Enjoying the Waccamaw River

Enjoying the Waccamaw River   ...   Wednesday 1 May 2013

The Waccamaw River was one of the areas that we thought was beautiful as we made our way south.  At that time with so many more miles to reach Vero Beach we didn’t make time to explore the Waccamaw.  Now on the way back we plan to spend a couple days in this area to see more.  We left Georgetown this morning at low tide. The timing was recommended by our guidebook as a way for a slow boat to have favorable tide all the way up the river.  Something went awry for we had adverse current all the way to Thoroughfare Creek where we are anchored.  I should have known better, that Skipper Bob was a power-boater.  This was probably his idea of a good prank to play on sailors.

The Waccamaw is wide and lined with Cypress Trees.  Behind the Cypress there appear to be miles of marsh.  Much of this area was cultivated with rice in the past.  I find myself wondering what it might have been like before the influence of agriculture.  Maybe it was one great big cypress swamp.  Today’s little corner of the Waccamaw is Thoroughfare Creek.  The guidebook suggests anchoring near a large sandbank.  This we did and were pleased to see an alligator lying on the sandbank.  You can imagine that our photographer was keen to get onto that sandbank.  Mr. Alligator seemed to hear us approaching and swam off.  We had to resort to a little walk on shore to trick him into returning.  A small number of photos were obtained before he took off again.  We also took a little dinghy ride further up the creek to have a look around.

It seemed like we had this peaceful place all to ourselves.  Then about fifteen minutes ago two more sailboats turned up and anchored.  Shortly thereafter, a powerboat came by towing a water skier.  Based on the number of submerged branches and stumps that I’ve seen, water skiing in this area wouldn’t be my choice.

Gloria

33 30.876 N, 79 08.648 W

Live Oaks and Spanish Moss - Thoroughfare Creek, Waccamaw River

Our first and only Alligator of the trip so far

Cotinga at Dusk - Thoroughfare Creek, Waccamaw River   (With the tide, current and breeze all in alignment the boat is hanging nicely on the anchor. Three hours previously the anchor as marked by teh buoy and trip line was 20 feet behind the stern!)