Captain's Choice blog: South Carolina

Fog was mother natures obstacle for Monday morning. The visibility was less than 1/8 mile so we sat and sat and when we thought we had at least 1/2 mile visibility we left Port Royal Landing Marina and headed 46 miles to an anchorage in Toogoodoo Creek. Many of the other boaters must have thought like us because we all fell in line leaving marinas, moorings and anchorages with a lot of chatter on the radio. The fog was totally gone within an hour and it was clear boating for the rest of the day. We actually saw a couple of loons as we made our way, unfortunately we didn't hear them sing. We anchored in 12' of water with good holding and to our surprise we were the only boat anchored in this location for the evening.

As we watched the news Monday night they were predicting a storm moving into the southeast with heavy thunderstorms, rain, wind and hail. We decided Tuesday morning would be a last minute call, if it was raining we would stay put, no rain we would move until the storms caught us and then anchor in the closest creek with some protection. The weather app on my phone said we had several hours to move before the rain would catch us, we wouldn't be able to outrun it but we could get some miles in. So much for the weather app, we had rain after an hour of motoring but it wasn't a downpour so we kept going. The rain stopped after only about 2 hours. It was a very quite day on the water with hardly any other boats and no chatter on the radio, guessing most of them stayed in Charleston with the weather forecast. We actually followed a tug, we let him "dig the ditch", they have forward facing sonar and the ICW by McClellanville gets very shallow. Even with tide help we were glad to follow in the tugs path as we had several spots where the low water alarm went off. We ended up traveling 77 miles to an anchorage at South Santee River along with one other boat. Thankfully the thunderstorms did not materialize and we got a nice gentle rinse on the boat.
With rain forecasted for overnight Mark went to check the canvas. He was back in the boat so quickly that I thought what's going on? He exclaimed, holy cow wait till you see the bugs, (maybe a few different words than that). Anyway we aren't even talking hundreds of bugs, we are talking thousands. Literally they could have banded together and picked us up. We shined a flashlight to the outside and our white boat was no longer white. Also, in those few seconds that Mark had the door open some of them got in. We spent the next 1/2 hour or so killing them and wiping the ceiling and walls down. YUCK! The only saving grace was they seemed to be non-biting, which is a plus since I am already taking Benadryl nightly due to my no-see-um bites. We stayed at this same anchorage on our way south and had no issues. I did note in our charts BUGS! so we would remember for another time.
A little more rain overnight Tuesday - Wednesday and our thoughts were that hopefully the rain washed the bugs away. Not a chance, there were just too many, I think Mark spent over an hour trying to clean them up (some were dead, some were still alive) before we could head out on Wednesday. Then I took over the wheel once we were underway so he could clean some more.
The sun came up along with the wind as we traveled 47 miles to an anchorage at Enterprise Oxbow. Lots of boat traffic today and a lot of bass boats, we were guessing there was probably a fishing tournament around here this weekend. This anchorage is located on the Waccamaw River which is fresh water, nice for the engines to get a fresh water rinse! There are also alligators in the Waccamaw so once the sun went down we went on the bridge of the boat and shined the light to shore to see if we could see any beady eyes staring back at us. Unfortunately no. Once again, we were the only ones in the anchorage.

Thank goodness for the ICW so that we can travel on windy days. Other than wind there was nothing to report on our trip Friday from Enterprise #1 to Southport Marina in North Carolina, 66 miles. We like uneventful days! We can report that most of the damage caused by Hurricane Florence has been cleaned up. There were several homes being rebuilt but the damage was not evident like it was in the fall. We hadn't been to Southport previously and were glad we stopped. Shortly after we arrived at the marina harbor host Bob stopped by to welcome us. We had met both him and his wife Kay at the fall rendezvous when we looped in 2016. He gave us the lay of the land and asked if we needed to provision, we let him know we would appreciate a ride to Wal-Mart Friday. Friday morning we headed over to his house, which is just down the street from the marina, and sat on their front porch visiting with them before we headed off to the store. They have a wonderful view of the Cape Fear River Entrance where the ICW meets and sit and watch the freighters and pleasure boats come and go. I remember Kay at the rendezvous saying they sit with binoculars and watch for loopers so you better stop! We were glad we caught up with them. It was also a good day to stay put, as Bob said "it isn't a chamber of commerce day"...sprinkles on and off and winds that just didn't quit. We did manage to walk the town, go to a co-op art shop where many different artists exhibited their artwork, the maritime museum and browsed the shops on Main St.
The weather the next few days isn't looking great, rain and winds in the forecast, so where we end up is anyone's guess.