Saturday October 29th, Osprey Marina, Myrtle Beach, SC

   Because we couldn’t get wifi on the boat, we got up early to have breakfast at the restaurant and to check the 2 doubtful inlets.  The crabmeat, roasted red pepper, and goat cheese omelets were delicious!  However, the wifi was questionable and we gave up.  Since we’d be leaving near high tide none of us thought the inlets would be a problem. 

  Lockwood’s Folly Inlet and Shallotte Inlet were no problem, seeing no less than 14’.  Shallotte was where we’d grounded on the way south last time, but we were going through at low tide and grounded in 2’ of water!  It was cold and foggy and a foggy mist was rising off Lockwood’s Folly Inlet; the fog didn’t lift until the New River where we met 2 huge casino boats.

  We went through the New River Swing Bridge; stayed together through the Rockpile, a very narrow channel where there is not enough room to meet a barge.  I gave a ‘security, security, security’ call on VHF 16 to say we were southbound and any traffic northbound to hail us.  No one did and we met no one except a couple small powerboats.  Then on to Barefoot Landing Bridge and finally Socastee Bridge, which was extremely slow, making us wait for a catamaran and sailboat.

We came into this very protected marina, almost 55miles—a long day.  Jan and Bob, formerly from s/v Banshee, now m/v Jany K, met us and we converged on their boat later for drinks and camaraderie.