Thursday, November 16, 2017
63 miles 10.8 Engine Hours
≅ 7:15AM Underway
4:14PM Docked Holding Area, Osprey Marina

Yep everywhere we try to book a slip on the fly is FULL. We got into Osprey by the skin of our teeth I guess. They found a spot for us in the very back of the marina. Today was a very long day. Very long.

It started out good enough and we could have arrived at Osprey as early as 3PM . I had to run the engine harder than normal to just have mediocre speed. At first we were being sucked toward the New River Inlet as the current was running out into the ocean. Our ETA was shown to be as soon as 2:30 PM. I realized that 2:30Pm was not realistic. I did think that 3:30 would be reasonable. But when we came through the New River Inlet the nice ride came undone. We looked like we were standing still. The ETA changed to about 5:15PM. I knew that would improve too. But I wasn’t sure when we would get out of the strong pull of the outflowing water. We were facing the same strong current that had helped us on the other side of the inlet. We were headed uphill. And, that’s how it was for the last 28 miles. I was under 4 knots of speed for quite some time and it only improved to a little over 5 knots until well past Myrtle Beach proper. If you are going to get an early start each morning there is no way to time the tides in your favor. I’ve had good days in the past where the tidal flows were more in my favor. But it’s just luck.

We arrived at 4:14 to Osprey Marina. We took on 191 gallons of diesel. We had not bought any since June. After running the engine 116.9 hours that comes out to 1.63 gallons per hour. Our average cruising speed is 6.5 knots. So that gives us about 4 miles per nautical mile. Not bad for a 38 year old boat that weighs 23,000 lbs. We will not fill up again until we leave the US heading for the Bahamas.

Osprey Marina is a very nice place. They always give you an interesting goody bag with all kinds of promotional items and a jar of jelly. Sometimes we have gotten cheese.
I was going to have another long day today. But these long days were you out. So, today (Friday) we are going 32 miles to Georgetown. Georgetown is one of our favorite spots on the ICW. Very nice Rice history town with some good restaurants too.
Today’s picture is one of my artsy attempts. The water is coffee color here and I shot this reflection of the trees as the sun was setting.