2 May 2015

Today is Susan’s second birthday on the Loop!

We are off to North Myrtle Beach today and are traveling with three other Loopers. “Plane2Sea” are people that we met up with in Georgia. The two new boats are “Horizon Chaser” and “Mighty Fine”. We met the two new crews at breakfast this morning.

Our first adventure was watching “Horizon Chaser” and “Mighty Fine” get waked by a Hinkley coming down the ICW. Not sure what is up, that was the fourth Hinkley that has done that.

We are now back into swing bridge country. There are about 8 bridges that we need to deal with between here and the Chesapeake Bay. The one this morning was pretty easy, there were two boats waiting when our group arrived. The bridge tender opened up and we went through.

The next 20 miles are a canal that is bracketed by homes and gold courses. The mega homes along the water reminded us of the area north and south of Palm Beach. It’s like the housing crash of 2009 never happened.

There is a place where there is an overhead gondola system with two cars. It’s part of one of those giant resorts that are all over down here. The parking lot is on the east side of the river, the golf course is on the west. They load golfers into the gondolas an fling them across the river.

One of the famous river areas in this section is “The Rockpile” It’s a narrow canal section that was cut out rock. Unlike other spots of pluf mud and sand, hitting the rocks is a bigger deal. (Pluf mud is that smelly mud that South Carolina is so famous for.) We came through about mid tide and there was lots and lots of room. There was a southbound sailboat that went by, he was on the phone and not really watching the markers. The crew of “Horizon Chaser” yelled that they were about to crash and the sail boat turned 90 degrees to miss the marker.

We arrived at the very nice Myrtle Beach Yacht club about noon. I was surprised by the low cost, only $1 per foot. I can see why people stay here a few days. Its a great place!

There was a wedding going on upstairs in the restaurant. So the crews of “Horizon Chaser”, “Mighty Fine” and “Quo Vadimus” headed to the steak house next door. Susan and I had the fish tacos, they were good but not the level of the ones from the Wilmington Farmers Market.

Naps for Susan and I for awhile and I topped off our water tanks. We then headed up to the pool area and met up with “Just Us”, “Plane2Sea” and “Diamond Girl” for predinner snacks. Just before the Kentucky Derby Post time, we moved up stairs to a big table. One of the boats (nameless here for legal reasons) put together a small derby bet slips. I had poor picks, but Susan had one of the top three. Of course both of our horses placed well out of the money.

Dinner was a group appetizer set, we had buffalo wings, Parmesan garlic wings, nachos, potato skins plain and with chili and egg rolls. Lots of food for everyone! The wings were huge and the flats still had the tips on them. An order of 10 would be more than anyone could eat.

Susan had a hot fudge sundae with pecans on it for her birthday!

After dinner we all headed to our respective boats. Some are going to Southport Marina, others will push on to Wrightsville. We have 7 good days of weather in our forecast so we will keep going until we get to the rain on Saturday.

1 May 2015

In the morning we left with the rising tide and followed Roundabout out the river. Another day of quiet rides and moving along at 9 kts with the help of the tidal flow.

About 10 AM we came across friends on “Debt Finder” and we chatted with them for a few minutes with them on the radio. It was nice catching up with them. That’s one of the nice things about the Loop is that you meet and then remeet people as you travel along.

We got to our dock early because of the extra speed of the current. The marina is very nice, brand new floating docks and it was very inexpensive at $1 per foot.

We did lunch on the boat and called a taxi about 3PM to take us into Myrtle Beach. There is an entertainment complex about 20 minutes away that Susan had scoped out. Lots of kid things to do as far as rides and arcades, lots of shopping for the parents. There is also about a dozen places to eat. With it being off season the place was pretty empty so we had our run of the place.

The complex is set up around a huge lagoon. Running across the center is a double zip line (over and then back). Susan had gone ziplining in Mexico and really liked it, so we decided to give this one a try. My last time on a zip line was in the back yard when I was a kid, it was one of those rigs where you hung on with your hands. Here it was a full seat harness like you would wear as a construction worker. They strap you in and send you up the tower to the top to clip into the rollers that will take you across.

