miles traveled today: 30.7

Total: 185

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Bucksport to Little River/Calabash, Day 5

We woke to a beautiful morning on the Waccamaw River. Today is our 44th wedding anniversary.

We were on both on helm duty with 12 bridges to go under, 2 of which required an opening for us, AND we were traveling through the "rock pile" area today. Our travels today took us behind Socastee, Myrtle Beach and North Myrtle Beach to Little River. Tons of beautiful homes, lots of docks, lots of boats and an plethora of jet skis. Being the beginning of Memorial Day weekend, there is a ton of boat traffic out. It is a beautiful day but we know the storm is coming....

We got to the Calabash Creek about 1 PM but it was dead low tide and there is a sandbar to cross into our creek anchorage so we doodled around the Little River area a bit to let the tide come in, giving us an extra foot to pass. We finally got anchored in a tiny spot in the creek and hoping that we will be in the same spot in the morning. 🙏 We only stirred up the bottom once... 

The little town of Calabash is up the creek. 

We took a dinghy ride to take a look. It's a little fishing community known for all the seafood restaurants and the fishing boats and shrimpers are going by us constantly. 

 At anchor

 2 scruffy looking sailors out to sea!

Our position on the navigation chart. 

MM: 341.7    

Miles traveled today: 33.8 + circles in Little River

Total: 153.3

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Georgetown to Bucksport-Enterprise Landing Area, Day 4

Weighed anchor at 8:45 AM from Georgetown Harbor. Again, another quiet and peaceful night. No more rain showers but they are predicted to be in the afternoon while we travel north. Our plan is to be in the Bucksport area today, traveling behind Pawleys Island, Murrells Inlet, past Brookgreen Gardens, anchoring up the Waccamaw River (ICW).

Leaving Georgetown, we entered the Waccamaw River. Bryan kept telling us that is "different" and it is! Instead of marsh, there is swamp with cypress and pine trees lining the way and it is wide and deep. Nice to not have to watch for shallows today. 

We watched the rain clouds appear and hover but nothing ever materialized over us but they were close by. We are using the new Storm Radar app and it is pretty accurate, so far. 

We got to our chosen anchorage between Enterprise Landing and the area known as Bucksport and settled in about 2:30, passing an area with a large dock, camping tents, RVs and a large restaurant outside bar area that looks to be a pretty popular spot so we dinghied back to it for a late lunch/early dinner, getting back to Summer Breeze by 5:30. Still no rain showers. 

Another trawler came into the oxbow area and was our creek mate for the night. Friday, we travel through an area known as the "rock pile, (Rosie is nervous) and we have a couple of low bridges to tend with before getting to the border of SC and NC at Calabash. 

The rain finally came around 7 and we had a good boat washing.

Summer Breeze is the red boat.

MM: 375.5 

Miles traveled today: 27.5

Total: 119.5

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South Santee River to Georgetown, Day 3

We had another quiet night at anchor in the South Santee River. The big black flies shooed us inside for dinner but that was ok. 

Today, we only have about 17 miles to travel to Georgetown so we had an easy morning, cooked a big breakfast, finished grooming Bella, got an accurate measurement of our davit height for bridge clearance (20’ and we scrape the bridge, 28’ if the antennae are up), did yoga and then just as we were ready to start engines, it stormed, with all the side affects. The rain stopped and we weighed anchor at 12:30 on a rising tide, just as planned. 

Again, we cruised along on a favorable tide speeding us up a bit. We arrived in the channel going into Georgetown in less than 2 hours BUT the sky got dark again and here it came, for about 1 1 /2 hours. Rain and thunder. This is our 1st time to approach Georgetown by boat, so not being familiar with the entrance but knowing that there are boats everywhere in the harbor, we decided to make circles out in the open water way and wait out the rain. 1 1/2 hours of slow circles and the sky turned blue again. 

We found an anchorage at the end of the harbor walk area past the mooring field close to the old steel mill, an easy dinghy ride in. Bella is eyeing that grass though we have to say that she is dealing with "spot" perfectly. 

Ah, the historic old Georgetown clock is dinging 5 o'clock.  

Georgetown Harbor at night...

Our anchorage for the night

MM: 403 

Miles traveled today: 17 + circles

Total: 92 +

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Charleston Harbor to South Santee River, Day 2

 Bella on watch in Wappoo Creek.

 Charleston harbor

We had a calm night and good anchorage at Sylvan's Shore (as noted on Active Captain) close to Wappoo Creek. We left anchorage at 9:15. We traveled Elliott Cut and Wappoo Creek at slack low tide. Much easier than the last time with a raging current. 

We have not been on the ICW north of Charleston, which is a beautiful area, lots of houses, lots of boats, lots of crab pots! Traveling north, we passed beautiful marshes, not a lot of trees and we could see the beach waves occasionally over the marsh. (One of the pluses of sitting up high on the fly bridge.) We did find some shallows behind IOP area and north of Dewees, finding 1.3' under our keel. 😱

 We had several anchor spots mapped out for the night but we kept traveling to the next ones as we had a favorable tide helping us along the way. We stopped in the South Santee River for the night finding a good spot after navigating through a crab-a-poolza mine field, discovering that we had indeed traveled over one and thankfully did not get it into our stabilizers or props. 

MM: 420 

Miles traveled today: 50

Total: 75

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Summer Breeze Summer Cruise...finally!

(photo from one our walks at Roxbury Park by Bruce Phillips)

Wind and repairs are good excuses for not cruising. It's been a windy spring and Summer Breeze has undergone some repairs thus no cruising for us! Repairs are done and we are off some early summer cruising along the ICW, heading north from Charleston. From our last post, she spent about 4 weeks in the boat yard getting the shaft coupling repaired and replacing 2 sea cocks in both head sinks. Then, the bank of batteries that run the ship were replaced, BUT NOT the countertops, yet! 

Out with the old and in with the new....batteries!

May 21, today we left our dock at about 12:30, noonish. We had a great departure with all the elements in our favor. 😁 

I harvested all the lettuce from the garden, loaded up my blooming orchids and Gamblin, my air plant I bought in Portland, tons of food and drink, clothes and we are ready. 

The tomatoes have blooms so maybe can harvest some when we make a quick trip back in a couple of weeks.

What is left of my Mother's Day bouquet, boat plants plus a potted basil plant on the fly bridge.

We traveled 25 miles today in a favorable tide, making it almost to Charleston (Elliott Cut and Wappoo Creek) before deciding to call it a day. We anchored in a spot that is named Sylvan's Shore on Active Captain. We had to snuggle in between a sand bar and the shore, some crab pots, a channel marker and 2 other boats. We are set to cross Charleston harbor in the morning. 

The red boat icon is us on the map.

It was a nice evening, the wind slowed down so we could sit on the aft deck after dinner and enjoy the sunset and view.

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