After our wonderful visit with Ed and Linda Clark at St. James Plantation, we landed on the north side of Myrtle Beach at the Marina of Grand Strand.  It was one of the most impressive check in’s we’ve had.  We were greeted with a 5” x 7” photo of Mon Amie at their dock, various discount coupons including to the Ruth Chris’ Steak House on site and a bottle of while wine.  Suzanne and Al walked to the local supermarket where we loaded up on some provisions.  That afternoon, Al’s cousin, Stephanie McAndrews and her husband, Kevin, brought pizza, a salad and some home backed cakes to the boat.  We hadn’t seen Stephanie for about 3 or 4 years when we traveled to northern Indiana for Stephanie’s mother’s funeral.  It was a get reacquainted evening with lots of questions about our boating lifestyle.  Of course, we also brought one another up to date on both sides of our family.

The next day, we had a very short day traveling only to the south side of Myrtle Beach to the Osprey Marina.  We stopped there to meet our friends and fellow Krogen owners, Lynn and Dick Davenport of Ladyhawke.  We planned to stay only one night.  But after spending some time with Dick and Lynn, Al had questions about Mon Amie’s remote panel that engages the Inverter.  It seemed to stop working.  And, since Dick is a retired electrical engineer, who better to ask to help get to the source of the problem.  So, we ended up staying two nights.  The second day, Al and Dick drove Dick’s rental car to the local Lowes hardware store and picked up some connectors and a crimping tool. After returning the car, the analysis resulted in confirming the panel was no longer working. Al turned the inverter on automatic control bypassing the monitoring device.  When we arrive in Stuart, one of may of our backlog work includes buying a new Link 2000 battery monitoring device and mounting it where this one is now located.  That night, we celebrated by going to a local italian restaurant.  A driver from the restaurant picked us up at the marina then drove us back after dinner. What great service besides having an excellent dinner.

From Myrtle Beach, we headed for Georgetown, SC.  We’ve heard great stories about this town.  Since we arrived in the early afternoon, we walked the main street and went to the local Bank of America bank along with the famous Kirtzu bakery.  Upon our return with our goodies, we saw another Krogen moored next to ours.  It was a Krogen 30, Grand Adventure.  We met Mark & Emily Little who we had exchanged boat cards back at the Krogen Rendezvous in Solomons, MD in October.  We also saw Rick Bearss who helped us with our lines back in Portsmouth, VA. 

The next day, we decided to stop between Georgetown and Charleston.  Al picked the Leland Oil Company dock out of the Waterway Guide.  He had room for two transient boats at his dock.  This is a remote shrimping village.  There were no marina amenities.  Al paid the dockmaster at a small Leland Oil Company booth at the dock. But, they had 50 amp power and the price was right.  We enjoyed the wildlife surrounding us.

Next Stop: Charleston.