St James Plantation Marina - Beautiful Weather, many closures south

Great traveling weather, but we can't travel

I guess the weather averages out eventually since now we're having great weather although it's on the cool side with highs in the low 70's. The news south of us on the ICW is still not good. Many marinas were badly damaged. Of the places we stop at, Barefoot Landing Marina (the long face dock next to the shops) is non-operational. I can only guess that the docks must have floated off their pilings. Another place we always docked at was Charleston Maritime Center which said they would be closed until Nov 1.

Today one of the two bridges south of us opened, the Socastee Swing Bridge, but the other one, the Little River Swing Bridge, is still closed. So we're not moving until at least the bridges are open. Additionally, the Coast Guard has not yet completed a sweep of the ICW. Many of the buoys are off-station, especially in the inlets with the out rushing floor waters, just where you need them the most!

I met Hank Pomeranz who gives nightly talks at Southport on the hazards between here and Charleston.We were both concerned about Lockwoods Folly and Shallotte where the ICW crosses inlets. I can easily picture both areas being greatly disturbed by Matthew. There was so much rain that the flood levels are greater than ever seen before. At Conway (near the ICW)  the river is expected to reach 17 ft with the floor stage at only 9 ft. Many areas received 1 to 2 ft of rain.

So we sit and wait for the ICW to improve to passable, maybe by Tuesday, maybe later.