Day 59: Myrtle Beach, SC to Southport, NC

The rudder arrived at the yard at 10:15am and by 10:45am it was in and we were ready to take off. The Great Loop was launched and we carefully made our way down the cut to the marina proper. But wait -- now the generator did not work!  What happened?

We tied up at Hague Marina's gas dock and one of their tech's jumped aboard for a look-see. After checking electrical panels and a long call to Beneteau in Annapolis, the service tech discovered the problem. In the process of moving boxes of Great Loop t-shirts and literature in the lazerette a small tool box had been pushed out of the way and it had nudged the generator's breaker switch off. No wonder it wouldn't start!

At 12 noon we were on the ICW again. First we went by the back side of Myrtle Beach, SC. Myrtle Beach is one huge no wake zone. So progress was slow.

As we moved into North Myrtle Beach we entered one of the most frightful stretches along the whole ICW. Boaters familiar with the area call it "the rock pile." This dangerous stretch runs from about mile 357 to 345 going north. The most notorious part runs roughly from the Ocean Drive Beach area to north of Nixon's crossroads.

For years we have heard horror stories coming from here of boats running afoul of unseen -- and uncharted! -- rocks and ripping out their running gear. Along this stretch, being in the marked channel is no guarantee of safe passage. We are told by locals that in some places the deep area is only 35' wide. With eyes glued to the depth sounder we slowly and safely made our way through this problematic area.

A couple of hours later we arrived in Southport, NC, near the Cape Fear River. At Southport Marina we tied up at the fuel dock behind a 112' Westport and took on 80.187 gallons of fuel. Since the last fuel stop we had covered about 100 nmiles. We got 1.25 miles per gallon for the two days and averaged about 10.7 nmph. Given the fact that Myrtle Beach is almost one continuous no wake zone this is not bad.