Southport to Myrtle Beach

After anchoring in Swansboro and Wrightsville Beach, John, Elvis Ann and I traveled to Southport where we stayed at the marina for two nights. Southport, NC is a quaint historic town. We walked the waterfront and streets of historic homes before visiting the Maritime Museum and window shopping in the boutique stores. My favorite shop was called Good Ship Lollipop. You would be proud of me. I didn’t buy a thing. However, if we stop in Southport on our return north in the spring, there may be a few things I can’t live without – or rather that my soon-to-be-born niece/nephew can’t live without.

John and I are easing into the cruising lifestyle. Rather than going back to the boat, we enjoyed a delicious dinner at Mr. P’s Bistro on Howe Street. I didn’t anticipate eating Salmon Oscar while cruising. We cleaned our plates like we were returning POWs.

Today we navigated the ICW to Myrtle Beach. Earlier in the week, our leg from Swansboro to Wrightsville Beach had multiple bridges that only opened on the hour or on the hour and half-hour. We planned our speed accordingly so we did not have to wait long for any bridges. Today’s leg had only one bridge that opened on a schedule. The Sunset Beach Pontoon Bridge opens only on the hour. At 11:36AM we noticed the time and that we had 24 minutes to go just over three miles if we wanted to make the noon opening. If we didn’t go full throttle we would miss the opening by about 10 minutes and have to circle around for another 50 minutes. John revved up the engine from 2,200 rpm to 3,500 rpm. Our speed increased from 5 knots to 8.2+ knots. I moved the chart marker closer to the bridge as we sped past the channel markers. At 11:50AM I called the bridge tender on the radio, told him we were at channel marker 99, and requested transit through during the noon opening. The bridge is just past marker 105. Bridge tenders can open within 10 minutes on either side of their scheduled opening, however, typically that happens when no one is waiting. The bridge tender informed me he would open on schedule and do his best to get us through if we kept pressing. The minutes ticked by, the markers passed by, John drove hard, my adrenaline flowed. If we did not make the opening, waiting an hour would not have been a big deal. We just hated to miss the opening by such a small margin. As we flew around the corner toward the bridge, we were the entertainment for the other boats waiting for the opening. Our friends in Serenity who we met in Southport called us on the radio to tell us we looked like a battleship planning down the river. At 12:05PM, Island Chariot was the last vessel through the Sunset Island Pontoon Bridge.