Wacca Wache

This is a totally different part of the world.

When you leave Carolina Beach, you connect to the Cape Fear River, which empties through an inlet into The Atlantic. You have a choice: Outside to Myrtle Beach, or Inside via the Waccamaw River, which twists and turns through a flooded forest festooned with Spanish Moss. This photo doesn’t do it justice. I probably should have stopped and composed a great photo…But you can see how the pretty the river is, and the sun, and maybe you can see some of the Spanish Moss. I know most of you have seen SM before, but it’s pretty cool to be right in the midst of it.

But it took a long time to get here. The ICW below Carolina Beach is littered with No Wake Zones that slow your progress to a crawl. We covered 87 miles today. At our fast cruising speed, it would have taken us just short of 5 hours. Instead, it took 6.

Actually, that’s pretty much what I planned on: I told the marina we’d arrive around 2, and we rolled in at 1:59. I anticipated it, but it still made me impatient. I mean, come on…it’s the ICW! It’s like building your house next to I-95 and then complaining about the cars speeding by!

I thought about going outside today, because I knew this stretch had issues, but I figured I wanted to see ALL of the ICW for myself. If I do it again, I may go outside.

But everything’s OK now. My puppy made a lot of new friends, and the restaurant here serves fresh river-caught fried catfish tacos! Yowza!

Tomorrow we’re off to see Stan and Susan Harris in Isle of Palms. We’ll stay two nights, and I’m looking forward to the visit!