Great Loop 2022: Days 14 through 16: Shore Days in North Myrtle Beach

---

April 4 to April 6: I meet up with a friend, shop, throw out my back, and visit a good (and affordable!) chiropractor.

---

We spent three full days at Barefoot Marina and got quite a bit done.

Monday with Holly

It wasn’t until I saw a constant flow of R44 helicopters over Myrtle Beach during our Sunday cruise that I remembered that my friend Holly had taken a job flying tours in Myrtle Beach. I texted her.

She responded nearly two hours later. She’d been flying. (Glad to see she doesn’t send/receive texts while flying!) She was off the next day. We texted and eventually talked and arranged to meet up midday on Monday, her one day off all week.

She called when she was getting close. I told her how to get the gate at the entrance to the marina area open and met her in the parking lot. We walked down to Carver 36 where she met Capt John and he gave her the tour. We hung out inside for a while and then headed back to her car to get lunch.

We ate at a restaurant across the ICW from us, Flying Fish. They sat us at a table upstairs and Holly immediately had them move us to a window seat. (I’d honestly been thinking about asking to move but didn’t want to make waves.) John and I looked out over the Intracoastal Waterway (ICW); we could see our marina off to the left. I had the shrimp and grits, which was good, but John’s seafood plate looked a lot better. Heck, even Holly’s seared ahi tuna salad looked better than mine. (I really need to cut it out with the shrimp and grits already.)

We talked about all kinds of stuff. Mostly helicopters, of course, but Holly also pulled John into the conversation about what he does and his Great Loop trip. At one point, the boat carrying the head honcho of the American Great Loop Cruiser’s Association (AGLCA) went by and Holly and John went out on the deck to take a photo to send her. I used that opportunity to visit the ladies room.

When we were done, Holly graciously agreed to take John to West Marine and me to Hobby Lobby, both of which were within walking distance of each other but a good 6 miles from the boat. John wanted to browse so we left him on his own. Holly came into Hobby Lobby with me and wound up buying some small tables for her apartment while I bought some watercolor painting supplies (for the new hobby I don’t seem to be able to find time for these days). We doubled back and found John checking out at West Marine.

Back at the boat, I opened a bottle of wine for me and Holly and John poured himself a drink. We were hanging out on the upper decks of the boat when some neighbors on a 65 foot yacht came by for a visit. They saw Alexandria Bay on the back of John’s boat and knew the area. Three guys, each with their own drink, came up and joined us on deck. We all hung out and chatted for a while. It was great to socialize with other boaters.

The guys left and Holly and I finished the wine. I walked her back to her car and said goodbye. It had been great to see her.

Tuesday at the Shops

For some reason, I woke up on Tuesday with a minor backache. I took three ibuprofen and put it out of my mind.

John had some work to do and I wanted to get out and see what Barefoot Landing, across the ICW, had to offer. So I put on my walking shoes and headed over there. I found a shortcut across a grassy divide to get me on the path to the bridge, then crossed over and walked down the stairs next to the bridge operator’s shack to get to the parking lot below. It wasn’t until I came through the gate at the bottom that I read a sign on the gate that said “Authorized Persons Only.” Oops.

Here’s a look back at Barefoot Marina from the swing bridge I walked across to get to Barefoot Landing.

I checked the mileage on my watch when I got to Flying Fish and reported back to John via text that it was 3/4 mile away, in case he wanted to walk or bike over later. Then I continued about a tenth of a mile more to the area of shops and restaurants referred to as Barefoot Landing.

It was designed for tourists. Period. The usual collection of gift shops, sweet shops, and local merchandise shops, all gathered around a pond with turtles, very large carp, and if you could believe the sign, alligators. I walked into the ones I thought were interesting and skipped the rest. I wound up buying cookies, spending quite a while chatting with a woman in a jewelry shop that actually had quality handmade pieces similar to what I make, and buying a pair of loose-fitting cotton t-shirt fabric lounge pants covered with little white anchors. (I’ve been wearing them with my jammies to make me decent at breakfast.)

There were a lot of turtles and carp in the water (and on logs) near a brewery restaurant on the west end of the pond.

The longer I was there, the more tourists materialized. Restaurants got crowded. I was hungry but didn’t want typical tourist fare. So I finished up at the shopping area and headed back toward the boat, stopping in at Flying Fish again on my way.

