Southport, NC

11 June 2015    37 sm today

We got off to an early start again to time the tides and currents. Our biggest struggle was the first few miles to get away from the tourist boats heading out to the ocean. There is a gigantic fishing boat that looks like a passenger cruise ship. Then there are these 60' jet boats. One went by us with a 4' wake and everybody on board laughed as they watched us roll around in his wake. After that it was another nice day cruising.We got into Southport mid afternoon and spent some time time with Robert & Kay Creech. They are AGLCA & MTOA harbor hosts for here. We met them about 4 years ago. Wonderful gracious people. Their house is across the street from the water and has a great front porch. Dinner was at Fishy Fishy which didn't impress us but we only had drinks and calamari.

Leaving Lightkeeper's.

A bad day at sea.

Robert & Kay

Their view.

Myrtle Beach day 3

10 June 2015    0 sm today

The Holiday Inn Express stay didn't work for me. When we returned to the boat there was still a smell of ammonia. This was again confirmed by a friend who came over and lent us his sniffer. It was the worst in the cabinet just under the fridge. So the boat was opened up again and we let it air out all day. I did a quick trip to Home Depot and we went out for lunch. By the way, the Yeti was under 40 degrees this morning. I called my good friend Rick Minnis about the ammonia problem. He did a little internet research and called me back with a web site. After reading the site I came to the conclusion that the fridge was dead. The repair guy came in the afternoon and they pulled the fridge out of the cabinet. He was not familiar with one that works on propane since most boats don't use propane. But he looked it over, listened to what I had read, traced the propane lines back to the tank, sniffed all around, put the fridge back in place and we decided that I now have another storage cabinet. A replacement one is at least a week away so we'll continue north and try to set up delivery and replacement somewhere. In the mean time I'm glad I bought the Yeti!

North Myrtle Beach day 2

9 June 2015    0 sm today

The refrigerator kept getting worse today so we finally moved stuff into coolers. I did get in touch with a repair guy who will come Wed. afternoon. We decided that if he couldn't fix it we would probably continue north until we could find someone who could. That means we throw away most of our frozen food and some of the refrigerated. We did a little sightseeing this afternoon and decided to buy a Yeti cooler. $450 later we are the proud new owner of a Yeti 75. These are supposed to be the best there are and will keep ice for up to 10 days. This will allow us to keep some stuff cold. We had dinner with everyone again and when we returned to the boat about 830 pm Ann smelled a horrible smell like ammonia. It was the refrigerant leaking and it's toxic. We set up all the fans and cracked the windows and headed for a hotel. We spent the night at a Holiday Inn Express. Now maybe I can fix the refrigerator myself if those tv commercials are correct. I keep you posted to the out come of the adventure.

The gang!

North Myrtle Beach

8 June 2015    29.5 sm today

We left Osprey Marina a little before 800 am with another beautiful day. We had 1 bridge to open for us and an area called The Rock Pile to go through. The Rock pile is a narrow section several miles long that has a lot of big rocks just outside the channel. We went through at mid descending tide so most were visible. We started passing many large homes again lining the waterway. One interesting site we saw was a gondola that transported golfers from the parking lot across the waterway to the course on the other bank. Our friends Andy & Julie from Fruitcakes live in a condo complex with a private marina. Andy had secured us a free slip for 2 nights. Once in it I started looking at the depth and where the tide was and realized that at low tide I would be at least a foot into the mud. That wasn't going to work so we called another marina and would up back tracking about a mile to Lightkeeper's Marina. We got the last slip they had. Later we realized that our refrigerator temperature was up to 60 degrees. I troubleshot it but couldn't find anything wrong.

Leaving Osprey Marina.

The swing bridge opens for us.

In the Rockpile.

What was she thinking?

The lighthouse at Lightkeeper's Marina.

Myrtle Beach

7 June 2015    32.6 sm today

We left Georgetown this morning with beautiful weather. The scenery is changing from marshes to wooded land. We were in the Waccamaw River today with it's dark waters from the tannin of the cypress trees and the wild flowers. It was a beautiful trip and we passed several of the old rice plantations that i mentioned yesterday. We're at Osprey Marina tonight and will move to Mariners Point to visit with Andy & Julie from Fruitcakes.

Leaving Harborwalk Marina.

Marina office.

Georgetown day 2

6 June 2015    0 sm today

We started out the day with breakfast at Taylor's Cafe, a 50's style dinner. Next walked to the farmers market and bought a few things. We then took a walk along the riverwalk. At 1100 am we took the trolley tour and learned a great deal about the history of Georgetown and saw many of the old homes. Georgetown had 3 main industries during it's long history; rice, indigo and lumber. At one time South Carolina was the 2nd largest producer of rice, behind China, in the world. It also grew a plant that produced indigo which is the blue dye that English navy uniforms were dyed. Because of these things the King of England declared Georgetown an official British port of entry. That continued until the war of 1812 after which we discontinued shipping to England. We had lunch and then took a tour of the Rice Museum and the Maritime Museum. We had dinner out and watched the Belmont Stakes.

Sunset last night.

Riverwalk.

 

The harbor.

Some of the old houses.

Ledgors from the 1800's.

The old hardware store which now houses the Rice Museum.