The Geezer Guys are getting into paddling shape, but slowly. Yesterday we made our first outing of the trip, a 4 mile paddle on the Waccamaw River out of Peach Tree Landing (not far from Myrtle Beach). Today, we paddled from Bonaparte's Landing in Calabash, NC out to Bird Island Preserve, 4.5 miles.
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| Waccamaw River - huge cypress with huge Osprey nest |
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| Morning surgery on a kayak, fixing the back band |
For this paddle, there were three of us, as we reconnected with a fellow NYSDEC retiree, Jeff Sama. Jeff moved down here a short time ago and showed us some great sights of the coast, including beaches, dunes, jellyfish, pelicans and oystercatchers (not to mention oysters).
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| Jeff Sama and Mike on the beach at Bird Island |
Jeff is rather new to kayaking, so we took it easy on him. Otherwise, we would have paddled 20 miles and practiced landing through the rough surf - not.
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| Jellyfish were thick along the inner beach, each 8-10" in diameter |
Our local guide also lead us to some good food and Guinness to top off the day. Our meals on the trip until today have not been worth mentioning. That made today's good eats (clam chowder, seafood gumbo, firecracker shrimp, hot crab dip) all the better. Thanks for a nice day, Jeff, and good luck with the new house!
Weather for tomorrow promised thunderstorms and rain, so we will pull up stakes a day early, heading to Georgia in the morning. Myrtle Beach and the Geezers do not seem to mix. We had rotten weather when we planned to stay here last year, and wound up bypassing Myrtle. St. Mary's, here we come.
