Sunrise on the South Santee River

Spent last night on anchor where the South Santee River crosses the ICW. We were all alone except for the birds, gators and bugs. It was a beautiful, quiet spot where we slept well after the 32 hour voyage from Florida. This morning we arose to the sound of birds. Going out on deck revealed a soft, foggy view of the abandoned rice fields.

We decided to make today a short day and headed to Georgetown, South Carolina, a town we didn’t get to explore on the way South. On the waterway by 0735, we consulted Skipper Bob and Claiborne Young for the best place to stay. Called Harborwalk marina on the radio and cell phone, but didn’t get an answer. S/V Second Wave heard us on the VHF and called us from the Gulf Stream. They had waited at Green Turtle for a weather window all the way to Beaufort and were having a good ride, enjoying a 3 knot boost from the stream. Noah was finishing math from yesterday’s school day as we motored up Winyah Bay. That was the last lesson, so now he just has review and tests.

Intuition at Boat Shed Marina

By 0900 we gave up on Harborwalk and called Boat Shed Marina. They came back right away and had room for us. By 1005 Tom & Jeb had us tied up to a nice floating face dock and we were looking over a welcome packet of maps and menus.

Walking into town we found ourselves on a tree shaded street with homes dating to the 1700’s. A couple block walk put us into a nicely preserved downtown. Noah found a bookstore with a good selection of used books upstairs. We added a few more books to get him up the waterway. Found a place for lunch with grilled cheese for Noah and Carolina BBQ for me. Boy that was a good taste of home after almost a year.

Local Temple
After lunch it was time to take in some history so we signed up for a Swamp Fox Tour. Learned about Francis Marion aka the Swamp Fox and his role in the American Revolution along with some other local stories, including a few about ghosts. Several churches and a synagogue were also featured on the tour. Seemed to be quite an ecumenical town.

The Rice Museum
The Rice Museum was next where we learned about the two hundred years of rice farming that made the area prosperous up until the Civil War (or “The War of Northern Aggression,” if you are from these parts). It took slave labor to make rice profitable. Conditions must have been horrid with mosquitos and alligators sharing the rice fields with the laborers. The average male plantation slave only lived to be 28 years old. The museum also had the ribs of the earliest example of US boat building on the east coast.

Back at the boat we filled up with diesel and got Intuition ready for another day of voyaging. Back into town we found an interesting yarn shop and we stopped again at the book store and asked for a dinner recommendation. Taking the bookseller’s advice we had an excellent dinner at Revolutions, with crab cakes and spinach artichoke pizza at a reasonable price with very friendly service.