The ride was pretty cool, having a little more mass than your average person I accelerated pretty quickly. Being slightly unbalanced in the harness gave me a slow spin so I got a good 360 view. I soon landed at the other side. Up a few more steps to the top of the tower and we were both on our way across.

There is a bridge that goes across the lagoon, we crossed it. On the way we marveled at the giant carp, they lay in wait in the water with their half dollar sized mouths gaping on the surface begging for food. There was a ride there where you climb inside an inflatable tube and you can crawl inside and then float across the water. It looked perfect for little kids.

We hit a few of the shops, picked up some new salsa’s for docktails, marveled at kids clothing that was $65 per outfit, etc. We did go to the MR Ducks store and he had a left over 2014 shirt in my size, and a 2015 in a color that I liked. We also went to Kligs Kites, a mecca for kiteflyers. I picked up two really unusual kites to try out. One is a very interesting kite that has a carbon fiber tension system.

Dinner was at the Liberty Brewing Company. We ordered the “Pint-o-Bacon” just to see what it was. It’s 6 strips of bacon in a pint glass with a maple/hot pepper sauce to dip them in. It was weird but fun just eating bacon. Susan had a steak and I had prime rib. And of course I had a flight of 5 different beers to try. One was a Maibock, a new term to me that I’ll need to go research.

After dinner we went to the Palace Theatre to watch a show. A family friend, Russell, is a BMX bike rider in the show. He is part of a three man group that does a 10 minute act on two side by side pipes. When Dave was younger he was into BMX and we went to see him and the other riders perform. Russell and the other riders were way over the top doing jumps, twists and loops. I wouldn’t think that a bike could put up with all that abuse.

There was also a magician that had some good tricks. He had an assistant that was very flexible so he was able to do a number of variations of the “saw the girl in half trick”. The best tricks were the ones where he had children from the audience participate.

The other big act was Christian Soninev and his dog Scooby doing acrobatics. He was very good, and the dog would climb on him as he move upside down.

We met up with Russell after the show, they will be in Myrtle Beach through Labor Day, so if you get a chance go see the show. He said that the cast (magician, dancers, bikers, etc) were set up in condos that are close to the beach and to the theater. A pretty good summer gig.

In the morning we will be heading out with three other Loopers that are in the marina. We’ll have a chance to sleep in since low tide is at 7, we won’t be leaving until 8:30.

30 April 2015

Left Lealand Oil Marina about 8:15 on the high tide. It made getting into the river pretty easy.

About 20 minutes into the trip we were waked by a Hinkley Motor Yacht called Magic. We then heard boaters all up the ICW yelling at him. It reminded me of the Hinkley called Sapphire that waked us in Florida. Wonder if Hinkley only sells their boats to jerks? Or maybe just jerks in the south?

The rest of the trip was pretty easy. The high point was a pair of dolphins that were leaping out of the water in front of the boat. Not their normal leaps, but full body, tail out of the water jumps. Very, very cool.

During this leg we crossed the 5000 mile mark. I’m pretty excited by this milestone, we’ve come a long way. But it’s also sad, since it means our trip is coming to a close.

We got into our dock with a little bit of extra effort. Gas here was $2.47, our new loop average is $3.87, pretty good! I’ve been trying to go farther between fuel stops, but my average seems to be about 150 gallons, or 75 gallons a side. I’d guess if I’d really worked at it I could be averaging under $3.50, but since I was thinking $6 a gallon, I’m good.

We walked around downtown Georgetown for part of the afternoon. It’s one of the oldest three cities in South Carolina. Lots of old historic buildings, a very pretty downtown. We stopped a Gullah Museum to see what they Gullah were about. They were African slaves that after the Civil War had been granted islands in the south so they were able to keep lots of their original heritage alive.

Lunch was at Big Tuna, out on their rustic dock/porch area. Susan was all over the oyster po’boy, I went with the gumbo. Lots of flavor in both, at a pretty good cost.

Once back from touring down town Susan napped and I worked on the broken bilge pump. Turned out that it was a blown fuse. I put the same size in and it blew again, but the next size up worked. I’m going to guess that the starting current was on the edge for the fuse, giving it some extra to work with let me get it going. I do have a spare pump I can install if this one goes dead. (And more fuses)

We had docktails tonight with the crews of Seahorse, and Roundabout, both boats that we have run across a number of times in the past. New docktails were the crew of Field Trip, loopers from Michigan and the crew of Antares, they were part of the ICW mess leaving Charleston three days ago.

