November 26, 2018 - December 1, 2018
Monday morning we left Southport at 7:15 am in order to hit the most troublesome sections of the ICW at rising and high tide. Our trouble spots were Lockwoods Folly Inlet, Shallot Inlet, and Little River Inlet. These are all inlets from the ocean with treacherous currents that can cause shoaling in the channel. With Bob at the helm and me manning the binoculars and the charts we made it through without hitting bottom once. We also, had to traverse the worst section of the Rock Pile, which is a section of the ICW with rock ledges on each side of the channel caused by blasting through granite. We made it to Barefoot Landing Marina at 3:00 pm unscathed.
It was up early again on Tuesday to head for Georgetown. Our original plan was to anchor out, but the weather was predicted to be below freezing tonight so we changed plans and reserved a spot at Georgetown Landing Marina. It was cold all day and Bob and I were both bundled up, but the chill got to us anyway. The first half of the day we were fighting an opposing tide which slowed us down significantly. By the time we got into the Waccamaw River the tide had turned and we were moving along between 7.5 and 9.5 mph. The Waccamaw River is an easy section of the ICW. It winds around just enough to keep it interesting at the helm, and is wide and deep, hence, no chance of going aground. We arrived at the marina at 3:00 pm and after docking and getting settled we walked to, you guessed it, a pizzeria for dinner.
When we woke up the temperature outside was 35 degrees, but we were snug and warm inside the boat with our heater running. Around mid-morning we walked to the historic section of Georgetown which consisted of five or six blocks along Front Street lined with historic homes, shops, and restaurants. One block closer to the water was the Harbor Walk.
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| The town clock can be seen from all over the historic districts. This view is through a live oak, one of the many lining Front Street. |
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| We stopped into the Coffee Break Cafe to warm up with a cup of coffee. |
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| Harbor walk is lined with restaurants. |
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| One of the restaurants is Big Tuna. It gets 4.5 stars on Trip Advisor. |
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| These shrimp boats are docked at the historic shrimp pier. |
After, touring the town we had a fantastic lunch at Atlantic House Restaurant that served only Atlantic seaboard fresh seafood. Bob had fried oysters from Oriental, NC and I had shrimp salad. Both were outstanding.
On Thursday morning we cast off at 8:00 am in order to be at mid and rising tide when traversing some of the ICW that have particularly shallow areas. With a tidal range of 6 feet MLW (mean low water, which means the average depth at low tide) of 5 feet can be easy to get through at high tide. That’s why Bob is so careful about tides. We made it through without any mishaps and tied up at Isle of Palms Marina at 4:00 pm. Isle of Palms is almost like home to us as we stayed here for a month our first year of cruising when our engine conked out. It’s a great marina with a good restaurant, a small market, and great shower facilities. We got settled in and had a light dinner on board.
We started out Friday morning by getting a ride to the Harris Teeters for provisioning. The marina provided this complimentary service. By the time we got back to the boat and stowed all the groceries it was time for lunch. We walked to the restaurant on site and had some great hamburgers. After lunch we walked to the beach.
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| It was warm enough to walk along the beach and look for shells. |
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| Two shrimp boats were working the ocean just off shore to the delight of brown pelicans and seagulls. |
Saturday we waited until 11:45 to leave for our winter slip in Charleston City Marina. Since the current in the marina is notoriously strong we wanted to dock at slack tide (the point where the high tide crests). It poured for most of the trip and when we entered Charleston harbor the visibility was low and I had to be on the lookout for ships and other boats. Even though we have an AIS receiver not all boats have a transponder so some boats do not show up on our chart plotter. This experience solidified our need to have a transponder, too. We arrived before slack tide and docked at the Mega Dock for about a half hour before moving into our slip. Bob’s expert boat handling and the help of an experienced dock hand made our docking go smoothly. After getting all the lines out and hooking up to shore power we decided to bring the dinghy up onto the foredeck (not an easy task). I bailed out the rainwater, hooked up the halyard to the dinghy, and guided the dinghy into place with only a small amount of yelling back and forth between Bob and I. Like I said it’s not an easy task. We were glad to be settled in our spot for the winter.
My next blog will begin to chronicle our stay in Charleston.
Thank you for reading my blog.
