Entries about barefoot landing

Saturday 10 Nov 2001- Leaving Southport

Today we have to go through the only pontoon bridge on the east coast ICW. It floats on the water so you can't get under it. Last year we heard that it couldn't open at low tide because it didn't have enough water. The tides are increasing and they will be up to 8 feet in GA - but here in SC, they are only about 5 -6 feet. The bridge only opens on the hour.

We get underway (HARMONY goes first) before 7:15. ADANACO passed us, and PENELOPE JANE, CJ VI and ROB's JUL soon followed. The tide was low, but the bridge was about 24 miles away. The tide goes from low to high every six hours, and we travel about 5 miles per hour so we should be there right about high tide.

Piers and wharfs at half high tide

We saw people out scraping barnacles off their pilings, and at least 2 sailboats sitting tied to the dock completely out of the water resting on their keels. Some crab pots are out of the water too.

We hear that the smoke from fires is so bad that the bridge is closed. It gets close to 11:00 and we are still almost 3 miles from the bridge. We are not going to make it. HARMONY is already up there and we see them go through.

ROB'S JUL

ROB's JUL passes us, and gets down close to the bridge. We've cut back on the power. We have an hour to wait.

Bridge beginning to open

Or do we? There is a considerable conversation on the radio from TowBoat US. Apparently the tow boat has to go through the bridge, so it will open.

Bridge pulled aside

And all of us slower boats get through the bridge.

RosalieAnn from Penelope. Max is on the port side - I'm on the starboard

Bridge tender writing down names

Traffic waiting - the bridge is one lane. Traffic switches direction on the half hour

I took a lot of pictures and so did Penelope of PENELOPE JANE.

(Penelope and I exchanged photos of each other that evening.)

Penelope Jane from RosalieAnn - looking back at the Pontoon bridge

Some of the Canadian boats stopped at Sunset Beach to pick up mail.

Big boat passes

Lighthouse through the lifelines

The VERY pink house

We have 2 other bridges to go through, both on request. One is the Little River bridge and one is Barefoot Landing. Since some of the boats have stopped they aren't going to be going through these two bridges. Other boats aren't aware that their friends have stopped, and they try to get the Little River Bridge to wait for them. We don't want to wait and we go through. They hang back waiting for the others who are not coming. Then when they get there the Little River Bridge, it doesn't want to open again right away.

Coming into the rockpile

We are approaching Barefoot Landing. Barefoot Landing is at the beginning of a section of the InterCoastal Waterway called the Pine Island Cut AKA The Rockpile. It is one of the nastiest anywhere, not only because of the original construction with rock ledges are often under water at high tide sticking out just a few inches under the water pretty much invisible, but because building along the canal allows debris (such as big trees) and mudslide to go down into the canal. There are advertisements on the bridge abutments for towing and propellor repair - those people have a good business fixing the boats that are damaged by the canal. Several people have had a problem with dead heads doing damage to their boats.

The Barefoot Swing Bridge is a new bridge which should not have been built because all new bridges are supposed to be fixed (non-opening) bridges at least 65 feet tall.After we went through the Barefoot bridge, we tied up at Barefoot Landing. This is a free dock by a big outlet mall area. When we were there the dock were free but there were no electrical connections, and no other services (such as bathrooms, showers or phone or TV hookups). There may have been wi-fi.

This has been called the most expensive free dock on the ICW There is 500 or so feet of dock, The first arrivals tie to the dock and then later arrivals raft onto each other. There were at least 36 boats there (mostly monohull sailboats), rafted to the maximum of 4 in a lot of places.

Rafted sailboats

Rafting at the other end of the dock

Free dock with the Barefoot Swing Bridge in the background

Canadian boat

Looking back along the raft-up from the north end

There was one place where they were rafted 5 deep and when the paddlewheel boat tried to turn to come into the pier I thought it was going to skewer us with the boarding ladder.

Riverboat after almost skewering the rafted boats

We had a sailboat from Boston outside us and a power boat named SHARON LEE inside of us, and inside of him was a somewhat unfortunate looking yawl.

RosalieAnn rafted - from the stern

Our raft of boats apparently shifted forward when the tide/current changed and our anchor and that of the boat outside of us came perilously close to the hard dinghy of CAROLINA the boat in front. After some running around and pulling and tugging, we got everyone straightened out. (Bob and Carol of CAROLINA were in Belhaven anchored out and Max and Lucette took their propane bottle from the store to the dinghy dock for them in the marina's electric golf cart.)

Tiny Australian boat that refused to raft

There was an Australian guy who was in a little boat on the pier and he said he refused to have anyone raft off of him because he only had 4 cleats and 2 of them pulled out the last time he was rafted. I thought this was egregious - he could have been on the outer end of a raft and not taken up prime dock space. Or he could have had his boat in better repair.

