March 27- April 1, 2023 McClellanville to Myrtle Beach

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In McClellanville we took on fuel and spent the night on the dock.  In that time we made aquaintance with a couple on a small trawler also headed north.  We will end up seeing them several times in the days ahead in different marinas..

We took our time getting off the dock, coordinating our travel with a favorable tide. This day our destination will be Georgetown South Carolina.  To get there we travel the intercostal waterway through the Santee River basin, which is a beautiful labyrinth of water ways flowing through the marsh. Thousands of birds are overhead twisting in flight to catch the millions of small bugs.

We are in Georgetown by early afternoon.  The marinas are all full, so we get the anchor down in a shallow basin directly behind a steel mill that will make mill noises throughout the night.  Not exactly scenic, but gets the job done.  The bottom here is a very loose mud.  We drop the anchor and lots of chain, then just let it sit undisturbed for quite a while.  The strategy worked, allowing the anchor to settle into the mud sufficiently to get a good hold.  Eventually we used the engines to move the boat in reverse, gently pulling on the anchor to pull it deeper into the muck. 

Ashore we went walking in the delightful downtown district just for fun, and even walked to the grungy grocery about a mile away.  We got back to the boat shortly before sundown and Sam was exhausted from the activity.  

During the night the wind blew harder, which had us up in the after-midnight hours confirming the boat was holding in place. But all was fine.  The anchor did not move, even though the boat turned significantly back & forth on the new wind. Funny how the boat next to you thst looked plenty far enough away in daylight suddenly looks like its only a few feet away when it's dark! Beeps from the steel mill's fork trucks backing up sound just like our anchor drag alarm, so that was a little disconcerting, too. The night does play its tricks on the senses.

In the morning we took another walk into town for breakfast.  We found a great diner with a frienfly staff, but had to wait a long time for our carry out order.  We sat on benches in the warm sun to eat with Sam at our feet and birds chirping overhead. Luckily Sam didn't see any squirrels.

The slow morning in town worked to our advantage, as by 11:00 we were underway with a now favorable tide.  This next section of the ICW is through the beautiful cypress swamp of the Wacamaw River, the most interesting section of the ICW we have traveled.  We took our time and enjoyed the day.  

Waiting for one of the many swing bridges to open

Mid afternoon we arrived at Osprey Marina, which turned out to be a great stop we will use again.  It's a small side creek, barely noticable from the main channel, but is quite big when you're inside.The marina basin is a small space carved out of the cypress swamp with a narrow land bridge to higher ground.  Our assigned slip required reversing down a long corridor with boats on one side and dry land on the other.  We took it slow and ended up in what was actually a prime location close to showers and the pet walk.

Dinner was some excellent pizza and salads delivered to the boat!  What a treat.  From the marina it appears we are in the wilderness, but just a few miles away is civilization.  





Overnight we enjoyed having shore power to run the heater to keep the boat warm through a quite cool night.  We are again reminded we have changed climates. We're not in the Bahamas any more.   

We got away from the marina mid morning, again coordinating with the tide to help us along. The beautiful Wacamaw River section ended shortly after the marina, transitioning into the drive in the ditch through Myrtle Beach.  We passed many nice houses almost all of which have made poor shoreline decisions, resulting in a considerable battle to contain erosion.  Seawall repair and dock construction is apparently a very in-demand business in this area.

Brent got busy on the phone to find a marina for the night.  There is a sweet anchorage at New River Inlet just a few more miles down the path.  

We tucked into Myrtle Beach Yacht Club for one night, and it turned out to be a lovely place.  We were met at the dock by people who live on their boats and work at the marina, and got a great welcome.  We were able to do laundry and give ourselves a treat of the first ice cream since we left Cape Charles back in early January.  At this point it's the very little things that seem wonderful.


Plans to move the following morning were scuttled as the forecast shows a very strong wind storm will blow through where we had planned to be Saturday, so we don’t want to be there.  We chose to hang at this nicely sheltered spot for three nights letting the weather settle.  We end up with 20 knot winds gusting to 30, much more offshore, which is far better than the area we were originally planning for.  

Another early morning departure will take us closer to home 



Comments

Lynn and Ed said…
Yes, not the Bahamas but there are some nice little towns along the ditch.
April 4, 2023 at 11:34 PM
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