This post will be rather long with lots of pictures since we forgot a few in Beaufort and didn't put any in the last posting.
Heading towards Beaufort South Carolina we passed many old plantations along the waterway. Many of these were originally rice plantations along the coast before cotton became king.
Coming into town we passed one of the more prominent features in the town. Parris Island Marine Corps Recruit Depot is located here as well as a Marine Corps Air Station. Blaine Spratlin (his wife Layne was in the prior posting) is the CO of the Air Station.
After we left Beaufort, we headed to Charleston. We anchored one night there and left the next morning. We had a great view of the "Battery" of old Charleston as we headed up the waterway.
It was Easter and Stacy was sporting the latest fashions for the day.
After anchoring in Thoroughfare Creek, we continued our move to North Carolina. The Waccamaw River area, including Thoroughfare Creek, has been Stacy's favorite area so far. Unfortunately we don't have any pictures of this area.
As we proceeded northward, we headed into Myrtle Beach. When I was working with Galtronics, I would visit an injection molding plant here and stayed in this Holiday Inn right on the waterway. Stacy came with me on one of the trips and we talked about traveling through here on our boat some day. It is now some years later and interesting to see it again from the other side.
While passing through Myrtle Beach we could not help but notice that this area is covered with golf courses. Apparently space is at a premium as we ran across a rather unusual transtition to the back nine.
It seems as though this particular course is played on both sides of the ICW. Golfers load their clubs in these gondolas and transfer to the other side. Golf carts are kept on both sides. Following this, we entered the famous "rockpile". This well known part of the ICW has rock ledges on both sides of the channel. We passed through at low tide so we could actually see the rocks. Many people get out of the channel and lose a prop on the rocks.
We anchored in Calabash Creek for the night and then headed up the Cape Fear river. We had to time our departure for another unusual feature - a pontoon bridge. This bridge is actually a pontoon "boat" that moves only on the hour.
The wind was up as we entered the river inlet.
We originally planned to anchor nearby but found out about a State Park marina that we might be able to get in to. We called and found out that the water would only be about 4.5 feet deep at low tide and we draw 4 feet. Given the wind and prospects for the weather worsening, we came into the marina. This was a decision that proved to be the right thing. We have been here for 5 days in increasing winds and rain. We are protected from most of the damaging wind but we will not be going out today and will see about tomorrow.
While here we have been visiting with a friend of Stacy's family, Charles Copelan. He grew up with Stacy's mother and is somehow distantly related. He has been entertaining us with stories and taking us around town. We happen to be here during the annual Azalea Festival and went into town for the parade. Charles marches in a Drum & Bugle Corp and has been in the parade for the last 30 years or so.
We found Bill's namesake hangout along Front Street where all the street market vendors set up for the festival.
We have been passing the time bicycling around town and along "Snows Cut" where we will be going out when we leave here.
Snows Cut runs from the Cape Fear River to the ICW along the Atlantic coast. In the previous picture you can see the Atlantic ocean in the background.
We are waiting now for the weather to settle down so we can get out. Our next destination is Swansboro where we will pick up Stacy's cousin Vic. He lives and cruises in the area and will be showing us his favorite locations.
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