We went up to dinner to T-Bonz, and they said we'd have to wait. It was only 5:15 and the place was half empty. Then we went to a crab place - same story - empty restaurant and we'd have to wait. We walked out. We went to Johnny Rocket's, which is a hamburger and malt type place. The wait staff does the macarena etc. I don't remember specifically what we ate, but I always want ice cream when I'm traveling by boat. Our boat doesn't have a freezer that keeps ice cream. But in addition to burgers, and fries, they also have sandwiches, chili, shakes, malts and apple pie

Tomorrow's destination is Georgetown South Carolina. The first time we came down the ICW in 2000, we skipped Georgetown because we were trying to get to Charleston before Thanksgiving. We stopped in McClellanville instead. We decided never to go there again, so on the way back we stopped in Georgetown. We wanted our friends to see Georgetown too, so tomorrow we go through the Rockpile.

Sunday 11 November 2001

MARCUS who was the outside of his raft wanted to stay another day to shop more, but the people inside him didn't. He got underway early, and got stuck when he tried to turn around. A little tug type trawler called KNOCK OUT tried to pull him off. When they took a strain on the line the boat heeled but didn't move. Heard later that he was high and dry at low tide stuck on the rock ledges.

Edges of the rockpile at low tide

We kept cautiously in the middle.

Pine Island Cut with golf skyway in the distance

Passed the place where the skyway takes golfers from the clubhouse to the course over the canal.

Waving manikin

There was also a waving man or statue or manikin. Lucette waved back before she realized that it wasn't a real person

New bridge in 2000 in the rain

Then we came to the two bridges which they were starting construction on last year

New bridge in 2001

SIMPLICITY (dink MANANA) and JAZZABELLE, KNOCKOFF and CAROLINA passed us and so did BAD BOY from North East MD (Lucette asked where that was, and Bob and I kept saying North East is in northeast MD). BAD BOY had a *huge* US flag flying from the top of the mast, and then a large MD flag and then a US Navy flag.

BAD BOY and the Socastee Bridges

The Socastee Swing bridge has apparently been completely decommissioned and is permanently open. (Although unfortunately it was back in operation when we came back up) As we went down the Waccamaw River,

Waccamaw River

SANGRIA II (that we saw in Belhaven) passed. We saw Bucksport which is supposed to have great sausage

Bucksport

and also passed Wacca Wachee Marina on our way to Georgetown.

Bald cypress

We went to The Boat Shed (a marina) MM 403. We tied up by 12:50 after 51.3 miles or a total trip of 475 nm. They have about 4 places for transient boats. It was $1/foot and that included electricity. The rest rooms aren't locked. They are nice people - they let me do e-mail in the office. There are no pay phones. There is dry stack storage building for small power boats from the gas dock. The little brick building in the foreground is where the bathrooms are. There is also an outdoor storage area. Next to the marina at the shrimp docks is a good place to buy fresh seafood.

There were a ton of boats anchored in Georgetown including SHARON LEE. Max and Lucette went to explore the town and met Sharon and her husband from SHARON LEE-they came by in the dink. The Georgetown harbor has room for a lot of boats. If the paper mill is operating and the wind is wrong you may get a dirty residue on the boat. The town has a small dinghy dock west of the town clock (which is on the Rice Museum). There are hardwares stores and restaurants near the dock. Post office is 3 miles away.

There was a Morgan OI (Out Island) behind us on the dock from Baltimore. They have two boys on board age 9 and 14 and are homeschooling. Their cousins came down from Columbus to see them, and the boys were fishing off the dock. One caught a little croaker.

Main Street - Rice Museum clock (and Bob)

The Rice Museum gift shop was open, but not the Rice Museum itself. SWEET SENSATION came in and anchored, as did the yawl that was the inside boat on our raft (named MONDAY MORNING). A big motor yacht named GOT the FEVER also came into the marina.

We found that there were NO restaurants in town open on Sunday night that we could walk to from the waterfront. They shut the town down and rolled up the sidewalks. So Lucette phoned around and we found that a restaurant named Jackie's Lafayette out on US 17 was open, so we walked out to it.

SWEET SENSATION anchored in Georgetown

The town is pleasant to walk through - the section between Route 17 and the river is a Historic District. The Georgetown Historic District is 220 acres of land, and includes about 46 buildings. The Kaminski House Museum (never been open when I was there) is one of them, as are Prince George Episcopal Church and graveyard, Henning-Miller House, Waterman Kaminiski House, the Heriot Tarbox House, the Winyah Indigo Society Hall (which I saw when we walked out to Rte 17 to have dinner when it was too dark to take pictures), and the Morgan-Ginsler House which is across the street. Many of these old homes have interesting legends attached to them.

We walked 8 or 9 blocks from South and James where the marina was four blocks up to the highway. They had a buffet for $6.95 each and it was a very good value for the money. I remember there was chicken, salad, vegetables and dessert. Dinner for two was $19.06 including drinks and a tip. It has the ambiance of a motel restaurant, but it was cheerful.