Dinner was at Wild Fish, a tiny little place downtown. Susan went for the “build it burger” and went all onionriffic with raw, fried and grilled onions. I focused on the “build it mac and cheese” going old school with shrimp and bacon. Both were very good. It’s a fun little place, highly recommended.

Back on the boat Susan waited for sunset and blew her conch horn to signify sunset. Not sure who else noticed since there is a steel mill 10 blocks away that had train cars hoot. But it was nice to here it again. She’s done it a few times since we left Tavernier, but she missed the band.

A great sunset tonight and the wind has stopped so it’s dead calm and you can realy see the reflections in the waves. Hope the pictures come out OK.

29 April 2015

Rain delay! We are at the Lealand Oil Company Marina in McClellanville, SC and it’s been raining all morning and most of the day. We decided to hang here for the day and catch up on some odds and ends.

So we made some progress on projects, logging, pictures, naps, etc. Susan made some great food, her special egg salad for lunch and shrimp flavored garlic and asparagus for dinner.

We had lots of rain but during a break we hung out on the dock. There is a local dolphin called Jeremy that hangs out here in the marina. If you splash in the water he will come over to see you. Got some good shots of Jeremy and Susan.

We should be off to the north on Thursday, the weather will be clear by 8.

28 April 2015

Trip to McClellanville, SC

27 April 2015

We had heard so many nice things about Charleston that we are staying an extra day. We got up and out on the first water taxi to go across the river to the Yorktown. It was a WWII aircraft carrier that has been turned into a museum.

While not as big as a modern carrier, for its day it was pretty big and pretty fast, being able to go 30 knots. They were able to launch the figher planes by turning into the wind, that in combination with the boat speed gave enough lift to launch the planes without using a catapult.

Below decks were the same crowded areas that we’ve seen on other WWII class ships. Bunks are stacked 3 high, close quarters in the companion way, tighter spaces in engineering. We did the audio tour and it was neat that after most exhibits there was some story by one of the men from the ship.

They cut some of the bulkheads away in the engineering space so it was easy access. Normally the boilers are sealed up behind extra thick walls so if they blew up they would not sink the boat. On the Yorktown the boilers were also set up so they could feed two engines. That gave them redundancy in case a boiler or an engine failed.

On both the flight deck and hanger bay was a number of planes from the 40′s to 60′s. It was cool walking around and seeing how the wings would fold so they could stack more in the hanger bay. They also have a mock up of the Apollo 8 capsule, it was one of the capsules that the Yorktown recovered during the space program. You can sit inside, hard to think that 3 people spent two weeks inside that space. The two of us were ready to get out after sitting through the 4 minute animation.

Scattered about the ship are a number of displays about other ships and famous people from WWI. Most of the ship displays had very detailed models. There is lots of great history there. We spent two hours walking around, but didn’t really spend a lot of time with the exhibits. Also on site is a submarine and a destroyer that you can tour. They aslo have a mock Vietnam War base set up to show what that was like.

After taking a quick look down into the sub (yep, super small places) we caught the water taxi. It took us to the other marina (lots of nice boats) and then into town putting us off at the city docks. From there we walked through the French Quarter and then to the Southend Brewery and Smoke House.

Southend is in a huge 3 story building with the brewing tanks in the center of the building on the ground floor and fermentation tanks up on the second floor. We had a flight of beer and shared an order of fried green tomatoes. The beer was good, and the pimento cheese with the fried tomatoes was a nice combination. The tomatoes came with a corn chutney that was also an interesting spin on the dish. One of our favorites so far. (Yes, fried green tomatoes have become our “conch fritters” as we travel through South Carolina.

We headed up the street and passed a place that said they had the best fried green tomatoes. So we went into Blossom and tried. They were good, but the bacon jam from the Bierhouse was better and the pimento cheese was better at the Smokehouse. Sorry Blossom.

