2022: Hilton Head SC to Southport NC

 14 April 2022
Depart: Dewees Creek near Hilton Head, SC anchorage 8:10
Arrive: Butler Island Anchorage 4:20
Distance: 52 nm
Conditions: Gnats! Little air movement

We planned for an early start today to avoid low tide through the McClellanville area. Clark found he needed to do something with the port side fuel filter, so we did not leave as early as hoped. While I waited for Clark to get ready, I watched the dolphins swimming near the boat.

Dolphin swimming in anchorage

As we traveled I thought about how different today was from ocean travel. On the ocean we had little to look at but water, on the ICW, we had plenty of things to see and look out for.

Red “104” ICW marker under water is now a navigation hazard!

Typical scenery 

Docks especially extra-long ones

Tiki Hut docks

Extra-long dock

On our travels up and down the coast, we see lots of dolphins. Sometimes, but not too often, they come to play in our wake.

Dolphin enjoying the wake of our boat

While traveling, Clark checked around to see what he could find in terms of fuel prices. The place he first chose had the best advertised price around but could not take a boat of our overall length, so that was ruled out. He called Bucksport Marina, and their price was exorbitant. He finally found a price he liked at “Dry Stack Marine” in Georgetown. Their price was best if one paid cash. We don’t carry that kind of cash around with us! Still even with a 4% surcharge for using credit, the price came out to $4.52 per gallon of diesel. Bucksport quoted something around $5.80 per gallon!

Georgetown, SC "Dry Stack"

It took an hour to take on fuel. I watched the gage slowly increase until we had the tanks almost full. We took on about 345 gallons of diesel fuel before we left the dock. As we sat their waiting for the tanks to fill, I watched some commercial vessels go by.

“Stormy Seas” – Fishing Trawler

Low Country Tours – Tour Boat

Even with the long fueling stop, we reached our anchorage early (for us). I was delighted to have some time to relax and read before preparing dinner.

Anchored in SC for the night

Tonight's sunset ...

 

15 April 2022
Depart: Butler Island Anchorage 8:10
Arrive: Southport Anchorage – Tina’s Pocket on Cape Fear River 6:15
Distance: 80 nm
Conditions: Sunny but with cold wind; around 70 degrees; Potential for rain today
 

Our travels today took us along the Waccamaw River which is very scenic. I enjoyed seeing all the light green colors in the trees indicating signs of spring.

Views on the Waccamaw River ...

 

Tree growing at the red market

No houses here!

I continued my “game” from yesterday of looking for things not seen on the ocean.

Railroad Bridge

Turtles sunbathing on a downed tree

Free dock near shopping, e.g. Big Bass Pro Shop

After the rustic Waccamaw River, I found a few things amazing on the next portion of our journey home.
              1) the number of houses along the waterway,
              2) how close the houses sit to each other – a stone’s throw away or less,
              3) the amount of new construction of houses, and
              4) the number of sites with dock and / or landscaping projects in progress.

 

So many look-alike houses and so close to each other ...

Besides new construction of houses, we saw a lot of dock and landscape work in progress.

One of many landscaping Projects underway

I wondered how this homeowner’s landscaping would look compared to that of his immediate neighbors.

Neighbor’s landscaping

Next Neighbor’s landscape

On our way through Myrtle Beach, we saw “Lucy Buffett’s Lulu’s” restaurant-plus-more site.

Dock and Dine

Playground

Yikes!

Arcade

Today we had the “pleasure” of navigating the infamous “Rock Pile”. This place is appropriately named with rock ominously protruding on both sides of the channel. At high tide these rocks lie hidden. The last few times we have gone through here, it has been high tide. At low tide the rocks become visible, so today I got to see what I usually miss out on.

To set the stage, here is a picture of a dock at or near low tide just before we entered the rock pile.

Enjoy sitting on a dock sitting on the mud

Near the entrance to the “Rock Pile” there is a sign that says “Danger Rocks”!

The strange looking structure on land near the "Danger Rocks" sign is interesting to see.

 The sign indicating rocks ahead was not kidding! About a mile before we entered the "rock pile", Clark gave a security call on the VHF radio to let any southbound traffic know we would be coming through. Anyone with concerns, such as commercial traffic, could then respond to let us know to stay clear until they exited the area. One cruiser responded to our call saying he was coming south, but since it was a pleasure craft we had no problems passing within the rock pile area.

 We saw red and green markers indicating the sides of the channel. Clearly going outside the channel is a big mistake here. At high tide these rocks are not visible!

Besides looking at the rocks, I was thrilled to see turtles – oodles and oodles of turtles. I lost count! They were sunning themselves on the rocks and on logs - individually and whole families!

After leaving the rock pile, we left the turtles behind and passed by a very busy RV park with lots of family entertainment.

 

Looking back at sign as we exit the Rock Pile Zone

Waterpark by RV Park

Kids’ entertainment at RV Park

Boat slips for RV Park

I kept grabbing my camera today. Although I have seen some of the sights through here, I still found many things picture-taking worthy today.

 

“Continental Shelf"
tour boat in N. Myrtle Beach

People buying boats here have to measure carefully to be sure they will fit in the skinny spaces they have at their docks.

Pontoon Boat Barely Fits
in between Fixed Docks on either side of it

We had to wait for a swing bridge today. They were open as we approached but too far away for them to hold the bridge for us. We had to float around for a while as the 2.5 knot current pulled us into the bridge. Finally, they cleared the street traffic and opened for us. (Something else that we don’t experience on the ocean.)

Little River Swing Bridge

More sightings as we traveled along today …

“Slow Speed No Wake” Sign
on the bottom floor of this house

Fuchsia House

Sky Blue House

Flying Mermaid on Dock

“The Big M Casino” Boat
 near the NC / SC border

Fleet of PWC

A couple of things stuck out to me as we passed through SC. First was the amount of construction going on. Second, the folks here must truly live by the adage “Love Thy Neighbor” because the houses are almost on top of each other. Lastly, the sunken / damaged boats we have seen through here in the past are all gone. I wish Florida would do the same. It is so much prettier to look at the water without sunken boats littering the landscape.

 As we entered NC, I saw that even with the long docks here, some floating docks are not floating at low tide as they clearly sat on the mud at the side of the waterway. No way boats can dock at these docks!

Long walk to a dock
that is sitting on the mud at low tide

Floating dock is not floating

Another dock sitting on the mud

Clark pointed out that he could see boats on top of the trees.

Turned out to be a Rack and Stack docking setup. I guess they need this since the docks sit in the mud!

 Rack and Stack Boats

Clark hoped to be able to anchor at "Tina's Pocket" on the Cape Fear River. We did not know if we would be able to make it there before dark. Fortunately, the current was very favorable for most of the day. On the Cape Fear River itself we saw the amazing speed of 11.4 knots due to the fast-flowing current. That is almost 3 knots faster than normal at the 1530 RPM speed we normally maintain.

We arrived at Clark's chosen anchorage well before the sun set for the day.

Tina's Pocket Anchorage
in Cape Fear River, NC

Sunset at Tina's Pocket Anchorage
Cape Fear River, Southport, NC