WacaWache Marina To Awendaw Creek Anchorage
WacaWache Marina's remote location was emphasized when we went to their restaurant and found it is named "The Boondocks", It's probably the only restaurant available in this western section of Murrells Inlet, and it had a strong and steady business most of Saturday Night. It was busy when we enjoyed a quick meal at their bar and returned to the boat about 7 PM for the evening. It became busier and busier during the evening and about 9 PM customers began to arrive for the evenings entertainment - Karaoke. Our boat was close enough to enjoy the music but maybe not all of the vocals.
The marina and river setting was peaceful Sunday when Rosa and I finished our
coffee and walked up to the marina for showers. We really did not want to
leave but later after engine room checks were complete we left this peaceful
setting.
Looking backwards we said good by.
as we cruised farther down the Waccamaw River. We were impressed with the
remoteness. There is almost no development along the river, probably due
to the swampy land that borders the river. Cypress trees are everywhere,
and I would imagine there is resistance from many organizations to disturb this
setting. You do see larger homes sometimes that are hidden through the
dense trees on the eastern bank, and there are small cuts through the cypress
trees where I suspect small boats can enter the river.
The western
bank has more areas of higher ground where people have settled. We saw
several older modest homes and sometimes piers, as shown here, exist with no
homes nearby.
We left the marina shortly after high tide and took advantage of a strong ebb
current giving us a ground speed of almost 9 knots. We arrived at the
Georgetown Route 17 bridge across the PeeDee and Wacamaw river where they merge
to form Winyah Bay about 20 minutes ahead of predicted schedule. We choose to bypass
Georgetown SC and continued down the bay to the ICW canal route south.
We arrived at almost low tide and I expected the rising tide on the bay to
effect a southbound current in the canal. Wrong. It turns out that
the many inlets along the coast south of Georgetown have more effect on the
tidal current than the bay. A northbound
current slowed our ground speed to about 6 knots and we soon lost most of the
schedule gains. We reached McClellanville about 1430 and found the
recommended anchorage in Awendaw Creek by 1500. We anchored for the night
with two sail boats nearby. Rosa captured this sunset to document the end
of a near perfect cruising day.