The Marina Inn at Grand Dunes - bad news on the Socastee Bridge

Why is the Socastee Swing Bridge needed????

After moving to Grand Dues yesterday we got up in good cheer expecting to move south by Saturday or maybe as late as early next week. Our hopes were dashed by the morning report on bridge and marina status which can be found here. It's the first report we turn to every morning! There we read the bad news, the Socastee Swing Bridge was not expected to be operational until 10 to 15 days later. Judging from past experience, I would expect the 15 days to be more accurate. I cannot understand why they think they still need the Socastee Swing Bridge when about 600 feet south they have a 65 ft high bridge that connects to the same road that the Socastee bridge does! What dunces! With the  bridge non-operational, the ICW is blocked to all traffic. Not even powerboats can get through since the normal 11 ft of clearance is no more.

We are just south of the Grand Dunes Bridge

As you might expect, all the marinas north of the bridge are filling up. At last count there was still room at Barefoot Marina (not Barefoot Landing Marina, they are rebuilding docks) and at Grand Dunes. The marinas north of there are already filled when I called them a few days ago.

I heard from Terri who is south of here and she reported the the long face dock at Fernandina was destroyed in the storm. They don't expect to reopen until May! Their dinghy dock is closed for now due to concerns over debris in the marina. Hopefully, they will open the dinghy dock by the time we get down there. The moorings are closed until they're inspected. We anchor out anyway so it does not affect us although we do need access to the dinghy dock.

The azaleas are in full bloom

We are cycling through the various car rental agencies but none have any cars yet, maybe next week. Meanwhile, we have all we need. The weather has been fantastic with temps in the 70's and no rain although that may change in a few days. I hate to be wasting this great traveling weather on just sitting in a marina! I somehow suspect that when the time comes to finally continue south, the weather will be much different, I hope not.

Marina Inn at Grand Dunes - we're here for a week

We're snugged in among a lot of other boats

We were at Barefoot Landing Marina at a part of their dock that was not damaged. We wanted to stay for a week for they did not have a weekly rate. Furthermore, they had a crew coming to repair the docks at which time everyone would have been thrown off. We couldn't live with that level of uncertainty so we headed down to the Marina Inn at Grand Dunes which did have a weekly rate of $8/ft.

 But let's backup a moment. I could not raise the Socastee Swing Bridge so I called a cafe nearby and the dear soul volunteered to walk over to the bridge and inquire as to its status. About an hour later she returned and she heard the the repair crew was not optimistic as to a quick schedule. Both the electrical box and the gears were submerged during the flood and were still under water as of this morning. The repair crew wanted to let everything dry out at least three days before touching anything. They would then repair the electrical connections and search the gear mechanism for sticks, logs, etc, anything that might bind the turning of the swing bridge. Their estimate of when the bridge would be operational was the middle of next week. With that our situation at Barefoot Landing became precarious. I could pay for a month's stay or pay daily, neither option was what I wanted. They would not negotiate a weekly rate. The Marina Inn at Grand Dunes has a weekly rate so we headed south and tied up mid-afternoon. Unfortunately, there's nothing around here but they do have good WiFi and cable TV so we'll amuse ourselves until whenever the bridge is repaired.

Sunset over boats

In retrospect, I made several bad decisions. The right choice was going ahead to St James Plantation Marina. It was very well protected and we suffered no damage. The bad choice was leaving that marina before we knew the full extent of the damage to the Socastee Bridge. We should have stayed in the Plantation until we knew for certain that the bridge was repaired. After all, it's only a one day trip to Barefoot and the bridge is the next day. We had heard that the bridge was just waiting for the water to go down, that information was incomplete since extensive repairs still had to be made. Once underway, I should have skipped Barefoot Landing Marina due to uncertainty of the repair schedule and gone directly to the Marina Inn at Grand Dunes.

On the other hand, I should have left St James Plantation on the Tuesday after the hurricane instead of waiting a week (I had thought that a week would let things settle down back to near normal). If I had left Tuesday then I could have passed through the Socastee bridge before high water came. The water had to work its way down from Conway and didn't actually impact the bridge until the following Monday, a full week and two days after the hurricane. So even with the experience of six years of going up and down the ICW, you don't always make the right decisions.

So here we sit. We have WiFi, electricity and cable TV, all the comforts of home I guess. It's just that the view doesn't change for awhile. On top of everything else we can't even rent a car, they are all taken by the insurance companies for their customers without homes and/or a car due to the flood. I guess I can't really complain about that since their need is certainly greater than ours. We have plenty of provisions, we won't go hungry and really don't need to visit a supermarket within the next two weeks so we're fine.

Barefoot Landing Marina - at their face dock

Well, the wildlife seems happy enough

We felt it was time to move on this morning even with the uncertainty of the Socastee Bridge. At least we had a 6 ft tide going through the inlets which eased any apprehension. The first one was Lockwoods Folly which was pretty straightforward but you had to mind your route closely, mainly just go from red to red. I updated Active Captain with a more detailed description and also listed the Army Corps of Engineers (ACOE) waypoints they recommended which are the ones I followed through the inlet crossing for a minimum of 7.6 MLW.

Some of the trees, however, seemed less happy

Shallotte Inlet was more challenging although not with a 6 ft tide. There's a 50 ft wide neck you have to hit to get even 6 MLW and it's not near a buoy. The best bet is to use the ACOE provided waypoints for the passage which can be downloaded in a GPX file from here. There's more detail on Active Captain for the inlet.

