“33:55N 078:04W”

Saturday 24^th September. South Harbour Village Marina

Left Myrtle Beach Yacht Club in brilliant sunshine with just a few fluffy clouds around, none of the thunderstorm ones in sight!  We had an enjoyable Fish Friday evening in the restaurant.  Today is there annual inshore fishing tournament, so everyone was gathering in the bar to sign in, get their goody bags, and see who had won the raffle.  We would have liked to buy some tickets but the ticket lady kept avoiding us....

The ICW between Myrtle Beach and Oak island where we’re heading for today has 2 quite tricky bits. The first at Shallotte Inlet is the more difficult with lots of shoaling that has reduced the width of the safe passage.  We have got as much information as we can, plus we will be crossing it at nearly high tide so should be OK.

A bit of anxiety as we approached the inlet, but extra buoys have been added and the instructions are to keep near to the red buoys everything will be OK. And it was of course.

The next inlet at Lockwoods Folly also shoals up and extra buoys have been added there. The chart shows the buoys going straight across when in fact as you reach the inlet there are red buoys that mean you have to do a sharp left turn and follow a slightly different route from the chart.  We followed the instructions and had a convoy of boats behind us, so it must have been very shallow on the old track.

Passed there we just had a couple of bridges to negotiate and then we were at South Harbour Marina where we will stop for a couple of nights.

Off to sample the local brew in the Dead End Saloon....