Post #85: Diamonds and Dolly Parton

 Wednesday, November 3 to Friday, November 5, 2021

It was a gorgeous sail down the coast of North Carolina from Beaufort to Wrightsville Beach as we followed ‘diamonds on the water’ the whole way. 

The next day, however, was cloudy and pretty dreary.  I remember last year posting quite a few photos of the homes along the ICW as I was quite taken by the variety of architecture and dock arrangements.  This year I got to thinking about the enormous number and types of boats that ply these waters, each with a different mission—transport, fishing, speed, luxury, trawling, gambling, commercial, etc., etc. Here are some of my favorites over the past few days.  (I’m still not sure—what is the mission of this first one??)

These two are named Sea Screamer and Sea Racer.  You can book a ride by contacting Capt. Juel’s Hurricane Restaurant.

This one just goes out to sea and back again so you can gamble off shore as there are no land-based casinos in South Carolina. (Where there’s a will, there’s a way….)

I’ve also paid attention to the scenery along the rivers and creeks.  We have both missed the vibrant colors of fall in New England although we did get a taste of it when we drove home in October for my nephew’s wedding.  Here’s the best I could find along the ICW just to the west of Myrtle Beach. (No contest, my friends from South Carolina, no contest.)

Ah, Myrtle Beach, home to 60 miles of sand, 86 golf courses, 50 miniature golf courses, Ripley’s Aquarium, Broadway at the Beach, the SkyWheel Ferris wheel, and Dolly Parton’s Dixie Stampede and the Pirates Voyage Dinner & Show (no apostrophe, Louise, I checked).  What more can I say?

We continued on to Osprey Marina.  You remember—the place I said I would never go back to again, never, ever, EVER?  I lost.  But the the alligators didn’t show up and we left early on Friday, motoring down the Waccamaw River, or as I call it, the Whack-a-Mole because you have to avoid all the mounds of who-knows-what floating (growing?) in the middle of the river and the tangles of water hyacinths that appear out of nowhere.

Georgetown, SC, our destination for the next two days as we wait out another spate of high winds and rain, is another quaint coastal town with streets lined with live oaks and storefronts from the early 1900s and a wooden boardwalk along the harbor.  We’ve been here twice before but it was a LOT warmer during those earlier visits.  

This time when we arrived at Hazzard’s Marina, we asked the dockhands if we’d taken a wrong turn and somehow ended up in Maine?? Yes, the temperatures are in the 40’s, the winds are in the 30’s, the rain is in the teens (centimeters, that is) and we are in our 60’s. 

We did venture out to the South Carolina Maritime Museum.  More on that tomorrow.