Myrtle Beach SC to Southport NC

Leaving Southport Marina shortly after 0800 we left the relative comfort of the ICW and turned into the Cape Fear River that was running at maximum flood tide. Because of the inrushing flood tide from the ocean, we were being pushed along at a speedy 12.5 MPH. The problem this created was the opposing wind was out of the NNE at 15-20 MPH which made for very rough choppy seas and waves of 4 to 6 feet breaking over our bow and drenching our (thankfully) fully enclosed flybridge. Combined with a  temperature of 39 degrees, Sara and I both agreed, this was not our idea of pleasure boating, After about an hour of pounding into the wind and waves, we cruised serenely back into the ICW and left the Cape Fear River Behind.

I need to backup to our trip from Georgetown SC to N. Myrtle Beach SC. I forgot to mention. "The Rock Pile".  Following is Jack's description of that passage.

Many stretches of the ICW that we have traversed so far have been through miles of marsh land, rivers, inlets, etc. with bottoms consisting of soft mud and or sand. If you run aground here, there would hopefully be no significant damage to your boat.

However, there is one small area just south of North Myrtle Beach, NC that many boaters had warned us about as long as a year ago. That area is known as The Rock Pile and it is an approximately 5 mile long stretch of the ICW between mile marker (mm) 355 and (mm) 350. In this area the Army Corps of Engineers had to blast out the channel for the ICW through solid rock. Consequently, it is extremely narrow and very unfriendly to any mariner who may have a momentary lapse  of "situational awareness" and allow his boat to drift out of the channel and into the menacing, sharp rocks lying just feet from the side of the boat. 

On April 14th, as we were approaching The Rock Pile, we made the obligitory calls on the common VHF frequency for boaters on the ICW, channel 16, stating we were about to enter this 5 mile long stretch heading north and was there any opposing "commercial traffic" (such as tug boats or barges) that may be coming the other direction that would take up the whole width of the channel. Luckily for us, on this day at this time there was not, so we proceeded slowly through the infamous Rock Pile without incident.