Spring in the Waccamaw River

Spring in the Waccamaw River

Sunday, April 25, 2021

The area around the Waccamaw River seems like a different place in the spring.  The “bald cypress” trees are in leaf, along with all the other trees of the river basin.  A very bright green water plant appears along the edges of the rivers and creeks in some areas.  This might be water lily or some other plant.  For reasons of depth we never get close enough to figure out what it really is.  When we were here last we noticed that there were many osprey nests but we didn’t see any osprey.  This too has changed.  It seems that most nests are occupied and the cheeping sound can be heard ringing out over the water

One other notable difference is the amount of boat traffic.  Admittedly it has been the weekend but the number of vessels zipping up and down the creeks and rivers has been shocking.  Certainly the amount of boating activity is quite different from our experience in the autumn.  Another aspect that is less perfect is a dramatic increase in the number of biting flies.  These seem to be deer flies or some cousin thereof.  Today while moving from Thoroughfare Creek to an oxbow near the Enterprise crossing (about 14 statute miles), the flies were so thick that we put the screen into the companionway.  We also brought the flyswatter into the cockpit.  If my hand-eye co-ordination were any good, the cockpit would have been black with fly corpses. 

Our plan is to move on tomorrow.  A hop of about 35 miles should get us to Calabash Creek just this side of the border with North Carolina.  We hope that it’s an uneventful trip, even if we do have to transit the infamous “rock pile”.  That is a narrow section of the ICW that appears to have been dug out and lined with large rocks.  It’s a bad place to meet a barge coming in the opposite direction! 

Gloria

33 39.949 N, 79 04.237 W

Anchored in an Oxbow Bend near Enterprise Landing, Waccamaw River, SC

It is possible to get you anchor trapped under sunken trees or other debris so it is recommended to use a "trip line" which is attached to the top the anchor and to a float (seen here in the photo)

Reflections in the still waters

Ripples passing through the anchorage

I hope this short video clip gives you a sense of how tranquil and beautiful this anchorage is