Sailing Topics
| From the Calabash River near Little River, SC we got another early start. We were still looking for an opportunity to go outside, but the morning forecast on the VHF radio offered no encouragement. The forecast was for light winds early in the day then south winds at 10-15 before a warm front passed over the area with scattered rain showers. Therefore we elected to go as far as Georgetown, SC. | |
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A few miles down the ICW from the Calabash River we went through the tacky town of Little River, SC. It appears several Casino boats are based out of this port as well as several Parasail operators. |
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 Just
above North Myrtle Beach, SC is the infamous "Rock Pile". This is a
narrow stretch (3 sm) of the ICW with rocky shores. It is reported to
be a major source of revenue for the local machine shops repairing bent
propellers and shafts. As we approached the north end of the Rockpile
we listened to a tug boat on the VHF radio that was transiting the area.
We pulled to the side and let the tug boat exit the Rock Pile before we
entered. Our transit was without incident and we did not have the
opportunity to make a contribution to the local economy.
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 During
the day the ICW merged with the Wacamaw River. We were definitely in
the Low Country of SC in the middle of a large cypress swamp. |
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 Until
today we had few encounters with tug traffic on the ICW. The only tugs
we have observed were at night when we were anchored or in a marina or on
the wider thoroughfares of the ICW. After the northbound tug in Rockpile we also encountered a pair of southbound tugs move a dredging barge
down the ICW. They were going less than 6 knots and we easily passed
them. Since the tugs don't stop for the evening we would encounter them
again tomorrow on our way to Charleston. |
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By 5:00PM that day we were at Georgetown, SC. Since I needed to take on fuel, we elected to spend the night at the Georgetown Landing Marina on the Great Pee Dee River (red arrow on chart on left). |
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