The South Will Rise Again

The night at anchorage was quiet and uneventful, the best kind.  We refueled and had lunch in Georgetown, SC, another historic city.  Denise got to talking to the dock hand helping with fuel and found out he had been trained by a dock hand she had talked to in Charleston two days ago who was from Georgetown.  Only Denise can get perfect strangers to start chit chatting and providing personal details about themselves.  She found out that this dochand was named Robert E Lee and in fact was a blood decendent of THE Robert E Lee.  By the time he was finished, she new what his E was for, what his father's E was for and how he was the only one left to carry on the name.  This is all the more interesting with this year being the 150th anniversary of the start of the Civil War, which started at Ft Sumter, which we saw the day before.  It also reminds us to not talk up the fact that we're from "The North".

With a successful night at anchor in the marshes, I thought it best to not push my luck as the ICW turned from marshes to heavily wooded and seemingly unpopulated, so I opted for an inexpensive marina ($1/ft) at the south end of Myrtle Beach.  The Osprey Marina turned out to be a nice surprise with extremely nice people, clean bathrooms and showers and even a local Italian restaurnat that provided free pickup and return with dinner.  The lasagne and spagetti were excellent and we now have leftovers for a couple of lunches.  The restaurant was located next to a large grocery store, so we were also able to get a few things before going back to the boat.

Today's forecast was for scatterd thunderstorms in the afternoon and we departed the marina with sunny skies.  These lasted less than an hour and soon it was raining, sometimes very hard, but again without much wind.  I'm really glad I took the time earlier this year to follow Geo's advice and water proof the bimini with Thompson's Water Seal.  It really works and I was able to keep mostly dry as we progressed up the ICW through Myrtle Beach.  It really only rained for the first couple of hours and then we experienced on and off sun, but it seemed we were only slightly ahead of the rain the whole time.

A guy I met at the marina on Dakaw Island a couple of days ago had described the ICW through Myrtle Beach as "a ditch" and now I see what he meant.  Other than a few nice houses and numerous golf courses, there wasn't alot to see, certainly not the beach.  There is a light house, but it seemed in an odd place, not at an inlet or anything, maybe just decoration.

We had determined a target mile marker for our stop tonight and after consulting the charts and Skipper Bob's recommendations, identified the spot, just off the ICW in Southport, NC at the Cape Fear inlet.  When we got here, the suggested anchorage didn't look as good as described, but we had also read that there was a free tie up to a dock at "The Provision Company" if you also had a meal there. 

When I saw it, I knew it was a no brainer, plus a storm was still brewing and being tied to a dock always seems to be a good idea to me in these circumstances.  Plus, when I went in to the restaurant to scout it out, I knew it was the right place.  The locals were here.  The seafood was local too and the prices were incredible, but Denise had decided to eat light and had done so earlier, while in route.  She had already brushed her teeth and was ready for bed and suggested I walk up the dock and eat.  But first I took a short walk around town and came back and told her about the ice cream shop.  At that moment she decided she could brush her teeth again and maybe she could also eat something before ice cream.  She had crab cakes and I had locally caught grilled tuna.  Both were great, but then we found out the ice cream shop was closed.  Luckily, The Provision Co. had key lime pie. 

Storms are in the forecast for the next two days, so we may be trying more offerings at The Provision Co.