North Myrtle Beach, SC
Barefoot Marina
April 27-29, 2012
We left Georgetown on Friday morning bright and early heading for North Myrtle Beach. The trip was uneventful, the weather was good and we docked at a slip off of the ICW. We stayed at Barefoot Marina which is across the river from town but it was a very nice marina with an OK restaurant and a pool. We got 50% off coupons for the restaurant so we ate there on Friday. I wanted to see Myrtle Beach so I rented a car on Saturday. Enterprise could not pick me up on Saturday so I rode the bike about 2 miles across the bridge and down Highway 17. Enterprise is not open on Sunday and they don't allow drop off at this location so I needed to keep the car until Monday morning at 8 which was fine with me. When I picked up the car there was another person dropping off a car and needed a ride back to his condo. He didn't realize that they don't do drop off on Saturday so I said I would give him a ride. He said he was in a hurry because his son was hoping to get drafted by the NFL in one of the later rounds and he wanted to listen on the radio. Anyway he was a nice guy and told me about a festival in town called the SOS. I didn't have a clue what he was talking about but I knew it was on Main Street. When I got back to the boat we loaded up in the car with "Passport" and headed to guess where, WalMart. We did some shopping and got back to the boat before noon. We asked Mary and John if they wanted to go to the festival and they said sure. We drove to Main Street and parked in a parking lot about 1/2 mile from the beach. There were a ton of cars with signs on them and a lot of golf carts. We were told there was going to be a parade and it was called the Shag Parade. It turns out that SOS stands for Society of Shagers The shag is a dance that was invented in North Myrtle Beach according to the water tower. There are groups of Shagers all over the South and they converge on North Myrtle Beach each year for a big party. I heard someone call it spring break for adults. We had lunch at a local place that was crowded and for good reason. After lunch we watched the parade and then walked to the beach. The beach was packed with people. We went back to the boat late in the afternoon and had happy hour and dinner on the boat. We met several of the locals and another couple on "Irish Rover". "Passport" left early Sunday morning for Southport and Ginny and I drove around Myrtle Beach and went shopping for a couple of hours. We just kicked back the rest of day and watched the traffic on the ICW. Sunday night we ate on the boat again, watched a little TV and went to bed.
Leaving Georgetown, SC
Another sunrise
This gondola takes golfers across the ICW from the parking lot to the golf course
Barefoot Marina looking South from the bridge
Getting ready for the parade
Good lunch at a reasonable price
The water tower says it all
The other side of the tower
Gilligan's Island Float
Many different Shag clubs all over
One of our favorite floats
A bar along the street (Notice the Buckeye Banner)
Crowded Beach
These were everywhere on the beach - Ouch
Fog rolled in on Sunday morning at the marina
Huey, Duey and Luey
The Sky Wheel at Myrtle Beach
Southport, NC
South Harbor Village Marina
April 30, 2012
On Monday morning I got up and took the car back to Enterprise and they gave me a ride back to the boat. We left about 8:30. Right after you leave Barefoot marina there is a swing bridge and just North of the bridge there is a stretch of water called the "Rock Pile". It is a very narrow part of the ICW that has rock ledges on both sides so you need to stay in the middle of the channel and you should not pass anyone in either direction. When I was about to get to the "Rock Pile" I did a Securite call on the channel 16 which goes like "Securite, Securite, Securite, this is the motor vessel Brown Eyed Girl heading North and entering the Rock Pile, all concerned traffic respond on channel 16". This means that if you are coming South then let me know so I can wait. Nobody called at first and then all of a sudden a tow calls and says he is heading South and there was not enough room to pass. He heard my call but was not familiar with the area so he didn't know what the "Rock Pile" was. We turned around and went back to the dock to wait for him to come under the bridge. It took about 45 minutes so we didn't get started until about 9:30. I did another Securite call and nobody answered so we proceeded North. It was low tide so you could really see the rock ledges and it was pretty scary. We were going to stop for fuel at a cheap place but it was not open on Monday's so we kept going to Southport. It was another very windy day and not looking forward to docking but the wind was in our face and we docked on a long face dock with plenty of room so it was fine. The actual city of Southport is a few miles away so we probably won't get to see it but there is supposed to be a couple of very good restaurants on site so we will see. We are headed to Surf City tomorrow.
This was the tow we waited for
The South Harbor Village Marina and one of the restaurants in the background
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