Monday April 25: No Fear in Cape Fear Today!

The Cape Fear River was quite tame today and definitely did not live up to it's scary name!

We just barely made it to Southport to catch the end of the incoming tide but were able to ride the tide north for most of the length of the river.

Sadly there was no time for Steve to catch one of his favorite lunch spots at the Provision Company. Not sure they were really even open yet as it was just after 11 am.




It's been nice travel days for the most part since we left McClellenville on Friday. A total of 140 miles over the past few days and we are now in Wrightsville Beach, North Carolina, having crossed the South Carolina border this morning.

After contacting Sailor Dave, we were headed Saturday for Georgetown - a reasonable hour + drive for them from Myrtle Beach.

It was Vivian's birthday so they agreed to join us for dinner to celebrate and BONUS at the last minute decided to stay overnight on the boat!


Best part though? Vivian's birthday present was two of the cutest kittens EVER! And I am such a sucker for kittens .... I think going back to when I was a kid.

We had lots of barn cats but I was never allowed to have a 'house' cat. Of course I could have a cat in the house but it still had to live in the barn.

Scarred for life :-)

Sailor Dave and Vivian

Steve cooked a great salmon with dill sauce dinner along with kale salad and spaghetti squash. He even made a birthday cake complete with candles.

It had been a while since we'd seen these two so it was great catching up.

The kittens (Rosie - black and white and Guy - orange) were also very good at keeping us entertained ;-)



After a nice breakfast out and a visit to the Rice Museum, Dave and Vivian and kittens headed back to Myrtle Beach. We decided to stay another day in Georgetown.

I had a great Chinese restaurant picked out but sadly it had gone out of business. So we went to McDonalds since it was right there and it was way past lunch time. What else were we to do, right?




Georgetown has quite the history. We learned some of it at the rice museum. The rice plantations used the fresh water of the Great Pee Dee and Waccamaw Rivers to cultivate and raise rice. Sold it all over the world. Of course after the Civil War, it was no longer productive to grow rice and the newly mechanized machines used in rice production could not be used.

The soil was so soft that it could not support the weight of the machines. There are still a couple of plantations that grow rice though. We were able to purchase a couple of pounds of the aromatic rice (smells like popcorn!). Good stuff.

The main street is very much like it was back in the late 1800's. The city has made very successful efforts to revitalize the downtown.

Travel yesterday was on the Waccamaw River for a long day. The plan was to stop for the day at Osprey Marina but it was so early that we continued on.

The current was with us so why not!

The sides of the river are lined with cypress trees - many of which are home to the osprey which apparently love this area! If you look really hard there is an osprey in it's nest at the very top of the tree that is draped in Spanish moss.

This osprey was guarding the entrance to Osprey Marina. Wonder if it's really stuffed .....

It was great finally seeing the lighthouse that indicated we were almost at our marina for the night.

New rule: never travel around the Myrtle Beach area on a nice Sunday afternoon!

Beautiful sunrise .... we left at 6:30 this morning. Again our lives these days are controlled by the tides and currents.

It was another nice day to travel - especially AFTER the waterway turned north instead of due east!

Although we've seen many dolphins in the days past, none were interested enough to ride the bow wave or tag along in our wake - until today!

Mostly they seemed to be just interested in finding something to eat.

I don't blame them but it's still always fun when they hang around with us.

Land of the sunken shrimp boats. We've been watching this one on the left for several years now.

The one right is a new one though. Don't recall seeing it before.



One last fun picture: a school outing North Carolina style!!