Alternative Trips: Chapter 1

24 Dec 2003, Day Three Barefoot Landing, 33 47.390 N/ 078 44.170 W

It rained two inches last night and everything was wet. Walking the kids was a mess. We said farewell to River View campground and headed for SC. There was nothing out of the ordinary on the trip today. Cruising is more fun, just much slower. We have the hour/day correlation for the ICW. Each hour that it takes to drive is a day on the water. Of course, offshore doesn't count. We are arrived at Barefoot Landing Campground in North Myrtle Beach SC at 1400. This is right across the street (US Rte 17) from Barefoot Landing Shopping Center which provides free dockage for cruisers on the ICW. We have never seen it on the water because we always were offshore on this leg. Campground is great. We are anchored (oops, parked) behind the dunes that face the ocean. People are great too. The 'kids' went crazy on the beach. They wanted to run every which way. Of course they dragged us here and there. We went to the BI LO to get provisions for Christmas as we expected that nothing would be open. We got all sorts of TV dinners. We should eat well for the next couple of days. Next Land Voyage, we will make this a two (or more) day stop.

25 Dec 2003, Day 4: Hunting Island, 32 23.140 N/ 080 25.970 W

Neither of us slept too well as our 17 foot vessel is getting smaller and smaller (remember, 2 dogs and a cat). We checked out the Huntng Island lighthouse then headed for Beaufort SC for breakfast, sightsee-ing and email. Ollie's (a casual restaurant) is no more as is the Ace hardware. Very sad. Two places we frequented when we were sailing South. Replaced by "la-de-da" places. However, Luther's is still serving the common man. Met a Canadian gentleman at the Beaufort Town Docks who is heading south (a bit late, maybe). He is headed for the Bahamas then EU via Bermuda and the Azores. Ann will not let Bob do that...ever (well, maybe)!

We headed back to Hunting Island and took the 'babies' for a long walk on the beach. Neither tired of the exploration. However, they do want to play with the birds and the squirrels. We are eating pizza bites for dinner and watching Judge Judy (one of two stations that we can get here). We will have to wait until tomorrow to send this as there is no cell coverage.