Waiting out Sandy here on the Waccamaw River SC

As I begin this post, it’s Sunday morning and Pandora is anchored in a very scenic spot on the Waccamaw River in South Carolina.  This part of the ICW is fresh water as we are in the middle of a cypress swamp complete with Spanish Moss, tea colored water and all surrounded by low country.  Here everything has to be able to grow with wet feet as there isn’t any dry ground anywhere.

We left Southport on Thursday with the goal of getting a bit further south and away from hurricane Sandy as she churned up the coast.  The recommendation from Chris Parker, the weather router that we use, was that the further south we were when Sandy headed by the better.

It’s hard for me to sit still this long but here we are for the third day after coming down from Southport to Myrtle Beach, where we tied up at a marina that had been recommended by a number of folks as a good place to spend a few days.  The marina is adjacent to a large shopping area.  Unfortunately the “shopping” didn’t include access to any food stores within a reasonable walking distance and the rest of the shopping was primarily a tacky mess of tee-shirt shops and chain eateries.  After one night there I couldn’t stand the thought of paying for another three or four days to be somewhere I didn’t particularly want to be.  The other boats that were in the marina were primarily powerboats and generally folks that never anchored out, just heading from one marina to another, a different mindset compared to the “off the grid” sorts that I generally hang out with.   What, no solar panels?  More than anything though, I am just too cheap to pay for a marina when I can anchor for free.  Besides, I hoped to find a place that was more protected.   Me, I’d rather spend money on food and drink.

After some discussion we decided to head a bit further south and find a good hurricane hole on the Waccamaw River.   Where we are now is quite protected and while the storm hasn’t passed completely yet (as of Sunday morning), the sun is beginning to peak out and the winds are still gusting into the low 20s.  While it’s a good amount of wind, it’s nothing like we would be seeing in a more exposed area where it would be more like the 40s.  The oxbow off of the river where we have anchored isn’t much more than 100′ across here and is surrounded by cypress trees and swamp everywhere.   One particular benefit from wind is that the mosquitoes are not able to do much to annoy us.  I expect that mosquitos can’t fly at 20kts.   Those gusts have to be hell on them…

On our run down the ICW from Southport to Myrtle Beach we passed all sorts of development including some that looked like they had stopped mid construction years ago and never got going again.  We passed strings of private docks built on the waterway where there were no houses, just street lamps and roads.  I guess they were “delayed” by the recession.

However, there was still plenty of examples of conspicuous consumption in Myrtle Beach, home to over 100 golf courses.  How about this little vacation spot?   It’s a bit tacky to be sure.  I wonder if the owner is happy or sad that they purchased this at what was surely a high price.

Or this one perhaps. You have to love the infinity pool and all that blue tile. I am told that the locals refer to this area as the Italian Riviera.    Works for me. But wait, there’s more!    This development even had a highway bridge that matched the local aesthetics.   At least it was the regulation 65′ clearance.  Every one of the many bridges we have passed under on this trip have been your usual concrete ones.  Not in Myrtle Beach, at least not in the “high end” part of the neighborhood.   I wonder if the trash cans are color coordinated.  Hmm… Well, as we passed south we entered the much more remote Waccamaw River and were treated to a view that was more primeval than planned.  And, here we are, anchored on an oxbow off of the main channel and ready for the storm.  As of Sunday morning, as Sandy passes us offshore, it’s more windy now than has been the case for us in the two days we have been here.    At the same time it’s also becoming brighter with a bit of blue peaking through. Remote or not, we continued to have cell coverage although it was strong enough to talk on the phone, data wasn’t working during the storm.    So, now that it’s Monday morning and it’s dead calm the full moon in a clear sky has now set and we have good data again.  Go figure.  In any event, I am able to finally finish this post, a few days in the making.

As I finish writing, Sandy is continuing to churn up the coast and is expected to make landfall near Atlantic City sometime tonight, Monday.  As the storm is such a whopper, the expectation is that there will be a big storm surge and it is expected to be greatest north of the storm, in Long Island Sound and New York Harbor.

Brenda and I are very happy to be here and not further north.   Today we are looking forward to being on the move again as we continue on our trip south.   Yesterday, as the wind whipped around Pandora we took our dink ashore to a marina across the way to meet up with the aunt of one of our friends LeaAnne and Garrett, Garrett’s aunt actually, the 88 year old aunt June.

June, a real pistol and southern lady if there ever was one, picked us up shortly after noon yesterday to  show us the sights including a local sculpture garden that was just amazing.

However, I will have to leave the details of our great day with Jume for another post.   For now I will leave you with a pre-Halloween wish brought to you by Radar, the loyal boat guard traveling along with Frank and Gayle, friends of ours who are making the trip south as well this year.   When they heard that we were anchored here, they decided to make a stop at one of the local marinas, actually the same one where we met June yesterday.  After our day ashore we had a lovely dinner with Frank and Gayle.  We met Frank and Gayle some years back after they returned from years cruising in the Med, Turkey in particular,  aboard their SAGA 43, Alcid.   This time they are aboard a power cat, stinkpot, for a change of pace.  This boat, all 35′ of her, powers along at 25kts compliments of twin Volvo Penta 225 hp diesels with a total of 500hp.   Well, while they may outrun us by a factor of 4x the speed of Pandora, I take some solace in knowing that they are paying about 8x as much for fuel.   While we count our consumption in the miles per gallon range, there’s is more like gallons per mile. What, you can’t make Miami in a day from here?

So, again, Radar, all dressed up in his lobster suit says, Happy Halloween!!! Doesn’t he look humiliated?  Poor guy. His mother is tough on him as you can see.  However, he is from Maine and all dogs in Maine have to dress up as a lobster at least once.Today?  The sun is out and we are finally on our way again.  And, this post is FINALLY done!!!