Run to Little River, SC -- June 13

Today was another day when we had a pretty good idea what was in store for us based on our ICW trip two years ago. A lovely first hour or so running the upper reaches of the Waccamaw River followed by three hours in long, straight dug canals -- lined with homes and docks along much of the way -- from Socastee all the way to Little River near the North Carolina border. There were lots of speed control zones and two swing bridges during this artificial stretch of waterway, so we covered 37 miles today in four hours versus 87 miles yesterday in six hours. Doing the math on average speed tells the difference. But it was still an interesting run. There are always fun things to see on the Intracoastal. 

Here's a photo representative of the first eight miles on the Waccamaw River...


and these photos are representative of what the next thirty miles were like.



We got to pass a "river boat" along the way somewhere around Myrtle Beach. We talked with its Captain by radio. He was very courteous, but kept reminding us that he had passengers aboard, so we were sure to pass him slowly and didn't speed up until we had fully passed. 

We stayed at the Myrtle Beach Yacht Club, which is one of three marinas tucked into a side channel off the Intracoastal near Little River Inlet (see if you can find it on Google maps). We docked here last year and chose it again because it was a good spot. We had a nice dinner at the Officers' Club on site (members and guests only). And very economical -- a decent ribeye steak with a baked potato and green beans was only $23. Here was our view on the way back from dinner. See if you can pick out Craunological II. 

 

A guy in the dock behind us has a different boating philosophy than we do. His boat -- which is 41' long per its logo and roughly 11' wide per my stride -- has four 300 hp Mercury outboards. That is 3.75 times more horsepower than Craunological II for a boat that is roughly half again as heavy as ours (based on his length times width versus our 31' by 10'). It's a very handsome boat, but just built for a different purpose, which is going fast to get far offshore for fishing. 



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