Just wanted to let you know that we are currently at the Myrtle Beach
Yacht Club. We’ll depart Myrtle Beach YC marina Friday morning, anchor
out one night, and will probably be in Charleston by mid afternoon on
Saturday, the 19th (weather permitting). We have a reservation at the
City Marina in Charleston for Saturday and Sunday nights, so will have a
day or more to explore the downtown part of the city and see some
boating friends who live there.

We stopped here for a full day at Myrtle Beach in order to work on our
port engine that decided to stop running, twice, yesterday – the last
when we were about six miles away from the Yacht Club, so got to
practice backing into a slip with a single engine! Turned out to be an
air leak just before the fuel pump – have no idea why it shut down the
engine, then tightened up enough to allow the engine to restart about
half an hour later and run for more than six hours before shutting down
the engine again! Oh, well, we hope that was the problem.

We departed Camp Lejeune, NC, (Jacksonville, NC) on Tuesday morning, and
again returned to the ICW about 1100. The weather was a bit overcast,
not quite warm enough to be topside, so we stayed inside all day.
Anchored for the night about three miles south of Wrightsville Beach, on
a little cove off the ICW. The porpoises were fishing most of the
evening and night, and we saw numerous schools of them, chasing fish,
and even “broaching” and slapping their tails on the water. Must have
been some escapees from a aquatic show!

The next day (Wednesday) in addition to the problem with the port
engine, which decided to quite just after we’d entered the Cape Fear
River, and then again just before we reached the marina we’re in now, we
encountered quite a bit of shallow water, due to the full moon. In fact,
the floating swing bridge at Sunset Beach couldn’t open on the hour at
1400 because the water was so low, so about a dozen boats waited until
the bridge tender finally opened a little after 1500 when the water
level had gone up enough. After waiting about 20 minutes, not knowing
whether he would open the bridge, or not, he announced on channel 13
that he wouldn’t open until 1500 at the earliest, so we (and several
other boats) simply anchored in the middle of the channel.

We encountered a few other areas where the water on the ICW was very
shallow due to the low tide, but we only draw a little over three feet,
and very seldom have a problem unless we unintentionally get out of the
channel. Some of the mid to large size sailboats frequently go around in
some of the shallow areas.

Today is sunny and the air is warm, but the wind is making it a bit
chilly in the shade. The engine is repaired, and I’ve done some other
work in the bilge to tidy things up a bit since I was working down there
anyway. Judy did some laundry and took a walk around the periphery of
this beautiful marina/apartment/condo complex built on the site of an
old stone quarry. We ate in one of their restaurants last night, and
probably will again tonight – we’re making this a little vacation rather
than trying to eat in all of the time.