Heading to Georgetown

We left the anchorage at 6:00. It was just light enough for us to see the markers.

Sunrise leaving St Helena Sound

 

Shrimp boat going out the inlet.

As you can see by the splash on the bow of Oh My, the weather report was not accurate.

The weather was ok at first, but as we moved up the coast, the waves were not what we expected. Oh My and Escape both checked the reports to see if conditions had changed. No, they were still calling for about 2' waves every 9 seconds. Well, that was not what we had. Not a good trip for me. Enough said.

 

Finally, as we turned into the Charleston Harbor, the waves were behind us and it calmed down.

Charleston Light

 
Fort Sumter from a different side. The last time we came in here, it was too rough to get a picture.

We said good-bye to Oh My and headed on up the ICW. We usually have major skinny water just above the Ben Sawyer Bridge but all reports were that dredging had been done and it was no longer a problem. And it wasn't! It was so nice to be able to move thru this area without worrying about skinny water. Of course, we were still very careful but it appears the dredging was successful. Now, take care of the skinny water near McClellanville.

 

We anchored in Awendaw Creek. This is the first time we have anchored here and we are here so we can get to McClellanville with more water. We knew the tide would be going out in the early morning, so the earlier we got there the better.

Sunset

 

Big moon.

Off the ICW and looking out on the ocean.

 

We got to the anchorage at 6:30 after traveling 12.5 hours at 6.3kts and went about 79nm. Yes, a long day of rough water outside and possible skinny water inside.  Once we got inside the inlet, we were running against a strong current for several miles. Not what we wanted.



Up and ready to leave at 7 am heading to Georgetown. We were very careful near McClellanville and timed things ok. We still saw some shallow water, but nothing we couldn't get thru. It did reinforce the fact that we can't come thru here at low tide. There is not enough water for that. Last year this time we calculated there would be 3.5' MLW (mean low water) in that area. This year we calculated 3.0' MLW.

 

We had several more areas to be careful, but didn't bump so that was good. As we neared Winyah Bay, we saw a new swing bridge "Miss Ellie" on the Estherville Minim Creek Canal.

Miss Ellie looks a new.

 

We got to Georgetown at 1:00pm. We had traveled about 6 hours, at 6.1kts, and moved about 29nm.

We are a little closer to town but still near our old spot.

 

 

 

You can see the area that burned several years ago near the center of this picture. It looks like they have done a little work one of the docks. But not much. 

We were sitting on the boat and got a call from Sea Salt. They were anchoring beside us! We did not expect to see them so soon. Guess they missed us. They had called us on the phone to tell us they were on the way and we missed the call. Pleasant surprise.

We all went into town to explore and found a Goodwill store to rummage around in. Connie and I both got some good deals. We had not seen the store before and I know I will go back on other trips. Besides it's close to Micky D!

 

After our long walk we were all hungry and started looking for something good to eat. Shay and Richard had been walking around and saw a convenience store/grill That had fried chicken so of course, Richard had to have fried chicken. But not at the convenience store. We were checking out restaurants along the waterfront and saw that "Aunty" had a fried chicken special. Richard and I went inside and he asked the cook if the chicken was any good. She told us it was, "slap your mama good". So we decided to try it out. Well, we decided it was not worth slapping your mama. The chicken was ok, the squash casserole was very sweet and the mac n cheese wasn't so great. So, "Aunty" was disappointing.

 

The weather forecast is for cloudy, rainy, with chance of thunderstorms so we decided to stay put here for the next few days. We like Georgetown so we'll just wait it out. Sea Salt moved on the Myrtle Beach. They are spending the summer at Barefoot Marina. See ya!