April 18-19, 2021 Beautiful Passage.

Sunday, April 18, 2021. Day 133.

We all arose with the sun, and it was spectacular. We have seen some amazing sunrises over the past 4 ½ months, but this one was unbelievable. All four of us ran around the boat taking dozens of photos. The water was like a mirror. The morning was quiet, peaceful and calm. Mike got up early to help Captain Roland take up the anchor and get started. and then he went back to bed (Mike is a retired firefighter so he had a lifetime of training getting up in an instant and then being able to go back to sleep - a wonderful talent). 

 I joined the Captain after Mike went back to bed. We were on the Waccamaw River in South Carolina, going through abandoned rice fields; possibly the finest scenery on this entire journey. We passed a boat selling hotdogs, custard, sodas and coffee, while anchored near a small creek right off the ICW. One of the many unexpected sights that bought a smile to my face. Who would have thought?

We passed Myrtle Beach and went under the Barefoot Landing Swing Bridge, which is 31 feet, without the need to open (MM is 25feet). We did need the next bridge to open, and the tender was excellent. As she saw us arriving she opened the bridge and we did not miss a beat.

Near Ocean Isle Beach, at approximately 2:15pm, my sister at the helm, we got a radio call from the local police for speeding by a marina and, he said, creating too much of a wake (MM has almost no wake, and we are always careful in slow and no wake zones, to reduce our speed). Unfortunately, my sister didn't realize she was passing a marina (her experience is not on the ICW, and this was early in her MM training). The Captain apologized and admitted that he needed to supervise his crew a little more closely. Captain Roland was just loving having so much time off from steering, but there is no free lunch; very embarrassing, but fortunately they didn’t fine us.

We arrived at St. James Plantation Marina, which is a lovely, small marina in a golf community. Before we had completed docking, we were greeted by two guys from Philadelphia who saw our hailing port, and came to the dock as a welcoming party. Much fun!

At our dock, the power post didn’t work and the person in the office hadn’t bothered to tell us it was not functioning, so we wasted a great deal of time and energy trying to figure out how to get the electric to work. Finally Gail suggested just trying a different post. We did and all worked just fine.

Monday, April 19, 2021. Day 134.

I got up early and did my 3 mile run around St. James Plantation. I passed very large houses, beautiful paths, outdoor installed exercise stations; an upscale community, with very reasonable marina prices. A very lovely place to stay.

At 9am, we de-docked, and the wind helped us do so, making the process easier. The Captain is practicing docking and de-docking from the fly bridge, and he loves it. He felt that he is really getting to know MM.

We exited from St James Plantation through a rather narrow passage, and proceeded back on the ICW. Most of the day was spent on the fly bridge, but the weather was erratic: sometimes very windy and overcast and other times sunny and lightly breezy. One gust blew off a cushion on the bow. Fortunately, one snap held, and I brought the 2 cushions into the pilot house, and almost went over the side like a windsurfer. Nothing was lost nor went overboard (including me).

We had only two bridge openings for the rest of the day: the first was very narrow, and there were several other vessels waiting. We all had to circle for 20 minutes; ugh, never fun. Later, we passed Little Wing, from Annapolis Maryland, a tiny sailboat that was captained by a very adventurous young woman. Very spunky!

We anchored at 5:10pm in Mile Hammock Bay; a cute little bay with five or six other small boats. There was a short fetch so there were no “wavelets”, a/k/a white caps. The entrance was very tricky from the ICW, really shallow, narrow with lots of dredging equipment (and it really needs to be dredged); very tough negotiating.

We anchored right near Camp Lejeune, and listened to the cannon blasts in the evening. No maneuvers were in process which was disappointing to the Captain who had hoped to see burned out tanks and helicopters and war games.

It was a beautiful small cove and we had a lovely evening; the end of a beautiful two days.