(This was written yesterday, 5/19)
Today we motored to a lovely anchorage on an oxbow bend off the ICW at Enterprise Landing, 27 miles north of Georgetown, SC, where we left this morning. Upon arriving at the marina as soon as it opened, we filled up with diesel, water, and pumped out ye ol’ holding tank then immediately passed under a 65-foot bridge as early as we could. Even though it was only 2.5 hours after low tide, our one-foot antenna on top of the mast just grazed the first girder of the bridge. YIKES! That was way too close!
Will we make it?
Looking up the mast whilst under a 65-foot bridge
In the next 20 miles, we must pass under SIX of these 65-footers as well as two swingbbridges. I spent time last evening and again this afternoon calculating low tides and when to best approach these bridges. Even if we leave at the optimal time, 6:30am, it’s doubtful that we’ll be able to pass under all six and may have to anchor for several hours to wait for low tide again or else go to a marina for the night and continue the next day. This is one of the several aspects of boating, especially with a tall mast, that is not relaxing. (1/20 - Editor's Note - We did make it under all six bridges plus the two swing bridges!)
Linda calculating tides, times, and bridge distances
What is relaxing however, is this gorgeous anchorage. After dropping the hook, we sat in the shade of the cockpit and watched an osprey chase around a buzzard that was clearly not welcome in this osprey’s territory. Aerial acrobatics. Beautiful. The buzzard got the message. Also we heard the hammering of a not-too-distant woodpecker. The occasional speed boat goes by in the ICW, but that’s OK, too. Even saw someone go by on waterskis and four kayakers, too. And the weather is perfect with a gentle cooling breeze. Dave is napping and I may, too.
Georgetown
We spent the past two nights and one full day in Georgetown. When we arrived at the anchorage, it was crowded with boats and quite shallow. We bottomed out on our first spot and as we tried another, we heard a loud whistle. There on the riverfront walkway were our friends, Nancy and Roddy. They shouted that around the corner were more room and more depth. Hooray! We’d come 47 miles in 8.5 hours so were ready to call it a day. They dinghied out to us and called, “After you get settled, we’ll pick you up and take you in to town for ice cream.” Double Hooray!
Nancy and Roddy driving their dinghy back to Delusions, their trawler.
They’d gotten there the night before so had spent the day getting to know the town and visiting the museums so gave us the Georgetown lowdown. We strolled with our ice cream through the quaint town. Many iron front buildings. We saw the old market place where slaves were sold. It still is unsettling to me to walk the ground where humans were traded like animals and treated worse than animals. But this is our history.
The next day the four of us went to the County Museum which had an excellent local collection. Indigo and rice were important crops early on, and by the 1840s Georgetown produced half of the rice consumed in the US. Afterwards we ate lunch at The River House. I had Cajun catfish, red beans and rice, and grilled veggies. Dave had a fried flounder sandwich. All was tasty. Filled to the brim, we walked the ten blocks to the Piggly Wiggly and stocked up on provisions. And that’s how the day went.
(I'm sure there is a way to rotate this...)
The only downside is that we were anchored in front of a smoking steel factory and a pulp mill. The first night, I was awoken at 4:00am from the tooting of horns – probably signals to the drivers at the factory. Of course, I had to get up three times just to make sure that a barge wasn’t barging up the channel about to smash us to bits. The next night, the wind shifted so that odor reminiscent of stinky bathroom air freshener that they use to cover up the stench of the toxins billowed right toward our boat. We really enjoyed the town, but tonight’s anchorage is a welcome change.
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