Day 292:

Calabash River to Heritage Plantation Yacht Club, Pawleys Island, SC (docked)

November 5, 2022

To make the best of the tide, we left this morning before it the sun came up. Thank goodness for the headlamp that John had – it provided a beam of light on the anchor chain as we were bringing it in so I could rinse the small amount of mud off of it. Before it got dark last night, we also mentally noted the crab pot floats that were near Lailia so we could navigate past them this morning.

It’s really peaceful to be on the water when the sun is coming up.

We had to wait for two swing bridges today, including the Captain Archie Neil “Poo” McLaughlin Swing Bridge. Our guide says the locals call this the Capt. Poo Swing Bridge – we call it the Poo Bridge and laugh a lot. After 292 days together, we still crack each other up. (It’s called the Little River Swing Bridge when the bridge tender is hailed, thank goodness).

Some of today’s trip was through the Myrtle Beach area. There was far less boat pleasure boat traffic today than in July.

Our autopilot went wonky today. Since we were in a wide open spot with lots of depth we let it go to see if it would correct itself. We did a 360 and started heading into another direction before we disengaged the autopilot. I worked tonight to see if I could recalibrate it – we’ll see if it works tomorrow. We lost the autopilot in late June and had to steer by hand for a few days until John fixed it; it’s a big inconvenience but we can deal with it.

We stayed in this small marina on our way north and liked it. There’s no attached restaurant or store but it does have nice bathrooms and free laundry. They also have a lounge with a television so John can watch the Penn State game and the Phillies.

We will find an anchorage tomorrow then head south to spend some time in Charleston Monday through Saturday morning. There’s the potential for some wind coming and we want to be in a secure place while I work Wednesday through Friday.