Days 50-51 Myrtle Beach, South Carolina

Damm....forgot our golf clubs!!!! Myrtle Beach is golf central and it would be so easy to stay for a week and get some golf in. Except we can't leave pretzel alone for that long and we really have to keep moving.

Yesterday we left Southport marina by 6:30AM and planned to travel another 50 miles. We had planned our trip around mid-high tide so the ocean inlets would be a little deeper since there is so much shoaling there. We passed by 3 inlets on this trip, spotting the ocean and sniffing the salt air, and except for some strong cross currents "Kinvara" made it through fine. Not as much traffic today which was quite pleasant. We seem to be tag teaming with 3 boats every day or so so it's nice to talk with them on the VHF. There were lots of beautiful (and big) homes along the waterway as well as condos after crossing into South Carolina. Just as we entered South Carolina we were surprised to spot 3 deer leaping through shallow water onto one of the barrier islands. It happened so fast we couldn't get the camera ready! Then less than a mile further down we saw a heard of long horn goats sunning on one of the islands. These islands are between the ICW and the ocean barrier islands. They are really large sand bars with vegetation.

Two of the swing bridges passed through.

Moving past the Little River Inlet we spotted a golf club, Glen Dornach, where we played a few times with Peter & Maryellen Rickard and Tom Marlborough. Our last memory of this club was watching dolphins play in the ICW and thinking ahead about our own trip down. Well, here we are!!!

We arrived at Grand Dunes Marina by 2:30 so we had the afternoon to relax. This marina is only 3 years old, very calm and right on the ICW. They only charge $2/ft but included is electric (usually a separate charge), cable TV, wi-fi, and they gave us a bottle of wine and photograph of our boat, taken when we arrived!

Around 5-5:30 Peter and Annie Judge arrive with cookies and wine for a visit. They are related to two co-workers of Peter at Tri County. They share a condo with Peter and Maryellen Rickard and graciously offed their condo to us for a stay on one of our trips south a few years ago. We had such a nice time....the cookies were delicious! So sorry we could not get here before Peter and Maryellen had to go back to MA. Missed you guys!

Today we are doing laundry (again) and some provisioning (grocery across the street) then sit down to chart our next few days to Charleston, SC. We though we would be putting our winter gear away but it's so cold at night (40's) that we have to start out in the morning bundled up then strip down and change into shorts in the afternoon.