Stories about our experiences traveling America’s Great Loop.
We took a quick 30 minute boat ride from Wilmington to the Bald Head Island marina. This was definitely a resort stop, but we knew that from the beginning. There are ferry rides every hour from the mainland, but other than that the only way to get here is to use your own boat. There is a whole community on the island, with emergency services, mail, grocery store, hardware store, and restaurants. The slip we rented for the two…
It has been a while since we left the boat, but we have taken care of all the interruptions and we are really looking forward to getting back into the trip. We are picking it back up where we left off in Wilmington, NC. This is what we are calling phase three. In this phase we plan to explore the Chesapeake Bay. Our path will be somewhat circular as we intend to return to the south at the end so…
Signs. Markers. Buoys. Lights. Aids to Navigation. I may have mentioned these over the past few weeks. There is a lot of information presented on signs along the ICW. I thought I might describe them in more detail because it was difficult for me to envision what to expect when I first started the trip. Markers Along the ICW there are red and green channel markers. They are positioned at various intervals and act as guideposts, telling us where we…
We departed from Southport around 8am and headed into Cape Fear. Right away we had to contend with several large ships. There was the ferry going to Bald Head island as well as a car ferry. We tried to stay out of their way by traveling just outside the channel markers. Eventually we passed the turnoff for the ICW at Snow’s Cut. This day we would be going off the beaten path for about 15 miles up to Wilmington, North…
We departed early in the morning from Barefoot Marina because of concern about rocks along the ICW in this area. Our plan was to traverse this part at high tide so we could have a little extra safety margin. Since the tide was highest at 7am, we got up extra early. Fortunately we didn’t see or encounter any rocks. It was pretty busy on the water for a Monday, but this is a boating area. We arrived at Southport Marina…
We stayed at two marinas in the Myrtle Beach area. Although they were both along the ICW, they were very different. The first one was Osprey Marina, and the second one was Barefoot Marina. But first we have some photos from when we left Georgetown. The terrain has definitely changed from even a few days ago. Instead of swamp and grass, we now see trees, and lots of them. Osprey Marina was a quiet and secluded spot that was down a…
Because of the low tide we had to wait until 10am to depart. Even with this delay the water had only just started to rise from low tide, so it was interesting to see how shallow the entry to the harbor really was. Also interesting was the number of derelict boats that were out of the water. We saw more alligators today than all other days combined. In one place we saw seven or eight gators all in the same area. …
It was so good to leave. We felt so relieved to finally head back onto the ICW and put some miles between us and Charleston. It wasn’t the city that we wanted to get away from, it was the marina. Every minute of the day we were in constant motion as the wind would push waves into the marina and against the hull of our boat. And when it was time to sleep we would almost get comfortable and then…
Beaufort, SC was awesome. We wished we had planned to stay an extra night. But our goal was Charleston, so we got another early start and headed north. We had a fairly uneventful trip. There were lots of dolphins accompanying us on our route. I think this was the most dolphins we have seen on any day. At one point they were jumping in front of our bow. It was really fun to watch. The boat traffic definitely picked up…
Our departure from Isle of Hope was at 6:15 in the morning. It was right at low tide, so the water was calm and glassy smooth. We quietly idled out of the marina and out of the area before speeding up to our 8 knot cruising speed. As the tide came in we were headed into the current, so that meant that our speed was reduced to 7 knots much of the morning. It was a beautiful ride as we…