Monday, May 23, 2011

I know it's probably hard keeping up with our travels, I know it is for me!  It is just very hard to leave things out and even harder to edit out pictures, but I'm trying.  
We anchored in Awendaw Creek about 30 miles from Charleston our first night, great spot.  Close enough to and removed enough from civilization.  The Dolphin were plentiful when we woke up the next morning and we saw 7 Alligators drifting along the shore on our leg to Georgetown...a supposed "must" stop on our trip.  Not so much!!  It was a big let down, no room to anchor in the very small harbor, the town pretty much shut down on Sunday and a big steel mill and paper mill withing spitting distance.  We did a quick drive by and headed upstream.  
The scenery started to change drastically once we left Winyah Bay and entered the Waccamaw River.  No more brown marshes, but lush green vegetation and the beginning of the Cypress swamps and dense forests along the waterway.  Very few houses and tons of wildlife. We decided to anchor in Bull Creek Sunday night and it was, what can I say bit of a scary experience.  When we got to the anchorage at 4:30,we found it to be secluded to the extreme we saw 4 or 5 local boats but they were all leaving after spending their day on the water.  The anchorage had rave reviews and as far as scenery and tranquility they were well deserved. BUT and this is a BIG BUT, we had seen the movie "Deliverance" and as soon as the sun went down we started to get leery of our choice.  There was no breeze whatsoever....NONE....and you could hear every little animal hiccup with the windows open.  They sure have some wildlife....like nothing I've heard before.  Then there was the small boat that suddenly appeared upstream, shut off their motor and started shining a light in the water and then the trees ( we still can't figure out what they were looking for in the trees) and I was spooked.  Needless to say I stayed awake for hours until I was sure they had left.  I really like nature and I love peaceful anchorages, but I now know that when I can't see anything else, no lights, no houses, no human elements, I like it best with another boat in view...you know, safety in numbers.
Today we did a 180 back into the future.  The waterway through Myrtle Beach is a narrow 'ditch' that the Corp of Engineers cut through the land.  It starts out dark water in the Waccamaw and the further south you get into the cut the browner the water gets, but we saw Geese and Mallard Ducks.... that obviously didn't get the memo to fly north. There were lots of 65' bridges and a few smaller ones that we had to wait for an opening.  We've never been to Myrtle Beach so it was a hoot to see the cable car over the ICW that took the golfers from the beach side over to the golf course on the west bank.
We are at Dock Holidays Marina tonight north of Myrtle Beach and close to the S.C. border.  It was 40 miles today and 50 tomorrow to get to another anchorage. Tomorrow we'll cross into North Carolina and the anchorage we hope to get into is Carolina Beach State Park.  Close to the ocean so maybe we'll get a side trip in!!

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