Southport, North Carolina

May 26 - June 12, 2017

Miles Today: 42.6 NM

Total Miles:   660.4 NM

The Rock Pile still stretched a few miles north of us.  We took off early with the hope we wouldn’t meet any large barges coming south.  As it turned out, it was a beautiful morning and we were all alone for a couple of hours.  Then traffic picked up.  After all, it was Friday of Memorial Day weekend.

We knew it could be a bit crazy with all the yahoos going fast in their speedboats and were anxious to get to Southport and stay put for the next 4-5 days.  We hadn’t realized how crazy it would become. 

Out of nowhere, we had two large cabin cruisers come up behind us going at least 25kts.  Usually, when a boat wants to overtake you, especially on the narrow ICW, the proper protocol is to call you on the radio and request to pass on the starboard or port side.  You acknowledge, slow down and, if they haven’t suggested it, request a slow pass.  The two cruisers never called us on the radio.  We didn’t even know where they came from.  We actually felt our bow drop 5 feet and to surf the forward thrust of water coming off the first cruiser before we realized we were being overtaken.  We lost steering for a few seconds as we swerved and rocked side to side.  The first boat’s wake caused books, binoculars, drinks to go flying off the tables. The second cruiser increased our roll and cabinets flew open.  Jim got on the radio and yelled, “Slow down, you idiots.  Are you in a race?” One of the jerks had the audacity to radio back, “You should have slowed down so we could pass you.”  (You can’t go much slower than our 6 knots.)  Jim yelled back, “We would have if you had radioed us.”   “Oh, sorry,” was the pathetic reply. But they never slowed down.

A little while later, we heard a guy yelling on the radio, “Slow down, slow down, you almost swamped me!  My boat is going to sink! What the hell are you doing?”  He started reporting them on the radio and warning other boaters up ahead.  That evening, while dining in Southport, we overheard the story of how two large cabin cruisers swamped some teenagers in a runabout and another group of kids in a boat got pushed under a dock by their wakes.

The cabin cruisers that came up from behind were this size going much faster.  We got waked by this joker, too.  It's too bad that a few rude/ignorant boaters can put a dent in a nice day on the water.

The rest of the day was filled with fun sightings!
Little River, SC

Looks more like New England than South Carolina!

The winds soon started to rise.  As we approached South Harbour Village Marina, the winds increased to 20-25kts.  Jim was forced to make a second pass, after the wind kept us off the dock on our port side.  We came in fast to fight the wind, got a little too close to a docked sailboat, but slid our starboard side up to the face dock on a dime.  Charlie, the dockhand, grabbed our lines and exhaled, “Wow, that was a textbook landing!”

Yaaay! We were in off the water for Memorial Day weekend and looked forward to our time in picturesque Southport, North Carolina.

Right after we pulled into South Harbour Village Marina.  Notice the flags on the sailboat in front of us standing straight out.

A view down the river from the office at South Harbour Village Marina.  We sailed right under that bridge.

South Harbour Village Marina vacation condos.  The first set of stairs lead to a fabulous Italian Restaurant, Joseph's. We actually moved Bazinga from the face dock to the open slip you see across the way next to the boat with a red door.

Southport from the water

Downtown Southport, NC

The waterfront and some great seafood restaurants; bands play on the weekends; a happening place!  Several movies were filmed in charming Southport - I Know What You Did Last Summer; Nights in Rodanthe; A Walk to Remember; Safe Haven.