Arriving by myself — rather than as part of a party of three — got me very disappointing service. The hostess asked if I wanted a table or a booth and when I told her I wanted to be upstairs with a view of the water, she seemed to disapprove. She took me up there and put me in the same table we’d occupied the day before. I then sat by myself for almost exactly five minutes before two servers came up to me. The guy asked if I’d been seated by the hostess, acting as if he thought I’d just seated myself. I told him I had. The girl was very apologetic about the wait and said that even through she wasn’t sure who was my server, she’d take care of me. And she did. The guy walked away. (I need to say that if my watch had ticked over to the full five minutes, I would have gotten up and left.)

In all honesty, I don’t remember what I had. It simply wasn’t memorable. My main goal was to get a snack before I went back to the boat in case we ate late. I didn’t want to go back hungry. I didn’t.

I took it easy when I got back to the boat. I kind of had to. For some reason, my back was aching badly. I popped some more ibuprofen. I worked on blog posts, read, and turned in right after dinner.

Wednesday’s Chores

I slept badly.

I woke Wednesday with my back in excruciating pain. At times, I felt I could barely move. I popped some more ibuprofen and tried unsuccessfully to ignore it.

I did manage to finish the blog post about our trip from Georgetown to Osprey Marina and get it online that morning.

After breakfast, when the pain hadn’t subsided and actually felt as if it were getting worse, I texted Holly. She’d mentioned on Monday that she was all set up in her new home and had found, among other things, a good chiropractor. I got the guy’s address. He was much farther south, about $25 away by Uber. I decided to wait to see how I felt in a while.

In the meantime, I did laundry. There were two supposedly credit-card capable washers and dryers near the bathrooms and I decided to was everything, including my sheets and the dishtowel. I loaded everything into my laundry bag, went up to the laundry room, and loaded both washers. I added a soap pod to each. And then I tried, for about 15 minutes, to get the washers to work. You see, they didn’t accept credit cards or cash. The only way you could get them to work was to download an app for your smart phone, set up an account, give the app your credit card information, and then put a minimum of $10 on deposit with them. It took me two tries to set up the account and 3 tries to set up the credit card. And then another two tries to get them to take my $10. After that, it worked.

By this time, I was in pain, cranky, and pretty much miserable. I called the chiropractor’s office and, by some miracle, got an appointment for 1:30 PM.

I spent a lot of time back at the boat trying to find a seating position where I wasn’t in pain. Walking back and forth to the laundry room was not making things better.

I put all my laundry into one dryer and got it going. I spent an extra 50¢ for 10 more minutes. I didn’t want to come back to wet clothes. I had $3.25 left on my laundry app account.

When my laundry was done, folded, and stowed in my cabin to put away later, I called an Uber. It was early but the trouble with Uber in some of these towns I go to is that they aren’t very reliable. I didn’t want to be late.

The driver was friendly and we chatted. It kept my mind off the pain. He recommended the Greek restaurant in the same shopping center as the chiropractor. (Holly had recommended the Italian restaurant there.)

I was more than an hour early for my appointment and would have gone to lunch, but the office staff at the chiropractor kept me busy with forms when I checked in. Then they put me on a table with rollers going back and forth under my sore back. I fell asleep. The doctor woke me. I followed him into an examining room where he gave me a very thorough adjustment that had me sweating with every crack. I was so stiff and sore that he sent me into a massage room where a massage therapist rubbed and stretched my back and legs. They gave me a back brace that fastened with velcro. I felt a lot better when I left. The bill for all this $153. Well worth it. Heck, the massage alone would have been worth that.

Food Lion, a supermarket, was in the same shopping center. I went in to pick up a few things: milk (I was running low), fresh cold cuts (I don’t eat cold cuts more than a week old and ours were two weeks old), scallops, carrots, and a few other things. They had fresh made sushi and yes, I do eat supermarket sushi when it’s made on the premises so I bought some for lunch since it didn’t seem as if I’d have time to eat at either restaurant that had been recommended to me. I took everything outside in a grocery cart and called another Uber. I got another friendly driver who seemed to know a faster route back. I was back at the boat by 4 PM.

I put away the groceries, ate my sushi, put away my laundry, and neatened up my cabin. (Honestly, I can’t understand how such a small space can become such a mess so quickly.)

Meanwhile, John had chatted with some folks who had docked nearby and invited them over for “docktails.” It was a while before they showed up and, when they did, we both went out onto the back deck where we chatted with them for about an hour. They were a really nice couple from Florida who were also doing the Great Loop. They had a large trawler-style boat similar to what I’m thinking about. (Of course, I can’t remember the make or model. I should probably be taking notes.)

When our new friends left, we went in for a bite of dinner.

After that, it was more resting in my nice, neat cabin and another early night. The plan was to leave the first thing in the morning.