Day 174: Pawleys Island

McClellanville, SC to Heritage Plantation Marina, Pawleys Island, SC (docked)

July 8, 2022

Since we planned to go about 35 miles today, we took our time leaving. The days we don’t need to use an alarm are so much more relaxing.

We passed a “floating bridge” today – it was basically a large barge that can move vehicles across the ICW. It stays in an open position so there was no waiting for it to move.

The day was pretty mundane (which is good – we don’t need a lot of excitement). Most of the trip was through a narrow channel of water with some trees on the shoreline. This stretch is different than the Georgia ICW with its many creeks and winding ways. There are also much fewer anchorages as the channel is so narrow.

The ICW merges with the Waccamaw River near Georgetown, SC. The Waccamaw is much wider with stronger currents. This river begins as fresh water at Lake Waccamaw in North Carolina and must be a lot less saline than what we have been traveling in so far. There are trees and lillies growing right in the water here, plus signs for alligators (the first we have seen on the ICW).

When we were in the marina we saw large (2.5 – 3 feet long) fish jumping straight out of the water. We have no idea what they were but they were pretty cool to see.

This marina is pretty small BUT it has a very nice, very air conditioned lounge for boaters. This was a lovely place to wait for Lailia’s air conditioning to kick in. Plus, there was a very cool swing in the cupola at the top.

There is a nice breeze here since there is a large fetch (open water) but we are still very, very happy that we have air conditioning. I can’t imagine how long it would take to get our cabin cool after running the motor all day.

We plan to get past Myrtle Beach tomorrow – it’ll be a longer day as we plan to go about 45 miles.