Sharks on Myrtle Beach, South Carolina

What a place……. beautiful white sand stretching for what seemed miles, clear sky and warm sea. All just 50 yards from Harvey!

Tim was up early, itching to get onto the beach. We’d had a discussion the previous night as Tim wanted to go swimming as soon as he woke up. My heart started pounding hard at the thought of Tim, without anyone else there, going for a swim. I reminded him that I had a responsibility towards his family to make sure he went back to the UK in one piece. I made him promise he wouldn’t go without me. He relented.

After breakfast, we toddled off together.

There were a few people already settled on the beach for the day. Some had set up their chairs in the shallow water and others were fishing from the beach. With the water warm enough, being at the water’s edge, was the perfect place to be. Great idea.

Well, Tim and I left our things on the beach and went in. It was great. Big waves and warm water. What could be better! We stayed in a while and thoroughly enjoyed it.

We noticed there weren’t many other people in the water, but that just gave us more to enjoy.

After lunch back at Harvey and a welcome air conditioned break, we headed off towards Apache Pier that we could see way down the beach. 

We climbed the stairs to find it was lined with people fishing. In fact there were whole families fishing. The children even came up armed with small rods and little stools to sit on. As we strolled along the pier the amount of those fishing increased.

We had arrived on the first day of a competition. The King Mackeral Competition. On chatting with one of the fishermen we discovered that the pier we were on was winning against three other piers, with a big catch earlier in the day. There would be a winner for each pier and an overall winner.

The excitement the fishermen had was really strange to watch. For those of us that have never been interested in fishing at all, it was quite amusing.

A shout went up from the left hand side of the pier and all those on the right hand side went running over to look.

A shout then went up from the right hand side and all those on the left went running over to look at what they had.

Then there was one guy in the middle whose fish had successfully managed to crotchet the lines of several rods. It was ok though because all the expert fishermen were there to help.

If the fish wasn’t big enough or was illegal to catch it would go back in the sea, but the fishermen could take them home if they wanted to.

Underneath the pier, there were several gold buggies that are everywhere for people so that they don't have to walk anywhere!

There was one problem though. A couple of osprey were diving into the sea to get the fish before the hooks got them. It was tense and thrilling all in one go.

little birdie on the beach

After a while we strolled off to get a drink from the pier bar. We asked the bar man about the fishing. He told us he goes quite often but is concerned because of the sharks it attracts.

Tim and I looked at each other, our eyes wide. Oh we hadn’t thought of that!

The barman went on to tell us that only two weeks before, a 12 year old girl had to have 20 stitches because she went in the sea and a shark attacked her.

‘I would never swim in there’ the barman told us. ‘Look at the amount of bait that’s being used and how close the pier is to the water. And then there’s the rip tides…….’

OOOPS!  That might have been a close shave!