Our next door neighbor

The bridges all had at least 63 ft when we passed under at high tide and the bridge just before the Rock Pile had its fenders underwater! You had to be careful to center yourself in the bridge, it's never a good thing to hit bridge fenders!

For the first time we met boat traffic coming through the Rock Pile. A huge powerboat was heading north and we passed in a narrow section of the Pile with less than 10 ft between us. I was not going to get very far over and neither was he.

All the way to Barefoot we had a foul current of 2.0 to 2.8 kts! The water was just gushing out the inlets. Even with all the current, we saw very little debris except for one loose floating dock which we reported to the Coast Guard. We will be here until the Socastee Swing Bridge is repaired. It's more than just high water. The electrical box for the bridge was underwater and who knows what will have to be replaced. I heard a rumor that it might be repaired by Saturday but I'm not holding my breath. Meanwhile, we'll hole up here for awhile.

St James Plantation Marina - still here but we leave Tuesday for sure

All neatly stacked inside an enormous bulding

With the Socastee Swing Bridge closed due to high water and especially since the water was still rising, we stayed another day at St James Marina. They broke a record in the area with the river cresting at the highest level since 1924. Thousands are still without power but we're fine here. There was a picture of the Socastee bridge posted in the local newspaper and it showed the ICW within inches of the bottom of the bridge. No wonder they have to cease operations. The bridge will be closed all day Tuesday and Wednesday is still up in the air.

This reaches right to the top rack inside

Meanwhile we'll head to Barefoot Landing Marina and probably stay two days unless the bridge situation doesn't improve in which case we'll stay longer. At any rate, we've been here long enough, time to move on. We have to pass through two shallow spots at Lockwoods Folly and Shallotte Inlet but we'll have plenty of tide to help us out.

Time for goodbye

It's been fun here and so well protected. We've made new friends and the people in general are so nice. We will certainly stop by on the way north in the spring to visit with everyone again. We'll leave around 8:30 am, you can track us on Spot (look at the left).

St James Plantation Marina - Oh no, the Socastee Swing Bridge is closed Monday and Tuesday at least due to high water!

Boats here are routinely hauled and stored in a huge barn protected from wind and rain

The two couples we had dinner with last night who were going south on their power cat left this morning and found that the Socastee Swing Bridge was close indefinitely due to high water! We were planning on leaving Monday morning to reach Barefoot Marina which is still north of the bridge but we were only going to stay there two days. We've already paid for a month's stay here so it would be much less expensive to just wait out any delays at St James rather than at Barefoot Marina. If it's only going to a be a couple of days, then we'll leave St James Monday. If it's longer, then we ought to stay put. Nothing like trying to plan ahead.

The area is a enormous retirement community with lots of activities and is gated with a 24/7  guardhouse. 

There is also a bridge just past the Socastee bridge that supposed to be 65 at MLW but there are reports that it's actually 58 ft. Unfortunately, the reported 58 ft of clearance does not come with the state of the tide. Fortunately, we only need 55 ft 3 inches so we should be fine - but then we do need the Socastee bridge to be operational.

I took Hoolie for a walk at one of the many parks which are part of the community

We're ready. We refueled, got pumped out and I took all the extra lines off the boat today. I'll give a call to the Socastee bridge Monday morning to see their status if they will answer the phone, often times they don't if the bridge is closed. We planned on staying at Barefoot Marina for two days anyway but beyond that it would all be extra time that could be spent less expensively by just staying here.

St James Plantation Marina - Dinner with friends

Just one good day after another

A nice part of traveling the ICW or any area of boating are the people you meet.  We all have similar interests and most but not all are free to wander (retired...) We all help each other. Jim just bought a power cat and today we were comparing the chartplotter of 10 years ago on the power cat with the iPad relative to ease of creating a route. The first instinct is to put your finger on the chartplotter to create a waypoint. Of course that does not work. The iPad is all touch sensitive in creating a route with just your finger. On top of that, the cost of the iPad and apps are a small fraction of the cost of a Raytheon chartplotter. Welcome to the modern age of boat electronics.

Dinner with boating friends is always nice

Tonight we were invited over for dinner with the Jim and Eileen McKay who were hosting two other boating couples who arrived in their own power catamarans. They are also headed south although at a much faster rate than us since they cruise at 17 kts or so vs our 7.3 kts. Great conversation and dinner!

We will take Sunday to refuel and unhook from all the lines we put out for the hurricane with the intention of leaving Monday morning for Barefoot Marina. The weather is still warm and we want to get south before cool weather sets in.

St James Plantation Marina - Getting ready

 Barefoot Landing marina damage, courtesy of  Nile Schneider 

We had intended renting a car today but they were all taken. There's a great demand for rental cars given the flooding around here. We've made arrangements with Barefoot Marina for a ride to the nearest Walmart for provisioning so we're fine.

From our friends along the ICW we learned that Barefoot Landing Marina, the one with the long dock next to all the shops, suffered damage and will not be open for awhile expect for a few spots along the undamaged portion of their dock. We will go across the channel to Barefoot Marina which came through unscathed.

This section of the ICW was exposed to the east winds of Matthew and suffered

We have friends traveling down south by car and they stopped by Fernandina and found that the marina there, the Fernandina Harbor Marina, is closed due to damage by hurricane Matthew and will probably not reopen until spring. That's the marina everyone stops at for access to Fernandina.

When we made our run to Lockwoods Folly yesterday, the ICW was clear of debris including adjacent to rivers so we feel good about heading south again on Monday. There is still lots of flooding south of us but the ICW should be passable.