Nov 7 and 8

We motored all the way from St James to Georgetown. Again, bridge schedules and tides proved to be a challenge.

One of the bridges was quite unusual. It floated. Apparently, it is the last of its kind.

On the 7th, we left just before sunrise and anchored in Prince Creek on the Waccamaw River.

There is a 26 mile land cut that you must travel through to reach the Waccamaw. It is probably the worst section of the Intercoastal. Tides are strong and there is limited room to manoeuvre. Fortunately, most power boat operators are extremely considerate, radioing and then slowing down before making a pass. There is one section, however, that is so narrow that there is not room for a boat and a barge to pass. You must radio ahead before entering to ensure that it is safe. The area is called the Rock Pile. There are numerous rocks projecting from the edge of the river. We passed through at low tide. At high tide, they would be hidden and if you strayed out of the channel, you could be in very serious trouble in a real hurry.

While traversing this cut, you do get to see a lot of beautiful houses and golf courses.(including a gondola across the waterway), floating gambling casinos and even an outlet shopping mall at Conway.

The Waccamaw, by contrast, is undeveloped swamp land. The trees, hanging moss and vines look like something out of a movie. Absolutely beautiful! At one point, we had a real scare. There were all these weeds sticking out of the water. This usually means it is pretty shallow. The sun was low and shining off the water in a way that we could not see if there were any buoys. The GPS and Fugawi chart plotter program showed that we were on course but we came to a complete stop while we figured it out. It turned out to be a lot of debris that we could simply motor through.

In spite of the bridges and currents, we still managed to do about 75 miles on the 7th. This left us with only 20 odd miles to do on the 8th in order to spend the day in Georgetown.

The harbour is crowded (but not impossibly so), so it pays to arrive early. There are lots of restaurants and most stores are not too far away. They even had a piper on the boardwalk to serenade us as we had a final beer with newly found boating friends and before heading back to our boats. This was after Bev had made friends with 3 Torontonians at lunch who then offered to drive her to Walmart.where she got more material to make cushions for boat and work on project for Maggie(her granddaughter).

See, I told you it pays to marry someone who charms absolutely everyone!