4/20 – With an early morning start we managed to pass through the former shallow areas at Shalotte and Lockwoods Folly Inlets. We did see 12 feet in Shalotte at high tide (+5 feet). Later we stopped for fuel at a marina just before the Cape Fear River. Just after noon we headed up the Cape Fear River against the current, but we managed OK. We did have an encounter with a tug and barge that wouldn’t communicate with us, but we missed him. Tonight we are anchored in the basin at Carolina Beach, NC

4/19 – We waited a while this morning for the current to change and then we headed out up the Waccamaw River. This is a pretty stretch of the ICW with lots of trees and a winding stream that is quite deep. With the timing of the current we were traveling over 7.5 knots most of the way and once we crossed the height of land where the water flows out to sea via the Little River Inlet, we picked up speed again. We are tied up at Barefoot Landing in Myrtle Beach, SC tonight.

4/18 – The day dawned with a beautiful sunrise and light winds and we decided to head out to sea and make the trip to Georgetown, SC outside, returning to the ICW via Wynah Bay. For a change things worked very well – the seas were calm and we had an outgoing current in Charleston and an incoming tide at Wynah Bay. It was a long day of over 70 nm by the time we got the anchor down a few miles above Georgetown.

4/17 – Doug got up early this morning and washed the salt spray off the boat. Then it was quite a job to empty the lockers, take everything out, rinse it off, and dry it down. We managed to get this done by shortly after noon. Later we took the shuttle into Charleston and walked around with Matt & Marty for a while.

4/16 – Today was a very nasty day! We were on the outside of the Megadock with about a 1 mile fetch to the southeast – and that is where the winds came from. We had winds over 25 knots for most of the day and 30 to 35 (the highest was 41 kts) for much of the afternoon. We spent the day adjusting fenders and watching each other’s boats. The boats were being pounded into the fenders and more than a one broke during the storm. We finally decided that if we rolled up the side curtains and let the wind through that the boat it wouldn’t be shoved so hard against the dock. Of course this meant that the spray of the waves and some wave were now in the boat. In addition, the waves were hitting the stern of our boat and pushing water into the aft lockers. Fortunately the winds died down in the evening and we were able to get some sleep.