"12 Nov., 2003 - to Sunset Beach Pontoon Bridge" Sunset Beach Travelogue by grandmaR

Today we have the Sunset Beach pontoon bridge to do.

Early morning reflections

We left the marina without any difficulty at about 6:45 as we usually do. The sun was coming up and it was calm with lots of nice reflections in the water.

The bimini enclosure is covered with heavy dew condensation on the outside. The almost full but waning moon is still high in the sky.

I had fixed the color problems on the Toshiba, so we were using that for charting.

As we were proceeding, I spotted something in the water - turned out to be a lawn chair. A small Contender fishing boat named JOY BEE was running up and down - back and forth.

We see several sailboats behind us. They pass us one by one. First a Gozzard ketch named SWISS9ER from VA, then a gold hulled ketch with a green stripe named FLUTTERBY which was for sale (Had a Martin Bird sign on the bow) which was probably a delivery skipper.

Restaurant with dock

We passed another restaurant named the Provision Company (that was the name of the one in Southport) with a free dock and other restaurants such as this one which also has dock space for while you eat..

Shrimp boat selling shrimp

We passed through Holden Beach and there was a shrimp boat with "Shrimp" on a banner across the side - a guy came out of the wheelhouse and yelled at me did I want to buy some shrimp. Bob didn't hear that or we might have done. Also saw a shrimp boat with a life ring from another boat.

House with ICW sign

We thought initially that we'd be at the pontoon bridge by 10, but it is now 0827 and we are only at mm 325 -- still 12 miles to go. MAJIK SEEKER from New York, New York passes us V-E-R-Y slowly. LUNATIC FRINGE, a Canadian sailboat passes, and finally WINDSWEPT I - also Canadian who was in St. James marina last night passed.

Saw a house with an ICW #87 marker up on the balcony. Not funny or classy.

Waiting for the bridge

0943 - have gone 17.7 sm and are in Gause Ldg. so we still are about 4 miles from the bridge. A small red tug CAVALIER STATE passes us going north.

Just as we get to the fixed bridge, the Toshiba goes bananas, so I get the old Dell out to do the charting. When I try the Toshiba later, it works perfectly OK. There was a sign on the bridge warning of an underwater sewer line, which I did not get a photo of.

A small trawler FANNIE'S BOY passed apparently thinking they would get to the bridge for the 10 am opening - no way. FLUTTERBY gets through by the skin of his teeth, but when we get to the bridge we see the other three sailboats that passed us and the trawler are all waiting.

Roadbed on the pontoon part of the bridge

We all sat idling in front of the bridge for about a half an hour. Eventually a UK boat called PENLEE CHALLENGE and a power boat named SEA TULIP from Annapolis joined the group. There is also a power boat waiting to go north.

Bridge closing - boats in back too late

When it is time for the bridge to open the boats are all jockeying for position, but none seems to actually want to go through the bridge. PENLEE CHALLENGE is ahead of us but waves us to go first.

I took lots of pictures as we went through.

We are going to spend the night at Dock Holiday's Marina in North Myrtle Beach