Myrtle Beach to Georgetown SC

Well, the last few days have been eventful.  After Jon hurt his hand we spent the night at the fuel dock waiting for him to get stitched up, watched the casino boat dock in the narrow waters and then left at the crack of dawn.  His hand has been pretty painful the last 2 days so we took it easy yesterday, arrived at Myrtle Beach at probably 10am and just walked around Myrtle Beach and Barefoot Landing.  Barefoot Landing is a huge tourist trap with every tourist shop known to man, but since it's not in season we could walk around comfortably.  There are some good things about travelling so far out of season.. . No crowds, always plenty of dock space and anchoring room.  BUT the downside is that out here, literally nothing is open!  We are finally starting to see signs of life since Wrightsville Beach but still limited activities going on.  At least people are out and about and marinas are open.  No more extreme winterizing.  There was one thing we would have really liked to see and that was the House of Blues in Myrtle Beach.  Unfortunately, they were closed.  We did walk around it but the club and the restaurant were closed.  Bad timing on our part.

Jon's in heaven though because hot wings are a big thing down here.  Last night we had 8 for 8 which was 8 chicken wings for 7 bucks and then they bring you 8 more.  So guess what we had for dinner.

Since we left the Cape Fear River a couple of days ago at Southport NC, we have been in what is affectionately called "the ditch".  This is how we get to Charleston.  The landscape along the ditch has changed considerably as we have traveled down it.  First there was small towns, then as we hit Myrtle Beach we found very large expansive homes with long docks extending into "the ditch", a dock 3 stories high with a boat lift and both sun and shade decks, large staircases up to the 2nd floor of the house (don't want too much on the ground floor because of hurricanes and rising water), a rooftop sun deck; some very ostentatious.  Then we hit Myrtle Beach (tourist trap) and today we went through the Cypress Swamp.

At least it was a little more interesting to look at.  I couldn't get over the birds nests on the daymarkers

We have been seeing a lot more birds since we entered "the ditch".  Oh and, by the way, I've never seen so many day markers.  The entire ICW is marked with red and green daymarkers.  The problem is sometimes they decide the river is going downstream and the markers reverse.  Just enough to make it interesting.  We have been keeping the Skipper Bob book in front of us the entire time because it's very good at noting where all the shoals are (well, maybe not all of them!), telling us what to expect at the bridges (which are numerous) and where the good anchorages are (although I must say, we are incredibly spoiled in the PNW with our quiet coves to anchor in.  Here you just make your way up a creek off the ICW and hope for the best).

Tonight we're in Georgetown, SC.  Headlines in the newspapers are touting presidential candidates that stopped in Georgetown during their travels through SC.  This is a nice little town with some interesting history of settlement in the early 1700's and Washington coming through here when he was president to be entertained by one of the town stewards.  Lots of southern style homes with the well furnished big front porch.  My family will remember those front porches.  Remember, Kitty??

Tomorrow we're off to Isle of Palms to visit with the Giffords.  We're looking forward to that!  Next week Jon will return to Seattle for a few days of work and I'll tour Charleston.  I'm going to check in with our friends on the new Kadey Krogen and see if they will be making their way to Charleston next week.  They're at least a few days behind us but they have until June.