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April 30, 2015  Day 160 South for Winter

Barefoot Marina
North Myrtle Beach, SC       

Ft. Sumter, where it all began

After anchoring at Bull Island two nights and riding out some thunderstorms, which luckily had no wind, we departed early Sunday morning and traveled until 4:30 to another familiar anchorage at Church Creek.  We had a good day to travel and passed Port Royal, Beaufort, and Lady’s Island where we have stopped on previous trips.



Pretty sure we have taken this same picture before
with the turtles lined up on the Waccamaw River

On Monday we departed our anchorage at Church Creek at 0650 and prepared for another long day of travel.  When we reached Charleston Harbor at 0900, we passed by Fort Sumter and went offshore.  We were hoping for a good cruise but had to settle for an “ok” cruise, dealing with three foot rollers in the ocean for 70 miles.  We have had worse!  We finally arrived at Winyah Bay and followed it in just east of where it joins the ICW. We could see the smokestacks of Georgetown in the distance.  We dropped anchor and spent a peaceful night!

We left on a chilly Tuesday morning wearing jackets and headed north on the Waccamaw River. We had the current against us most of the way, but had a good cruise. There were not as many boats out as we have experienced on this river before when we came through on a weekend!  We stopped for fuel at Osprey Marina and immediately saw Gwen and Walter on S/V Saltshaker. They are the previous owners of our boat.  We seem to be their shadow at times.

We finally reached Barefoot Marina at 4:20 and were greeted by Rick and Margi (Journey).  It was so good to see them and also to be on land after anchoring for five nights!  After we got settled, we went out to dinner with them at a nearby restaurant and had a good evening. 

Joyce did laundry and provisioning Wednesday, which was a very rainy day.  We went to Rick and Margi’s boat for a shared dinner that evening.  On Thursday Joyce did more laundry and provisioning! 

We will depart on Friday morning and cruise to Carolina Beach where we plan to anchor.