Georgetown to Myrtle Beach

 3/11/2022

Georgetown (Harbor Walk Marina) to Myrtle Beach (Myrtle Beach Yacht Club)

Waccamaw River Cypress trees

This trip has two distinct differences, there are beautiful natural settings in the Waccamaw River, just trees and the river, and then there is lots of long slow slogs through  a canal that has houses and docks and you just have to go idle speed forever.  It was only about 57 miles but took almost 6 hours.

Northern end of Rockpile and
Myrtle Beach VOR

We did have to go through two swing bridges, one was the Socasstee Swing Bridge, and the other one was the Little River Swing  Bridge.  Both bridgetenders happened to be women and were both very pleasant and timed their bridge opening almost perfectly to our approach to the bridge.  Lots of times they wait until you are stopped, and waiting before they will start the process.

Little River Swing Bridge Closed and Open

We had to go through a section called the rockpile.  This channel in this section is pretty narrow so you really don't want to pass a boat coming the other way.  If you came upon a boat going the same way as you, you would not pass it, you would just follow behind until you were out of this section.  So you can see that on oncoming  boat would be a problem.  We were fortunate, we got through the rockpile with no encounters of any boats and after we had exited the rockpile we encountered two skulling boats with their guide boats, we navigated gently around the girls and were passing a small marina when we heard someone requesting the bridge be opened in front of us.  This is a pretty tall bridge, so we would not need it open so it had to be a sailboat or a big boat.  Sandy started speeding up just a tad so he could get in front of it when we realized it was coming from the opposite direction, not the marina, It was a massive barge being pushed by a tug. Lots of barges are really big, but this one was so wide, really, really wide and he was heading where we had just passed through, the rockpile.  (The rockpile is named as you would expect, it has all rocks on the sides and the bottom, and plenty of signs for SeaTow in that section).  We were so thankful that we did not encounter that in that section because I honestly would not know what we would have done, I think we would have had to turn around somehow and go backwards, there would be no way to pass. I can't even imagine how he would have fit in that channel.

Close call, We had to stop and find a way to move
 as close to the side of the canal without going aground
  The barge passed with only about ten feet between us

We got to Myrtle Beach Yacht Club and fueled up just as it was starting to rain.  Our good friend Tom came over and hung out with us and then we went to the "Officers Club" right on the dock for dinner, Tom's wife,  Pat, met us for dinner after she had her hair cut.  So good to catch up with them.

The Smyth's at the Myrtle Beach Officers Club
Myrtle beach Yacht Club

We are doing laundry and cleaning up the boat a bit as we have to stay due to a storm.  It is almost like a tropical storm, although we have had a tornado watch since 9:00 AM Saturday morning, the watch is supposed to expire at 1:00 today.  There have been periods of high winds and heavy rain, then a glimmer of sun, crazy weather.  headed down to the 20's tonight.  Sandy and I have to do some more planning.  We hoped to be in Deltaville by Saturday, now we might have heavy winds again in the middle of the week when we would be traversing big open sounds, so that could delay us but also Sandy has learned that a railroad bridge right before  Norfolk will be closed on Saturday for 64 hours so we have to get through that or we will be delayed for days.

Isn't the saying humans make plans and God laughs???  And schedules are the most dangerous thing for boaters.  Right now it looks like we will push on, the Neuse River will not be calm but should be okay.  We will make the final call a few days out when the forecast is most reliable.