Days 337

Barefoot Landing Marina - Southport SC

• Start 7:00 AM
• End 1:30 PM
• Underway 5:15 Hours
• Distance 39 Miles
• Total Miles on Trip 5426
• Av Speed 7.4 knots
• Weather Cloudy , 72 Degrees, Wind 6 Knots SE

Another beautiful day riding for our last day South Carolina as we moved on to North Carolina. It was cloudy and a little chilly, but over all a nice day. We did run into one idiot on the water. A local fishing charter boat decided to pass us, throwing a massive wake about 50 feet off our port side. After passing us he did the same thing to Mark & Karen (Kay Dee) as well as a couple of smaller boats. To make it even worse he only went about a mile up the river, and turned around to do the same thing. This time Mark & Karen called him on the radio and told him to slow down. His response was "I am working on my engines and have to do this to check things out" What an A$$HOLE!. I am sure at some time karma will come back to bite him. Hopefully the "wonderful" review that I left for him on both Trip Advisor and Google Review, will help steer customers away from him. When we reached the marina, I asked if anyone knew the boat, and apparently he has a reputation for not caring about his wake or other boaters.

Southport Marina is a nice marina, having been recently built due to being destroyed in a hurricane a couple of years ago. The only problem we had, was it is very shallow in the basin. At one point there was less than 2 feet of water under the boat. Shallow water like that makes the boat difficult to dock, it took me a couple of tries to get in, but overall it was an easy marina to dock in. Shortly after we arrived there was a knock on the side of the boat, Robert Creech, the local Harbor Host, stopped by to invite us to Porchtails, on their front porch at 5pm. Robert & Kay completed the Loop in 2008, and now greet Loopers as the come through Southport, and host porchtails at their house every night. Robert also offered to take us anywhere we needed to go, or even loan us a vehicle. Mark, Karen and I join them as well as Tom & Jennifer (Boat name unknown) for drinks, appetizers and stories. Angel has been dealing with back pains for about two weeks now, and was not up to coming out. As much as I do not like leaving her when she is not feeling well, I think me being out of her hair for a little while was best for her.

Robert was a wealth of knowledge on the route between Southport and Norfolk, where we will be the next two weeks. What was really helpful was his insight on our side trip to Wilmington NC. After talking with Robert, we planned our departure for 7am. Leaving at 7am, would having us running the entire 15 miles up the Cape Fear River with the tide at our back, instead of fighting the tide the entire way. Robert tried to convince us to stay in Southport for a couple of days. When I told him, I had a rental car reserved in Wilmington to go visit Rebecca & Zach in Raleigh, his response was, go from here it is only an hour longer drive.

Southport looks like a great little town, and had Angel been feeling better, we might have spent some time checking it out, but maybe next time.