SC: N. Myrtle Beach - Barefoot Marina

Day 332
June 20, 2016
NM Today: 45
NM to Date: 5191

Unbeknownst to me, last night Clark grabbed a midnight picture of our last night in Georgetown along with his midnight snack. I remember thinking how pretty the paper mill looked at night in severe contrast to how foul it smells. I thought of asking Clark for a picture and decided not to bother, so I got a nice surprise when I went to make blog updates tonight.

Georgetown Paper / Pulp Mill at wee hours of morning

Even though we did not go to bed until 2:00 a.m. we were up by 8:00 because we wanted to get to the car rental place to return the rental car when they opened at 9:00 a.m. With the bad luck we have had with the Georgetown Enterprise office, we decided to bring our fold-able bikes with us so we had a backup plan for getting back to the boat in case we needed it. At 2.2 miles it would not take long to bike back. I looked into Uber as another choice, but there appeared to be only one driver and the estimated time for that car to arrive to pick us up was also unpredictable.

It turned out to be like taking an umbrella in case it rains. It never rains when an umbrella is carried as a precaution. Well, when we got to the car rental place, they had three staff members available and no other patrons. We got our ride back to the marina in no time at all. I am convinced that if we had left the bikes on the boat, we would have had an hour wait or longer to get that ride back.

We decided not to bother with that visit to the fish market we discussed last night. I already had some fish in the freezer - sure fresh is better but I would not be eating it for several hours anyway. We decided we could visit a fish market another day. Given the quick turn around at Enterprise and knocking the fish market off the "to do" list, we were ready to leave Hazzard Marina by 9:20.

Before pulling out of the slip though Clark checked the engine compartment and found evidence of a leak. He shut the engines down, pulled out a wrench, tightened two loose connections, and cleaned up the fluids. That done he restarted the engines, rechecked for a leak, and declared us ready to go.  Apparently one connection was "finger tight" and needed to be tightened with a wrench to prevent further leakage -- a reasonably easy fix!

Our three-day plan made at dinner last night set our destination as Osprey Marina. The hot sun shone brightly but a breeze kept us cool as we traveled along the ICW. I entertained myself with Facebook, my phone Alphabetty game, and a coloring book that I bought for relaxation purposes. Every once in a while Clark would jump up to take a picture, and I would look up to see what he found interesting; otherwise, I basically kept my head down. Mostly, "if you've seen one tree, you've seen them all" was my attitude today.

Typical ICW View

ICW

Sometimes we see more interesting sights like unusual vessels.

Sailing Vessel Steel Away anchored near
Wacca Wache Marina

Clark pointed out a rather unusual and sobering view of a memorial attached to Buoy 57 like those seen along the highway where someone passed away in an accident.

Waterway Memorial remembering a loved one on the ICW

In addition to the above, we also saw vessels on the water. For a Monday we were surprised by the number of jet ski-type play craft running up and down the waterway. They buzzed up and down to the port and starboard sides of us like swarms of bees. Clark counted no less than 15 of them whoosh past us at one point.

Swarms of Personal Water Craft on the ICW today

At 2:00 we arrived at Osprey Marina.

Entrance to Osprey Marina

Clark looked at Osprey Marina and looked at the time and found that it was only 2:00 p.m. He asked me if I wanted to stop here or continue on to Barefoot Landing. He said we could be there in about two more hours, so we decided to continue on our way. From the reviews on Active Captain we did not feel we would miss anything of interest at Osprey Marina. More importantly I knew that our friend Joe on Firebird would be at Barefoot Landing and that if we continued, we would be able to see him. We have not seen him since our brief stop near Fort Myers on the west coast of Florida.

As we continued on our way, we came to a swing bridge that required us to call for an opening. Interestingly they needed to know our "home port" of Rumson, NJ before they would open for us.

Swing Bridge on the ICW
near Myrtle Beach, SC

After the swing bridge the scenery started to change in significant ways ...

Not just trees on the ICW as we approach Myrtle Beach, SC

At one point we could see both a McDonald's and a Wings restaurant from the boat. I suggested we pull over for a Big Mac, but Clark kept going. I also begged for a picture of McDonald's. He ignored my request and snapped a different picture instead.

Short Lighthouse?

or Buoy Graveyard???

We arrived at Barefoot Marina in North Myrtle Beach, South Carolina just before 4:00. The dock hand was great and had us tied to the dock in record time. He then walked us up to the gate to demonstrate how to exit and gain entrance to the dock after hours. This behavior is above and beyond normal dock hand assistance. He was a very nice young man.

Barefoot Marina is on one side of the waterway and Barefoot Landing is on the other. Barefoot Marina has a restroom, shower, and laundry. Barefoot Landing has none of that but has all the restaurants, stores, and entertainment. We opted to stay at the Barefoot Marina with expectations that we could easily bike across the bridge to gain access to the tourist attractions on the other side of the water.

As per usual we grabbed our bikes and set off as soon as we could untie the bikes and lock up the boat. While we were getting ourselves prepared for our bike ride, the vessel Treasure Hunt sailed by with pirates running around the deck clapping hands. Clearly we had arrived in a tourist haven.

