On this adventure you never really know what the day will present to you. Today (Wednesday, 7/17) we pulled away from the dock at Georgetown Landing Marina in Georgetown, SC about 8:00 in the morning. Our destination – Myrtle Beach Yacht Club in Myrtle Beach, SC. We were pleasantly surprised when we entered the Waccamaw River. The scenery on this deep-water river was breathtakingly beautiful with heavily wooded banks filled with moss draped cypress trees, and numerous private alcoves perfect for anchoring. Plus, we saw huge fish jumping out of the water all over the place. We just kept saying “isn’t this beautiful”? “Isn’t this awesome”?  Wow! This was definitely one of our most beautiful sails. Interestingly, the water was the color of dirty dishwater but that didn’t take away from the awesome beauty.  We spent about four hours traveling through and enjoying the pristine, peaceful wilderness.

Next came the area of Socastee (pronounced Sock ass tee) a residential community. Here the water was almost black. Amazing, we’ve never seen black water! We saw an unbelievable amount of new construction going on in this community. Not sure if it was because of a previous hurricane or they are experiencing an economic boom, but there were new homes being built everywhere we looked along the waterfront. We passed lots of little go-fast boats, pontoon boats and experienced herds of jet skiers who loved to jump our wake. Overall, our seven- hour trip was incredibly beautiful and interesting.

We arrived at Myrtle Beach Yacht Club (not really a yacht club but a marina) in Myrtle Beach, SC around 3:00, hopped off the boat to take the doggies for a walk and check in. We noticed the bow of the boat was sporting a bit of a brown mustache from the brown/black waters we had traveled through. Hmmm. We went to marina’s upstairs restaurant, overlooking our boat, for a snack and a beer. Took the pups back to the boat and Michael and I went to the pool for a quick dip. A lovely day…..

Today, Thursday (7/18), we departed the black waters of Myrtle Beach Yacht Club in Myrtle Beach, SC around 9:00 in the morning. The trip this morning presented us with much more activity on the water and was more populated on the waterfront. The color of the water changed back to dishwater dirty.

About an hour later we crossed from South Carolina into North Carolina and the shore was lined with colonies of waterfront homes many built up on stilts. Again, we experienced gangs of jet skiers, pontoon boats full of people, lots of folks anchored and fishing, numerous small go-fast boats and a few “pleasure craft” like us.

As we entered North Carolina the waterway began to follow the coastline only a few hundred yards from the ocean protected by barrier islands. In several locations we could actually see the ocean, the waves, and white sand beaches from our boat. The water began to take on a bluer color and the bottom became more sand and less mud. We also passed by a sandbar out in the middle of the water where boats were pulled up on shore and folks were enjoying the day in the water.

As we cruised along, we stuck our nose in several of the marinas along the way in anticipation of our return visit. While it’s interesting not knowing what to expect every day, we thought it would be nice to know what the marinas have to offer before we actually get there. Duh!  We pulled into Southport Marina around 2:30 and decided to stay for the night. We jumped off the boat to take the pups for a walk and check in then back to the boat for snacks and a glass of wine. Life is good…..

Once it cooled down a bit we decided to go for another walk. We met Buddy on the dock and mentioned that we were doing the Loop. He said his neighbor completed the Loop in 2009 and he knew he would love to talk to us. Within five minutes he had contacted Robert and Kay and told us to meet them on their porch. We walked a few hundred feet and Robert came out to greet us and invited us to come sit, chat and have a glass of wine. They were delightful and we enjoyed visiting with them on their porch overlooking the river and watching the activity on the water. We discovered that Robert and Kay are Looper Harbor Hosts and had a detailed list of their favorite stops along the Loop which they gave to us. They also invited us back for coffee, on the porch, at 6:15 tomorrow morning. Wow, Southern hospitality! We continued to walk another block and found several restaurants, but they were all so busy we decided to pass on eating out and continued walking to the cute “little” town. Oh my gosh, this is the sweetest, nicest community – tree line streets with beautiful old homes built in the mid to late 1800’s and early 1900’s and impeccably maintained. Awesome!