We cast off from the docks at the Provisioning Company at 8am sharp..or at least we tried. Rich, who you remember was in the slip next to mine was hard aground...there is a 5 foot tide in Southport and at low tide, which it was at 8am, his keel was in the mud. My depth meter, which is set to be zero at the keel, was reading 0.0! Happily I was able to back out without a problem. Rich, after a few tries, was able to gun the engine and effectively plow his way out..no harm to his keel from the soft mud.

It had rained during the night and it was cold, with on and off rain, and the wind was blowing, and it was cold!. I dressed in full foul weather gear,  with boots, a bib (sort of a farmer jones outfit with straps over the shoulders), a warm jacket and hood, a wool hat (the one I bought in Madison to support the Badgers) and mittens...did I say it was cold?

It stayed cold for the next 3 hours as we worked out way south on the ICW, but happily by 11am the sun came out and it warmed up enough that I could take off much of the foul weather gear and replace the boots with real shoes..I did keep the wool hat on. I would have taken pictures but couldn't work the camera with the mittens on..and I wasn't about to take them off.

The views were much the same as before, although there more houses, and some were grander.

It got interesting several miles before we came to North Myrtle beach (our destination for today) as we passed through the "rock pile". This is a 3 mile section of the ICW that appears to have been blasted through solid rock. It is narrow, with rocky walls and rocks strewn just below the water on both sides. Warning signs are posted just before this section begins

Warning sign entering the "Rock Pile"

Rock Walls along the "Rock Pile"

Soon we had passed through, luckily without hitting any rocks and soon came to Barefoot Landing Marina, our destination for today. The Marina is a long face dock and we had berths all in a line.

Looking back..Rich's boat "Chris-Lea" is just behind me

Looking forward, we're all in a line

The main feature of this marina is that it abuts an outlet mall, full of hundreds of shops, ranging from Izod and Van Heusen and other name brand outlets to small "Tchotske" shops such as "Purpleology" (a store selling only purple clothes and such). Luckily there are at least 3 ice cream stores and several restaurants as well.

The view from the deck of my boat to the outlets shops

We took a tour through the mall...I was able to resist the clothes, but not the ice cream!

I don't have the obligatory sunset view (trees blocked the view) so I have a picture from last nights dinner at the restaurant in Southport

Hayden on the left, Bob in the middle, me on the right.

Tomorrow we are off to Georgetown where we will stay for two days, hiding from a large gale building over Hatteras. That gale is predicted to have hurricane force winds at its center, with 30 knot winds extending down to our area, but we'll be tied up in what is reputed to be a real nice town...

As always, the map of our voyage is available by clicking on the link at the top right area of the blog (where it says "click here"