Treasure Hunt - Pride Cruises
in North Myrtle Beach, SC

The route we took from the Barefoot marina resort to gain access to the bridge to get to the other side of the waterway was a virtual maze. I just followed Clark as he wove his way through a variety of parking lots. The only problem I had was that he took off "like a bat out of hell" and left me behind. This is typical behavior. Only today it turned out to be problematic because my gear shift on the right side locked up. Finally I got close enough to scream "CLARK" and got him to stop long enough to let me catch up and tell him about my bike issue. He wiggled the cable until he got it re-positioned and that fixed the problem.  Fairly quickly we were back on our way again. Yay for a clever husband!

We then continued to navigate the parking lot maze, and at one point got an unexpected side tour because Clark thought he found the entrance to a bike path but instead found a walkway that ended in a dead end on a wooden deck. The roses leading up to the deck were pretty, but they crowded the walkway, and I was concerned they would grab me as I biked by. Fortunately I escaped unscathed.

I have no idea where we went or how we got there, but magically Clark found the bike path to the bridge. He stopped halfway over the bridge to take a picture of Barefoot Landing on the left and Barefoot Marina on the right. I took advantage of the photo opp to catch my breath!

Barefoot Landing and Barefoot Marina in
N. Myrtle Beach, SC
(as seen from the bridge connecting the two sites)

According to Wikipedia, Barefoot Landing is a "large shopping complex consisting of several divided sections of stores and attractions located on filled land over top of Louis Lake". The sections are connected by floating wooden walkways. As soon as we crossed the bridge into Barefoot Landing, the scenery changed significantly.

The Alabama Theatre

Floating Walkway connecting sections of the
Barefoot Landing complex

Turtles inhabit the waters along the bridges and are frequently spotted as they stick their heads up while swimming by. I saw one and pointed it out to Clark but every time Clark aimed the camera, the turtle dove underwater! I swear they are all camera shy!

When we arrived at Barefoot Marina, we contacted Joe on Firebird to let him know we were "in town". He did not answer his phone when we called so we left a message. As we were (surprise, surprise) eating an ice cream treat, Clark's phone rang and it was Joe inviting us to join him with Flora and Larry on Panda Bear for dinner at TBonz restaurant. I swear I have to stop getting ice cream treats late in the afternoon. Either that or get used to having dessert before dinner.

After ice cream we walked / biked around Barefoot Landing to see what they had to offer and eventually made our way over to the docks to find Joe. As we stood there talking, a couple of turtles came over to see if we had any treats to throw their way.

Very Friendly Turtles

Joe invited us inside and we sat on his boat and chatted for a while reconnecting after several months of not seeing each other. We got word from Panda Bear that we had to get to the restaurant at 6:30 (not 7:00 as originally planned) because happy hour ended at 7:00.  At 6:30 we walked / biked over to their boat to hook up with them for the short walk to the restaurant.

It is probably the first time ever I have arrived at a restaurant, found out they had a 30 minute wait to be seated, and was happy!  I don't know how Clark managed to eat a 12 ounce steak with cheddar mash potatoes and grilled asparagus right after having had that ice cream cone. All I could manage was a hamburger without the bun and even that was a challenge. I wanted to order a salad, but the only salad options were side dishes and insufficient to make a meal.

We enjoyed the company and the food, but like Cinderella at the stroke of midnight, we had to make a quick exit and mad dash for our bikes as dusk approached. I have a headlight and a red flashing light for the back of my helmet for night biking. I turned them both on as we made our escape.

I quickly discovered that having a headlight was not a great idea. Large quantities of bugs attracted by the headlight started hitting me in the face. I remembered, fortunately, to keep my mouth closed. Consequently the headlight only lasted a short while. Once we got out of the parking lot and onto the bike path, I turned it off. I pictured having to clean my glasses later to remove dead bug debris. Yech! In doing so I gave Clark a surprise. He looked to see my light behind him and did not find it. He slowed down to see where I was and was shocked to find me directly behind him. He thought he had lost me. Hah!

We made it back to the boat rapidly, and I jumped onto my laptop to work on this blog entry. Unexpectedly at 10:15 we heard bang, bang, bang right outside the boat. Joe had told us to expect fireworks, but when 9:30 and then 9:45 rolled around with no sign of them, we figured it must not be happening. Immediately Clark grabbed the camera and ran outside. I continued to work on the blog with a partial view of the fireworks through the port window.

Clark loves fireworks! While he was clicking away on his camera, he heard talking behind him and met folks from a boat near ours on the dock. From them he learned that Barefoot Landing has fireworks every Monday night. We certainly made the right choice skipping Osprey Marina for a night's stay here instead! If we had arrived tomorrow, no fireworks!

With the fireworks that spread out and showered down, I thought for sure bits of something were hitting the boat. It sounded like small hail stones were hitting our decks. Clark said we were fine; I believed him and just kept on typing.

Clark had both the Canon camera and his cell phone camera busy throughout the show. The picture above was taken with the camera; the one below he captured with the cell phone. To keep the camera still while shooting, he used the valve for the water pipes running under the docks as his tripod! Given that, I think the pictures are pretty darn amazing!

Clark captured the Grand Finale with the camera video.