Just past the Central Market was T-Bonz, they feature the beers of the Southern Brewing Company. We tried a flight and becase we were done with fried green tomatoes we went for the fried shrimp. They were both very, very good.
We walked to the Central Market and walked the length of the market to find bargins. None really to be found, but I did pick up a card game called “Gormet Smarts”. Think of them as food flashcards. It looks like it would be fun to play.

We did look at the sawgrass baskets but they were all really expensive at over $100 for a very small one. So we passed on them and headed back to the boat.

We had invited the people that run the AGLCA over. Steve came for a visit. He was very interesting to talk to, we got how the AGLCA got started and how the Kromer’s took it over. We also got a ton of tips of places to go on our trip north.

Plus he recommended PearlZ, so we called for a taxi and walked to the street to wait. While we were there about 2 dozen cars unloaded highschool kids dressed in their best. They were there to go on the river tour for the evening.

PearlZ is an oyster bar that has been around almost forever. When we got there it was packed, a 20 minute wait. So we walked around the block and admired all the old homes. It’s a very pretty area, lots of nice houses.

We got a pair of seats looking out the window onto the sidewalk. Pretty cool view. Our conversation about this being the first day of our second on the loop caught the attention of the table in front of us. It was the crew of Saylors Delight. We had lunch with them on the Illinois River about 6 months ago. We chatted for awhile until our dinner was delivered.

The oysters were very good as was the rest of the food. It’s a nice place, it was a good recommendation by Steve.

We walked back to the boat and were soon tucked in for the evening. The winds had died down so we were not going to be bouncing around like we had the night before.

25 April 2016

I was waiting to leave until about 9AM, that would have been “slack tide” the time when the tide changes direction. It’s a little easier to get off the dock when the current isn’t moving you around.

But there was rain in the forecast, so we opted to wait the rain out. Glad that we did, it rained pretty hard for about 2 hours. It wouldn’t have been a fun ride. Around 1 PM it started to clear off. I called the next marina, the guy is there until 6PM so we had a pretty decent window to get there. Charleston is about 70 miles away, that would make about an 8 hour ride to do on Sunday, so going 20 today is a good idea.

We got off the dock about 2PM. It was a little windy, but the wind was to ease in the late afternoon.

The ride through the low country was pretty, but there are lots of marshes.

One section is a cut that they dredge on a regular basis. The island next to the cut is set up to collect the silt from the digging. They have installed drain pipes in the base of the pit to return the water back. They do it every two years or so, it got done last year, but there were some winter storms that put a lot of silt back. (Info from one of the local people that I sat on the dock with last night)

As we’ve done the Great Loop we’ve stayed in a variety of marina’s. Really nice ones, average ones, some that need work, some that are brand new. We’ve also stayed at a number of places that are not really a marina. On the Illinois River we stayed one night tied to the work barge of a tow company.

Tonight’s marina is B&B Seafood in Green Pond SC. They have a 200 foot dock that used to be home for their shrimp fleet. But as the shrimp business died off, they now rent space on their dock. There is 1 110v outlet and water. The docks are much older and show lots of wear. Only two shrimp boats are left, so there is about 100 ft of open space.

A little wind and slack tide made it an easy docking. We walked up to the office / shrimp store. Our nights fee was only $25. That is55 cents a foot, same as the work barge, but not as low as Boca Chita, Florida at $2.50 per night.

Disappointing news at the store, all the fresh shrimp were gone. All they had were frozen. I learned later on that the frozen shrimp were theirs, so we could have gotten that. On the other hand we are not set up to keep 5 lbs of frozen shrimp.

Susan decided to go fishing, all the gulls and dolphins knew that fish were down there. She didn’t have any luck, but had a good time trying.

We had purchased a new grill in Tavernier to replace the useless marine one. I spent some time assembling it and we set it up on the dock box to try it out. Gunn and I had built a table that mounts in a bait holder, but I though for the trial run the dock box would be better.

It fired right up. Susan put a packet of small potatoes with fresh herbs to cook. We were both impressed with the grill, on high it got to 600F pretty quickly. On the low setting it was about 300 degrees. It also has a disposable drip pan for quick cleanups. Much better than the other one. And at about 1/3 the price it won’t be a big deal to get a new one every other year.

