Sunday, October 25, 2015

Barefoot Landing Marina at Myrtle Beach

Around 3:30 this morning Molli shook me awake and told me the boat was tilted and must be aground!  She demonstrated the tilt by putting something on the floor and watched it roll away.
I staggered awake and up and outside. I looked at the depth meter and it claimed there was 4 feet under the keel...we weren't aground, but we were indeed tilted, about 10 degrees.

I looked around the boat and found that one of the lines looped around a piling (meant to keep us close to the dock) had gotten pinched at dock level and as the tide came in, raising the boat, it trapped the port side of the boat and wouldn't let it rise...hence the tilt.
I clambered off the boat (I was still in my underwear, but was pretty sure no one would be awake to notice) and unsnagged the line....the boat literally popped up! Happily nothing was damaged (Molli had noticed the tilt before the forces got too large for the cleats and line to handle) and we went back to sleep

We cast off our lines at 7:25 and headed west and south to our next destination....Barefoot landing marina which is actually at an outlet mall at Myrtle Beach.

It was, as always, an interesting journey

The sun was just rising and Hayden took a great picture of Prioirity as we followed him down the ICW.

Again we saw lots of interesting houses on the waterway, some large and elegant




some painted all different colors (there was blue, yellow, lots of different shades of brown and green and one painted an amazing shade of fuschia

We passed some interesting boats
A shrimp boat heading towards an inlet and out to see

A Casino boat, doing the same





Another boat that was having a bad day

One interesting part of the waterway today was a two mile stretch called "the Rock Pile". Its a part that was blasted out the the army engineer orps(who maintains most of the ICW) but they must have run out of funding because the channel they blasted  was narrow and they left many boulders and rock ledges in the waterway

As you enter this stretch a sign warns you of what is to come

I was too busy steering and avoidng rocks to take any pictures, but you can imagine the channel lined with sharp rocks just waiting to rip a hole in the side of the boat.

In about 20 minutes we came to an interesting structure off to the port side called the Vortec. I have no idea what it is, but imagine it is some sort of communications or radar system. Its about 100 feet across and fenced off. 


This marked the end of the rock pile and in a few more minutes we were at the marina. 

Priority (foreground) and Island Packet at the dock

The Outlet Center, across a small man-made lake as seen from the promenade adjacent to the dock





4 comments:

  1. You are doing such a great job on your blog. Outstanding. Thank you for sharing this trip with us.
    Hayden and Radeen

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  2. You are doing such a great job on your blog. Outstanding. Thank you for sharing this trip with us.
    Hayden and Radeen

    ReplyDelete
  3. What a way to wake up. Glad everything was ok. Miss having you here. Please give Molli my love.

    Alicia

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  4. This comment has been removed by the author.

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