North Carolina

     It stormed most of the night and was raining hard at 5 in the morning.  The computer weather system showed  an area of rain and a big black cloud that was circling over our boat (think of the cartoon image of a sad character slouched forward with a black cloud pouring over just where he is standing!...that's how Beth and I felt!)  Just as we thought the weather was going to clear....here it came again, with just enough thunder to make the dog start nervously shaking, but thankfully no dangerous lightning. Oh well, its a boat and they are made for getting wet, so we took off around 10 am.  The sky started to lighten and before we were 10 miles away the sun came out making for an upper deck sunshiney easy cruise up the Waccama River.

                                       Blue Sky... maybe clearing????Tired of Rain!!

                                                    

                                                 
                                      Very calm cruise up the Waccamaw River                        
                                                                             
     The Waccama River is beautiful; serene calm water, tall evergreen trees rising from within a few feet of the river interspersed with occasional 25 foot high sand hills,  wide at the start and narrowing to just two boats wide in some curves.  In parts of the river we were winding our way through a tunnel of large evergreen trees, their flagrant aroma wafting into and around the boat. Spencer stood up on the arm of the helm chair with his nose high in the air sniffing. He was enjoying the change in scenery as much as we were. 

                 
                                     Alligator crossing the Waccamaw River
                                                                               

                                                    Turtles sunning themselves
                                                                       
                                                                           

                                                        3 miles of rock piles!!!!!!
                                                                                
                                                                                                                                                                                                                    
     As we passed Myrtle Beach and North Myrtle Beach, expansive estates looked down upon us from the riverbank cliffs. I don't know where all this money comes from but I can't help but marvel at the result of some one's hard work or ingenuity that allowed them to create these monuments to their success.

                                                                               

                                                                                   

                                                                                 

                           Tour Boat and Gondola for golf course North Myrtle Beach                                  

     When my colleagues bemoaned that a sports figure just got a 20 million dollar contract or a business man just made a fortune selling his company while we were saving lives for a mere pittance my response was always the same.  The sports figure is much more entertaining than us. The business man probably worked as hard as us to build something that many people found useful.  We on the other hand poke, prod and puncture people in an effort to relieve pain, suffering and the ravages of a coddled overstuffed life style, usually on a one to one basis and we are well compensated for what we do.

                                                  Dock Holidays Marina MM 348.2
                                                                                                       
    The key to happiness and satisfaction is not to make more money, accumulate more stuff that chains you to working for more money, or trying to gain more power.  The key is a full rounded life style with the satisfaction of knowing that you have done your best at educating yourself, worked hard at your job or profession, been productive, kept yourself healthy with a lifestyle that includes moderate eating and drinking, exercise, entertainment, and most of all being satisfied with what you have.  If I had a motto I guess it would be, "WORK HARD, LIVE HARD!"

                                                 Lightkeepers Marina MM346                          
                                                                                  
     OK. OK. That's my rant for the day.  I know it probably doesn't belong in a travel blog but what the hell---its my blog and maybe more of our children will get the message! Back to the adventure.

                                                                    
       Held up for the "Big M" casino boat to do a 180 degree turn in the middle of the ICW

                                                                                               

     We passed multiple marinas but because we have stayed at a few recently we really wanted to anchor out.  The problem is there are not many good anchorages along this section of the ICW.  Beth finally found one that seemed acceptable in Calabash Creek.  We pulled a short distance into the creek and found a spot just to the north of the channel---too shallow and definitely not enough swing room for a 50 foot boat and now it was raining so hard we could hardly see the channel markers. After going further in to the town of Calabash and talking to a local shrimper we decided to travel further on north and tie up at a Ocean Isle Marina for the night.

                                                               
                                         Goats grazing across from Ocean Isle Marina           

     Because of the weather and fighting an outgoing tide we are out of sync with the distance most of the boats travel to anchor out.  Maybe we can correct that with travelling a shorter distance tomorrow.
    

                                                                      
                                                    Sun Set at Ocean Isle Marina