Second packet of asparagus with sliced mushrooms went on followed by big burgers. A very nice dinner!

After dinner Susan tried fishing again with no bites even though the dolphins were feeding on the other side of the river.

I went up and sat with one of the local residents. He had done some repairs on his son’s boat, they were out for a check out ride. While he waited I got to hear about the shrimping business, down because of overfishing and bigger schools of fish from the south that range up to eat them. 10 years a go 4,000 lbs of shrimp was a good day, now if you get over 1,000 lbs that’s great. But with fuel costs and the dropping wholesale price, it’s hard for the smaller companies to make a go of it.

He also gave me a towelette to keep the “no-see-ums” away. It worked pretty well. He said after using them, he’d stick them up in his hat to keep them away from his head. We’ll need to try to find them.

We watched the lightning draw closer, the storm was to the south, but it looked bigger that the morning storm that we waited out in Beaufort. So I headed back to the boat and closed us up for the night.

About 1AM we heard the kids return in the boat. They were laughing, so I guess it was a successful trip. It also made sense from their earlier efforts to make sure the radar was working. Lots of day markers out there, radar helps you miss hitting them.

23-24 April 2015

We needed to wait for the marina to open this morning so they could run the lock for us. When we went out the lock it was approaching low tide, so it was a drop of about 8′ for us. The lock is slightly wider than our boat and about 60 feet long so we sat quietly in the middle and did the slow drop. This was a surprise set of locks, our next ones will be in Virginia in a few weeks.

A pretty plain trip of about 20 miles. There is a long stretch of “no wake” from the end of Parris Island (where the Marine Corps Base is) through Beaufort. Once under the Beaufort swing bridge we headed up to Lady’s Island to the marina there.

This part of South Carolina is called the “Low Country” there are a large number of islands and marshes. Little rivers and streams wind around. It’s an interesting ecosystem with lots of smaller sea life and birds. Susan’s parents have lived in this area for years and it’s very pretty.

We met up with her Mom and Sister and had lunch in the historic section of Beaufort. The place was a bakery that also made really great soups and sandwiches. After lunch we got a short driving tour of some of the historic homes. Most of the summer residents were plantation owners that came to Beaufort because of the constant summer breezes. There were lots and lots of huge homes nestled back behind huge trees. A popular tourist attraction is to be driven around in horse drawn carriages.

The afternoon was taken up by hair appointments and laundry, the mundane tasks of life even continue while living on a boat. We’ve been lucky the last month we’ve had access to good, cheap and close by machines.

Dinner was with Susan’s Mom at the Johnson’s Creek Tavern. It’s one of those small places at the end of the island. Mostly local residents eat there. It was busy since we arrived at the end of Happy Hour. They make really good oysters. We thought they were local, but they come from Apalachicola!

In my quest for dive bars I walked down the street to the Fill-In Station. It’s your classic dive place with a bar, a pool table, old music videos playing on the TV. Out back is a huge deck that has a great view of the river. They also serve food, Thursday is Pork Chop night. Two large pork chops and two sides for $5. It’s a local favorite. I got there and got offered the last order of chops.

On Saturday we had the pork chops from last night. They were good, but I’m going to guess the coating was much crispier last night.

We get mail about once a month and try to catch up on the important items, that took a good chunk out of the morning. This will be our last mail drop until we get home at the end of May. Then it was off to bank, shop, etc. We’ve been pretty good about the junk food, but there is a Sonic next door and the temptation for Hot Dogs and Limeade was too hard to resist.

We drove out and picked up Susan’s Mom and went to the home of an old family friend. They live out on the water with a great view. They have a Boston Whaler Mischief, one of the 200 made. It’s a cool little boat built for two, but skims along the water.

Dinner was at the Dockside. Susan and her Mom went with the fried clams and oysters (also from Apalachicola) I had the crab cakes and Low Country Hush Puppies. We got to watch a pretty nice sunset.
One of the things I like about small marina’s is they make people feel like family. This week a boat showed up and it was Robin’s birthday on Friday. So the marina organized a pot luck dinner supplied some beer and everyone was invited. I went out to the fire pit to talk and meet some of the other boaters. Lots of really nice people. There were still people up at 2AM when I looked out.