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.